Historical Development of the Fort
Fort Niagara, 1805
- 30 Officers' Quarters (French Castle), 1726
- 31c? Bakehouse, 1762 possibly altered 1773-80
- 32 South Redoubt, 1770
- 33 North Redoubt, 1770-71
- 34b Quartermaster Storehouse, 1762
- 35 Powder Magazine, 1757
- 408b Officers' Quarters, pre-1755 or 1757-59
- 417b Barracks, 1755-56 or 1756-57
- 422 Ordnance Storehouse, 1757
- 428b Barracks, 1757 altered 1780-95
- 429c Commandant's Quarters, 1757
- 443b Bombproof/Barracks, 1780-95
- 445d Officers' Privy, 1772-73 altered 1798-1805
- 449d Barracks, 1780 altered 178-95, 1795-98 and 1798-1805
- 451 Bombproof, 1780-95
- 456 Blacksmith Shop, 1780-95
- 457b Storehouse (Chapel?), 1795-98*
- 459b Barracks, 1798-1805
- 460a Barracks, 1780-95
- *There is some question as to which structure is represented by our building 457b on the c.1805 map. Although it is labelled "Chapel", its shape and location bear no resemblance to the 1757 church, and the computer study associated this building with 457b, a storehouse. The delineator of the plan might have mistakenly identified the storehouse as the old chapel or even accidentally deleted the chapel when, in fact, it was still standing.
The occupation of Fort Niagara by United States troops immediately placed the post in a situation unforeseen by Captain Pouchot and other early engineers. After evacuating Fort Niagara, the British merely relocated to higher ground only twelve hundred yards across the Niagara River. There, between 1796 and 1799, they constructed Fort George. The main danger to Fort Niagara was no longer from the land side, and the river defenses, always the weakest point, now faced the potential enemy. Fort Niagara had become a border fortification which, quite literally, faced the wrong way.
Complicating this awkward situation was the inability of the United States Army to provide more than eighty to one hundred men to garrison Fort Niagara. Such a tiny force could barely maintain the rambling walls and aging wooden buildings, much less reorient the fortifications. The decade before the War of 1812 accordingly saw drastic changes within Fort Niagara. Although the walls were preserved, many of the old buildings disappeared either by accident or design. By the turn of the century, the oldest of the wooden buildings had reached the end of their usefulness. Concern about the clutter of tinder-dry wooden structures within the fort also encouraged the removal of many.
From 1796 until the beginning of the War of 1812, therefore, U.S. forces concentrated on maintaining the fortifications and seawalls. A "Quasi-War" with France in 1798-1800 and continued improvements to Fort George encouraged such work, especially in 1800-02. Only the best of the buildings, particularly the six masonry structures, were maintained. The garrison's labor was never enough. British traveller William Benteck found it necessary to be tactful when he spoke with Major Rivardi, Fort Niagara's commandant, in the spring of 1800. "The appearance of the Fort was so wretched and he seemed to feel his situation so much," Benteck wrote, "that I did not like to hurt him by asking any questions respecting his place of abode which must be wretched."
By about 1805, when this unattributed and undated "Plan of Niagara" is believed to have been drawn, there were nine fewer buildings inside the walls than there had been at the close of the eighteenth century. Among the most significant losses was the garrison chapel, constructed by the French in 1757.