OSWEGO – New York State Parks staff and Friends of Fort Ontario are pleased to announce opening of two restored 19th century squad rooms in the Enlisted Men’s Barracks at Fort Ontario State Historic Site on Wednesday, June 19, 2024, at 10:00 AM. The opening completes a program begun in 1986 to restore and historically furnish all rooms inside the Old Stone Fort not being used for essential services. Members of project team responsible for researching and furnishing the squad rooms will be stationed in the rooms to describe their work to visitors. Regular admission will be charged.
From 1842 to 1901 an average of 55 to 60 enlisted men lived together in the barracks on a strict schedule dictated by a commanding officer who lived with his family in more opulent quarters across the parade ground. One barracks squad room has been furnished to reflect its appearance in 1850 – a time when soldiers slept side by side on two or three-tiered wooden bunks which grew ricketier over time from frequent dismantling for cleaning and de-bugging. Mortise and tenon joints in the bunks provided havens for vermin. The second Squad Room has been furnished to reflect its appearance in 1868 when iron bunks were first documented at Fort Ontario; these more sanitary bunks for individual soldiers provided few hiding places for vermin and reflect improving living conditions for enlisted men in barracks after the Civil War (1861-1865).
Restoration and furnishing of the squad rooms could not have been possible without the cooperation, planning, design, construction, and labor of the administration, staff, instructors, and Oswego County high school students of CiTi – Center for Instruction, Technology, & Innovation in Mexico, NY. Beginning in late spring 2023, high school students supervised by CiTi Welding Instructor Barbie Jo Gray built 25 reproduction folding Civil War era bunks of the “Hospital Pattern” for use in furnishing the 1868 soldiers squad room. Using steel purchased by the Friends of Fort Ontario, students created patterns based on an original bunk in the Fort’s collection and strove to make the reproduction bunks as historically accurate as possible, down to the bright green paint.
For information about the barracks’ squad room restoration project contact Paul Lear at (315) 343-4711 or [[email protected]]. Fort Ontario State Historic Site is located at the north end of East 4th Street in the City of Oswego, NY. The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation oversees more than 250 parks, historic sites, recreational trails, golf courses, boat launches and more, which are visited by 78 million people annually. For more information on any of these recreation areas, visit www.parks.ny.gov download the free NY State Parks Explorer mobile app or call 518-474-0456. Also, connect on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
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