The site at Kittery Point has been used for defensive purpose since 1689 and was manned for five wars, including the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the Civil War, before being decommissioned in 1918. The buildings and outworks that remain represent several different construction periods, including the Blockhouse, the Riflemen's House, the Magazine, the Lower Battery, and the unfinished Granite Outer Wall. During its heyday there were barracks, officers quarters, a cookhouse with mess hall, a powder magazine, and two rifleman's houses. A shot furnace stood on the Lower Battery, and a guard shack and hospital stood just north of the fort.
