Fort Miles Historical Area

Fort Miles Historical Area. Battery 519 Cantonment. , This small group of buildings, or cantonment, provided living space and necessary services for the troops assigned to operate the guns of Fort Miles. Concrete barracks were more comfortable than the canvas and wood structures that were first used for housing here. A supply and administration building and a recreation hall, along with a separate latrine and shower that are no longer standing, completed the complex. Each barracks building was designed to house 32 men., These concrete block buildings are the only known examples of this type and series of World War II military buildings still standing. The military used this type of construction because of the damp, sandy conditions of Cape Henlopen and the wartime shortage of lumber., By the end of the war, most of Fort Miles' troops had been retrained and assigned to combat in Europe and the Pacific. These buildings remained emby until the mid-1960s, when the U.S. Army started using them as vacation rentals for army staff and their families., There were many cantonments like this at Fort Miles. Each was used to support the different gun batteries and the fort in general.