The first fortification built on Fort Point in New Castle was the Fort at Fort Point, a British water battery consisting of an earthen redoubt with four brass guns on wooden platforms that was built in 1631. The guns were removed and the earthwork was gone by 1640. In 1666 a new British fort, called The Castle, was built consisting of 8 foot wooden walls with wooden palisades and a timber blockhouse. The fort was fortified with ten French iron guns.
In 1692 the British renamed the fort from The Castle to Fort William and Mary and work started to improve the fort. 7 foot high and 14 foot thick stone curtain walls were erected with gun embrasures. Wooden gun platforms were erected on three foot earth ramparts and were armed with 19 cannons. The gun breastwork was repaired in 1697. In 1705 major work was done on the fort. Additional stone work was done and two bastions were added. A new wooden platform was added that could hold an additional thirty guns. The first well was dug. The buildings at the time included a powder house, sentry boxes, lodging for officers and men, a guard house, blockhouse and dungeon and Justice Peperil's Garrison House. In 1705 and 1744 repairs were done to the fort and more guns were added in 1744. In 1757 one of the bastions was rebuilt along with portions of the wall. New buildings were added and the total guns in the fort was brought up to sixty seven. In 1772 a masonry powder magazine was built. None of the buildings from this time period or prior still exist.
In April of 1771 construction was started on a 50 foot tall wooden lighthouse topped with an iron lantern with a copper roof. Inside the iron lantern were three copper oil lamps. This marked the first time a lighthouse was built on a British military installation. Construction was completed and the lighthouse was lighted in July of 1771. From 1774 to 1784 during the revolutionary war the lighthouse was not lit and instead was used as a lookout tower for Fort Sullivan and Fort Washington. The observers in the lighthouse would signal their sightings to Fort Sullivan. The lighthouse was destroyed in 1804 when a new one was built and there are no remains.
On December 13 of 1774 Paul Revere went from Boston, Massachusetts to Portsmouth, New Hampshire to warn that the British were going to reinforce Fort William and Mary. On December 14th and 15th of 1774 the Sons of Liberty raided Fort William and Mary in one of the first battles of the Revolutionary War and took the supplies from the fort. Some of the supplies went on to be used at the Battle of Bunker Hill and other supplies were used for Fort Hancock. On May 30th of 1775 the British partially dismantled the fort and in September the Americans dismantled the remains of the fort which signaled the end of the British control of the area. The Americans renamed the fort Fort Castle and during the Revolutionary War the fort was occupied but not heavily used.
In 1783 the first American fort was constructed at Fort Point. The powder magazine and flag pole from Fort Washington and the wooden barracks and gun platforms from Fort Hancock were moved to the site. In 1794 the site was reconstructed as a first system fort and named Castle Fort. Castle Fort was an earth fort with masonry facing. Magazines, barracks, a shot furnace, palisades and a two story wooden citadel were built. The fort was armed with seven heavy cannons on seacoast carriages and six light traveling guns on field carriages. More buildings, including barracks, were added in 1798. In 1801 the fort was renamed Fort Constitution. New brick barracks, measuring 20 feet by 62 feet, with four rooms, measuring 14 feet by 18 feet, were started that would be finished in 1806.
In 1804 a new lighthouse was built at the fort. The lighthouse was an 80 foot high octagonal wooden tower which was lowered to 55 feet in 1851. A fourth order Fresnel lens was added to the lighthouse in 1854. In 1878 a cast iron 48 foot lighthouse was built within the wooden one. The wooden structure was removed and what remained is the cast iron lighthouse that exists today. In 1938 the lighthouse was electrified and in 1960 it was automated. The cast iron lighthouse still exists today and is open for scheduled tours by the Friends of Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouses. For tour schedules please see their website.
