{"nrhp_refnum":"93001539","name":"Tonawanda (25th Separate Company) Armory","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"79 Delaware Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Tonawanda","county":"Erie County","state":"NY","lat":43.04417377900006,"lon":-78.87247521499995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1994-01-28","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Military","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A brick and stone, castellated-style National Guard armory at 79 Delaware Avenue in Tonawanda, Erie County, New York, built in 1896 (the text also says 1895 for construction) and designed by State Architect Isaac G. Perry.","why_significant":"The armory is a remarkably intact example of a late nineteenth century armory built for a local National Guard unit, with the three distinctive traits of the property type: civic monument, administration building with attached drill shed, and medieval military-influenced design. It is one of nearly twenty surviving armories attributed to Perry. It is also linked to American military and National Guard history.","narrative":"Built in the mid-1890s for the 25th Separate Company of the New York National Guard, this armory at the corner of Delaware and Benton Streets in Tonawanda combines a two-story administration building with an attached drill shed. Its red brick walls rise from a battered Warsaw blue granite foundation, and a five-story octagonal tower, round towers and a two-tier arcaded porch give it a fortress-like, castellated look. State Architect Isaac Perry designed it, and it is one of nearly twenty surviving armories attributed to him. Builders met quicksand on the site, so the whole structure rests on piles. Inside, the original oak staircase, oak and tile mantels, pressed metal ceilings and a quartered oak drill floor survive. The armory was valued as a highly intact example of its building type, meant to serve the guardsmen and to stand as a civic monument, and for its link to the National Guard's role in American military history. It remained in military use in 1993.","period_of_significance":"ca. 1896","architect_builder":"Isaac G. Perry","architectural_style":"Late Victorian: Richardsonian Romanesque; Castellated style","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Still in use as an active military facility as of August 1993; the interior largely retains its original features, though some spaces have been subdivided.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:50.257615-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/93001539.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/93001539/47b9f3bbc5-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/93001539/47b9f3bbc5-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Pubdog (talk)","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tonawanda_Armory_Nov_2008.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Pubdog (talk)</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tonawanda_Armory_Nov_2008.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75312811","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonawanda_Armory","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7820742"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/erie-county/tonawanda-25th-separate-company-armory-93001539/"}