Jersey City Times: The 4th Regiment Armory: Jersey City’s Premier Sports Venue Goes up in Flames

This is the second in a weekly series of essays on Jersey City’s illustrious sports history. It complements the Museum of Jersey City History’s current exhibit Legendary Arenas… and the Legends Who Performed There at the Apple Tree House (298 Academy Street). The exhibit is open to the public on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 1:00 to 5:00 pm. until October 15.

by Peter Begans, July 18, 2025

The 4th Regiment Armory was built on the site of the historic Tuers family farm at the intersection of Bergen Avenue and Mercer Street.

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On December 20, 1893, Governor George T. Werts laid the cornerstone for the 4th Regiment Armory at the intersection of Bergen Avenue and Mercer Street, on what had been the historic Tuers family farm. The ceremony capped two decades of struggle to create a facility large enough to house all companies of the New Jersey National Guard’s 4th Regiment. The Romanesque Revival structure featured rusticated masonry and lookout towers that lent a medieval feel to the Dutch enclave near Bergen Square.  

From its inception, sports played an important role in the 4th Regiment’s daily life. Military companies regularly competed against each other for prizes and public acclaim. The Evening Journal reported that on December 16, 1899, competitions were held in the 100-yard and 220-yard dashes; the standing high jump; the hop, skip and jump; the 600-yard run; the 1.5-mile run; and a 3-mile skating race. These Friday night events were well attended by the community, especially, the Evening Journal reported, by the ladies.

Completed in 1895, the 4th Regiment Armory quickly became the center of the city’s cultural and indoor athletic activities.

The armory would serve as more than a sports venue. In her childhood reminiscence, Jersey City author Florence Pond Graham writes: “The annual charity ball (at the armory), attended by all who could afford to go, was the . . . top social event in Jersey City and large sums of money were raised for needy institutions.”

But sports would become its surviving legacy. The “Drill Shed,” as it was called, would become one of the premier boxing venues in the metropolitan area. Harry Wills successfully defended his Colored World Heavyweight title there against two-time former champion Joe Jeanette of West Hoboken, on October 20, 1919. Mickey Walker, who would earn both the welterweight and middleweight titles, defeated Johnny Griffiths there on January 9, 1922. On the night of December 20, 1926, the future World Heavyweight Champion James J. Braddock appeared on a card to raise money for the New York and New Jersey Christmas Fund.

On October 20, 1919, Harry Wills successfully defended his Colored World Heavyweight title at the Drill Shed against two-time former champion Joe Jeanette of West Hoboken.

The armory was also a favorite site for the growing game of basketball. “Because of its construction, and the fact that there are no obstructions in the spectators’ view, the Fourth Regiment Armory is known as one of the best cages in the metropolitan district.” (Jersey Journal, 10/28/1926) The Pro Basketball Encyclopedia states that the armory allowed seating for up to 5,000 spectators. Several semi-pro teams competed there including the 1915–1916 Jersey City Saints, who would soon migrate to Brooklyn, and the 1917–1918 Skeeters, who came from Danbury under a different name in mid-season. These basketball Skeeters would go 8–14 after their arrival in Jersey City on February 5, 1918, ending up in last place in the Connecticut State Basketball League.

Harry Wills successfully defended his Colored World Heavyweight title there against two-time former champion Joe Jeanette of West Hoboken.

In 1919, the Skeeters, now affiliated with the Interstate Basketball League, attracted two future Basketball Hall of Fame players: Johnny Beckman and Nat Holman. Beckman, a sought-after high scorer, played on five teams, including the Skeeters, in five different leagues during 1919–1920 season. Holman was not only a talented player; he also would go on to revolutionize the game of basketball by proselytizing a “scientific” approach to the game, through books and by coaching at CCNY. In 1919, Beckman and Holman each averaged eight points a game for the Skeeters. But after compiling a 7–5 record, the financially failing Skeeters transferred to Brooklyn, where they soon ceased operations. Such was the murky world of early semi-pro basketball.

Joe Jeanette of West Hoboken (now Union City) lost to Harry Wills for the Colored World Heavyweight Championship at the 4th Regiment Armory on October 20, 1919.  Jeanette had held the title earlier in his career by defeating Sam McVea in a 49-round, three-and-a-half hour fight to the finish in Paris in 1909.  It proved to be the 20th Century’s longest title bout.  

Despite chronic disappointment, Jersey City’s fans seemed on the verge of happiness when the city obtained a partial-share in a National Basketball League franchise for the Skeeters along with Newburgh, NY. On October 28, 1926, the Jersey Journal wrote that “Jersey City is steamed up over the prospects of being represented in a big-time [basketball] circuit during the 1926–27 season and more than likely we’ll see to it that the big Bergen Avenue drill shed is more than comfortably crowded tonight.” Opening night featured the Brooklyn Visitations, one of the top teams in basketball. The Skeeters lost but showed some promise. Then in another disappointing mid-season consolidation, on November 16, 1926, Newburgh–Jersey City merged with the team shared by Ridgewood and Orange to form the Ridgewood–Newburgh franchise. Jersey City was cast aside again.

Johnny Beckman played with fellow Basketball Hall of Famer Nat Holman on the 1919 Jersey City Skeeters before the team transferred to Brooklyn in mid-season.

After a career of hosting boxing, basketball, wrestling, and track and field, Jersey City’s old 4th Regiment Armory would go up in flames on the night of June 16, 1927, taking with it the best indoor facility Jersey City had to offer. The New York Times described the fire as a challenge for the fire department: “The entire interior was nearly a solid mass of flames, the flooring, balconies and wooden girders burning like tinder. The construction of the building made it almost impossible for firemen to get at the flames as the few windows in the stone building are barred by stout iron grill work and the three doors leading into the armory were belching flame.”  It would be another decade before Mayor Frank Hague, with substantial help from President Roosevelt and the WPA, would be able to replace it with a neighboring facility that dwarfed it in size.

Hudson Catholic High School has occupied the 4th Regiment Armory’s former location since 1965.

Peter Begans is the curator of MJCH’s Legendary Arenas… and the Legends Who Performed There. He was born and raised in Jersey City and has had a long career as a teacher, journalist, speechwriter and public affairs representative.