U.S. MILITARY ACADEMY
Railroad Stations: West Point station for the West Shore division of the New York Central System; ferry at pier opposite railroad station (fare 25¢) to Garrison station on main line of New York Central System.
Busses: Storm King Stage Corp. busses between Highland Falls and Newburgh, on even hourly schedule 6 a.m.–12 p.m., fare 40¢, pass through Reservation on Thayer, Washington, and Lee Roads.
Pier: South Dock for Hudson River Day Line, daily boats in summer season to New York City and Albany; autumn schedule adapted to football games at West Point.
Accommodations: Thayer-West Point Inn, inside South Gate; 4 hotels and many restaurants in environs.
Information Service: Military police at North and South Gates and on grounds supply directory of all buildings and information on any changes in hours of ceremonies.
Directions and Restrictions: Visitors subject to military police regulations; speed limit 25 m.p.h.; visitors advised to visit grounds on foot. Guides available at Thayer-West Point Inn. Only public building is Thayer-West Point Inn; visiting hours posted for all buildings open to public. Rest rooms: railroad station; SE. corner of the lower floor of the Administration Bldg.; immediately N. of flagpoles; on main N.-S. road at south parking area opposite Cadet Hospital. Lunches may be eaten in an area N. of railroad station on Williams Rd. near power house. Cameras not requiring use of tripod permitted. Groups of 10 or more persons should communicate with Adjutant, West Point, New York, before visit.
Hours of Military Ceremonies (weather permitting and subject to minor change; daylight saving time, May to Sept.; no ceremonies on Sun. and legal holidays): Battalion parade, Mon., Tues., Thurs., Fri., 4:35 p.m., May and Sept. Inspection and regimental review followed by guard mount, Sat. about 1:10 p.m., Apr., May, Sept., Oct., Nov.
The United States Military Reservation, its site known as WEST POINT since Revolutionary times, lies just south of Storm King Mountain, between US 9W and the Hudson River. Including Constitution Island, donated by Mrs. Russell Sage and Miss Anna B. Warner in 1908, the reservation has an area of 3,500 acres. The buildings rise in terraces up the steep hillside, the rear of the Riding Hall, long, low, and massive, looking like the wall of a medieval castle, its base hidden by heavy foliage and fronted by a wide natural moat. Above it towers the Administration Building, a gray granite pile that dominates the lower, older buildings. On the higher plain, 200 feet above the river, is the main group, rising to the graceful Gothic lines of the chapel. Still higher on the hillside are Michie Stadium, the Howze polo field, blasted from the hillside, and the reconstructed Fort Putnam, 451 feet above river level. In the hills behind the Academy are seven redoubts, with connecting trails, remnants of Revolutionary fortifications.
The Academy’s architecture falls into three major periods. The library is typical of a group of castellated Gothic structures, now for the most part replaced by modern buildings. Three structures, the Cullum Memorial Hall, the Officers’ Mess, and the Bachelor Officers’ Quarters, were designed by McKim, Mead and White in the neoclassic style popular in the late nineties. In 1903 Cram, Goodhue and Ferguson happily returned to the Gothic tradition. Succeeding architects have conformed to this decision, with the result that an impressive stylistic harmony binds together otherwise heterogeneous buildings. The grand picturesqueness of the dignified masses of the Gothic style achieves by some medieval magic a remarkably satisfying military character.
The living scene on the Reservation changes with the hour of the day. During academic hours the Plain is deserted; in the afternoon after classes it is a scene of intensive activity. On drill days squads and larger units engage in close-order maneuvers, map-making, and other military routine; on afternoons devoted to sport practically the entire regiment swarms over the field playing baseball, football, tennis, lacrosse, soccer, golf. During the summer months the cadets live in tents.
The cadet Corps, numbering 1,960 when all vacancies are filled, forms a regiment of 12 companies officered by members of the senior class. There are also stationed at West Point 275 regular Army officers and about 1,200 enlisted men. While all cadets receive considerable basic military instruction, particularly in the last two years, the West Point course is mainly academic, leading to a B.S. degree.
