John Brown’s Fort

The U.S. Armory’s fire engine and guard house was used by John Brown and his conspirators as a final refuge in their October 16–18, 1859 ill-fated raid on the facility.

The U.S. Armory’s fire engine and guard house was built at Harpers Ferry in 1848. During John Brown’s October 16–18, 1859 raid against the facility, which was intended in incite a slave insurrection, Brown and his followers took refuge in the brick structure to escape the gunfire of local citizens and militias. On the last day of the standoff, U.S. Marines under the command of Col. Robert E. Lee stormed the building, killing two of Brown’s party and badly wounding the mastermind. All of the raiders, including Brown and those captured later, were subsequently tried, convicted, and hanged.

During the Civil War, John Brown’s Fort, as it became known, was the only armory building that was not destroyed. It was used as a guardhouse and prison by both sides. Due to it notoriety, soldiers stationed at Harpers Ferry scavenged pieces of the building as souvenirs. In 1891 the fort was sold, dismantled and shipped to Chicago for display at the Columbian Exposition. Attracting scant visitors, the exhibit was closed and the building was dismantled again. In 1894 the fort was returned to Harpers Ferry and was rebuilt on a privately owned farm three miles from town. In 1909, on the fiftieth anniversary of the raid, Storer College bought John Brown’s Fort and moved it to Camp Hill on their campus at Harpers Ferry. In 1960 the National Park Service acquired the building, and in 1968 moved it back to the lower town, one hundred and fifty feet east of its original location, where it remains today.