Fort Hunt Park (Historical Marker)

Here follows the inscription written on this trailside historical marker:

Fort Hunt Park
George Washington Memorial Parkway
— National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior —

Welcome to Fort Hunt Park. The concrete platform in front of you, Battery Mount Vernon, once held a set of heavy guns designed to protect Washington, D.C. from naval attack. In 1885, Secretary of War William C. Endicott chaired a commission that deemed our coastal defense system dangerously outdated. As a result, the military built this and other similar fortifications across the country. With the completion of this, the first of four gun batteries, in early 1898, Fort Hunt was poised to play a critical role in protecting the Nation's Capital at the beginning of the Spanish-American War. However no shots were ever fired in anger from Fort Hunt during the war.

Discover the many layers of hidden history at Fort Hunt Park:

• George Washington once owned the land you are standing on as part of his "River Farm." Here, enslaved people sowed seeds and gathered crops on the same terrain where American Indians hunted and fished for centuries.

• The Civilian Conservation Corps operated a camp for workers at this site during the Great Depression.

• In 1933, Fort Hunt Park became part of a national park, the George Washington Memorial Parkway.

• During World War II, the U.S. Army Military Intelligence Service managed two secret operations here.

Erected by National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.

More about this marker.
[Safety information on the marker:]

Be safe and help us protect our cultural heritage

• Stay on designated paths. Please watch your step. Historic surfaces are uneven and may be damp or slippery. Use handrails when climbing stairs.

• Climbing on or attempting to access restricted areas of historic structures is unsafe and may damage park resources.

• It is illegal to remove anything from Fort Hunt Park. Everything is protected so you and future generations may enjoy these historic resources.


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Here follows an excerpt from the 1970 Fairfax County Master Inventory of Historic Sites which contained entries from the Historic American Buildings Survey Inventory:

Fort Hunt:
The War Department, desiring to establish a coastal defense fortification for the protection of the Nation's Capital, decided to locate a fort at Sheridan's Point on the Virginia shore of the Potomac River, 11 1/2 miles south of Washington, D. C. The land was once part of George Washington's River Farm, one of the five farms in the Mount Vernon estate across the river from Fort Washington, Maryland. Between 1893 and 1906, approximately 197 acres were acquired. In 1897, the first contingent of soldiers was assigned to the fortification, and in 1899, President McKinley named it Fort Hunt after Brevet Major General Henry J. Hunt, the Union Army's Chief of Artillery at the Civil War battles of Fredericksburg and Gettysburg.

In 1904, when the armament was completed, four batteries controlled 3-, 5-, and 8-inch guns for defense purposes. President Theodore Roosevelt named them Battery Mount Vernon, after the estate; Battery Robinson, in honor of 1st Lieutenant Levi H. Robinson, 14th U. S. Infantry, killed in 1874, in action with Indians near Laramie Peak, Wyoming; Battery Porter, in honor of 1st Lieutenant James E. Porter, 7th U. S. Cavalry, killed in action with the Sioux at Little Big Horn River, Montana, 1876; and Battery Slater, in honor of 1st Lieutenant William A. Slater, 18th U. S. Infantry, who was killed in 1898 at the battle of San Juan, Cuba.

The site was used for a variety of military purposes until 1933, when it became a camp for the Civilian Conservation Corps, whose personnel developed Fort Hunt as a recreation area. In 1942 and throughout the World War II period, the fort was again used for military purposes. Since 1948, Fort Hunt has served as a facility for the National Capital Park Police, as well as a public recreation area.