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From our recording studio in Brooklyn, we make audio that celebrates human creativity, history and the spaces we live to learn about.

Governors Island is just an eight-minute ferry ride from Lower Manhattan but feels a world apart. Once known by the Lenape people as Pagganack, or Nut Island, this ice cream cone-shaped site served as a military outpost for centuries and today stands as a scenic refuge that is home to an impressive array of cultural, environmental, educational, and recreational offerings. 

Grab a citibike at the station just by the ferry and join us as we  circle the island and trace its transformation, discover storied castles, innovative built environments and a park designed to withstand climate change.

This tour was made as a collaboration between Open House New York, the Trust for Governors Island, and Gesso in summer 2021.

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Governors Island

Governors Island feels a world apart from the rest of New York City. Where you stand right now, you’re less than a mile from Lower Manhattan. Open spaces like the expanse of green around you mean a lot to New Yorkers. But only Governors Island gives you the feeling of a coastal village that floats beside the city.
You’re standing on the ancestral homeland of the Lenape people. Whether the island was a year-round or seasonal home for the Lenape, historians aren’t sure. But we know they called this land Nut Island in their language, as a nod to the chestnut, hickory, and oak trees that originated here. You’ll see these old growth trees scattered throughout the island’s historic district, and maybe even where you stand at this very moment.  
In 1624, things here changed dramatically. That’s when Dutch settlers met the Lenape on these shores. Manhattan was, of course, a much bigger island on which to plant the Dutch flag, so the settlers kept sailing. The Dutch borrowed the Lenape place name and called it Nut Island.
The Dutch West India Company purchased Nut Island from the Lenape in 1637 for the low, low price of two ax heads, a string of beads, and a handful of nails. Ownership is a European concept, and it’s possible the Lenape thought they’d be sharing the island with their new neighbors. Of course, that was not the case. But the Dutch in turn lost Nut Island to the British. The Dutch and the British fought over this area in the 1660s and 70s until the British finally won out, and what had been New Amsterdam and renamed New York. And when the British crown gave its Colonial Governors the right to use this Island, the spot became known as Governors Island. 
And so, Governors Island, close as it is to Manhattan, was almost predestined to become a military outpost. When Americans fought for their independence from the British, they figured they could use the island to protect Manhattan. They were wrong, and the British made an advance on New York. The British took a shot at reclaiming their New World colony a handful of years later, and Governors Island became strategically important battleground once again during America’s Second War of Independence, or the War of 1812. The US government built stronger forts on Governors Island, and this time, they did  protect New York. During the Civil War, the Union used the island as a prison to detain Confederate POWs. It was a supply base for the Army and Air Force through both World Wars. Early planning for the D-Day invasion happened here in 1944. But by 1966, the island changed hands from the Army to the Coast Guard. 
The island’s military presence has gradually faded since those days. The Coast Guard pulled up roots here in 1996, and in 2001, the northern part of the island became a historic district, and the forts a part of the National Park System.. Two years later, the city and state of New York purchased a portion of the island, not for ax heads this time, but for one whole dollar. 

To orient you a bit, Governors Island is shaped like an ice cream cone. The ice cream is the oldest part of the island, where the Lenape, Dutch and English governors once walked. The island has grown in size since New York became a city. Originally 69 acres, the Army Corps of Engineers later used rocks and dirt excavated from the Lexington Avenue subway and land dredged from New York Harbor to build 103 acres on the south side of the island. Today, Governors Island covers 172 acres. 

The south side of the island, the cone, is a sprawling, ever-evolving park, with elements designed to mitigate climate change. As you walk around today, take note of the many species of plants and 42,000 shrubs that are scattered across the island.
Above all else, Governors Island is a lesson in what we can accomplish when we share space. The city has reshaped Governors Island into a lush public greenspace with vivid historical vestiges. As we circle the island, we’ll trace its transformation. We’ll discover storied castles, innovative built environments and a park designed to withstand climate change. We’ll discover how Governor Island’s evolution into a public space is a natural reflection of New York’s evolution. Now, Let’s walk. 

