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Chapter 1

This webpage reproduces a chapter of
West Point

by
John Crane and James F. Kieley

McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc.
New York, 1947

The text is in the public domain.

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Chapter 3
This site is not affiliated with the US Military Academy.

 p35  Chapter Two
An Ideal in Stone

When Colonel Jonathan Williams, first superintendent of the United States Military Academy, described the institution in 1808 as being "like a foundling, barely existing among the mountains," his mood was probably influenced by the meager buildings and equipment provided at West Point.

In that day the Academy comprised a few poor buildings scattered around the seventy‑acre, wind-swept plain above the Hudson. The first "gentlemen cadets," numbering about a dozen, were taught in one class in a small building known as "the Academy," which boasted of seats neatly painted green. The cadets were quartered in an old barracks building which had served soldiers of the Revolutionary War, and were boarded at various private homes in the neighborhood.

The earliest record of owner­ship of West Point and the lands immediately north and south of it states that the grant of a patent "for land up Hudson's River" was issued by the British Crown to Captain John Evans of the Royal Navy, commander of His Majesty's frigate Richmond, on Sept. 20, 1694. On Mar. 14, 1710, the Crown resumed owner­ship of the land and canceled Captain Evans' grant. Then on May 17, 1723, the Crown granted a patent to the lands to Captain Charles Congreve, who thereby got control of 1,463 acres. On Mar. 25, 1747, another 332 acres was granted to John Moore. Both the Congreve and Moore patents were granted on condition that the lands be settled within three years, thus dating the earliest settlements in the West Point area.

Subsequently Moore purchased the Congreve holdings, and the whole tract eventually passed to his son, Stephen Moore, a North Carolina merchant, who offered to sell the land to the Federal Government in 1790. The matter was placed before Congress in the form of a petition which was supported by Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury, who argued that the property should be owned by the government as a permanent military  p36 post. The transaction was approved, and the property was bought for $11,085 on Sept. 10, 1790.

Additional acreage has been added from time to time by other purchases during the life of the Academy. A tract of 310 acres, where most of the cadet buildings now stand, was purchased for $10,000 in 1824 from the Gridley estate. Adjoining acreage of 231 acres was purchased from the Kingsley estate for $149,501 in 1889. The Dassori property adjoining the Kingsley estate was added in 1902 at a cost of $20,000, bringing the entire West Point reservation holdings to about 2,500 acres at that time. Subsequently, another 750 acres was added in the acquisition of properties along Popolopen Pond, and Round Pond, which made the military reservation an abutting neighbor of Bear Mountain Park on the north and west boundaries of the park. Constitution Island became part of the reservation in 1916, and in 1941 an airfield twelve miles from the Academy, near to Newburgh, was given to the institution by the city and named Stewart Field in honor of Samuel L. Stewart, who donated the original tract of 220 acres as a municipal airport.

The increased demands upon the Academy as its part in helping the nation prepare for World War II necessitated much additional acreage, and a program for acquiring it was put into operation in 1939. The result is that the reservation now comprises 16,714 acres, including Stewart Field.

Perhaps the best description of West Point and its buildings in the early days was provided by the Academy's first graduate, Indicates a West Point graduate and gives his Class.Joseph G. Swift, in his memoirs. Swift himself became part of the local color of West Point through his escapades as a cadet. He tells of having quarreled at one time with George Barron, the former Woolwich teacher who was appointed teacher of mathematics to the Corps of Artillerists and Engineers in 1801, before the founding of the Military Academy. The quarrel became so spirited that Barron finally sought safety in flight across the plain and locked himself inside the Academy building. While the frightened professor shouted from an upper window and the angry cadet paced the ground below, the argument was concluded with an even exchange of epithets.

Swift's description of the area was colored with many references to Revolutionary War associations, which in his day as a cadet were less than a score of years removed.

