Fort Norfolk began in 1794 as a simple earthwork along the river bank, built as part of the first system of national fortification. As tensions with Britain rose in the following decade, Captain Walker Keith Armistead was sent in 1808 to build earth and brick masonry walls and six buildings, which he completed by the following year: two barracks for enlisted soldiers, one for officers, a guard house, a storehouse, and a magazine. The magazine and one enlisted barracks no longer exist, but the other buildings survived. In 1814 Captain Samuel Thayer strengthened the fort against landward attack by constructing a rampart on the east side and strengthening one to the northeast, and the completed fort existed in that form in 1819. Although no plans for the fort have been found, archaeological evidence shows that the original roofing material was slate, later replaced at some point in the 20th century with asphalt shingles and then with simulated slate shingles in 2012. As Fort Monroe was being built, the Army left in 1824 to concentrate its forces there, and Fort Norfolk remained unused until 1855, when the Navy took it over as an ordnance depot. The Navy built a large magazine in the middle of the fort, built a home for the depot superintendent just outside the fort, demolished the eastern rampart built by Thayer and the northern enlisted barracks, and converted other buildings to storing or manufacturing explosive shells. Unlike the earlier works at Fort Norfolk, plans for the Navy magazine, Building 1, survive; it was roofed with slate shingles, later re-shingled in asphalt three-tab shingles in the 20th century, and those were replaced with simulated slate in 2014.
