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 Fort Norfolk Magazine Keeper's House Plan

Fort Norfolk History - 1854 Magazine Keeper's House

Once the powder magazine was completed, work began in earnest on the magazine keeper's house.  The two-story house was situated outside the walls of the fort.  On December 19, 1854, Commandant Breese sent plans of the keeper's house to the Bureau of Yards and Docks (BY&D 1854) (see above).  "Nearly all the inside wood work is completed and ready to be put up," he reported.  The "cutting of the stone work" was also under way (BY&D, Letters Received, Box 159, vol. 2, Breese to Smith, December 19, 1854). 

 Fort Norfolk Magazine Keeper's House Plan

Apparently, the stonework and interior decorations were fashioned before the was later used as the headquarters of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.  In February 1942, at the beginning of United States involvement in World War II, the magazine keeper's house was demolished to make way for temporary office buildings for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Kim Memorial Library 1942).

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Source of Information

A CULTURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PLAN OF FORT NORFOLK, NORFOLK, VIRGINIA prepared for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Norfolk District by the College Of WILLIAM & MARY, November 1995 under Contract No. DACW65-94-Q-0075.

David A. Clary's Fortress America: The Corps of Engineers, Hampton Roads, and United States Coastal Defense (1990)

William Bradshaw and Julian Tompkins's Fort Norfolk, Then and Now (n.d.).

The Norfolk Public Library vertical file of recent newspaper articles on Fort Norfolk.  Including articles by James Melchor of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that describe archaeological and architectural findings on the fort property.