Fort Lawton | |
 Fort Lawton post exchange and gymnasium | |
| Location | Seattle,Washington |
|---|---|
| Built | 1900–1917 |
| Architectural style | Colonial Revival |
| NRHP reference No. | 78002752 |
| Added to NRHP | August 15, 1978 |
Fort Lawton was aUnited States Armypost located in theMagnolia neighborhood ofSeattle,Washington overlookingPuget Sound. In 1973 a large majority of the property, 534 acres of Fort Lawton, was given to the city of Seattle and dedicated asDiscovery Park. Both the fort and the nearby residential neighborhood of Lawton Wood are named after Major GeneralHenry Ware Lawton.
While Fort Lawton was a quiet outpost prior toWorld War II, it became the second largest port of embarkation of soldiers andmateriel to thePacific Theater during the war. The fort was included in the2005 Base Realignment and Closure list. Fort Lawton officially closed on September 14, 2011.
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In 1896, the Secretary of War selected what would later be Fort Lawton for construction of an artillery battery intended to defend Seattle and the southPuget Sound from naval attack. Local citizens and governments donated 703 acres (2.84 km2) land to the United States Army for the installation the next year.
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Fort Lawton was named after Major GeneralHenry Ware Lawton (1843–1899), a veteran of theAmerican Civil War, theIndian Wars, andSpanish–American War campaigns, who was killed in action in the Philippines. The fort opened on February 9, 1900[1] on a 1,100 acres (4.5 km2).
The military encampment was redesigned in 1902 for infantry use. In 1910, a design overhaul, to include housing for officers and enlisted men, was prepared by landscape architectJohn C. Olmsted. In 1938 during theGreat Depression, the Army offered to sell Fort Lawton back to the city of Seattle for one dollar, but the city declined, citing maintenance concerns.
Fort Lawton was used as a marshaling camp for soldiers preparing to travel to China to deal with theBoxer Rebellion. Seattle photographerTheodore E. Peiser photographed horse corrals, soldiers, andUnited States Army Transport ships that departed Seattle for Nome, Alaska, on their way to China.
On October 5, 1909, the United States Army's25th Infantry Regiment which primarily consisted of African American soldiers transferred from the Philippines to Fort Lawton. These men are known as the Buffalo Soldiers. The initial 900 men stationed at the fort and their families accounted for about a third of Seattle's African American population.[2]
DuringWorld War II, at least 20,000 troops at a time were stationed at Fort Lawton, with more than 1 million troops passing through both before and after the war. It was the second-largest port of embarkation for US forces and material to the Pacific Theater during the war.[citation needed]
The post was also used as aprisoner-of-war camp, with more than 1,000 Germans imprisoned there. Approximately 5,000 Italians were passed through en route to Hawaii for imprisonment. On August 15, 1944 an ItalianPOW,Guglielmo Olivotto, was found murdered at Fort Lawton after anight of rioting between Italian POWs and American soldiers. Twenty-eight African-American soldiers were latercourt-martialed, convicted of the crime, and sent to prison. They and their families challenged the convictions; after an investigation, the convictions were set aside in 2007. A formal army apology ceremony was held on July 26, 2008; officials also presented the relatives of former US soldiers and the two remaining survivors with years of back pay, following the overturn of their dishonorable discharges.[3][4]
On Memorial Day 1951, a grove of trees and monument honoring the war dead was dedicated near the post chapel. The Korean War brought a flurry of activity as troops headed to or returned from Korea were processed through Fort Lawton. In February 1953, the Fort Lawton Processing Center transferred half of its functions, the outbound tasks, to Fort Lewis (now called Joint Base Lewis McChord). Returnees continued to process through Fort Lawton.
In 1960, the Air Force establisheda radar station at Fort Lawton. Additionally,Nike anti-aircraft missiles and Air Force radars were in use at Fort Lawton, but in 1968 the site was rejected for proposed defense upgrades.[citation needed]
In 1970, the fort was occupied for three weeks[citation needed] in March by a group ofNative Americans, led byBernie Whitebear,Ella Aquino, andRamona Bennett, asserting that the Native Americans had claim to the land that was surplus to requirements.[5][6] The Native Americans succeeded in garnering 40 acres of land and the establishment of theDaybreak Star Cultural Center, but 534 acres (2.16 km2) of the land was declared surplus by the Army in 1971. The property was transferred back to the city in 1972, and dedicated asDiscovery Park in 1973.[7]
In 2005, the fort was included in theBase Realignment and Closure list for that year. Fort Lawton's family housing, consisting of the non-commissioned officer housing below and officer housing on the crown of the hill, has been used by the U.S. Navy for Navy and Coast Guard personnel for almost 40 years. They were purchased by a private developer, remodeled, and now in private ownership. The Capehart Housing in the center of the park was vacated by December 2009 and demolished during the summer of 2010; the land has become part of Discovery Park.
