Historic Structures Report, Part II, Historical Data: Kitchen of Building E, Soldiers' Barracks
Sarles FB. 1968. Historic Structures Report, Part II, Historical Data: Kitchen of Building E, Soldiers' Barracks. Historic Structure Report. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
Constructed between 1798 and 1800, Fort McHenry is a bastioned pentagon fort built to defend the Baltimore Harbor. In the War of 1812, the Fort withstood British bombardment during the Battle of Baltimore, inspiring Francis Scott Key to write The Star Spangled Banner, national anthem of the United States. The Fort would later serve as a military prison during the Civil War, army hospital in World War I, and Coast Guard base in World War II. This study was undertaken as the basis for a restoration of a historic cellar kitchen of the 1814 period in Building E (No. 2 Soldiers' Barracks) of the Star Fort at Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine. The restoration was planned to complement furnishings installed selectively in other rooms of the barracks buildings and thus to broaden the interpretation of barracks life for the enlisted man at Fort McHenry. While the study was underway, an apparently insurmountable practical difficulty arose to force abandonment of the restoration plan. A ground water problem that–as this report shows–had existed from the early years of the Fort's history recurred when the cellar was excavated early in 1966 and finally led to an administrative decision against restoration.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Sarles, Frank
- Date of Issue
- 1968-01-29
- Publisher
- U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
- Units
- FOMC , NER
- Keywords
- barracks, bastioned pentagon, Civil War, fort, ground water, military, quarters, restoration, Star Fort, War of 1812, World War I, World War II
- Subjects
- CRIS-HS: 000356: Enlisted Mens' Barracks No. 2