In 1806 the fort was described as having parapets with unfinished wooden gun platforms and a board fence, a blockhouse and an additional small frame building being used by officers, a flagstaff, an unfinished well, a frame storehouse being used as barracks, an unfinished command powder magazine, a guard house, unfinished brick barracks, a small frame outfitted as a carpenter's shop with a few married men, a home for the keeper of the lighthouse, a wharf and a lighthouse. The fort was repaired, the brick barracks were finished and another brick barracks building was built. In 1808 orders were received to rebuild the fort as a second system fort. The fort was built with 14 foot tall scarp walls with brick and stone finishing, earth and masonry parapets with thirty seven cannons placed on ramparts with a bastion. There was room for 10 more cannons to be added. A portcullis and guardhouse were built along with quarters for officers, barracks, a mess hall, two power magazines, a shot furnace, privy, hospital, storehouses and doctor's quarters. The blockhouse now appears to be called the Captain's House. The Captain's House was damaged in an explosion in 1809 and burned to the ground in 1861. This is the period from which we start seeing existing remains. One of the powder magazines still exists and is open to the public. The scarp walls and bastion, although modified from this time period, are still there. The foundation for the Captain's House and the barracks are still visible.
On the corner of Jenkins Court and South School Streets in Portsmouth the State Armory was also built in 1808. The single story brick structure was armed with three 24 pound and three 18 pound cannons on traveling carriages and surrounded with a wall around the courtyard. The building was not under the command of Fort Constitution, however, it also stored cannons and other equipment for the state militia to help Fort Constitution at times of need. The building was destroyed in 1920 after a new state armory was built in 1916 in a different location. There are no remains.
In the Spring of 1814 the Walbach Tower, a Martello tower, was started and finished in September of 1814. It was a round brick tower twenty feet high and 58 feet in diameter named after Colonel John de Barth Walbach. The lowest level had a two room powder magazine and the entry, in the middle were three small casemates and embrasures, and there was a wooden roof held up by a stone pillar in the center. The three small casemates were each armed with 4 pound cannon and the roof had a 32 pound naval cannon installed. The guns were removed in 1850 and the tower was abandoned. The ruins of it still exist today with one of the magazines mostly intact. The area has been closed off to the public though so the ruins can only be viewed from a distance.
In 1840 the scarp walls of the fort were raised and the wooden gun platforms were replaced with granite platforms. In 1850 the lighthouse keeper's house was built near the Walbach tower. In 1861, at the start of the Civil War, the fort was armed with only 25 pieces of ordinance; a combination of 32 pound seacoast guns on front pintle mounts and 100 pound Parrot Rifles with 138" barrels on center pintle mounts. A 42 pound naval gun was installed in the bastion. The 1850s keeper's house is no longer in existence.
In 1862 construction was started on a third system fort. The third system fort was intended to be a pentagon shaped three tiered granite casemated wall fortification with 149 gun emplacements with covered stairwell access. Portions of the old wall were blasted in 1866 but construction stopped in 1867 because the fort was already antiquated at this time. At the point when construction was stopped, only part of the first level work had been completed. The portion of the third system fort that was finished is still in existence and open to the public.
The buildings that existed in the fort as of 1865 were two blacksmith shops, two stonecutter buildings, barracks, two storehouses, a stable, a carriage house, mason's office, officer's quarters, watchmen quarters, a carpenter shop, a mortar machine building, an engine house and a boathouse. The lighthouse keeper's house was rebuilt in 1872 in the same location as the old house near the Walbach Tower. The 1872 house was moved in 1897 because of the construction for Battery Farnsworth. The house was moved again to it's current location in 1906 due to the construction of Battery Hackleman. In 1874 the small brick powder magazine was removed and temporary wooden platforms were installed in it's former location that had 15" Rodman M1861 Columbiads with 190" barrels installed on it. Four 100 pound Parrot Rifles were installed in the unfinished casemates from the 1862 fort construction. They were removed in 1905. In 1892 an oil house was built for the lighthouse but in 1903 the lighthouse oil house was abandoned. The keeper's house and the oil house still exist today. None of the other buildings do.