"The buildings which I found on my first arrival at the Point," he recounted, "were: At the dock a stone house; on the brow of the hill above the first dwelling is the 'White quarters,' the residence then of the commandant,  p37 Lieutenant Osborn, and his beautiful wife; and then the artillery mess of Lieutenants Wilson and Howard. The Academy is situated on the western margin of the plain, near the base of rocks on whose summit, 400 feet above, stands Fort Putnam. Near the Academy was an office on the edge of a small hollow, in which depression were the remains of a mound that had been formed at the close of the Revolution, to celebrate the birt of a Dauphin of France, our great ally in those days. To the south of this relic were the headquarters that had been the residence of General Knox and the scene of many an humble meal partaken by Washington and his companions in arms, at this time the residence of Maj. George Fleming, the military storekeeper. Farther south the quarters of Lieutenants J. Wilson and A. Macomb and a small building afterwards used as a laboratory. In front of these was the model yard, containing a miniature fortress in wood, used in the lectures on fortification, the handiwork of colonel Rochefontaine and Major Rivardi. Around this yard Cadet Indicates a West Point graduate and gives his Class.Armistead1 and myself planted 12 elm trees. To the south and at the base of Fort Putnam Hill also were Rochefontaine's quarters, now the residence of the family of Lieutenant Colonel Williams; diagonally from the garden gate of these quarters Rochefontaine had constructed a paved foot walk to the barrack on the northeast side of the plain, now the Cadets' quarters. They are 240 feet in length and were constructed by Major Rivardi, whose quarters were in a building at the northern base of the Fort Putnam Hill, by the road leading to the German Flats and Washington's Valley. Below the plain at the northwest, near the river, were the military stores, two long yellow buildings, containing the arms and accoutrements of the army of Burgoyne and also numerous brass ordnance surrendered at Saratoga, and especially a couple of brass 'grasshoppers' taken by General Greene in South Carolina, and by resolve of Congress presented to that very distinguished commander, all under the care of Major Fleming, who seemed to view them almost as his own property, he having served in the conquest at Bemis Heights and Saratoga. To the east of these stores was the armory, and also the residence of Zebina Kingsley, the armorer, and his exemplary wife. To the east was the hospital, under the charge of Dr. Nicholas Jones, our surgeon, and brother of Mrs. Lieutenant Osborn."

Swift saw Fort Clinton as "a dilapidated work of Generals Du Portail and Kosciuszko, engineers intention Revolutionary War." But he described Fort Putnam as a "stone casemated castle." A favorite resort of cadets, he wrote, was "Kosciuszko's garden," a small basin on the eastern margin of the  p38 plain, where the general had built himself a garden and fountain as a retreat.

After describing several points of historical interest in the neighborhood, Swift told of Esquire North's house on the Buttermilk Falls road. This building was actually a tavern, he related, "that much annoyed the command at West Point by selling rum to the soldiers, because of an illegal act of Captain Stelle of the Army, who, in 1794, had leveled a fieldpiece at North's house and suffered a severe penalty therefor in a law suit. Mr. North's victory proved him to be a bad citizen, and his success an evidence of the law's supremacy."

Two houses in the West Point area were of particular historical significance. The "Moore house" at West Point was used by Washington as his headquarters from late July to late November, 1779. The "Robinson house," on the east shore of the Hudson two miles below West Point, was used as a hospital and headquarters by several Revolutionary War generals, including Benedict Arnold, who made his escape from that dwelling when he learned of André's capture. Built around 1750, the Robinson house stood until 1892, when it was destroyed by fire.

The famous "Long Barracks" of Revolutionary War fame was destroyed by fire in 1827. Meanwhile, however, a rather extensive building program to provide quarters for cadets and facilities for instruction and administration had been undertaken, and was continued for nearly half a century.

The South Barracks was built in 1815. This was a structure of stuccoed stone, three stories high, consisting of a long central building with wings on either end. The central portion, containing fifty rooms, housed cadets. The wings were used as offices and officers' quarters. The building was razed in 1849. Also finished in 1815 was the Academy, a two‑story stone building erected on a site adjoining the South Barrack on the west. This structure, destroyed by fire in 1838, housed the adjutant's office, chemical laboratory, engineering room, philosophical department, library, and chapel. A two‑story, stuccoed-stone mess hall was also built next to the Academy in 1815 and did service until it was demolished in 1852.

The four-story North Barracks was finished in 1817. This building, erected at a right angle to the South Barracks, contained forty rooms. It was razed in 1851.

Two new buildings were added to the reservation in 1829. The Band Barracks, built of wood, had twenty‑two rooms in a story and a half. Bandsmen and their families occupied this and an adjoining building of ten rooms.  p39 The other building erected that year was the hotel, a stuccoed-stone structure of sixty-four rooms augmented in 1850 by the addition of a three-story wing. (The present Thayer-West Point Hotel was built in 1926.)

A hospital for cadets, providing twelve wards and a dispensary in a two‑story stone building, was constructed in 1830. Quarters for the medical staff were provided in the wings of the building.

