History & Culture · Hudson Valley
New Rochelle Keeps a Fort Slocum Story Offshore
Davids Island gives New Rochelle a Long Island Sound military layer beyond its mainland downtown and neighborhoods.
Published July 5, 2026 · Last verified July 5, 2026
New Rochelle’s map does not stop cleanly at the mainland shore. Davids Island sits a short distance out in western Long Island Sound, about 120 acres in all, with roughly 80 acres upland and 40 acres underwater. That little offset gives the city an offshore chapter beyond downtown streets and neighborhood blocks.
The island held Fort Slocum, a U.S. Army post, for more than a century before deactivation and closure in 1966. Later cleanup removed the remaining buildings, including the water tower, under U.S. Army Corps of Engineers direction. What is left is quieter: a former military landscape that still shapes access, ecology, and waterfront planning.
That view across the Sound gives the city a second register. There is the train station, the downtown, the neighborhoods, and the shoreline. Then there is this former military landscape just offshore, close enough to belong to local memory and separate enough to feel a little mysterious.
Davids Island makes New Rochelle’s water feel less like scenery and more like history. It was a working Army post, then a closed military site, then a cleanup and planning question. The island is separate enough to feel mysterious and close enough to belong to home.