Fort Worden Historical State Park History

Fort Worden Historical State Park preserves an example of a US Army defense project from the beginning of the 20th century. Its strategic location on a high bluff at the entrance to Puget Sound also features sweeping vistas of the islands, waterways and mountain ranges that have attracted people here for millennia.

Indigenous Lands

This park’s location on Quimper Peninsula lies within the traditional territories of Coast Salish Indigenous people whose present-day descendants include members of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe, Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, Lummi Nation, Tulalip Tribes, Suquamish Tribe, Quileute Tribe, and Swinomish Indian Tribal Community. For thousands of years this area and the waters of Admiralty Inlet have provided a habitat for a diverse community of life that forms the basis of their cultures. A long-established natural portage route across today’s Fort Worden State Park was used by Indigenous travelers to avoid challenging currents and waves at the tip of Point Wilson when passing from North Beach to village sites at the south end of Port Townsend.

Local tribes ceded ownership of the area to the US federal government under duress in the Treaty of Point No Point in 1855, keeping rights to harvest natural resources in their usual and accustomed places, including the lands and waters around Quimper Peninsula. After government land surveys were completed in 1858, European-American homesteaders and land speculators acquired land as Donation Land Claims in the vicinity of today’s city of Port Townsend. On September 22, 1866, President Andrew Johnson signed an executive order withdrawing land at 24 strategic sites throughout the Salish Sea as military reservations for possible defensive fortifications. One of those was the 464-acre Point Wilson Military Reservation at the northeastern tip of Quimper Peninsula, later reduced by 156 acres to accommodate the Donation Land Claim of Francis Pettygrove. Pettygrove was a founder of the city of Portland, Oregon, who had moved to the Port Townsend area in 1851.

The Chinese Gardens

Captain Henry E. Morgan, another early settler, built a tide gate to develop farming land on the portage route near North Beach. In the 1880s, the land was leased to a group of Chinese immigrants who built a large house on the property. They established a farming enterprise, planting fruit trees, growing hay, peas, corn, potatoes, and other vegetables as well as raising pigs. The produce was taken into Port Townsend by horse and wagon, going up and down the streets to sell to residents. The area eventually became known as the “Chinese Gardens.” Anti-Chinese riots in Seattle and Tacoma in 1885-1886 caused rampant discrimination against Chinese immigrants and Chinese American citizens in Washington. Many were ultimately expelled from the country. The Chinese Gardens in today’s Fort Worden State Park were actively farmed until 1925.

Alexander’s Castle

The oldest building preserved in Fort Worden State Park is the prominent brick tower located on Madrona Hill. The structure was built by John B. Alexander, rector of the St. Paul Episcopal Church in Port Townsend, in 1886. According to stories, he built the home for his Scottish bride-to-be in the style of that country. Alexander returned to Scotland to marry his fiancée only to find that she had married someone else. Alexander returned to Port Townsend, resigned from his ministry and was hired as Queen Victoria’s British Vice Consul in Tacoma, continuing to live in the castle on Madrona Hill until 1892.

The Endicott Board

In the years following the US Civil War, significant technological advances in heavy arms and naval capabilities made existing US coastal defenses obsolete. In 1885, President Grover Cleveland appointed a military and civilian board to develop recommendations. The board was guided by Secretary of War William Endicott. The 1886 report of the Endicott Board, as it became known, detailed the state of neglect of US defenses and advocated for a construction program to build fortifications at 29 sites on the US coast, including the entrance to Puget Sound.

Building a Fort with Concrete and Steel

The Endicott Board’s designs featured concrete walls that concealed heavy steel breech-loaded rifled cannons mounted on “disappearing carriages.” These allowed the cannons to be raised above the walls, aimed and fired, then rapidly pulled back to conceal their location and protect the artillery crew as it reloaded. Instead of dramatic fortresses visible from miles away, the new forts featured guns and structures that were invisible from the sea.