In the Endicott Period two new batteries were constructed in Fort Constitution, both outside the old fort walls. On April 1, 1897 construction was started on Battery Elon Farnsworth, named after Brigadier General Elon Farnsworth built near the Walbach Tower. Battery Farnsworth was a three story concrete battery with earth embankments armed with two 8" M1888MII breach-loading rifles with 278.5" barrels on Crozier-Buffington disappearing M1894 carriages and was completed in October 31, 1898. The two sides of the battery were built identically. The first floor had the powder magazine, shell room, relocating room (plotting room) and hoist lobby. The second floor had the shot storage room, guard room and battery room. The third floor had the loading platform, gun deck and battery commander's post. The ammunition was lifted using manually operated ammunition hoists from the first floor to the second floor to the third floor. A ceiling mounted trolley system was used to transport the shells and the shot to the hoists. Gunpowder was carried up by hand. On August 24, 1917 orders were sent to remove the 8" battery guns so they could be shipped overseas and the guns were sent to the Watertown Arsenal. The battery was deactivated in 1917 and was never rearmed. In 1818 the M1894 carriages were removed from Battery Farnsworth and the battery was used for mine storage for WWI. In WWII Battery Farnsworth was used for mine cable storage, emergency communications and mine observation. Battery Farnsworth still exists today but the area it is in is closed to the public. It is able to be viewed from outside the closed area only.
In 1897 construction was started on a small buried concrete mine casemate that was built under gun emplacement two on the left side of Battery Farnsworth. The casemate consisted of a 16 foot square room with a 38 foot entrance corridor with a 90 degree turn part way down and a trap door that led to the cable gallery, a 3 foot square concrete tunnel for the mine cables to go out to the harbor. It was completed in May of 1898 and it was used to detonate the harbor mines. The casemate was equipped with a storage battery, a testing outfit, switchboard, engine and dynamo. It was deactivated in 1907 when the new mine casemate was built at Fort Stark and the equipment was transferred to the new casemate.
In the Spring of 1898 twenty one submerged contact mines were planted across the harbor. They were removed in July of 1898. In 1901 a large brick torpedo storehouse, measuring 32 feet by 70 feet with a five ton traveling crane, was built, a small pier and a wooden cable tank building with asbestos roof shingles and a four ton traveling crane. The cable tank building held water tanks to test the cables. A tramway was built from the torpedo storehouse to the wharf that used mine carts to transport the mines. In 1904 a two story wooden frame fire control station for Battery Farnsworth was built behind the Walbach Tower. The torpedo storehouse still exists and in 1989 it became the UNH Coastal Marine Laboratory. There is no public admittance to the building.
In 1904 work was started on Battery Pleasant Hackleman, named after Brigadier General Pleasant A. Hackleman, and work was completed on December 27, 1904. Battery Hackleman was a two story concrete battery with earth embankments armed with two 3" M1903 rapid-fire rifles with 170" barrels on M1903 pedestal mounts. The first floor had from left to right a magazine, a storeroom and a magazine all accessible from doors in the back of the battery. The second floor had the gun decks. The shells were brought up by hand from the lower story of the battery. In 1942 the 3" guns on the battery and pedestal mounts were removed and put on New Battery Hackleman at Fort H.G. Wright. The two 3" shielded rapid-fire M1902MI rifles with 154.35" barrels on M1902 pedestal mounts from Battery Lytle at Fort Stark were mounted on the battery in 1942. On October 18, 1945 the battery was deactivated. Battery Hackleman no longer exists, the U.S. Coast Guard demolished the building in 1965 and built the USCG Administration building where it was located.
In 1907 a wooden loading room with a sheet steel roof and a wooden service dynamite room with a sheet steel roof were built. As of 1915 the fort had temporary barracks built within the fort walls, officer's quarters, a hospital, NC Officer's Quarters, a guard house, a bakery, a storehouse, a shop, a boathouse, a temporary oil house, a cistern, a garage, Quartermaster Wood Shed, Quartermaster Coal Shed, Ordnance Store House, a school house, a wagon shed, a mess hall, a fire station, an administration building, a militia storehouse and Quartermaster Storehouse. A keepers house, oil house and a wood shed existed for the lighthouse. In 1917 the harbor was planted with mines again and an open top CRF station was built on the bastion of the old fort for Battery Hackleman. In 1918 a wood frame switchboard room was built behind Battery Farnsworth and the wooden cable tank building was enlarged. None of these buildings, except those previously mentioned to exist, still exist.