The famous old Chapel, which now stands in the cemetery, was built in 1836 on a site west of the Library. Because of the sentiment felt for it by graduates of the Academy, the building was carefully taken down stone by stone in 1911 and erected again on its new site to serve as a mortuary chapel.

With the loss of the Academy by fire in 1838, a new academic building was erected at a cost of more than $68,000. It was a three-stories structure with a clock tower on its northwest angle and was built of stone with red sandstone pilasters. The ground floor housed the Chemical Department with two laboratories, a lecture room, and a work room; the Fencing Department, a gymnasium, and a conference room. On the second floor were a geological laboratory, the Engineering Academy, and several recitation rooms. The third story contained an artillery model room, a mineralogical recitation room, geographical room, mathematical model room, and the Drawing Academy, including picture and sculpture galleries.

The oldest academic building remaining at West Point is the Library, built as an observatory and library in 1841. Designed in the Elizabethan style and constructed of native granite, castellated and corniced with red sandstone, this building set the architectural mode for the future development of West Point. As originally planned by a board of Army officers, headed by Major Indicates a West Point graduate and gives his Class.Richard Delafield, United States Corps of Engineers, then superintendent, the building housed in its east wing a library of 20,000 volumes. In the west wing were the offices of the superintendent, adjutant, quartermaster, and treasurer of the Academy on the first floor, and a lecture hall and quarters for the philosophical department on the second floor. In the central dome an equatorial telescope was installed, with a transit instrument in a tower on the northeast corner of the building, and a mural circle in a tower on the northwest corner.

The venerable library building is indeed the heart of West Point. Standing now for more than a century, it contains not only one of the most complete military book collections in the world but many treasures which symbolize the spirit of the institution. Besides its present total of 120,000 volumes, it contains many old and valuable maps, prints, and manuscripts  p40 dealing with the history of the Academy and the nation itself. A window in its East Room was the favorite spot of General Winfield Scott who passed many an hour of his old age reading there. A marble doorway is dedicated as a memorial to Edgar Allen Poe, who was once a cadet but was not graduated from the Academy. Two interesting exhibits are mounted at the north entrance of the Library. They are the guns which fired the first and last shots of the Civil War.

The first indication that the Library had established an architectural style for the Military Academy was seen in 1848 when work was begun on the old South Cadet Barracks, now Central Barracks. This building, completed in 1851 at a cost of $186,000, was the largest and most imposing structure of the Military Academy at that time. It carried out the Elizabethan motif of the Library and was also built of granite castellated and corniced with red sandstone. The four-story structure was 360 feet long and contained some 200 rooms for cadets.

A year prior to breaking ground for the old South Cadet Barracks, the Academy built an ordnance and artillery laboratory on the north side of the plain. This consisted of a group of three two‑story stone buildings where ammunition was manufactured and repaired. They were contained within a yard enclosed by a stone wall, which also fenced in a shelter for fieldpieces.

The old Mess Hall, completed in 1852, the year that Indicates a West Point graduate and gives his Class.Robert E. Lee became superintendent of the Military Academy, served the institution until the present dining facilities were provided in Washington Hall. Situated south of the Academy building, it consisted of a central hall, which was used as the mess hall for cadets, and two wings. The north wing was used as quarters for the purveyor, and the south wing as the officers' mess.

Among other buildings erected at West Point prior to the Civil War were the Cavalry Stables, a brick structure erected on a plateau southeast of the Library in 1854; the near‑by Riding Hall, built of stone in 1855; the Cavalry Barracks, a brick structure erected in 1857 on the northwest slope of the plain; the Artillery Barracks, and the Engineer Barracks, also of brick, built in 1858. A number of smaller buildings used for various purposes connected with the administration of the Military Academy and the post were erected in the same period.

The West Point that people know today — a great, gray architectural mass with grim yet beautiful and inspiring lines — is the result of an extensive building program which began as the Academy celebrated its one hundredth anniversary in 1902. Elihu Root was Secretary of War then, and the  p41 principal architects for the rebuilding of West Point were the firm of Cram, Goodhue, and Ferguson, whose designs were chosen from many submitted in a contest. Taking the Library and the old South Barracks as their guide, the architects developed the military Gothic theme which has been successfully applied even to the Chapel.

The whole effect is one of dynamic force, which not only characterizes the purpose of the Academy but seems also to symbolize the spirit of men like Washington, Knox, Thayer, and Scott, whose inspiration and support of the institution have become part of its tradition. The great, gray mass speaks power — enough to stop world aggressors in their tracks, as Fort Constitution, Fort Putnam, and the great chain once held back an enemy seeking to divide the forces of the struggling young nation.