Primer

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New York

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Open House New York

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Once you step off the ferry, you’ll see Island Oyster on your right and a red brick building decorated with two golden crests on your left. Continue walking up the stairs and you’ll learn that this dock is called Soissons Landing, which is a callback to the island’s long military history.

Soissons is a city in Northern France where American troops joined forces with the French and British to take on the German army during World War I. Just as Governors Island flanks Manhattan, the French army leveraged Soissons’ proximity to Paris as a line of defense. The American soldiers who were stationed at Soissons made up the 16th Regiment. When they returned home, the army posted these troops to Governors Island, and the landing was named as a tribute to their courage.
 
This landing has become a crucial place in the latest chapter of the island’s story. In the summer of 2019, the Trust for Governors Island commissioned a 400-passenger vessel, called the Governors 1, to ramp up ferry service between the city and the island. The ferries are run by the Trust for Governors Island and made by Blount Boats, a family-owned shipyard that’s operated out of Rhode Island for over 70 years. Now, New Yorkers can access Governors Island year round in less than ten minutes. Powered by two 800 horsepower engines, it’s also a shorter ride than ever before. The ferry is constructed from 450,000 pounds of steel. To put that in perspective, it weighs about the same as the Statue of Liberty!

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Soissons Landing

Tour Item

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Once you’re facing Castle Williams, find the black gate that fronts the fort. It’s most likely locked, but you should be able to peek through and catch a glimpse of the circular fort within. If you were to time travel from this spot to the dawn of the 1800s, chances are you’d meet a military engineer named Jonathan Williams. In those days, America was still a brand-new country, and Williams was intent on protecting it. 

Williams came from a family of peerless patriots that included Benjamin Franklin. During the Revolutionary War, Franklin was in Paris setting the foundation for a French Alliance, while Williams had his eye on New York Harbor. Williams became a commandant with the Army Corps of Engineers, constructing this fort just in time for the Second War of Independence in 1812. The British blockaded New York Harbor, but did not dare attack. If it hadn’t been for this castle, the US might have lost NY to Great Britain, and for that he deserves to have the fort named after him. 

From then on, Castle Williams was one part of a large defense system that included Fort Jay and the South Battery here on the island, along with Castle Clinton, Fort Gibson at Ellis Island, and Fort Wood at Liberty Island.

Castle Williams, and much of Governors Island, turned into a prison during the Civil War. Nearly 1,000 Confederate soldiers were incarcerated at the fort. The fort continued to serve as a prison after the war. As you can see, the castle is a circular structure made of red sandstone. What wasn’t allocated to the fort’s prison became barracks for new and transient troops. Back then, you could find groceries and most other amenities here. Just imagine, the individuals who lived here never really had to leave!

In 1965, the Coast Guard opened Castle Williams back up to the community as part of the Governors Island Historic Monument. It earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. During those years, Castle Williams transformed into a more diverse space, becoming a youth community center, nursery, woodworking shop, museum, photography lab, and art studio.  


When Lt. Colonel Jonathan Williams first stood atop Castle Williams, he could survey the entirety of New York Harbor and Manhattan long before the skyline took shape. For Williams, that view signified safety for New York. Today, the view from Governors Island means something different for each beholder.

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Castle Williams

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We all know Manhattan is an island on the edge of the Atlantic, but it’s easy to forget that's what makes it a maritime city. The sprawling brick campus you see used to be army barracks, and today, it’s a school for students pursuing careers in marine science and technology. 

In the summer of 2002, Murray Fisher, a conservationist with the Waterkeeper Alliance, first presented the idea of creating a maritime high school. By the following spring, Fisher’s project had secured funding and the New York public school system had accepted his proposal. But this particular campus in this ideal location wasn’t a foregone conclusion. The Harbor School’s original home was in Bushwick, nowhere near the shoreline. 

