Located about half a mile off the tip of lower Manhattan is Governors Island. This little piece of New York history offers a lot to its in-the-know guests: world class parks, a historical fort and castle perfect for individual or family exploration, cultural walking tours, on island biking and a kid safe, “no vehicles allowed” policy – all guests walk on and off the Ferry.
On the approach aboard the Governors Island Ferry, it’s obvious by the look on the faces of guests that something very interesting and dare we say, fun, is about to happen. This becomes even more obvious as the island’s full glory is slowly unveiled on final approach. Less than 10 minutes after boarding, guests are exiting the other end of the Governors Island Ferry onto the island itself. The adventure begins . . .
I won’t ruin the trip by providing you with a blow by blow walkthrough of every experience on the island, but suffice to say this author has been to the island over 500 times, so I am confident that not too many people know Governors Island as well as I do. This statistic becomes less interesting when I reveal one simple truth about myself – I used to live on Governors Island when my father was stationed in New York at the Coast Guard Air Station in Brooklyn.
What was it Like to Live on Governors Island?
I have to admit I have been looking forward to writing this article, not because Governors Island is an utterly unique historical New York landmark (which it is), not because it is outrageously cultural (ditto), not even because it is one of the best kept weekend secrets of the city (particularly important to us given this website’s focus), but because I lived on Governors Island as a child.
I was unaware of how lucky I really was growing up on this remarkable island in the mid to late 1970s. From our family living room in Building 112, we watched the World Trade Center receive its final fit-out, and from our bedrooms we had a wonderful view of the Statue of Liberty.
The military is pedantic about cleanliness so you can imagine that despite its proximately to a much dirtier 1970s NYC, the island was in fact very clean.
Our family was in the backyard of our building barbecuing with neighbors at 8:37pm on July 13th 1977 when the city wide blackout occurred, we literally watched as the whole city went dark, block-by-block, over a period of just a few seconds. While there was looting and chaos in NYC we were all perfectly safe on Governors Island and the view was amazing.
The island had a white bus with a driver named “Jessie” that continually circled the circumference of the 172-acres (from memory it was a 3-mile circle), stopping at designated bus stops along the way. The bus ran from 8:00am to 8:00pm during the week and during reduced hours on the weekend. There was only one way on or off the island, the Governors Island Ferry. As an aside, the island uses the exact same Ferry today, the Samuel S. Coursen, that I boarded when I was a child – minus the orange/red Coast Guard stripe.
Probably the coolest experience however was when I was a Boy Scout selling Christmas trees inside Castle Williams. Troop 100, the now defunct Boy Scout chapter located on Governors Island, would sell all of the island’s Christmas trees to its residents. This was done inside the Castle with limited lighting and no absolutely heat. It was tough being a Boy Scout back then!
On the island I attended a little elementary school (it was named PS 26, after the NYC Public School naming system, but it was actually quite quaint). I spent my summers at a friend’s house (Carlton William Meredith III if you’re out there, contact me!), with my parents at the over chlorinated island pool and adjacent bowling alley, walking past golfers on the Governors Island 9 hole golf course, then past the enlisted men running down the road, in sync with each other during military training exercises, and exploring so many historical nooks and crannies that a child could (as I did) find endless things to do during NYC summers, safely tucked inside the safety of a Coast Guard military base.
Governors Island Summer Events
The island offers terrific free, or almost free, events: art shows are the most common, but Governors Island also offers an abundance of outdoor concerts, street fairs, senior officer residence tours, archeological tours, film festivals, open air plays and poetry, tours of both Castle William and Fort Jay and of course full access to the newly developed park on what used to be the enlisted person’s side of the island. This park is art in and of itself and has been years in the making. It includes a “peak point” where one can see key landmarks such as the Freedom Tower, Statue of Liberty and many other key NYC points of interest.
Governors Island Ferry Schedule
The ferry to Governors Island departs from 10 South Street (the Battery Maritime Building next to the Staten Island Ferry). For those traveling by subway take the #1 to South Ferry Station, the #4 or #5 to Bowling Green Station or the R to Whitehall Street.
If you’re traveling by bus, take the M6, M9 or the M15
Governors Island is open from Memorial Day weekend to the last weekend in September (For 2015, the island is open from 23 May to 27 September); hours are 10:00am to 6:00pm during the week and 10:00am to 7:00pm on the weekend. Ferry schedules are not yet posted for 2015, but you can assume that the ferry to Governors Island will run approximately every 30 minutes from 10 South Street if the future is anything like the past. Once we have the 2015 schedule we will post it here.
