Officers Quarters at Fort Macon

Officers Quarters at Fort Macon. . Following the end of the War Between the States Fort Macon returned to its peacetime status as one of the US Army’s military posts. During the last half of the 1860s a lack of suitable quarters for officers and their families became a serious concern at Fort Macon. As a result, in 1869, the Army dismantled four wood cottages at a camp at Goldsboro and shipped them to Fort Macon to be re-erected as officer quarters. These four cottages were rebuilt just outside the fort in 1870 and were used thereafter by officers and their families., Each of the cottages was of wood frame construction, with a wide porch and an attached kitchen section. Inside were two rooms with high plaster walls on each side of a central hallway. The rooms on each side shared adjoining fireplaces., The four officer quarters were used until Fort Macon was abandoned in 1903. The Army subsequently sold them and had them removed., (sidebar) , Plan of the Fort Macon Officer Quarters, The uses of the rooms in this case are based on a letter from one of the officer’s wives in 1870. While the quarters were normally intended for only one officer and his family, it was not uncommon for more than one officer to share the quarters., These four photographs taken at other military posts in the late 1800s are typical of what the interior of the officer quarters at Fort Macon must have looked like. To make the otherwise drab quarters pleasant an homey, officers and their families usually stocked them with their own furniture and family household items. They also decorated their quarters with other furnishings that might include curtains, decorative rugs and carpet, pictures suspended with cords, and bric-a-brac that was so popular in the Victorian era., (clockwise) A typical parlor of an officer’s quarters.; An officer and his wife passing a quiet evening.; A servant girl at work in the kitchen of an officer’s quarters. Officers were allowed to hire servants to cook, clean, and do laundry. The servant might be an enlisted man detailed for the purpose, and enlisted man’s wife, or a local domestic.; A typical dining room of an officer’s quarters., (captions) , (upper center) Front elevation of the Fort Macon Officer Quarters , (lower center) Side elevation of the Fort Macon Officer Quarters . This historical marker is in Atlantic Beach in Carteret County North Carolina