The cadets live a strict military life in an atmosphere of learning. They room in pairs, their twin cubicles separated by a partition and opening to a comfortably sized study, jointly used. After roll call, rooms are put in order; then comes breakfast, followed by morning classes, with one period of military training for Plebes (freshmen). In the afternoon classes continue until three o’clock; then comes supervised intramural competition in sports until Retreat and the lowering of the flag. Shortly after the evening meal, Call to Quarters is sounded; and from then until 10 p.m., when Taps sends them to bed, the cadets must be in their rooms studying.
Tradition permits recognition of the Plebe by upperclassmen only as duty or instruction requires. Plebes must double-time to positions whenever possible. They must remove their caps before entering the mess hall. They are detailed as ‘gunners’ to carve the meat or fowl, and as ‘coffee corporals’ to pour coffee. On graduation day the Fourth Classmen are ‘recognized,’ before Graduation Parade by the First Classmen, and after the parade by the other two classes; and the last painful memories of Fourth Class days of servitude are soon erased.
Many of the traditional ceremonies cherished by the older graduates have been discontinued. Hundredth Night and Two Hundredth Night, occasions when the Fourth Classmen were permitted to indulge in a free appraisal of upperclassmen without reprisal, are no longer celebrated. The old Ring Hop, at which the O.A.O. (one and only) of each First Classman placed the graduation ring on his finger and made a secret wish, is also a thing of the past. The Class Cup of the graduating class, presented to the ‘class boy,’ the first son born to a member of the class, is no longer cast out of the melted-down silver napkin rings of the cadets, but is purchased from class funds.
June Week brings the climax of the year’s events. Graduation exercises are held in the Field House below the level of the Plain; the President or his designated representative presents the 2nd Lieutenant’s commissions and the diplomas. The most colorful and dramatic scene is the graduation parade, when the Corps passes in review before the graduating class to the tune of On to Victory and Alma Mater. The battalions march off the Plain to the tune of The Dashing White Sergeant. As the band troops the line it plays The Girl I Left Behind Me and Auld Lang Syne, and finally Home, Sweet Home, tunes played at no other time.
The West Point region was one of four in the Hudson Highlands fortified during the Revolution. In early Army orders it was designated as ‘the citadel and its dependencies,’ the latter including river defenses north and south. Between 1778, after Sir Henry Clinton had retreated to New York, and 1780, Fort Putnam and Fort Arnold (later Fort Clinton) and a number of redoubts were built; and a great wrought-iron chain with protecting log boom was stretched across the Hudson to block British ships. After the failure of Arnold’s plan to hand West Point over to the British in 1780, the area was never again threatened. The American flag has flown over West Point since 1778.
Although in October 1776 Congress appointed a committee to prepare plans for a military school and Washington twice recommended that such an institution be established at West Point, it was not until March 16, 1802, that Congress authorized the academy. On July 4 of that year the academy opened with 10 cadets. Under Major Sylvanus Thayer, who served as superintendent from 1817 to 1833, West Point became a military school of the first order; the basic system established by Thayer is continued today. During the Civil War, leaders on both sides—Lee, Grant, Jackson, Sheridan, Early, even Jefferson Davis—were West Point graduates.
Edgar Allan Poe was a cadet in 1830–31, but after eight months he was dismissed for insubordination. James A. McNeill Whistler entered the academy a month before his seventeenth birthday. He excelled in drawing, but his failure in chemistry eliminated him in his third year. ‘Had silicon been a gas,’ he later said, ‘I would have been a major general.’ Many of his sketches of cadet life are among the school’s prized possessions. West Point gave General Grant his commission and an extra initial in his name. The Congressman who recommended him assumed that Ulysses was his first name and added Simpson, his mother’s maiden name, to fill out. Thus he became U.S. Grant. He graduated in 1843, ranking twenty-first in a class of thirty-nine.
POINTS OF INTEREST
1. The THAYER–WEST POINT INN (open all year), just inside the South Gate, the only public building on the reservation, is a modern hotel of modified Tudor architecture, having 225 rooms, grill, dance hall, and garage. Suites are reserved in the north wing for the President, the Vice President, and the Secretary of War.
2. The CAVALRY AND ARTILLERY DRILL FIELD, opposite the inn, provides the only available parking space for the cars of visitors attending football games. The barracks, stables, and gun sheds are plain but effective brick structures designed by Cram, Goodhue and Ferguson.
