Fort Oglethorpe Historic District

Fort Oglethorpe began as an army cavalry post founded between 1902 and 1904 and closed after World War II. Its surviving core is a district of roughly three dozen buildings and several landscaped areas laid out on a carefully ordered plan. The centerpiece is Barnhardt Circle, a tree-bordered oval that served as the parade ground and polo field. Officers' houses and duplexes line its south side, built as two-and-a-half-story clapboard structures with Queen Anne massing, wrap-around porches, Palladian windows and Tuscan columns. House types varied by rank, from the commanding officer's residence to captains' and lieutenants' duplexes and a three-story bachelor officers' quarters. The enlisted barracks on the north side are gone. Beyond the circle stand service buildings, including stables, a blacksmith shop, a powder magazine, water tanks, a commissary and quartermaster's headquarters, a chapel, theater, gymnasium, hospital, post exchange, officers' club and bandstand. Many remain in use, either as homes or in new roles, and the landscape keeps much of its original appearance.