Fort Lawton


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 materiel 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 land to the United States Army for the installation the next year.
Fort Lawton was named after Maj. Gen. Henry Ware Lawton, 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 on a
The military encampment 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.

Boxer Rebellion

Fort Lawton was used as a marshalling camp for soldiers preparing to travel to China to deal with the Boxer Rebellion. Seattle photographer Theodore E. Peiser photographed to horse corrals, soldiers, and U.S.A.T. ships that departed Seattle for Nome, Alaska on their way to China for the conflict.

Buffalo Soldiers

On October 5, 1909 the United States Army's 25th Infantry Regiment which primarily consisted of African American soldiers transferred from the Philippines to Fort Lawton. These men are known as the Buffalo Soldiers. They acquired the name from the indigenous people of the Great Plains in the 1870s and 1880s. It was due to their appearance that the indigenous people entitled the Buffalo Soldiers, as their dark curly hair resembled the coat of a buffalo. The soldiers welcomed the name with honor and pride for the buffalo has a fighting spirit and is fiercely brave. The following year the soldiers' families arrived. The initial 900 men stationed at the fort and their families accounted for about a third of Seattle's African American population.

World War ll

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.
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. Returnees continued to process through Fort Lawton.
In 1960, the Air Force established a radar station at Fort Lawton. Additionally, 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.
In 1970, the Fort was occupied for three weeks in March by a group of Native Americans, led by Bernie Whitebear, asserting that the Native Americans had claim to the land that was surplus to requirements. The Native Americans succeeded in garnering 40 acres of land and the establishment of the Daybreak Star Cultural Center, but of the land was declared surplus by the Army in 1971. The property was transferred back to the city in 1972, and dedicated as Discovery Park in 1973.

Closure

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. The remainder of the fort property was transferred to the City of Seattle in 2012. As of 2018, there are plans to convert the property into low-income housing. On 10 June 2019 the Seattle City Council voted to build 200 plus low income and homeless housing units on part of the property but local residents vow to sue to block such development.

Historic district

The Fort Lawton Historic District 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		StructureConstructedCommentsImage
417Administration Building1902
640Double Officers Quarters1904
642Double Officers Quarters1904
644Double Officers Quarters1904
653Air Defense Operations Building1960torn down 2008
654FAA Radar Buildingca. 1959torn down 2008
Radar buildings

Building 672 and 670 can also be seen at left, and 640–644 at right.
655FAA Radar Antenna Domeca. 1959
Radar buildings

Building 672 and 670 can also be seen at left, and 640–644 at right.
670Single Officers Quarters1904
670-area housing
672Double Officers Quarters1899
670-area housing
676Double Officers Quarters1899
670-area housing
679Double Officers Quarters1899
670-area housing
681Reviewing Stand1900
730Double Barracks1904Destroyed by fire February 13, 1983
731Double Barracks1899
S-732Post Gymnasium1942
733Post Exchange and Gymnasium1905
734Band Barracks1904
735Bakehouse1902Bakery until ca. 1938, offices until ca. 1960, no longer exists
754Quartermaster Shops1905no longer exists
755Civilian Employees Quarters1908
T-756Commissary Warehouse1939no longer exists
757Quartermaster Storehouse1899no longer exists
759Guard House1902
T-760Storehouse1938Used at some point as a garage for a fire truck, no longer exists
T-761Bus Stop1949Scenes from movie Expiration Date, filmed at this location
901Double NCO Quarters1933

900-area housing
902Double NCO Quarters1933

900-area housing
903Double NCO Quarters1904

900-area housing
904Single Family NCO Quarters1930sBurned down approximately 2000

900-area housing
905Double NCO Quarters1899

900-area housing
906Single NCO Quarters1902Former hospital steward's quarters; previously adjacent to post hospital, north east of administration building, moved to present location around WWII

900-area housing
907Double NCO Quarters1899

900-area housing
909Double NCO Quarters1904

900-area housing
915Quartermaster Storehouse1905no longer exists
915AAddition to Quartermaster Storehouse1939no longer exists
915BBulk Storage Warehouse1938no longer exists
916Quartermaster Stables1908
Building 916
917Quartermaster Stables1902
Building 916
S-918Post Engineer Facility and Vehicle Storage Building1904Later turned into a groundskeeper's building, no longer exists

Source for buildings, construction dates, comments:

The Chapel

Chapel-on-the-Hill is outside the Historic District, has the status of a city landmark.
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.

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