With the city’s late-August deadline for presenting design requirements – in the form of a Request for Proposal (RFP) – for the redevelopment of the Kingsbridge Armory fast approaching, Community Board 7 members recently took a tour of the massive landmark.

While Economic Development Corporation (EDC) officials were present, the unofficial tour guide of the event was Charlie Braswell, who once called the Armory home.

Throughout the early to mid-1990s, the diminutive Braswell spent his days running the streets, being cool and consuming all the drugs he could get his hands on, mostly marijuana and speed, because cocaine was too expensive.

At night, Braswell and his friend “Shorty” would find their way into the Armory and catch a few hours of sleep. The routine began to wear on Braswell and he needed a way to break the cycle. One day in 1999, EDC staffer Ronald Day found Braswell with a broom in his hands, sweeping, and referred him to a contractor who hired him to work at the Armory.

Ever since, Braswell has been the primary caretaker of the vacant Armory. Now sober and disciplined, Braswell has turned his life around. He works six days a week at the Armory and lives in an apartment on Eighth Avenue.

Braswell, eyes twinkling like he’s keeping a secret, knows every winding stairway, dusty hallway and moldy closet in the cavernous urban castle. Walking across a concrete floor, Braswell points out that there is small crawl space directly below. Down a long hallway, Braswell says thousands of 60- to 90-year-old military documents lay unclaimed and unaccounted for.

There are still mysteries hidden in the Armory that Braswell has yet to unearth. He believes that somewhere underneath the Armory — he’s not sure where — there is a secret tunnel stretching all the way to the Hudson River that even city engineers can’t locate.

Braswell still spends most of his time at the Armory, but now he gets paid for it. He says he still sees Shorty out on the streets sometimes, getting high, still trying to be cool. He feels sorry for him.