The Franklin Guards, an infantry company organized in Apalachicola in 1884 by J. H. Coombs and Fred Betterfield, erected the city's first building used solely as an armory in 1898 at the corner of High Street and Center Avenue. Made of simulated brick, it was destroyed by fire on May 25, 1900, along with much of downtown. A committee formed on July 3, 1900, to build a new armory, which was designed by Frank and Thomas Lockwood of Columbus, Georgia, constructed by John H. Hecker, and completed in 1901 at a cost of $12,000. The replacement armory has real brick walls, a gable roof with a gable parapet, solid wall massing, slit windows, and a corner tower resembling a medieval watchtower, making it an imposing military structure. Fort Coombs is a unique example of fortress architecture in Florida and for more than a century has served as the military and social nexus of Apalachicola. Units stationed there have been mobilized for service in World Wars I and II, the Gulf War, and the War with Iraq, and bronze plaques on the exterior front wall memorialize generations of Apalachicola and Franklin County citizens who served their state and nation.