6. There are 10 Company Rooms on the Second Floor

The second floor of the Park Avenue Armory houses ten Company Rooms and each room had a membership of 100 men. The memberships of these elaborate locker rooms were a family tradition, whereby generations took up membership in the Company Room of their fathers and grandfathers.

When the renovations of the Company Rooms began, it was discovered that the lockers were filled with more than dirty sneakers. Every manner of wartime paraphernalia came tumbling out, from ornate uniforms to training grenades. But the elite member of the Seventh Regiment were mostly charged with keeping the peace at home, dealing with local issues like the the Brooklyn Trolley Car Strike of 1895 or the “Croton Dam Strike of 1900, attending parades, civic receptions and the opening of monuments. They guarded against violent labor confrontations, fights over religious differences, ethnic differences and political upheavals. The regiment didn’t see battle until 1918, but they served on guard duty in the Civil War and the War of 1812.These rooms are now used for artists-in-residence, educational programs, and workshops.

There was a gym on the third floor used by the Seventh Regiment, and its constant use created cracks in the ceilings of the rooms below it. We viewed the cracks in two of the Company Rooms, D and E, visible in the photo above. While we were there, we met a fellow who was a past-member of Company Room A in the 1960s,  and he spoke of the Company Room servants who would shine their boots.

A past member of Company Room A