{"nrhp_refnum":"74001778","name":"Hessian Powder Magazine","other_names":["Hessian Guardhouse Museum","See Also:Carlisle Indian School"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Guardhouse and Garrison Lanes","address_restricted":false,"city":"Carlisle","county":"Cumberland County","state":"PA","lat":40.19800864800004,"lon":-77.17807937499998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1974-05-17","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Historic - Non-Aboriginal","Military","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A stone powder magazine building at Carlisle Barracks in Carlisle, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, with solid stone walls about four and one-half feet thick and a vaulted stone roof. It has been used as a museum since 1948.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the building dates to 1777, when the Continental Congress had a magazine built at Carlisle to store arms and gunpowder after the British threat to eastern seacoast towns. It is associated with Hessian prisoners of war, who are said to have built it, and it later served as a guardhouse, including for Carlisle Indian School students. It is also described as an embodiment of military tradition and a repository of relics from the Cumberland Valley's history.","narrative":"Built in 1777 as a powder magazine at Carlisle Barracks, this stone building measures 70 by 32 feet, with walls four and one-half feet thick lined with brick inside and a vaulted stone roof. Its interior is divided into three main rooms, with four solitary cells at the west end. Continental Congress resolutions called for a magazine at Carlisle to hold 10,000 stands of arms and 200 tons of gunpowder, and General Washington later sent powder from Baltimore to the site. Local tradition holds that Hessian prisoners captured at Trenton built it, though the form assumes this from a Congressional order putting 40 prisoners to work at the post. The building later served as a guardhouse, where Carlisle Indian School students were held for drunkenness, and it gave the site its name, the Hessian Guardhouse. It was opened to the public as a museum on Army Day in 1948.","period_of_significance":"1777","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Used as a museum; some original features such as the chimney, ventilators and covered east porch have been removed.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:29.397501-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/74001778.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/74001778/bdb1faa789-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/74001778/bdb1faa789-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"JERRYE &amp; ROY KLOTZ MD","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HESSIAN_POWDER_MAGAZINE.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">JERRYE &amp;amp; ROY KLOTZ MD</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HESSIAN_POWDER_MAGAZINE.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71994903","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hessian_Powder_Magazine","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5746222"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/cumberland-county/hessian-powder-magazine-74001778/"}