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• Collection: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscapes Survey

• Title: Fort Stevens, Bounded by Rittenhouse Street Northwest on the north, Quackenbos Street Northwest on the south, 13th Street Northwest on the west, and an access road on the east, Washington, District of Columbia, DC
• Other Title: Rock Creek Park
  Fort Massachusetts
  Reservation 358
• Creator(s): Historic American Landscapes Survey, creator
• Related Names:
     Early, Jubal
     Lincoln, Abraham
     Fort Stevens-Lincoln National Military Park Association
     National Capital Parks Commission
     National Capital Park and Planning Commission
     Butler, Elizabeth
     McClellan, George
     Barnard, John G
     Stevens, Isaac Ingalls
     Morrison, William M
     Emory Methodist Church
     Thomas, Elizabeth Proctor
     Benton, R C
     Eleventh Vermont Volunteers
     New Hampshire Heavy Artillery
     Fry, William H
     25th New York Cavalry
     Company K of the 150th Ohio Volunteer Infantry
     Leach, William
     McCausland, John
     Briggs, George G
     Cox, William Van Zandt
     Brightwood Avenue Citizens' Association
     Senate Park Commission
     Military Park Association
     Proctor, Redfield
     Lincoln Memorial Commission
     Schweizer, J Otto
     Cook, Samuel E
     Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War
     Earley, John J
     McKean, Robert
     VI Army Corps Association
     Shoemaker, Louis Peirce
     McMillan Commission
     Brightwood Citizens Association
     Coles, Morris F
     Gartside, Frank
     U.S. Commission of Fine Arts
     Civil War Centennial Commission
     Civil War Preservation Trust
     McMillen, Frances , historian
     Walter, Matthew , researcher
     Allen, Bradley , researcher
     Stevens, Christopher M , editor
     Stevens, Christopher M , transmitter
• Date Created/Published: Documentation compiled after 2000
• Medium: Data Page(s): 79
• Reproduction Number: ---
• Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. (http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/114_habs.html)
  
