{"nrhp_refnum":"73001954","name":"Fort Taber District","other_names":["Fort at Clark's Point","See also Lighthouses of Massachusetts"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Wharf Rd. within Fort Rodman Military Reservation","address_restricted":false,"city":"New Bedford","county":"Bristol County","state":"MA","lat":41.59291300000007,"lon":-70.90091522942211,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1973-02-08","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Commerce"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A military district on Clark's Point in New Bedford, Massachusetts, within the Fort Rodman Military Reservation. It contains Fort Taber, a granite fort begun in 1861, and five gun batteries built between 1898 and 1901.","why_significant":"The nomination presents the district as representative of American coastal fortification from the Revolutionary period through the mid-20th century. Fort Taber is a Civil War-era northeastern fort in a remarkable state of preservation, with Totten-class embrasures believed to be the only example in New England. It is also tied to the Great Stone Fleet of 1861 and to figures such as Richard Delafield and Henry Martyn Roberts.","narrative":"Clark's Point in New Bedford holds a coastal defense district made up of Fort Taber and five gun batteries. The fort is a seven-sided, three-story structure of hand-cut granite with a five-sided interior court, seaward gun embrasures of the Totten class, and a single landward sally-port entrance. Construction began in May 1861 after the federal government bought the land in 1858. Major Richard Delafield drew the initial designs, assisted by Captain Robert E. Lee, and Colonel Henry Martyn Roberts supervised the work. The Great Stone Fleet assembled under its guns in 1861. After years of vacancy the fort served as Marine Park from 1892, then was regarrisoned in 1898, when five reinforced-concrete batteries were added through 1901. It was declared obsolete in 1947 and later served as a training center and Job Corps site. At the time of listing, New Bedford was acquiring the property for a military museum and park.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Designed by Major Richard Delafield, assisted by Captain Robert E. Lee; construction supervised by Colonel Henry Martyn Roberts","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition listed as good and unaltered; the fort remains in good repair. It was being rehabilitated for park and museum use, with the City of New Bedford acquiring it from the federal government.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:53.736261-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/76/7945/63794576/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/73001954.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73001954/088d2ed3f4-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73001954/088d2ed3f4-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Marcbela (Marc N. Belanger)","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:New_Bedford_Fort.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Marcbela (Marc N. Belanger)</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:New_Bedford_Fort.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63794576","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Rodman","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5472161"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/bristol-county/fort-taber-district-73001954/"}