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Bowling, burgers and civilian housing: Life on the Fort Hamilton Army installation
By
James Ramsay
Published Nov 5, 2026 at 10:45 a.m. ET
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Emily Nadal/Gothamist
By
James Ramsay
Published Nov 5, 2026 at 10:45 a.m. ET
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This column originally appeared in the Looped In NYC newsletter. Sign up here.
Back in the spring, when people across the city were making summer vacation plans and debating where to find the best beach along a commuter rail line, I started hearing murmurs in my neck of southern Brooklyn about one specific priority: Everyone was jockeying for a seasonal membership at the pool club on the Fort Hamilton Army installation.
We didn’t bite — we’re a beach family — but the idea of getting a little R&R on a military compound happened to be a familiar thrill. I grew up about 10 miles south of a major Marine Corps base in Southern California, and my hockey coach, an active-duty sergeant, used to bring us on base for parties on their beach, which was essentially empty.
So the “Looped In” team decided last week to cross through the gates of Fort Hamilton — passports in hand — to see what else a civilian can get up to on base, and the answer is: a lot, starting with renting a home.
“We have approximately 212 leases, and of that, probably 40% are what we call ‘waterfall’ residents,” said Tony Mercante, the administrator in charge of the privatized housing on the installation.
“Waterfall residents” — cool code name — refers to the civilians who live on base, and at rates that are pretty competitive compared to the city’s median rent.
For $3,800 a month, Mercante said, you can get a 1,700-square-foot three-bedroom garden apartment, complete with a washer/dryer hookup, a dishwasher, a garbage disposal, most utilities included and one parking spot.
“This is a very idyllic installation,” he added. “When you come through those gates, we basically have no crime. It's a tiny, self-contained community where a lot of people know each other.”
“Idyllic” is a more-or-less fair descriptor. Walking around Fort Hamilton, a 176-acre rolling plot at the foot of the Verrazzano Bridge, feels like being on a Hollywood backlot version of an American suburb. The trees are tall and mature, the roads are windy, the SUVs actually obey the speed limit. There’s a chapel, a Post Office, a gas station and a Burger King.
But “self-contained” isn’t the same thing as “trapped.”
Garrison Command Sgt. Major Eric Riding, who moved to Fort Hamilton about a year ago from Fort Sam Houston in Texas, said the access to the city has been incredible.
“You walk out about a block and a half, you're on the [R train],” Riding said. “I think the public transportation in this city is the best I've ever seen, and I've been all over.” (He said he’s going with his family to see the Rockettes this Christmas; the R train can get them right there!)
Susan Blair, the chief of public affairs for Fort Hamilton, told us the installation’s relatively small size — and its location within the largest city in the country — means it actually relies on local civilians to keep it up and running.
“When you go to a base like Fort Bragg or Fort Hood, the entire surrounding community almost relies on the base — the base supports a lot of the economy. Where it's almost the inverse here,” she said.
And the outside community has plenty of ways to support the base’s economy, hence the private apartments, the pool club, the clubhouse bar (where Thursdays at 4 p.m. are reportedly bumpin'), the wedding and events venue space, the Harbor Defense Museum and not least, the bowling alley. (Civilians looking to visit the installation unescorted are required to fill out background check forms and submit them in-person or via fax 24-48 hours prior to visits.)
Stephen Ramosa, who lives next door in Bensonhurst, said he started working at the Fort Hamilton Bowling Center about a year ago and sees a mix of civilian bowlers and servicemembers and their families.
“ We have a senior league Tuesday mornings. That's the one that I run, and they're pretty chill,” he said. “They're pretty old, and they still bowl better than me.”
Things we didn’t see on our tour: tanks, humvees, helicopters, firearms or any kind of weaponry that wasn’t a historical artifact. Blair said that Fort Hamilton was used as a staging ground for law enforcement after 9/11, but generally, much of its significance now is related to its history.
“One of the unique things about Fort Hamilton is it's one of two bases where a Revolutionary War battle was actually fought,” Blair said.
In August of 1776, British troops landed on the beach outside what’s now Fort Hamilton and kicked off one of the largest battles of the war, one that ended with General George Washington retreating up to Manhattan.
“We did not win that one,” Blair said. “But we won the big thing.”
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