Fisher knew all along that the Harbor School belonged closer to the waterfront. Over the next seven years, he and his staff carved out a permanent home on Governors Island. The school was the island’s first long term tenant after the Coast Guard had departed. Now that the ferry reaches the island, Harbor School students learn aboard these vessels, everything from starting up the ferry in the engine room to overboard safety drills. 

Today, 435 students from neighborhoods across the city come together to learn about the maritime world in the middle of New York Harbor. With help from the school’s conservationist founder, the students also become environmental stewards. Fisher co-founded the Billion Oyster Project, a citizen science project working to restore a billion oysters to New York Harbor by 2035. The project grew out of the Harbor School’s aquaculture program. With access to that project’s resources and the living lab of Governors Island, this school has become a microcosm of what could happen if we all centered our natural environment.

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New York Harbor School

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Colonels Row is the name for this neighborhood of charming 19th century brick and wood-framed houses that once housed officers of the US Army.

If you venture to the north end of Colonels Row, you’ll find a former military hospital that was built in 1933. It’s been empty since 1965.

Colonels Row provided a quiet life for officers who wished to escape the chaotic city. Back then, the Colonels enjoyed now-priceless views of New York Harbor. 
 
Now these houses host educational and cultural organizations who offer programming to the public

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Colonels Row

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Liggett Hall

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You’re standing in Hammock Grove, one of Governors Island’s newest places for lounging and leisure. 

Today, Hammock Grove’s place on the island might appear effortless, but intricate landscaping went into creating this 10-acre space. The Trust for Governors Island commissioned a Dutch landscape architecture firm called West 8. Their team prioritized sustainable design with structural elements to mitigate climate change. For one thing, the grove has been planted high enough to keep the tree roots above flood levels.

The designers placed these 50 red hammocks between a grove of new trees, so once the trees are tall enough, the hammocks can hang between them. The young trees also create a sun dappling effect, casting shade that gives way to sunlight and breathtaking views as the wind causes  the branches to chimmy and tosses the leaves. It’s a grove of the native nut-bearing trees that gave the island its first name, Nut Island. See if you can find one of the grove’s chestnut trees, or it might be easier to spot an oak. There are eight species of oak trees on the island, as well as four types of hickory trees. If you can’t tell by their bark, you may happen upon a pile of chestnuts or acorns at your feet as you wander around. You’ll also see there are other species native to the Mid-Atlantic. The introduction of these plants works to address the rising temperatures of our changing climate.

And if you look up to the top of trees, maybe you’ll meet Hammock Grove’s community of birds. Several migratory birds fly through Governors Island, including warblers, orioles, sandpipers, owls, and  loons. Year-round avian residents include gulls, kestrels, fish crows, and the red-tailed hawk. 

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Hammock Grove

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You’re standing on Outlook Hill, the highest point on the south part of Governors Island. From your 70-foot high vantage point, you can take in the full expanse of Governors Island and its panoramic view of New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty.

This part of the island didn’t always exist. The whole southern part of the island was created in the early 1900s using landfill from Lexington Avenue subway excavations and dredging from New York Harbor. The expansion more than doubled the island’s size. 


You’re not the first to enjoy this aerial view. Governors Island was the backdrop to two key moments in aviation history. In 1909, Wilbur Wright took off from here in the first American flight over water. His plane was shipped to Fort Jay and assembled on the island. He took off and landed here, circling around the Statue of Liberty during this pioneering flight. A few days later, he flew up the Hudson River as far as Grants Tomb near Columbia University, and back to Governors Island. In 1916, Ruth Law landed here after flying a record-breaking distance across the US. 