The most striking view of West Point's buildings is obtained from the east shore of the Hudson River. From that angle the effect is one of steadily rising strength surging upward from the very level of the water. The eye travels to the top of the long and heavily buttressed wall of the Riding Hall, on up to the towers of the Administration Building, up to the high belfry of the Chapel and to the hills beyond, taking in a truly unforgettable scene.

The Administration Building is not only one of the most it but one of the most interesting structures of the group. Its tower, which rises to a height of 160 feet, is the tallest unreinforced masonry building in the world. It houses the offices of the superintendent and his immediate staff, and on the walls of its interior court are carved the arms of the states, territories, and insular possessions, the seal of the War Department and those of the different branches of the service, and the personal arms of George Washington.

Between the Administration Building and the river is the Riding Hall, which occupies the site of the old riding hall built in 1855 and stands also on ground once occupied by the old cavalry stables and barracks. The huge building, erected in 1911, is 600 feet long and 150 feet wide. Its vast interior can be used as one large room or can be divided into several smaller rooms as the need may require.

Cadets are now housed in three barracks buildings, which have been enlarged from time to time as the Corps has grown. Central Barracks (built as South Barracks in 1851) faces north and over­looks the parade ground. It was built in rectangular shape and designed so that there is no lateral communication through the building except around the porch and through a basement passage. A new wing was built soon after World War I. The rooms  p42 are grouped into eighteen sections called divisions, each of which has sixteen rooms on four floors. Two or three cadets occupy each room, making a battalion of over 600 men.

Smaller and more modern than Central Barracks is near‑by South Barracks, built in 1931, which houses in its east wing Grant Hall, where West Point receives its visitors. In the huge reception room 150 feet by 50 feet, visitors may inquire for cadets and wait for them while the young men are called from their quarters. This is where cadets meet their "drags" on week ends — the starting point from which they may take walks, go to dinner at the hotel, or attend a "hop" (dance). Many of the furnishings and decorations in Grant Hall are gifts of families of present and former cadets at the Academy. The cadet hostess has her headquarters there.

North Barracks, in addition to housing cadets, is also used by the Department of Tactics, housed in offices in a tower of the building. Also located there are the offices of cadet publications and several other activities.

There are now two academic buildings on the reservation. The older, West Academic Building, was erected in 1895, and is situated near Central Barracks. East Academic Building, erected in 1913, is on the opposite side of Thayer Road. The buildings are similar in design and ornamentation, following the military Gothic pattern.

The cadet mes is now in Washington Hall, which also houses a number of other activities. Its dining hall, with a seating capacity of 2,500, is decorated with stained-glass windows on the north side, showing scens from the life of Washington, and a mural on the south side depicting the fifteen decisive battles of the world. On the other walls are portraits of the various superintendents of the Academy.

Besides the kitchens and storerooms of the cadet mess, Washington Hall, built in 1929, also houses the Drawing Department (occupying the top floor); a cadet store, tailor shop, and quarters for visiting athletic teams.

A decided departure from the general Gothic theme of West Point's architecture was taken in the designing of Cullum Hall by Stanford White. Its Ionic lines are executed in light marble and the building stands out in interesting contrast to the stern quality of its neighboring granite structures. The gift of Brigadier General Indicates a West Point graduate and gives his Class.G. W. Cullum of the class of 1833, Cullum Hall contains memorial tablets, portraits, and busts honoring many of West Point's illustrious sons. The donor, who was superintendent of the Academy from 1864 to 1866, provided $250.00 for the erection of the building and a fund of $20.00 for the purchase of its memorial collection.

 p43  Cullum Hall is not, however, simply a museum. The second floor contains a ballroom where formal receptions and hops are held.

While Cullum Hall memorializes personalities connected with the Academy and the military history of the country, the Ordnance Museum contains exhibits of the materials and instruments of war to the development of which the Academy has contributed so much. This building has an artillery room, a special exhibit of machine guns, a small-arms room, and a flag room. Among the captured colors on exhibition is the flag of the British Seventh Royal Fusiliers, captured at Fort Chambley in 1775 and presented to George Washington by Congress.