Fort Lawton officially closed on September 14, 2011, and the 364th Expeditionary Sustainment Command, the last U.S. Army Reserve tenant on the post, moved to its new facility inMarysville, Washington. A closing ceremony took place on February 25, 2012.[8] The remainder of the fort property (with the exception of the military cemetery[9] on site) was transferred to the City of Seattle in 2012. As of 2018, there are plans to convert the property into low-income housing.[10] On 10 June 2019 the Seattle City Council voted to build 200-plus low-income and homeless housing units on part of the property butlocal residents sued to block such development.[citation needed]
The Fort Lawton Historic District (FLHD) in the heart of Discovery Park contains numerous historic buildings and structures that were once in, and part of, Fort Lawton. The following list includes only buildings and structures that survived at least into the 1980s.
| Official structure number | Structure | Constructed | Comments | Image |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 417 | Administration Building | 1902 |  | |
| 640 | Double Officers Quarters | 1904 | ||
| 642 | Double Officers Quarters | 1904 | ||
| 644 | Double Officers Quarters | 1904 | ||
| 653 | Air Defense Operations Building | 1960 | torn down 2008 | |
| 654 | FAA Radar Building | c. 1959 | torn down 2008 |  Radar buildings Building 672 and 670 can also be seen at left, and 640–644 at right. |
| 655 | FAA Radar Antenna Dome | c. 1959 | ||
| 670 | Single Officers Quarters | 1904 | Post commander's quarters |  670-area housing |
| 672 | Double Officers Quarters | 1899 | ||
| 676 | Double Officers Quarters | 1899 | ||
| 679 | Double Officers Quarters | 1899 | ||
| 681 | Reviewing Stand | 1900 | Concrete foundation still extant | |
| 730 | Double Barracks | 1904 | Destroyed by fire February 13, 1983 | |
| 731 | Double Barracks | 1899 | No longer exists | |
| S-732 | Post Gymnasium | 1942 | ||
| 733 | Post Exchange and Gymnasium | 1905 |  | |
| 734 | Band Barracks | 1904 |  | |
| 735 | Bakehouse | 1902 | Bakery until c. 1938, offices until c. 1960, no longer exists | |
| 754 | Quartermaster Shops | 1905 | no longer exists | |
| 755 | Civilian Employees Quarters | 1908 |  | |
| T-756 | Commissary Warehouse | 1939 | no longer exists | |
| 757 | Quartermaster Storehouse | 1899 | no longer exists | |
| 759 | Guard House | 1902 |  | |
| T-760 | Storehouse | 1938 | Used at some point as a garage for a fire truck, no longer exists | |
| T-761 | Bus Stop | 1949 | Scenes from movieExpiration Date (released 2006), filmed at this location |  |
| 901 | Double NCO Quarters | 1933 |   900-area housing | |
| 902 | Double NCO Quarters | 1933 | ||
| 903 | Double NCO Quarters | 1904 | ||
| 904 | Single Family NCO Quarters | 1930s | Burned down approximately 2000 | |
| 905 | Double NCO Quarters | 1899 | ||
| 906 | Single NCO Quarters | 1902 | Former hospital steward's quarters; previously adjacent to post hospital, north east of administration building, moved to present location around WWII | |
| 907 | Double NCO Quarters | 1899 | ||
| 909 | Double NCO Quarters | 1904 | ||
| 915 | Quartermaster Storehouse | 1905 | no longer exists | |
| 915A | Addition to Quartermaster Storehouse | 1939 | no longer exists | |
| 915B | Bulk Storage Warehouse | 1938 | no longer exists | |
| 916 | Quartermaster Stables | 1908 |  Building 916 | |
| 917 | Quartermaster Stables | 1902 | ||
| S-918 | Post Engineer Facility and Vehicle Storage Building | 1904 | Later turned into a groundskeeper's building, no longer exists |
Source for buildings, construction dates, comments:[11]
Chapel-on-the-Hill,[12] outside the Historic District, has the status of a city landmark.[13]In July 2008, the City Council passed an ordinance that changed the boundary of the Fort Lawton Landmark District to include the Chapel and the Chapel Grounds.[14]
