39 Whitehall St. was built in 1885 for the Department of the Army. This photo was taken ca. 1976.
It was also the infamous US Army center for NY where the Selective Service ordered draft age young men to report for pre-induction physicals.
Arlo Guthrie's song, “Alice’s Restaurant” (1967), described Whitehall St as the place "where you got injected, inspected, detected, infected, neglected and selected.”
A symbol of Vietnam Era resistance to inscription in face of unjust war, the building was center of protests and bombings in the volatile 1960s.
Today,39 Whitehall is an apartment complex with a modern glass facade and a health club on the ground floor..