Beyond the Walls

Beyond the Walls Site

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Audio Description, Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits

This building was new when this photo was taken around 1900. These wooden buildings were built between 1900 and 1910 to support the Coast Artillery Corps whose job was coastal defense. This building was used at different times as a guardhouse with quarters for three sergeants, a mess and kitchen, and lastly as an administration building for the 13th Coast Artillery in 1945.

The U.S. military used this end of Santa Rosa Island for over 100 years. Fort Pickens, the first of four forts built to protect Pensacola Bay, has an unusual history. Union forces still held the fort during the Civil War in the 1860s even though Florida was a Confederate state. Because artillery technology changed, the U.S. Army later made big changes to Fort Pickens and built reinforced concrete batteries on the island starting in 1894.