Fort Strong
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Fort Strong (1870 - 1960s) is located on Long Island in Boston Harbor.
It was originally named Long Island Military Reservation until 1899.
Camp Wightman, a Civil War training camp, was located on the island in 1861.
At the end of the Civil War, the government decided to keep Fort Strong which had been located in East Boston, and move it to Long Island. It was officially designated in 1867 as being located on Long Island. The name is a dedication to Massachusetts Governor Caleb Strong. [1]
The gun blocks and magazine of Long Island Head Battery (1874 - 1876), a 10-gun battery, still remain.
Endicott period batteries which were located here:
- Battery Hitchcock (1899 - 1939)
- Battery Ward (1899 - 1939)
- Battery Drum (1899 - 1917)
- Battery Smyth (1906 - 1921)
- Battery Stevens (1906 - 1946)
- Battery Taylor (1906 - 1942)
- Battery Basinger (1901 - 1947)
A two-gun AA battery was built in the 1920s, extended to three guns in 1935. A mine casemate was constructed in 1906, which commanded the northern channel (President Roads) harbor minefields until replaced by Fort Dawes in 1944.
Fort Strong was a NIKE missile launch site in the 1950s, with the control site in Squantum. The Radar Section, 15th AAA Group, was there from January 1958 to June 1961.
This property had been owned by the Long Island Hospital, and is now operated by The Boston Public Health Commission.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Snow, Edward Rowe, "Sailing Down Boston Bay", 1941. Cf. p.24, Fort Strong on Long Island.
