Armory Ailments Detailed, Futures Floated

The abandoned armory on Goffe Street is starting to house dreams of sports facilities, small businesses, social services, and citywide celebrations.

But before neighbors’ visions for the historic structure can become a reality, the building will need to be cleared of asbestos, sealed off from water, and bolstered to support more weight.

Residents heard an update on the Goffe Street Armory building’s condition at a community meeting in the Hillhouse High School cafeteria on Wednesday evening — the second in a series of meetings for community members to generate ideas and offer input about the building’s future.

Attendees learned that the city is working with the Armory Community Advisory Committee (ACAC) to apply for a state Community Investment Fund (CIF) grant of up to $200,000, which would fund a community-driven process to generate a concrete, attainable vision for the armory.

A 135,000-square-foot building across from Goffe Street Park, the armory was built in 1930 for the dual purpose of accommodating the National Guard and serving as a civic gathering space. In the near-century since, the building has hosted mayoral balls, art shows, and the historic Black Expo. It’s now on the National Register of Historic Places. 

Now, the building is crumbling and vulnerable to water damage. The city has already spent $100,000 on a contract with Eagle Rivet Roof Service Corporation for fixing massive holes in the structure’s roof. 

Though a previous effort to revive the armory stalled, ACAC-affiliated Yale Architecture Professor Elihu Rubin is helping to lead the charge toward a more vibrant future for the building. ​“We want to build the momentum and keep the momentum,” he said.

City Business Development Director Carlos Eyzaguirre and Economic Development Officer Dean Mack explained on Wednesday that Georges Clermont of AEPMI design and building consultants has conducted a preliminary assessment of the building’s structural issues. An estimator will soon look at Clermont’s findings and calculate projected costs of the repairs.

Clermont found that, in addition to roof repairs, the building needs to be remediated of environmental hazards like asbestos. It needs to be sealed off from rainwater in order to prevent further damage. It needs to be adjusted to follow modern building codes, including with fire safety measures like sprinklers, as well as American Disability Act requirements. And the mezzanine has to be bolstered to expand its weight capacity.

Eyzaguirre said the city does not yet have an estimate for how much these repairs will cost.

Later, anti-violence and workforce development advocate Sean Reeves issued a plea to the city: ​“Focus on addressing our inequities,” not just in future uses of the building but in its very construction.

Reeves He urged the city to hire more Black and Brown-owned businesses — at least 50 percent — and to create a committee to oversee that hiring process.

Housing, Athletics, Movies?

After hearing from city officials, about 50 neighborhood residents, non-profit leaders, Yale School of Architecture students, and historic building aficionados broke off into small groups to learn about how armories across the country are funded and operated while brainstorming their own ideas for New Haven’s.

Denese G. Bellinger, who recently retired from the Community Action Agency of New Haven (CAANH) based one block away from the armory, told her small group that she’d like to see more housing in the neighborhood.

Bellinger said she worked with many homeless people while at CAANH. ​“It was horrible, trying to find housing for these people. We have a lot of people who are out on the streets.”

Meanwhile, a table away, CAANH CEO Amos Smith was pondering the armory as a potential future home for the low-income assistance organization. The organization is looking for ​“a new anchor,” he said. ​“I’d like to see us at the building.”

Desmone Gambrell-Claxton agreed with Bellinger. ​“Housing is important” — especially for ​“people having issues getting back into society,” she said, adding that the armory is big enough to also house education- and job-related services to help people transitioning out of prison.

One neighborhood resident, Jazmine, responded that the Beaver Hills/Dixwell area may be in less need of transitional housing than other neighborhoods. She said that a number of ​“large landlords buying these properties, flipping them to halfway houses, rooming houses,” have affected her neighborhood. ​“We don’t want to oversaturate” the neighborhood with transitional housing, she said.

Jazmine floated the idea of a youth-centric use for the armory building — perhaps a roller skating rink, or a food court focused on small businesses.

Bellinger said that, especially prior to the Q House’s reopening on Dixwell Avenue, the neighborhood has sorely needed a space for kids and teens to decompress and have fun. 

“All these years, if there was someplace for the kids to go, maybe some of the kids 20 years ago would still be here,” she said.

After learning about one armory-turned-community-center called the Harlem Children’s Zone from a card on the table, Jazmine wondered aloud, ​“Do we have a facility where kids can go inside and do sports?”

Fabian Menges noted that the State House concert and event venue recently shuttered, and the Bow Tie Criterion Cinema is rumored to be closing as well. There’s a need for an event space in New Haven, he said. 

He pointed to a note suggesting that the armory could be used for disaster relief efforts, as it was in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

“Definitely that one,” said Gambrell-Claxton. She noted that especially during the height of the pandemic, ​“people needed help with groceries” — and the armory could have served as a distribution site.

The group noted that the Whalley Avenue juvenile detention center down the block from the armory should be moved to a more distant location, especially if the armory were to become a youth-oriented place, so as not to send the message to Dixwell and Beaver Hills kids that they are destined for prison.

The participants agreed that the building should be governed at least in part by the city, perhaps through an advisory board. A private developer would ​“destroy the sense of community,” said Menges.

And they came up with a suggestion for the event’s organizers: to ensure that young people’s voices are heard on the armory, ACAC and the city could host similar brainstorming sessions for the armory’s future in local schools.