Bannerman Castle on Pollepel Island in the Hudson is the ruin of Francis Bannerman’s military-surplus arsenal, reached only by guided boat tour from Beacon.
Don’t miss
- Bannerman’s Island Arsenal castle ruins
- Bannerman Residence
- Bannerman Garden
- 30-minute boat ride on the RV Estuary Steward
Our visit
Bannerman’s Castle on Pollepel Island in the Hudson was built by Francis Bannerman VI, once the largest dealer of military surplus in the world, as a warehouse and showplace for his stock. His stated hope was that his goods would become obsolete and his collection a museum of lost arts.
Bannerman’s catalogs became collector’s items in their own right, and the business outlived him by decades, run by his sons and later by longtime managers from the store at 501 Broadway in New York. The catalog covers and family portraits below trace that story.
The 2017 Gun Show Loophole Tour made Bannerman Island its farthest stop from Arizona, with a September boat tour from Beacon and a walk of the ruins with one of the island guides. The photos are from that visit. The castle is now a stabilized ruin, reached by guided boat tours run by the Bannerman Castle Trust.
Timeline
- 1851 Francis Bannerman born in Scotland on March 24
- 1853 Family moves to Brooklyn
- 1879 Buying at U.S. government auctions at the Brooklyn Navy Yard
- 1884 First handwritten catalog, 11 pages
- 1890 Buys the Spencer Arms Company
- 1897 Moves the business to 579 Broadway
- 1898 Acquires most of the military equipment surrendered by Spain: about 200,000 Mauser rifles and 30 million rounds of ammunition
- 1900 Buys the 6.75-acre Pollepel Island
- 1901 Building begins on the island
- 1903 112-page catalog
- 1905 Store and free military museum at 501 Broadway
- 1908 Work starts on the castle
- 1913 Catalog reaches 420 pages
- 1918 Bannerman dies on November 26; construction on the island stops
- 1920 Powder house explodes on August 16
- 1925 60th anniversary catalog
- 1940 75th anniversary catalog
- 1947 Francis Bannerman VII dies; James E. Hogan becomes manager at 501 Broadway
- 1955 90th anniversary catalog
- 1958 Val Forgett clears the remaining live projectiles from the island
- 1959 The store at 501 Broadway closes; museum pieces go to the Smithsonian
- 1966 100th anniversary catalog
- 1967 Pollepel Island sold to the State of New York; the Bannerman name sold to James E. Hogan
- 1969 Fire burns through the warehouses for three days in August
- 1993 Bannerman Castle Trust formed
- 2004 Island opens for guided tours
- 2009 Large sections of the castle walls collapse in December
- 2014 Castle walls stabilized
- 2017 West Point cadets build the Bannerman Bridge
Plan your visit
- Arrive 30 minutes before departure; tours run rain or shine with no refunds
- Rough terrain and 72 steps; not ADA accessible
- About 95% of the surviving Bannerman business and family papers are in the Bannerman Archive at the Hagley Museum and Library in Wilmington, Delaware
Folding these back up is not required. For more gun maps, see 2A Gun Law Maps
Nearby on the guide
More history: All firearm museums · New York guide
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