In 2003, the federal government gave New Yorkers an irreplaceable gift when it sold the land around you to the city and state of New York for the steep price of one dollar. The Trust for Governors Island built these two paths to the top of Outlook Hill, creating a panorama that never existed before. One is winding and accessible, the other is a scramble of granite steps made from the old island seawall. This design element reminds us that nothing goes to waste on Governors Island; it’s just repurposed. The side of Outlook Hill that faces the harbor is made from lightweight pumice -- that’s right, the same you’d use for a pedicure. The pumice keeps the hill from landsliding into the harbor. At the base of Outlook Hill, there are rounded white curbs with an oval pattern. They filter out rainwater and redirect it back to the harbor and water table. The park’s designers also kept climate change in mind, building up these seawalls in anticipation of stronger, more severe storms. 

From the summit, you can see as far as the Financial District, Downtown Brooklyn, and to the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, beyond which lies the rippling surface of the Atlantic Ocean. From any perspective, Governors Island is here to remind us that the city’s size pales in comparison to the interconnected waterways that encircle it. 

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Outlook Hill

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If this artistic rendering of a cabin looks out of place against the backdrop of New York Harbor, it should. “Cabin” is a permanent installation by British artist Rachel Whiteread that creates a disorienting contrast between two built environments -- the pastoral and the urban. In 2015, she created a concrete cast of a simple cabin from a New England shed, surrounded by bronze casts of bottles, cans, and other refuse, many of which were sourced on the island. These found objects point to the island itself, as a natural space altered by humans.

Sitting on the edge of Discovery Hill, this installation contrasts  the pastoral life with everything chaotic and urban that gives New York City its singular energy. Whiteread is known for her evocative sculptures of negative spaces. With “Cabin,” a place of quiet repose is magnified by the emptiness within it. In the absence of an interior, viewers can project their own stories between the cabin’s four walls.

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Cabin

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From where you stand, you’re sharing the ground with berries, beets, collard greens, eggplants, herbs, squash, potatoes. This is the GrowNYC Teaching Garden, a one-acre urban farm. Since 2015, this garden has been open to students, visitors, and anyone with a desire to grow something, figuratively and literally. 

Before the pandemic, GrowNYC hosted a teaching farm that was focused on cultivating partnerships with local schools. Students followed the agricultural process from seed to farm stand.  In 2020, the group was forced to shift to full-scale food production. The staff transformed this plot into a World War II-style victory garden, during an era in which food security was threatened. And it worked. GrowNYC yielded somewhere around 20,000 pounds of produce, as compared to their customary 10,000 pounds. 

GrowNYC took advantage of the pause imposed by COVID to cultivate new partnerships as well. In addition to their longstanding link to Earth Matter, a nonprofit that promotes composting, the urban farm partnered with the Black Feminist Project. The project’s organizers transport food relief boxes of produce from the teaching garden to families in the South Bronx. 

Take a moment to see what’s sprouting up from the earth on the other side of the fence. This garden has weathered a harrowing era and grown something that the city can continue to nurture.

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Urban Farm

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The vast field before you has lived several lives. Once, Soldiers drilled and trained on the grassy fields. In the 1920s, these grounds became Manhattan’s only golf course. 
Strangely enough, the course wasn’t built to accommodate the customary 9 holes. It had only eight, meaning golfers had to always play one of the holes twice. If that weren’t enough, the course contained several intersecting fairways that threw off even golfers who had seen overseas combat. Still, the officers who lived and worked here were fiercely proud that Manhattan’s only golf course was their own backyard. Looking out on the parade grounds now, you wouldn’t guess about the field’s golfing past, as the land has mostly been flattened.
 

On the other side of the road from the parade ground are a row of pale yellow Victorians with white porches that were built in the 1870s for senior officers and their families. These Victorians enclosed Nolan Park, the grassy expanse you see just beyond the yellow houses. When affluent families visited the island in the early 1900s, they hosted garden parties in Nolan Park. Today, you may encounter quite a different scene as cultural and educational groups offer programming and today’s visitors enjoy shady picnics. See if you can find a geodesic dome beside one of the yellow Victorians.  
 