3. The ICE ARENA, off Mills Road, was dedicated in 1931. The walls enclose a 232-by-90-foot skating rink with a 10-foot promenade on the east and west sides. The game with the Royal Military College of Canada is the annual ice classic.
4. MICHIE STADIUM (open only during games), the football field, with a seating capacity of 26,000, was named in honor of Dennis Mahan Michie, class of 1892, captain of the first West Point football team, who was killed in action at San Juan, Cuba, in 1898.
5. FORT PUTNAM, approached by a steep foot trail from Mills Road, originally built in 1778 and partly restored in 1907–10, is on Mount Independence, 451 feet above tidewater.
6. The CHAPEL OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY (open 8–4 daily), on a sharp rise of ground at the corner of Mills Road and Washington Road, is modeled on an English Carthusian abbey church. Consecrated in 1900, this Roman Catholic chapel was built and is maintained by private funds.
North from Washington Road, down the hillside toward the river, are the utilities building, service and auxiliary barracks, barracks of the band and the military police, and the ORDNANCE LABORATORY (grounds open 9–4 daily). Between these buildings and the lower edge of the plain above the West Shore Railroad tracks are the old Polo Field and the new Armory and Field House, in which an entire battalion can be maneuvered.
7. The OLD CADET CHAPEL (open daylight hours), at the entrance to the reservation cemetery, originally built in 1837 on the site now occupied by Jefferson Hall, was reconstructed here in 1911. The rectangular stone structure with its Roman Doric portico is a graceful example of the Renaissance Revival. Most prominent in the interior is an oil painting by Robert M. Weir entitled Peace and War. Black marble shields on the walls are inscribed in gold with the name, rank, and date of birth and death of every Revolutionary general. One, bearing only date of birth and rank, omits the name of Benedict Arnold.
In the WEST POINT CEMETERY, behind the chapel, the graves of enlisted men and civilians are side by side with those of Major Thayer and Generals Scott and Custer. It contains, among others, the graves of Margaret Corbin, Revolutionary heroine, and Susan and Anna Warner, popular authors who lived on Constitution Island and whose kindliness in the early days of the Academy eased the burden of homesick cadets.
Enlisted men’s quarters line Washington Road on both sides, with more up the rise to the west. Along Lee Road, toward the North Gate, are the junior officers’ quarters, the newest of which are modern homes of the duplex type.
8. The NORTH GATE, a brick and iron structure with Military Police sentry quarters, is the entrance for travelers from the north.
9. The CADET HOSPITAL, Thayer Road, built in 1924, Arnold W. Brunner, architect, is a massive stone structure with Gothic details. Study rooms adjoin the 20-bed wards.
The remaining points of interest must be visited on foot after car is parked opposite the Cadet Hospital.
10. The ADMINISTRATION BUILDING (open 10–12, 1–4 weekdays except holidays), Thayer Road, was built in 1904, Cram, Goodhue and Ferguson, architects. The powerful solid masonry of dark gray granite, trimmed with limestone, builds up into a picturesque mass dominated by the 160-foot tower-keep on the southeast corner. The battlements, buttresses, and cross-mullioned and traceried windows were inspired by the medieval castle. The entrance is ornamented with the rich heraldic seals of the Government and the Army and the Washington coat of arms, and is guarded by a raised portcullis. The large window at the rear lights the Academic Board Room, a vaulted hall with a carved stone chimney-piece, modeled by Lee Lawrie, which features the nine great warriors of ancient and medieval history. The ORDNANCE MUSEUM, upstairs L. of entrance, contains exhibits of multiple shot ordnance, including the French Mitrailleuse and the American Gatling gun, collections of flags and ammunition, artillery models, Indian relics, and Filipino and Chinese articles.
11. GRANT HALL (open 9–4, evenings until Taps, daily), the cadet reception hall, occupying a wing of the South Cadet Barracks across the driveway from the Administration Building, is finished in Tudor Gothic style, with State seals and insignia of Army divisions of the World War set into the ceiling. In the hall, informality prevails to a degree that astonishes visitors from abroad. But for their uniforms, the cadets are so many college boys.
