During the French and Indian War (1754-63), British troops were initially quartered in private residences, but after protests from colonists, the Provincial Assembly in 1758 authorized the construction of barracks for 300 men each at Perth Amboy and four other locations. The Perth Amboy Barracks were completed in the spring of 1759 at a cost of more than 4,000 pounds. With a three-story central block for officers and L-shaped wings for soldiers, the structure was 183 feet long and contained 26 fireplaces. The Barracks were used alternately by American, British, and Hessian troops. In 1847 Dr. Solomon Andrews (1806-1872) established his Inventors’ Institute in the former Barracks, where in a specially constructed hangar he built and exhibited a prototype airship as early as 1849. From this site on June 1, 1863, he made the world’s first fully-controlled flight aboard the unpowered dirigible Aereon. After many years serving as the city’s poor house, the Barracks were torn down in 1908 to make way for the Perth Amboy Grammar School.