• Call Number: HALS DC-39
• Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
• Notes:
  • Significance: Fort Stevens is significant for its role in the American Civil War. It was one of the sixty-eight forts built as a defensive ring around Washington at the start of the Civil War. Known initially as Fort Massachusetts, construction on the fort started in September 1861. Fort Stevens guarded the Seventh Street Turnpike, present day Georgia Avenue, which was one of the major routes into the capital from the north. On July 9, 1864, Confederate General Jubal Early led his troops towards Washington following the Battle of Monocacy. On July 11th and 12th, fighting broke out between Union and Confederate troops at Forts Stevens, DeRussy and Reno. The Union successfully fought off the Confederates and drove them back towards Maryland. The Battle of Fort Stevens was the only battle to take place within Washington during the Civil War. The fort remained in use until 1866, when the Army relinquished control of it along with many other Washington area Civil War forts. Fort Stevens is significant for its role in the battlefield preservation movement. Between 1902 and 1928, members of Congress introduced multiple bills to preserve Fort Stevens and sections of the battlefield. These were submitted largely at the urging of the Washington based Fort Stevens-Lincoln National Military Park Association. Founded in 1900, the group sought to preserve the fort and battlefield, as well as erect a monument to President Lincoln. Their efforts coincided with the work of other veterans and concerned citizens around the country working towards the preservation and commemoration of Civil War battlefields and related sites. In the 1890s, Congress established the first battlefield parks administered by the War Department. This spawned proposals for the preservation of battlefields and the creation of military parks around the country. Between 1901 and 1904, members of Congress introduced thirty-four bills calling for the creation of battlefield parks, including Fort Stevens. Beginning in 1902 and continuing through 1928, multiple bills called for the purchase of Fort Stevens' land and the creation of a park on the site. Fort Stevens is significant as part of the development of parks in Washington and as a feature of Fort Drive, the proposed parkway linking the Civil War forts in and around the city. Though city officials had discussed the idea in the 1890s and a road linking the forts was included with maps accompanying the 1898 Permanent System of Highways legislation, the first formal outline of the Fort Drive came with the publication of the Senate Park Commission's 1901 study of Washington. The commission recommended acquiring Civil War fort properties for the creation of future parks and the Fort Drive linking them together. Action on this idea did not take place until 1924 with the creation of the National Capital Parks Commission (NCPC) whose role it was to develop and improve park and recreation facilities in Washington. The NCPC reviewed the Senate Park Commission report and studied the fort drive idea. On March 3, 1925 they received their first appropriation to purchase land for the creation of the drive. On October 15, 1925 the NCPC acquired its first piece land at Fort Stevens. The following year Congress created the National Capital Park and Planning Commission (NCPPC) which expanded the role of the NCPC. With the passage of the Capper-Crampton Act in 1930, which authorized the expansion of Washington's parks and provided sixteen million dollars for the purchase of land, much of the Fort Stevens and fort drive properties were purchased. By 1936, all the property that would become Fort Stevens park was purchased, or jurisdiction of land owned by the District government, was transferred to the National Park Service. Fort Stevens is significant as an example of work completed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the National Capital Region. Between 1936 and 1938, the Civilian Conservation Corps reconstructed the northwestern section of the fort, including one of the magazines, the parapet, gun platforms and the ditch. To recreate the wood revetments which supported the fort's walls, the CCC used concrete molded to resemble wood. Fort Stevens is the only fort reconstructed by the CCC in the National Capital Region. As the 2005 Historic American Buildings Survey study of CCC activities in the National Capital Region states, "Fort Stevens is evidence of CCC activity in the National Capital Region, and specifically their efforts in creating a park infrastructure...for the metropolitan Washington area. It also retains physical integrity as a period reconstruction of a previously disappeared structure meant to provide a degree of historical interpretation and understanding." Fort Stevens is significant for its association with President Lincoln, who came to the fort to observe the Battle of Fort Stevens on July 11 and 12, 1864. Lincoln stood on the fort's northern parapet to watch the battle on July 12th. Confederate bullets struck the fort and injured a surgeon standing near the president. While at Fort Stevens, President Lincoln became the second sitting president to come under enemy fire. First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln and members of Lincoln’s cabinet also visited the fort and observed the fighting during the battle. Fort Stevens has the potential to reveal archeological information related to prehistory as well as its role in the Civil War. The site also has the potential to reveal archeological evidence related to the settlement of Vinegar Hill, a free black community established during the early nineteenth century. The fort site was occupied by members of the community prior to and after the Civil War. Archeological excavation of the site and surrounding properties may provide additional information on fort construction, Civil War life, the Battle of Fort Stevens, and the lives of the inhabitants of Vinegar Hill and other community members.
  • Survey number: HALS DC-39
  • Building/structure dates: 1902-1928 Subsequent Work
  • Building/structure dates: 1861 Initial Construction
  • Building/structure dates: 1864 Subsequent Work
  • Building/structure dates: 1936-1938 Subsequent Work
  • Building/structure dates: 1911 Subsequent Work
  • Building/structure dates: 1920 Subsequent Work
  • Building/structure dates: 1933 Subsequent Work
  • Building/structure dates: 1936 Subsequent Work
  • Building/structure dates: 2010-2011 Subsequent Work
  • National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 78003439
• Subjects:
  • Civilian Conservation Corps
  • forts & fortifications
  • fortification elements
  • monuments & memorials
  • memorial landscapes
  • bronze plaques
  • magazines (military buildings)
  • concrete
  • earthworks (engineering works)
  • parapets
  • revetments
  • flagpoles
  • cannons
  • urban parks
  • neighborhood parks
  • war (Civil War)
  • commemoration
  • commemorative landscapes
  • public works
  • reconstruction
• Place:
  • District of Columbia -- District of Columbia -- Washington
• Latitude/Longitude: 38.964577, -77.029187
• Collections:
  • Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscapes Survey
• Part of: Historic American Landscapes Survey (Library of Congress)
• Bookmark This Record:
     https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/dc1094/

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• Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/114_habs.html
• Reproduction Number: ---
• Call Number: HALS DC-39
• Medium: Data Page(s): 79

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• Call Number: HALS DC-39
• Medium: Data Page(s): 79

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