Fort Frederica National Monument Cultural Landscape Report

Panamerican Consultants, Inc.; Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc.; Liz Sargent HLA; National Park Service

This Cultural Landscape Report (CLR) for Fort Frederica National Monument was developed in order to support the work of the NPS in addressing several cultural landscape resource-management issues at Fort Frederica National Monument. Specific issues for consideration identified by the NPS include: the visual and physical impact of development along park boundaries; the strain on resources resulting from heavy visitor use; the need for appropriate management and preservation policies for individual historic resource types; the need to protect against the anticipated effects of severe weather events on the landscape; balancing cultural and natural resource management; and better connecting the park’s resources with the broader community. Fort Frederica National Monument preserves, protects, and interprets evidence of the colonial Fort Frederica and an associated townsite established in 1736 by the British to further goals of organizing a Georgia colony and defending the territory from the Spanish. General James Edward Oglethorpe designed and helped lay out Fort Frederica, which he named in honor of Frederick Louis, the Prince of Wales. The fort was strategically positioned along the Georgia coast near the southern boundary of the new British colony, edged to the south by Spanish settlements in Florida. The fort occupied the high ground of a bend in the Frederica River, on the western, leeward side of St. Simons Island that commanded views of approaching ships in either direction. The fort served as a primary defense of the British Georgia colony, while the associated townsite was among the most important of the early settlements in the region. During the 1740s, the population of Fort Frederica and its environs reached a peak of more than 1,500 residents. The fort ultimately served its principal defensive purpose when Oglethorpe and his troops stationed in the area defeated the Spanish in the War of Jenkins’ Ear (1739–1742), leading to their retreat from the Georgia colony. Oglethorpe elected to remove military forces from Fort Frederica after 1748, when the military position had diminished. The Frederica townsite continued for several years as a reduced settlement. A fire in 1758 resulted in the loss of most of the buildings, and the settlement was abandoned. Over the ensuing 150 years, Frederica was sporadically occupied, farmed, and logged. During the early twentieth century, a local chapter of the Georgia Society of the Colonial Dames endeavored to recognize the significance of Frederica’s colonial history by attempting to repair, protect, and honor surviving evidence of the townsite, which included military earthworks and tabby wall ruins of two structures—the King’s magazine and regimental barracks. Fort Frederica National Monument was established as a unit of the National Park Service in 1936. The CLR for Fort Frederica National Monument is intended to provide park management with an assessment of the character-defining features of the cultural landscape and specific treatment recommendations designed to ensure the preservation of these significant resources. The property is significant in American history for its association with colonial settlement of the Georgia colony, and for later efforts conducted to preserve, commemorate, investigate, protect, and interpret the Frederica fort and townsite.

Fort Frederica National Monument Cultural Landscape Report

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