 The parade grounds are part of a 22-acre expanse  that the Trust for Governors Island restored as open space. In Manhattan, developers have been quick to build up every available lot. Not here. The Trust has kept areas like the Parade Ground undeveloped, which we can all be grateful for on days like this one.

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Parade Ground

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Two cannons stand in front of the South Battery. At one point, they would have been poised to protect the island. Now for whatever reason, they are pointed back at Fort Jay. In any event, that kind of defense hasn’t been necessary here for a very long time. But back in 1812, the same sort of cannons protected Buttermilk Channel, the stretch of water between Governors Island and Brooklyn from the British. Later, the South Battery became, first, home to the US Army field music department, and later, the Base’s Officers Club.
If you’d like to take a step back in time, imagine the year is 1950 and you’re here, not for military business, but to hear some live music. Before he was a pianist, Burt Bacharach was an army bandlander stationed at Governors Island. According to Burt, he had no training as a concert pianist at the time, but the Army had the idea that he was classically trained, so he faked it until he made it. Today, the Officers’ Club is a dark time capsule of a golden era in Governors Island history.

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South Battery

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St. Cornelius Chapel looks as though it’s as old as the city of New York, but the limestone Gothic structure facing you wasn’t the first church to stand here. This chapel replaced the original in 1906. Believe it or not, there was a time when it was unheard of to build a church on an army base. But as more generals and colonels put down roots here, a place of worship became a divine necessity that transcended the separation of church and state.
Back in 1846, the island had no church, but it did have an Army Chaplain. Reverend John McVickar held Episcopal services under the trees when the sky was clear and the ground was dry. But he needed a brick and mortar church. Within a year, he had raised enough money to build a wooden chapel. In 1868, it became a branch of Trinity Parish, the same division of the historic Trinity Church you may have visited on Wall Street.
Sadly, the passing years were not kind to the architectural integrity of St. Cornelius Chapel. By 1900, Trinity Parish deemed it unsalvageable and got to work on a replacement church. Take a look at the grey stone church tower, which resembles that of a castle. The parish sourced the 106 foot tower from buff Indiana limestone. Eventually, St. Cornelius was not the only place of worship on Governors Island. It was joined by a Catholic Church and Jewish Synagogue. The chapel may not be open, but from the outside you can still take in the hundred-year-old stained glass that casts kaleidoscopic light within. 

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St. Cornelius Chapel

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On a crisp winter morning in 1988, President Ronald Reagan stood on Governors Island, staring across the harbor’s ashen waters, waiting for his guest to arrive by ferry. He was nervous, and so were the top officials that surrounded him. The Coast Guard wasn’t allowed to crowd the field, so they peered through their windows to catch a glimpse of the boat’s arrival. Finally, the ferry docked, and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev stepped onto the island.
 
Nobody on Governors Island knew for sure on that day, but they were witnessing the last gasp of the Cold War. Gorbachev had just come off a major address to the United Nations General Assembly.  He had announced Russia’s withdrawal from a wide swath of Eastern Europe. The meeting with President Reagan was also the last official meeting between the two leaders before the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union dissolved. 
 
Reagan chose this stately 27-room building, the historic Admiral’s House, for their meeting. Martin E. Thompson designed and completed this Greek Revival House in 1843. If you’ve ever seen the Arsenal at Central Park, Thompson designed that structure as well. This house was renovated in 1918 to accommodate a Colonial Revival entrance portico and the Doric columns you see now. 
 
After Reagan and Gorbachev finished up here, they headed to a platform across the island for a photo-op. The international media captured Reagan and Gorbachev posing with the Statue of Liberty in the background. You can’t ask for better symbolism than that. But the so-called Peace Dividend that the US and the USSR achieved had an irrevocable impact on Governors Island. As military tensions eased, US military plans shifted. The US shuttered the Coast Guard  Base on Governors Island in 1996, closing the 200 year military chapter of the island’s history.


