McKim, Meade & White, Architects of Governors Island

Governors Island’s development reflected changing roles from early Dutch settlement to service as a military base for the U.S. Army and the Coast Guard, but much of its appearance came from the vision of the architectural firm McKim, Mead & White, whose work shaped the island’s layout and many of its most distinctive institutional buildings. Among the leading architects of their time, the firm also designed the original New York Penn Station in 1905, the Boston Public Library in 1887, the Columbia University Plan in 1893, and the acclaimed Chicago World’s Fair of 1893. At the beginning of the 20th century, Secretary of War Elihu Root commissioned the firm to design new campuses for several Army posts, including Governors Island. Their original Beaux Arts plan proposed an entirely new campus on the recently created south island while retaining only Castle Williams, Fort Jay, and the South Battery in the north. War Department interest later waned, funding dried up, and the firm’s principals died, so that by the time a final plan was adopted in 1928 much of the original scheme had been abandoned. Even so, the firm’s influence remained evident, especially in Building 400, or Liggett Hall, the first permanent building constructed on the island’s landfill, which defines the southern boundary of the historic district, and in the large brick buildings inspired by the original Beaux Arts plan.

New York, New York · United States