Not the least interesting among West Point's museum pieces is a flip pitcher from Benny Havens' tavern, once a favorite resort of cadets, about two miles from West Point near Buttermilk Falls. Benny Havens, who was described by Edgar Allen Poe as "the only congenial soul in this God‑forsaken place," lived from 1789 to 1877 and operated his tavern from the early days of the Academy until he was nearly eighty, when he retired. The pitcher, formerly in the Ordnance Museum, is now displayed in the West Point Army Mess (the officers' mess), on a shelf below a mural depicting Benny Havens using a red‑hot poker to mix flip for a convivial group of officers.

Several buildings on the reservation are devoted to physical training and athletics. The Cadet Gymnasium, built in 1910 and enlarged in 1935 and 1938, is situated behind the superintendent's quarters and adjacent to North Barracks. Michie Stadium, dating from 1924, is located on high ground near Fort Putnam. Near the football field an ice arena was built in 1930.

The superintendent's dwelling is a mellow structure dating from 1820. Although remodeled and improved from time to time, its exterior has been changed but little in all the years. Many distinguished visitors have stood on its veranda to look across the plain to Trophy Point or to watch a dress parade of cadets.

One of the best known features of the Academy grounds is Flirtation Walk, which extends along the steep precipice on the river side of the reservation. It passes the old chain battery, the Lantern Battery on Gee's POINT, and ends in Kosciuszko's Garden. Along the way is the famous Kissing Rock, which, according to legend, would fall if any girl should refuse to kiss her cadet escort. A popular place on the reservation is Delafield Pond, a deep swimming hole where women guests of cadets may swim. Beach chairs and picnic tables are provided for additional enjoyment at this restful spot.

 p44  West Point's monuments are impressive, honoring those who have served their country under arms. At the north end of the parade ground stands the Battle Monument, the site of which commands a breath-taking view up the Hudson. Erected in 1897 in honor of the Civil War dead, it is the joint work of the architect, Stanford White, and the sculptor, Frederick MacMonnies. The Battle Monument stands on what is known as Trophy Point, where one may also see outdoor exhibits of old guns, cannon balls, and sixteen links of the Revolutionary War chain which was stretched across the Hudson at West Point.

On the southwest corner of the plain, across from Washington Hall, is a statue of West Point's beloved Sylvanus Thayer, whose monument describes him as the "Father of the Military Academy." Each year at commencement time cadets and graduates of the Academy form a procession to this monument, where an impressive ceremony is enacted in honor of Thayer not deceased alumni of the Academy. The oldest graduate is given the privilege of placing the memorial wreath at the base of the statue, and the cadet choir sings the Academy's hymn "The Corps."

Other monuments around the parade ground are the Kosciuszko Monument, the base and shaft of which were donated by the Class of 1828 and the bronze statue by Poles in America in 1913; an equation statue of George Washington; and a shaft erected to honor Dade and his command, who were lost in a battle with Seminole Indians in Florida in 1835.​a Several monuments have been erected by cadets to the memory of deceased football players of the Academy.

At the top of West Point's great, gray mass is the Chapel, a cruciform structure whose 130‑foot tower rises 420 feet above the level of the river. Over the main entrance is a stone carving representing King Arthur's sword, "Excalibur," and around the cornice are carvings in a series representing the "Quest of the Holy Grail." The Chapel seats 1,400, and along the walls of its 200‑foot nave hang historical regimental flags in an interesting display of grace and color. The great stained glass chancel window is a striking feature of the interior view with its inscription: "Erected to the glory of the God of Battles and in faithful memory of the departed graduates of the United States Military Academy, West Point, by the living alumni." An outstanding feature of the Chapel is the great organ of 13,420 pipes, the largest in the western hemisphere.

Besides this and the old Chapel, now located in the cement, West Point  p45 also has a Catholic Chapel, of Norman Gothic architecture, situated on the road to the North Gate.

From "a foundling, barely existing among the mountains," West Point has become a towering fortress combining beauty and utility in its buildings and equipment to a degree perhaps never dreamed by those who brought the institution into existence and nurtured it during its early years.


The Author's Note:

1 Walker K. Armistead, third graduate of the Academy.


Thayer's Note:

a The ambush of a force of about a hundred soldiers under Brevet Major Francis Dade in the Florida wilderness on December 28, 1835 was a traumatic event for the United States, by which the Seminoles eventually sealed their own unhappy fate. Several accounts of it are onsite: A. H. Roberts' "The Dade Massacre" (Florida Historical Society Quarterly 5:123‑138) is a good overview; links will be found there to the others, including extensive source material. Several of the men killed that day under Major Dade's command were West Point graduates, although he himself was not.

Page updated: 22 Jun 18