Fort Wayne

Fort Wayne, one of Detroit's most historic landmarks, was authorized by an act of Congress on August 4, 1841, as the result of a national defense plan to insure protection for the northwest. The possibility of attack on North America favored the strategic location at a major bend in the Detroit River. Lieutenant Montgomery C. Meigs, Union quartermaster-general during the Civil War, designed the fort.

The date stone 1845 was placed upon construction of the sallyport; 1848 is the date of the cornerstone on the barracks building. The entire fort was completed in 1849 at a cost of $150,000. It was named Fort Wayne on January 31, 1849, in honor of General Anthony Wayne who established American government in Detroit in 1796. During the Civil War, Fort Wayne was an important troop training center.

The 1st Michigan Infantry Regiment in April, 1861, were the first soldiers to use it. The first federal troops to occupy Fort Wayne arrived in December, 1861, a detachment of the 3rd U.S. Cavalry Regiment under Captain Alfred Gibbs. The original installations at the fort served through 88 years of official occupation by various commands of the U.S.

Army. On May 11, 1949, a portion of Fort Wayne was transferred to the City of Detroit for use as a museum. The city signed a twenty-year quitclaim deed with the federal government granting the government the right to reclaim the fort in the case of an emergency. The Korean War eliminated this possibility when the federal government and the City of Detroit was given the historic fort.

In 1955-56 the city became the owner of Fort Wayne for a military museum. The buildings adjacent to the walled portion of the fort and of a later vintage are presently operated by the federal government as emergency housing for the victims of the Detroit riots during July, 1967. Fort Wayne has been operated as a museum since 1950. Along with the fort's outstanding architectural features, unique in the Midwest today, interpretative exhibits are present which relate the military history of Detroit and Michigan from 1701 to the present.

Within the barracks are exhibits of Indian as well as military material. The two Indian exhibits include artifacts, some archeological, of Indians of the Michigan area and the rest of the United States. The present structures include the barracks building, the main powder magazine, and the fort's brick wall, but other segments of the fort such as the demilune, casemates, and the counterscarp are additional points of interest. The fort, a branch of the Detroit Historical Museum, is operated under the direction of the Detroit Historical Commission.

It is located in an industrial area of the city and off the main thoroughfares, requiring visitors to leave the beaten track in order to visit Fort Wayne.

Fort Wayne, a ninety acre area, includes a barracks and three other structures around a central parade ground, surrounded by thick masonry walls and earthworks forming a square with bastions at the corners, vaulted casemate galleries, and a triangular masonry demilune south of the earthworks. The fort is entered through a tunnel which extends from the dry moat surrounding it, through the wall and under the earthworks, to the parade ground inside. Heavy oak doors secure the entrance from the outside. The tunnel serves an exhibit area with panels displaying the history of the Detroit area's major forts from 1701, when the city was founded, to 1840.

The brick work within the tunnel is worn where it was scraped by horse-drawn vehicles attempting to get through the narrow passageway. The barracks, a massive three-and-a-half story Georgian style structure, was built in 1848 and dominated the entire fort. It was constructed of Lake Erie, rubble limestone, quoined at the corners with walls twenty-two inches thick. The roof is slate with brick dentils under the eaves, and there are six massive brick chimneys along the roof.

Pedimented dormer windows at the attic level are supported by enlarged Ionic columns. There are ten gun slots at either end of the barracks. There are cast-iron wall vents in the east and west walls, and the guard house gates are of wrought iron. The barracks is divided into five sections; each originally housed a company of one hundred soldiers, The sections are divided by firewalls of brick.

The brick extensions and the bridge in the rear were added at a later date. The bridge, originally extending across the dry moat, is no longer in existence. Except for the attic floor, a porch extends along the back of every floor of the barracks. The interior walls are of plaster with beamed ceilings supported by fluted cast iron Corinthian columns.

Originally, there had been a fireplace in every room, but they have since been walled up. One room which has been restored to the Civil War period and which displays life in the barracks as it was maintains an open fireplace. On the front of the barracks are five nine-paneled doors; above each is a fan light. Today the first two floors are open to the public, housing nine exhibits, but the third floor and the attic floor are closed.