Fort Norfolk History - 1809
In May 1809, Armistead sent the War Department an "estimate" on the work at Fort Norfolk. According to Lieutenant E. D. Wood, the curved outer wall and adjacent works had been completed in late 1808. It appears that the buildings and other features on the fort property were constructed during the winter and spring of 1808-1809. Armistead listed the total cost as $24,531. Half the amount derived from the "1.2 million bricks laid in the wall at $10 per thousand."
The cost of the "Officers Quarters & Magazine & c." was placed at $5,000. He spent $3,360 for "23 gun carriages made in Garrison not including casting wheels." Wages paid to laborers (which presumably included the artisans who fashioned the gun carriages) totaled $1,300. Expenses for "platforms, timber, plank, and workmanship" were $801. To stock the fort with supplies, a $500 wharf and crane were added. Finally, the flag staff was priced at $130 (BC #206, Estimate on Fort Norfolk, May 22, 1809). In 1809, Secretary Henry Dearborn described Fort Norfolk as "an enclosed work of masonry, calculated for thirty guns, ten mounted; with a brick magazine, and barracks for two companies, including officers" (Clary 1990:32).
No plans of the fort that were made during the actual 1808-1809 period of construction have been found. After the 1795 Sexton plat, the earliest renderings of Fort Norfolk located during the research for this project were an 1816 plat of the fort property (which does not include a plan of the fort) and the more familiar 1819 Poussin plan (see above). Both of these documents depict the site as it appeared after the War of 1812 and will be discussed in due chronological order.
More History
Back, 1673, 1775, 1787, 1789, Army before 1793, 1793, 1794, More 1794, First Fort, 1795, 1796-1800, 1802, 1807, 1808, 1809, 1812, 1813, 1813-1814, 1816, 1817-1818, 1820-1821, 1824, 1827, 1835, 1840, 1842, 1843, 1844, 1845, 1846, 1847, 1848, 1848 Request, 1849, 1849 Transfer, 1849 Planning, 1850, 1851, 1852, 1852 Old Magazine, 1853, 1854, 1854 Changes, 1855, 1856, 1857, 1858, 1859, 1860, 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864, 1867, 1868, 1869, 1870, 1874, 1875, 1880, 1884, 1893, 1903, 1923, Next
Source of Information
College Of WILLIAM & MARY, A CULTURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PLAN OF FORT NORFOLK, NORFOLK, VIRGINIA, November 1995, prepared for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Norfolk District under Contract No. DACW65-94-Q-0075, 14.
David A. Clary's Fortress America: The Corps of Engineers, Hampton Roads, and United States Coastal Defense (1990)
William Bradshaw and Julian Tompkins's Fort Norfolk, Then and Now (n.d.).