Fort Ward Historic District

About this property

Fort Ward is a former United States Army coastal artillery fort, and later, a Navy installation located on the southwest side of Bainbridge Island, Washington, along Rich Passage. During the 1880s, the Endicott Board, convened by Secretary of War William C. Endicott made sweeping recommendations for new or upgraded coastal defense installations and weapons systems. As the 20th century approached, American military strategists realized that heavy, fixed artillery required a very different training program than lighter, mobile field artillery. Fort Ward was originally known as Beans Point and was established in 1890, as one of several US Army Coastal Artillery Corps installations, including Fort Flagler, Fort Casey and Fort Worden, built to defend Puget Sound from enemy warships. Its primary objective was to protect the nearby Bremerton Naval Shipyard. In 1903, the Army officially designated Beans Point as a seacoast fort and named it Fort Ward in honor of Colonel George H. Ward. Activity in and around the fort continued as new buildings were constructed and new troops arrived. Battery Nash (1903–1918), three 8-inch (203 mm) M1888 guns mounted on disappearing carriages, hidden along the bluff, now on private property; Battery Warner (1903–1925), two 5-inch (127 mm) M1900 pillar mounted guns, now on private property and surrounded by modern homes; Battery Thornburgh (1903–1920), four 3-inch (76 mm) M1898MI masking parapet mounted guns; Battery Vinton (1903–1920), two 3-inch M1898MI masking parapet mounted guns. Battery Vinton is one of four batteries at Fort Ward. It had two 3-inch 1897 [sic] model guns. These guns, along with the other batteries, guarded an underwater mine field placed across Rich Passage. The guns were removed on July 19th, 1920 – never having been fired for defense, and were to be shipped to France for use in WWI. In the 1920s, Fort Ward was placed on inactive status, but a small number of men were still stationed there. In 1928, the fort was essentially left abandoned. The fort remained abandoned for several years, until 1935, it served as a state-operated fresh air camp for inner city children from Seattle. In 1938, the U.S. Navy took over Fort Ward from the U.S. Army, and confiscated several surrounding properties and evicted the owners. The U.S. Navy found the fort to be attractive after tests had shown that it was an outstanding location to eavesdrop on radio communication transmitted from the Far East, chiefly Japan. In August 1939, the U.S. Navy relocated the Astoria, Oregon, intercept site to Fort Ward. This was the beginning of the development of Fort Ward as a top-secret military listening post.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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