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Admiral's House

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This sprawling red brick home is called the Governor’s House, even though no governor ever lived here. During the War of 1812, the military built this two-story Georgian structure as a guard house to overlook anyone approaching Fort Jay. After the US won that war, this building alternated between commanding officers’ quarters and a guard house. 

If you were to view this house from above, you could make out the shape of a Greek Cross. The gable roof projections intersect at the center of the cross. Walking around the Governor’s House now, you may be able to see the house's unusual shape. 

Several design elements have been added to and subtracted from this house over the years. A Colonial Revival annex, garage, and patio were added in the 1930s. Two charming, two-story porches once fronted the east and west facades but were ultimately removed. No governor probably have ever lived here, but this house remains emblematic of the island’s colonial past. As it was build and rebuilt to serve the military’s needs over the years.

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Governor's House

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You’ve arrived at Fort Jay, a military compound with a moat, a ghost, and other mythical tales. The fort was named for John Jay, a founding father and first Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court. Fitting to Governors Island’s name, Jay was serving his term as Governor of New York when this fort adopted his name. A few years later, the fort  was rebuilt and given a new name — Fort Columbus — but popular favor must have shifted back to New York’s local leaders, because it became Fort Jay once again in 1904.
 
This structure was completed in 1811 after the military added new fortifications to ward off a feared invasion. The original design included a four-bastioned compound, with a parapet and 51 embrasures, encircled by a dry moat. Many of the military vestiges you can see are originals, including the gate, port, and magazine. The stacked pyramid of cannonballs in the center of the circular driveway hearkens back to the artillery used in the War of 1812. But I wouldn’t blame you if you’re more interested to hear the legends of Fort Jay.
 
The first is about life and death. There was once a stone carver who had been taken prisoner here during the Civil War. He was working on a decorative eagle to place in the fort’s entryway. Just as the commanding officer’s daughter was passing by, a pile of stones fell from the building and the stone carver saved her from certain death. That day changed her life, for sure, but it also changed his. Her father granted the stone carver a pardon and he was freed.
 
The second legend is also about life and death, but more specifically, a ghost. The stone carver was one of many Confederate prisoners who were incarcerated on Governors Island during the Civil War. This man was a spy who never made it out of this former prison. The story goes that he came back as a ghost to haunt Fort Jay. Whether or not you believe in these legends or feel the frigid air of a ghostly visitation pass through you, be careful if you walk under the entryway.

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Fort Jay

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Governors Island has meant many things to many people. A place to hunt and gather food, a retreat for governors, an army base, and today, a democratized greenspace. The future of Governors Island is one that will include more New Yorkers than ever before.

The Trust for Governors Island rezoned the South Island to become a year-round place of relaxation and respite for anyone who hops on the ferry in Lower Manhattan or Brooklyn. Existing educational groups and nonprofits, like GrowNYC and Earth Matter, will share the island’s resources with community members and students. 

In June 2021, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio and the Trust announced a global competition to establish a leading institution dedicated to developing climate solutions. This institution will anchor the Island’s Center for Climate Solutions, a cross-sector hub of educators, researchers, innovators, and advocates that will prepare New York City and cities around the world for climate change. They’ll take advantage of the  Island’s surrounding waters to create a living laboratory in the middle of New York Harbor. 

Ultimately, most if not all of the buildings on Governors Island will be renovated, but don’t worry, their historic exteriors will remain intact. And it will all remain public. Visitors such as yourself will have access to the island’s public art, panoramic views, and grove of hammocks for years to come.

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Learned a lot

Great bike tour

So cool!

OPEN HOUSE NEW YORK

Governors Island

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Stay in Touch

Hear an Audio Sample

Reviews

Learned a lot

Grea​​t bike tour

So cool!

OPEN HOUSE NEW YORK

Governors Island

Free

About

Get the App

Stay in Touch

Join our Newsletter

Get the App

About

Stay in Touch

Great bike tour