Excerpts compiled from a report produced primarily by the staff of Tetra Tech EC, Inc., working under contract to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Tetra Tech staff members whose work contributed to this collection were based principally in the firm’s Morris Plains (New Jersey), Boston (Massachusetts), and Langhorne (Pennsylvania) offices. The collection also contains material produced by staff of Tetra Tech subcontractors and the New York District of the Corps of Engineers, the New Rochelle City Historian, and members of an informal history and advocacy group, the Fort Slocum Alumni and Friends
Davids Island is situated in Long Island Sound within the municipal boundaries of New Rochelle, New York. It is approximately six-tenths of a mile south-southeast of Davenport Neck on the New Rochelle mainland. As of 2010, the island was almost entirely owned by the City of New Rochelle.
From 1861 to 1965, Davids Island was the site of several military encampments and army posts. Over that century, the installation’s missions and functions included service as a military general hospital, prisoner-of-war camp, mustering ground, recruit depot, coast artillery fortification, overseas embarkation and receiving station, training installation, administrative center, and anti-aircraft missile battery. From July 1, 1896, the army post was known as Fort Slocum. Fort Slocum closed on November 30, 1965. It was acquired by New Rochelle in 1967 and sold to a local utility company, Consolidated Edison Co., the following year. In 1976, Consolidated Edison returned ownership of most of the island to the city after abandoning plans to construct a nuclear power plant on the island.
When Fort Slocum closed in 1965, it contained more than 80 buildings, primarily of brick, but also of concrete block, clay tile, concrete, and wood. There was also more than a score of other structures and facilities, including a large artillery earthwork, a system of paved roads and paths, seawalls and piers, and a steel water tower. Its buildings and facilities fell into ruin in the decades after the post closed because of a lack of maintenance, several extensive fires, and vandalism.
Local and county officials came to regard the ruins as an impediment to renewed use of Davids Island, and in fiscal years 2004 through 2008, the federal government provided funds to remove the ruins. The Office of Economic Adjustment of the U.S. Department of Defense administered these funds as the budget item “Operation and Maintenance, Defense-Wide—Congressionally Directed Projects: Davids Island-Fort Slocum Remediation,” and the office assigned the task to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New York District. Under the Davids Island-Former Fort Slocum Project, the New York District was authorized to perform building demolition, debris removal, and remediation of asbestos materials at former Fort Slocum. Initial studies began in 2004, with demolition work starting in late 2005. All buildings and most structures associated with Fort Slocum had been removed by September 2008. Final restoration work and completion of project reports and related items continued into 2010. Tetra Tech EC, Inc., was the general contractor for the work, performing under the Corps of Engineers’ Total Environmental Restoration Contract, Contract No. DACW33-03-D-0006.