On June 6, 1896, the US Congress authorized the Secretary of War to build three forts to protect the entrance to Puget Sound at Admiralty Inlet. Construction began at the Point Wilson Military Reservation in July 1897. The fort was officially activated on May 14, 1902, named in honor of Admiral John L. Worden, the commander of the battleship Monitor in the famous Civil War battle with the Merrimac. By March 1904, 23 buildings, including barracks and officers’ quarters, had been finished. On September 4, 1904, the headquarters of the Harbor Defense of Puget Sound was transferred from Fort Flagler to Fort Worden. Completed, Fort Worden was armed with 41 artillery pieces: two 12-inch disappearing guns, two 12-inch barbette guns, two 10-inch disappearing guns, five 10-inch barbette guns, eight 6-inch disappearing guns, two 5-inch pedestal guns, four 3-inch pedestal guns and sixteen 12-inch mortars.

Fort Worden was staffed with four companies of the Coast Artillery Corps, each authorized at a strength of 109 enlisted men, including non-commissioned officers. The Coast Artillery Corps was established in 1901, recognizing the specialized training and knowledge that Endicott Board fortifications would require. Commissioned officer positions were filled by West Point graduates, transfers from other branches of the US Army, and even appointed civilians. The Coast Artillery Corps did not accept non-white enlisted men or commissioned officers.

The guns were never fired against an enemy and quickly became obsolete.  By the 1920s, advances in naval technologies and the rise of airpower had eroded the effectiveness of coastal forts. Warships began carrying guns that could shoot farther than the guns at Fort Worden. They were more accurate as well. In addition, aircraft could travel longer distances and carry heavy bombs. Large guns mounted in open concrete batteries were vulnerable to these new weapons.

On May 11, 1920, an attempt was made to modernize Fort Worden by establishing the 24th Balloon Company on the site. The balloons were designed for use in coastal patrol and harbor defense, searching for and tracking hostile ships to provide information coastal defense commands.  Unfortunately, meteorological conditions were not suitable for balloon launching and maneuverability there, and the company was disbanded shortly after the large balloon hangar that is today’s McCurdy Pavilion was completed.

The fort remained active, training soldiers for the trenches of Europe in World War I and serving as a base for underwater sonar and sensing devices during World War II. It was permanently deactivated on June 30, 1953, and transferred to the General Services Administration.

Juvenile Treatment Facility

On July 1, 1957, the State of Washington purchased many of the buildings at Fort Worden for use as a juvenile treatment center. Beginning on April 24, 1958, the center provided a central diagnostic center for youth committed to the Department of Institutions by the juvenile courts.  Committed youths stayed in the former Fort Worden barracks for six weeks, undergoing evaluation to determine what kind of counseling and educational, vocational or group programs they needed. Several of the former Fort Worden officer’s quarters were converted into a residential treatment center, providing therapy, work details, athletics and special events. The facility closed on September 30, 1971.

Making a Park

On November 5, 1965, the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission (WSPRC) purchased 209 acres of the remainder of the Fort Worden military reservation, including most of the former gun battery sites, for development as a state park. After the closure of the Juvenile Treatment Facility, its buildings and nearly 130 acres of land were added to the park. About 100 acres adjoining the park on the west were acquired in 1989, protecting the Chinese Gardens area.

The WSPRC considered proposals for utilizing the site’s many buildings as a facility that could meet the needs of a wide variety of groups and individuals. On February 12, 1973, the WSPRC approved a management plan for Fort Worden State Park that included development of the fort buildings as vacation housing and a conference center. The park was dedicated on August 18, 1973.

Several community groups with arts, education, military history, and recreation missions subsequently became tenants at Fort Worden, offering programs, exhibitions and performances for visitors. In 1990, the Washington State Legislature provided funding for the restoration of the balloon hangar as a performance venue and the establishment of a marine science center at Fort Worden. In 2012, the WSPRC approved a plan to transform the conference center, performance venues and vacation rentals at Fort Worden State Park into a lifelong learning center. The Commission entered into a co-management agreement with the Fort Worden Public Development Authority (PDA) to carry out the vision beginning on May 1, 2014. The agreement was terminated in 2024.