The Engine House of the Raid: John Brown's Fort

John Brown's Fort was originally constructed in 1848 as a guard and fire engine house for the federal Harpers Ferry Armory. A military report from that year described it as a one-story brick building covered with slate, featuring copper gutters and down spouts. It gained fame in 1859 when the abolitionist John Brown and a small army of 21 men captured the armory and arsenal, taking 60 citizens of Harpers Ferry hostage. Brown's men forced the hostages into the sturdy fire engine house to use it as a defensive position.

During the insurrection, U.S. Marines and Brevet Colonel Robert E. Lee arrived to suppress the raid. The next morning, the Marines used a ladder as a battering ram to break down the door and storm the engine house. One Marine and several of Brown's men were mortally wounded in the fight. Most of Brown's men were captured, and Brown himself was stabbed by the Marine commander, Lt. Green, before being taken into custody. The hostages were eventually freed from the building.

The engine house was the only part of the Harpers Ferry Armory to survive the Civil War. In the years following, the building underwent a series of moves. In 1891, it was sold for $1,000 to a buyer who used it as an attraction at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. It was later dismantled and left on a vacant lot before being moved again in 1895, 1909, and finally in 1968 to its current location in lower Harpers Ferry, near its original site. Today, it stands as the most visited tourist attraction in the state of West Virginia.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons