Fort Lawton

In the Historic District, looking toward Puget Sound. The visible buildings are, left to right, the Band Barracks, Guard House and Quartermasters Stables.

Fort Lawton was a United States Army post located in the Magnolia neighborhood of Seattle, Washington overlooking Puget Sound. In 1973 a large majority of the property, 534 acres of Fort Lawton, was given to the city of Seattle and dedicated as Discovery Park. Both the Fort and the nearby residential neighborhood of Lawton Wood are named after Maj. Gen. Henry Ware Lawton.

While Fort Lawton was a quiet outpost prior to World War II, it became the second largest port of embarkation of soldiers and materials to the Pacific Theater during the war. The fort was included in the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure list. Fort Lawton officially closed on September 14, 2011.

History

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 south Puget 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.

Fort Lawton was named after Maj. Gen. Henry Ware Lawton (1843–1899), a veteran of the American Civil War, the Indian Wars, and Spanish–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) site, which was redesigned in 1902 for infantry use. In 1910, a design overhaul, to include housing for officers and enlisted men, was prepared by landscape architect John C. Olmsted. In 1938 during the Great Depression, the Army offered to sell Fort Lawton back to the city of Seattle for one dollar, but the city declined, citing maintenance concerns.

During World 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.

The post was also used as a prisoner-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 Italian POW, Guglielmo Olivotto, was found murdered at Fort Lawton after a night of rioting between Italian POWs and American soldiers. Twenty-eight African-American soldiers were later court-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.^[2][3]

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.

see also: Fort Lawton Air Force Station

In the late 1950s, 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. The Army surplussed 534 acres (2.16 km²) in 1971. The property was transferred back to the city in 1972, and dedicated as Discovery Park in 1973.^[4]

In 2005, the fort was included in the Base Realignment and Closure list for that year. Fort Lawton's family housing has been used by the U.S. Navy for Navy and Coast Guard personnel for almost 40 years. It is currently being vacated, with the officer and NCO housing scheduled to be sold to the public when the market improves. 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 in Marysville, Washington. A closing ceremony took place on February 25, 2012.^[5] The remainder of the fort property (with the exception of the military cemetery^[6] on site) was transferred to the City of Seattle in 2012.

Historic district

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	ca. 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	ca. 1959
670	Single Officers Quarters	1904		670-area housing
672	Double Officers Quarters	1899
676	Double Officers Quarters	1899
679	Double Officers Quarters	1899
681	Reviewing Stand	1900
730	Double Barracks	1904	Destroyed by fire February 13, 1983
731	Double Barracks	1899
S-732	Post Gymnasium	1942
733	Post Exchange and Gymnasium	1905
734	Band Barracks	1904
735	Bakehouse	1902	Bakery until ca. 1938, offices until ca. 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 movie Expiration 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:^[7]

The Chapel

The chapel, which is outside the Historic District, has the status of a city landmark.^[8] 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.^[9]

References

• Fort Lawton Landmark District, Department of Neighborhoods (City of Seattle)
• Heather MacIntosh, Preservation at Fort Lawton and Discovery Park, Preservation Seattle (Historic Seattle), January 2004.
• Yardley, William (October 26, 2007). "1944 Conviction of Black G.I.'s Is Ruled Flawed" (Newspaper article). New York Times. Retrieved 2007-10-28. 
• City of Seattle ordinance number 114011 Retrieved 2015-12-16.

Notes

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fort Lawton.

• Impromptu query for historical sites in Magnolia, Department of Neighborhoods (City of Seattle). Most of the listings are Fort Lawton buildings.
• Fort Lawton Cemetery listing at Find a Grave
• U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Fort Lawton
• U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Fort Lawton Military Cemetery

Archives

• Seattle Chamber of Commerce Army Post Committee. 1896-1897. 1 volume. Contains records about the fundraising campaign ran by the Army Post Committee to raise funds for the purchase of land for Fort Lawton. At the Labor Archives of Washington, University of Washington Libraries Special Collection.

Coordinates: 47°39′40″N 122°24′53″W / 47.66104°N 122.414792°W / 47.66104; -122.414792