In the last half of the nineteenth century, the area around Fort Macon was cleared of vegetation, and the fort was only one building in a small military city of quarters, buildings, and support structures. These included officer quarters, laundress quarters, a storehouse, stables, a hospital, a railroad extending to the wharf, wells, a bake house, a blacksmith’s shop, a boat house, and the “sink,” which served as the privy for the garrison. From 1855 to 1862, a 50-foot brick lighthouse and a 30-foot beacon also stood near the fort until they were destroyed during the War Between the States. Supplies and munitions were offloaded from vessels at the wharf onto railroad flatcars and pulled by horses or mules up to the fort. Most of the other structures were wood frame buildings that did not fare well in the coastal environment, and after Fort Macon was abandoned, the last of them were sold and removed in the early 1900s, leaving only the fort.