In 1918 construction was started on a large mine casemate (location 147 site 1C) behind Battery Farnsworth. The casemate was constructed of brick building that had four main rooms, an operating room with a trap door to the cable space, a dormitory, a storage battery room and an engine room. There was also a service core with a lavatory and two storage closets. The brick building was surrounded by a concrete shell that had an airspace between the top, back and two sides of the concrete and the brick building. The front concrete facade touched the brick building. The concrete shell was covered with earth on all sides but the front. The mine cables ran to a cable hut at Fort Stark. The control of the mines was transferred from the mine casemate at Fort Stark. In 1942, the casemate had a concrete facade and airlock chamber added to the front. The casemate was finished in November of 1919 and equipment and a cooling water tank were transferred from the mine casemate at Fort Stark. The 5 kilowatt gas generator was already on-site and a new storage battery was purchased for the casemate. In 1942 the mine casemate was upgraded to bombproof it. The windows in the front concrete facade were filled in and a narrow reinforced concrete facade was added to the front of the casemate that covered most of the original facade. It served as an airlock chamber and had a main entry hallway with a tank pit that lead into the engine room of the original casemate and the next small room. That small room leads into the operating room. There was another small room that was only accessible from a side entry that led into the airspace in the original casemate. The top of the new facade had an earth covering. In 1921 the battery commander's station for Battery Farnsworth was turned into the primary Mine Observation Station and control was transferred from Fort Stark. The mine casement still exists but the mine observation station is destroyed. The doors to the mine casemate have been sealed so there is no public admittance to it.
In 1920 a power plant was built behind Battery Farnsworth. The power plant was a single story rectangular 22 foot by 16 foot reinforced concrete building with two rooms and it was an auxiliary power plant for the fort in case the main power source was interrupted. One room measuring 14 feet 6 inches by 16 feet 10 inches and the other measuring 8 feet by 16 feet 10 inches. Both rooms were 8 feet high. One was an engine room and the other was a radiator room. In 1921 the power plant was outfitted with a 50 HP gasoline engine, 25 kilowatt electric generator, muffler and radiator. In 1934 a 50 HP gasoline engine, a 25 kw electric generator, a radiator and a storage battery were added. The power plant was deactivated in 1944. The power plant still exists but the area the power plant is in is closed to the public so it can only be seen from a distance.
In 1938, as we were headed into WWII, officer's quarters, a hospital, a boathouse, a wagon shed and garage, a militia storehouse, a quartermaster storehouse, a quartermaster coal shed and an ordnance store house still existed on the fort. Also, the keeper's dwelling, wood shed and oil house existed for the lighthouse. Construction was started to add sixty three man barracks and a mess hall in the old fort and bachelor officers quarters and mess hall, recreation building and post exchange were built outside the old fort walls. None of the buildings added still exist.
In 1941 mines that floated 15 feet below the surface of the water were ordered to be set-up from due east of Odiorne's Point to one mile south of Little White Island and this was finished by February of 1942. In 1942 the CRF Station on the bastion of the old fort was rebuilt as a covered combined Battery Commander's Station for Battery Hackleman and CRF Station. Searchlight position 11 was set up at the fort. On March 13, 1943 a Mine Observation Station (location 147 site 1B) was built on the loading platform for gun position one of Battery Farnsworth. The mine observation building was a reinforced concrete two story square tower with a 12 foot square room on each level. The bottom level held the plotting room and the top level was a combined observation station for the M1 mine group and harbor defense (station designation HD OP 2) and had a DPR instrument. The combined battery commander's station and CRF station still exists in the old fort and is open to the public. The mine observation station still exists on Battery Farnsworth but the area is closed to the public so it can only be seen from a distance.
In 1943 the boathouse was rebuilt to be larger in size and the floating mines were removed from the harbor and new M4 submerged controlled mines were installed on the floor of the harbor. Three lines of mines were set up spanning from Fort Foster to Fort Stark. The TNT for the mines was stored at the TNT Magazine at Fort Dearborn. The two outer lines were controlled by the mine casemate at Fort Foster and the inner line was controlled by the mine casemate at Fort Constitution. On March 20, 1945 orders were received to remove the mines. The boathouse no longer exists.
In 1948 the entire fort was deactivated and declared surplus property. Part of the land was transferred to the US Coast Guard who moved operations from Wood Island to Fort Point in 1948. In 1960 the remainder was given to the state of New Hampshire.