The building designated as the Cavalry Barracks is a two-company barracks built in 1874. The designation is somewhat misleading, however, because at various times it housed infantry as well as cavalry soldiers.
It is the only surviving enlisted mens' barracks on the post. Two other barracks, along the North end and East side of the parade ground, housed three companies and two companies of soldiers, respectively. Mess halls and mess kitchens would have been sited in separate buildings behind the barracks buildings. Only the foundations of these two barracks and their accompanying structures survive.
The Cavalry Barracks was a more modern structure than the other, older barracks buildings, built in 1866 and 1867. It was constructed as a two- story structure designed to house the soldiers living areas as well as their mess halls, mess kitchens, and other facilities.
The North end of the barracks building is currently being used, adaptively for Park support facilities and curative laboratories, but the South end has been restored and refurnished to the Summer of 1876 when it would have housed Company K of the Second Cavalry. The second floor contains the squad bay where the company would have lived and slept. Visitors can view the soldiers' beds, uniforms, weapons, and other military equipment. The company kitchen, mess hall, wash room, armory, orderly room, and First Sergeant's room occupy the lower floor.