12. The LIBRARY (open 9–6 weekdays; 2–5:30 Sun.), Jefferson and Cullum Roads, built in 1841, is the oldest surviving building now used by cadets. Major Robert Delafield, then superintendent, is usually credited with its Gothic Revival design, but its affinity with certain works of Alexander Jackson Davis, leading Gothicist of the period and very active in the Hudson Valley, suggests that Davis may have assisted in or at least inspired the design. The two-story stone structure has vine-clad, battlemented towers. The book collection contains more than 125,000 volumes; the military section is one of the most complete in the country. In the building are a portrait of Washington by Gilbert Stuart, a collection of portraits by Thomas Sully, including his portrait of Jonathan Williams, first superintendent of the Academy, and mementos of Whistler, Poe, and others.
Attached vertically to the north wall, near the library entrance, are two cannon: one, owned by the Confederates, several days before the attack on Fort Sumter fired the first shot in the Civil War at a steamer passing Vicksburg, Mississippi; the other fired the last shot before General Lee’s surrender at Appomatox.
WEST POINT
(U.S. MILITARY ACADEMY)
1. Thayer-West Point Inn 2. Cavalry and Artillery Drill Field 3. Ice Arena 4. Michie Stadium 5. Fort Putnam 6. Chapel of the Most Holy Trinity 7. Old Cadet Chapel 8. North Gate 9. Cadet Hospital 10. Administration Building 11. Grant Hall 12. Library 13. Riding Hall 14. Officers’ Club 15. Cullum Memorial Hall 16. Bachelors’ Building 17. Flirtation Walk 18. Kosciusko Monument 19. Washington Monument 20. Battle Monument 21. Superintendent’s Quarters 22. Gymnasium 23. Washington Hall 24. Cadet Chapel
13. The rugged granite walls of the RIDING HALL (open 1–5 Mon.–Fri. except holidays), built in 1911 by Cram, Goodhue and Ferguson, rise from the rocky river shore to the level of the east edge of the plain. In the arena, covering more than 16,000 square feet and lighted by skylights in the hinged steel arch roof, three riding classes meet simultaneously, field artillery units perform mounted drills, and polo teams enjoy the largest indoor field in the country. There are stalls for 100 horses, but most of the 250 mounts are kept in the south stables.
14. The OFFICERS’ CLUB (open to guests of members), Cullum Road, houses the Bachelor Officers’ Mess, one of the oldest in the service. The structure, one of the McKim, Mead and White buildings, is two stories high, designed in simple neoclassic style. It contains many battle paintings, engravings, and trophies. Silver candlesticks, formed by napkin rings joined vertically and engraved with the names of former members, adorn the table. A huge Chinese gong from the forbidden city of Peking, a trophy of the Boxer Rebellion, summons the members to ‘chow.’ There are dining rooms for married officers and their families, and the latest modern touch is the new rule admitting women to the cocktail lounge.
15. CULLUM MEMORIAL HALL (open 10–12, 1–4 weekdays except holidays), Cullum Road, dominates the neoclassic group of three buildings erected in 1898–1903 and designed by McKim, Mead and White. It is built of granite, two stories high, with hipped roof. The principal façade is adorned with a series of four three-quarter-engaged Ionic columns, with two antae, entablature, and acroteria. The building is the center of cadet social activities, especially the weekly hops. Flanking the main entrance are two guns cast in France in 1775 and taken at Santiago de Cuba in 1898.
16. The BACHELORS’ BUILDING (private) is the third of the neoclassic structures. It contains the quarters of the bachelor officers assigned to duty at the Academy.
17. FLIRTATION WALK (open only to officers, cadets, and their guests), a gravel and rock foot trail, leaves Cullum Road just north of the Bachelors’ Building and winds three quarters of a mile down the cliff to the river, past the lighthouse at Gee’s Point, the beach where the western end of the great chain was anchored, the site of the chain battery, and the remains of the earthworks of Fort Clinton, and ends at Battle Monument.
Just before passing the lighthouse the path is overhung by KISSING ROCK, so called because, according to tradition, if a cadet passes underneath with his best girl and fails to kiss her, the rock will fall and crush them both.
Just beyond the point at which the walk turns south up the rise are (R) the boathouse, the north dock, and the airplane hangar.
