Between 1880 and the first decades of the 20th Century, permanent structures replaced the temporary wood frame buildings erected on the Fort at Willets Point in the 1860’s. New construction included family housing, barracks, hospital, offices, storerooms, laboratories, workshops, a fort museum, YMCA and a theater. Virtually all of the buildings constructed during this period have survived. Among them, arguably the most distinctive structure is the Officers’ Club. Also known as The Castle, it is one of the finest surviving examples in New York City of the Gothic Revival castellated style, an architectural style popular in America in the mid 1800’s. Perhaps the greatest significance of the Officers’ Club is the direct architectural tribute it pays to the emblem of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who centered most of their activities at Willets Point from 1866 to 1902.

Completed in 1887 the building served as the base Officers’ Mess Hall and Club for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers School of Application. The School of Application had been set up at Willets Point on an unofficial basis after the engineers left West Point in 1866. It was granted formal status as the Army’s postgraduate school in military engineering by Secretary of War Robert Todd Lincoln, son of the late President, following a tour of inspection in 1884. The Army Engineers only used the Officers’ Club for 15 years. In 1902 they moved its personnel and materials, including the engineering library and museum to Washington Barracks at the Nation’s Capital. Following the departure of the Corps, the Officers’ Club remained in use by the Army for the next 65 years during the intense activity of two World Wars. From 1970 to 1974 the building was a New York City Job Corps Center. When the Job Corps relocated it stood unoccupied for over ten years.

In 1986 the Officers’ Club was placed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places, by which time it has been taken on by the Bayside Historical Society for restoration as their headquarters and a home for their activities, exhibits and archival collection. The building has been in an almost continual state of restoration since 1987. Since that date, the Society has been successful, with the assistance of New York State Senator Frank Padavan, a retired U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Officer stationed at Fort Totten, in raising funds for a full restoration of the exterior, the ballroom, library and many of the smaller interior rooms. In order to maintain the architectural integrity of the building, historic resources were consulted, including original photographs and records from the National Archives and the Fort Museum.