18. The KOSCIUSKO MONUMENT, Cullum Road, designed by John H. Latrobe, class of 1822, was erected by the Corps of Cadets in 1828 to honor the Polish patriot who served with distinction under General Washington and helped plan the fortifications at West Point.
The Cadet Camp, of which the monument marks the northeast corner, was part of the site of Fort Clinton. It is occupied in summer only.
19. The WASHINGTON MONUMENT, in the circle at the corner of Cullum Road and Thayer Road, is a replica of the one in Union Square, New York City.
20. BATTLE MONUMENT, a few steps west of the Washington Monument, is at the northern limit of the Plain, known as Trophy Point. The granite monument, designed by Stanford White and executed by Frederick MacMonnies, was erected to the memory of the 2,230 officers and privates of the regular Army killed in action in the Civil War. Standing on a circular pedestal, a Roman Doric column, five feet in diameter and 46 feet high, supports a winged statue of Fame. The five-step circular stairway around the base is broken by eight plain pedestals, each of which supports a sphere flanked by two cannon.
Near by, strung on stone posts, are a number of links from the 1700-foot, 180-ton chain which stretched across the Hudson from West Point to Constitution Island to block British ships during the Revolution. Each link was two feet nine inches long and about two and a quarter inches square. The display of cannon includes specimens captured in every major American war, together with several used by U.S. forces. There is also the telescopic periscope said to have been used in the World War by the German Crown Prince during the attack on Verdun and later captured by U.S. troops at Montfauçon.
21. The SUPERINTENDENT’S QUARTERS, Jefferson Road, was built about 1820 and was occupied by Robert E. Lee when he was superintendent of the Academy.
22. The GYMNASIUM (open to visitors accompanied by officer or cadet), originally built in 1908, has since been enlarged. It is the scene of intramural and intercollegiate athletic events, motion picture shows, stage productions, and dances.
On the south are the new Cadet Barracks.
23. WASHINGTON HALL (open 10:30 a.m–12 m. weekdays; 4–6 p.m. Sun. and holidays; cadet or officer must accompany visitor), built in 1925–9, Gehron and Ross, architects, is the cadet mess hall. At meal time cadet companies march in in precise formation, take their places at the tables, and stand stiffly at attention until a signal is given from the main aisle by the Cadet Commander; then instantly the rigidness dissolves in a furious din and clatter.
Portraits of former superintendents and famous graduates hang on the walls. A large, multicolored window, picturing the outstanding events in George Washington’s life, has 12 panels containing 12,000 pieces of imported glass in a surface of about 500 square feet. It is the product of two years of exacting work by artists and artisans of the Art Program of the WPA.
A statue of Brevet Major-General Sylvanus Thayer, as he was when he, was superintendent of the Academy, stands on an inscribed pedestal on the lawn in front of the main entrance.
From the alley just east of Washington Hall, between it and the Central Cadet Barracks, several flights of stone steps lead up to the Cadet Chapel.
24. The CADET CHAPEL (open 8–4 daily), 300 feet above the river, is the dominant structure on the reservation. Completed in 1910, Cram, Goodhue and Ferguson, architects, the high, gray granite building, neo-Gothic in style, is cruciform in plan, with a long nave and short transepts and a high buttressed tower at the crossing. The aisle walls of the nave are almost solid masonry; the high clerestory walls, by contrast, are all glass except for the stepped stone buttresses, which add to the impression of ruggedness.
The design of the Gothic interior is enhanced by the rows of battle flags hanging on both sides of the nave beneath the ceiling vaults, by the low aisle arches trimmed with stone, and by the slender piers supporting the vaulting.
The theme of war is carried out in the ornament: a series of figures representing the quest of the Holy Grail; King Arthur’s Excalibur carved above the door; each of the 27 panels of the great chancel window representing a militant figure of Biblical history; angels dressed in suits of mail guarding holy places; even ‘the Son of God goes forth to war.’
POINTS OF INTEREST IN ENVIRONS
Bear Mountain State Park, 6.5 m. (see Tour 4). Headquarters Park, Newburgh, 8.5 m.; Temple Hill and Monument, 12.3 m.; General Knox Headquarters, 12.4 m.; Stony Point Battlefield Reservation, 15.5 m. (see Tour 21A).
