Fort Heath was a US seacoast military installation for defense of the

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

and Winthrop Harbors with an early 20th-century

Coast Artillery Coastal artillery is the branch of the armed forces concerned with operating anti-ship artillery or fixed gun batteries in coastal fortifications. From the Middle Ages until World War II, coastal artillery and naval artillery in the form of ca ...

fort, a 1930s USCG radio station, prewar naval research facilities,

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

batteries, and a Cold War radar station. The fort was part of the Harbor Defenses of Boston (Coast Defenses of Boston 1913–1925) and was garrisoned by the

United States Army Coast Artillery Corps The U.S. Army Coast Artillery Corps (CAC) was an administrative corps responsible for coastal, harbor, and anti-aircraft defense of the United States and its possessions between 1901 and 1950. The CAC also operated heavy and railway artillery ...

. The fort's military structures have been replaced by a residential complex, including the luxurious Forth Heath Apartments, and recreation facilities of Small Park, which has both a commemorative wall and an historical marker for Fort Heath. Ft-Heath-Map-1921

Grover's Cliff Military Reservation

The Grover Cliff geodetic survey station marker was emplaced in 1847 (, lost by 1922), and the military site was renamed Grover's Cliff Military Reservation in 1895. November 1890 planning for the military site was for 3 artillery rifles and 16 mortars, and by spring 1898 Lieutenant Sewail was in charge of construction. A spur of the Boston, Revere Beach and Lynn Railroad was built to the site by 29 March, bids for lumber were received in April, and the "Winthrop Mortar Batteries" of the regular army (Battery F and Battery M) were ordered to Grovers Cliff in May 1898 for the 16 mortars, with the batteries encamping 16 May on Cherry Street in Boston. Constructed during the Endicott modernization period for fortifications, "the first concrete foundation for one of the disappearing guns at Grovers Cliff" was complete in May 1898, and in 1900 the installation was renamed Fort Heath.

Battery Theodore Winthrop

Battery

Theodore Winthrop Major Theodore Woolsey Winthrop (September 22, 1828 – June 10, 1861) was a writer, lawyer, and world traveller. He was one of the first Union officers killed in the American Civil War. Biography Winthrop was born in New Haven, Connecticut ...

construction was complete by 1901 with three 12-inch M1888 guns on M1896 disappearing carriages, the heaviest guns in the

at the time. "Major Morris of the Seventh Heavy Artillery" was the initial commander, and "Batteries P and O of the Regular Army" manned the guns. Additional land was considered in 1901 for a Fort Heath garrison (temporary barracks were on the west side in 1921), and the fort was inspected by the Ordnance Department in 1902. Fort Heath was a secondary station for a 1907 naval exercise, and in 1908 the

Massachusetts Volunteer Militia The Massachusetts State Defense Force (MSDF) is the currently inactive state defense force of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It was inactivated in 2016 by Governor Charlie Baker. The purpose of the Massachusetts State Defense Force, when a ...

had a Fort Heath unit. In 1908 the fort had a "range-finders house" and a sea wall was considered (constructed on the south shore by February 1921). In 1917 a "duct line" between Fort Banks and Fort Heath was contracted to New England Telephone and Telegraph, and for 3 batteries—Winthrop and Battery Kellogg & Battery Lincoln at Ft Banks—Ft Heath had the primary base end stations and the Battery Commanders' stations (a commander's station was atop the Fort Heath

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). ...

). After the 1925 renaming of the Coast Defenses of Boston to the Harbor Defenses of Boston, the fort's ammunition hoists were authorized for disposal in January 1932. A federal survey marker ("MY0121—GROVERS") was set in the roof of the southernmost of the three fire control buildings at the fort in line at the northern end of Battery Winthrop. The marker on the "BC" (battery control) structure is roughly indicated on the 1921 map. Gun No. 3 (the most westerly one) of Battery Winthrop was about 120 ft. southeast of this marker, and the line between this gun and Gun No. 1 (the most easterly one) was 270 ft. in length.

Coast Guard radio station

The

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mu ...

radio station at Fort Heath (

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assig ...

"NMF") opened on 12 November 1931, and was initially used for testing "traffic…relayed from Point Bonita, California." The station had three 50-foot masts in 1934 (e.g., "Heath Northwest Radio Mast") but as a trial for determining if Navy facilities could instead handle USCG radio traffic, the "station at Winthrop" closed from 1934 to 1936. Subsequently, operating "until 1939 when the site was taken over by the Army", the USCG equipment "relocated to a former intelligence monitoring station at North Truro, Massachusetts."

AA Battery No. 4

Antiaircraft Battery No. 4 was designated in 1935 after the third gun pad was constructed in 1934 for 3-inch (76 mm) AA guns. The first two gun pads were built during World War I. The three emplacements were south of a surveillance radar and west of the "Theo. Winthrop" foundations, and the three guns were approved on 8 January 1942 to be moved to Fort Ruckman.

Navy Field Test Station

The United States Navy Field Test Station, Fort Heath, was established by 1938 and included a

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...

research facility for "

fire-control system A fire-control system (FCS) is a number of components working together, usually a gun data computer, a Director (military), director, and radar, which is designed to assist a ranged weapon system to target, track, and hit a target. It performs ...

s" ( cf.

Army Signal Corps The United States Army Signal Corps (USASC) is a branch of the United States Army that creates and manages communications and information systems for the command and control of combined arms forces. It was established in 1860, the brainchild of ...

radar research at the Twin Lights station at the New Jersey Highlands).

AMTB Battery 945

Anti-Motor Torpedo Boat Battery 945 at the eastern tip of Fort Heath ( covered the northern harbor approaches with a pair of 90 mm Anti-Motor Torpedo Boat (AMTB) guns, and the HHB 3rd Battalion of the 9th Coast Artillery Regiment was activated at Fort Heath on 1 June 1941. From September–November 1941 the camouflage training school for the First Coast Artillery District was conducted by the Corps of Engineers at Fort Heath. Gun No. 1 () was north of the second gun, and Battery 945 was declared surplus on 28 December 1943 (a very large apartment building is on the Battery 945 position.)

Cold War radar station

The Fort Heath radar station was a NORAD Control Center of the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army S ...

and

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, c ...

from 1960–9 for coordinating interceptors of the

Boston Air Defense Sector The Boston Air Defense Sector (BADS) is an inactive United States Air Force Air Defense Command (ADC) organization. Its last assignment was with the ADC 26th Air Division at Hancock Field, New York. History BADS was established in 1956 at Stew ...

and

Project Nike Project Nike (Greek: Νίκη, "Victory") was a U.S. Army project, proposed in May 1945 by Bell Laboratories, to develop a line-of-sight anti-aircraft missile system. The project delivered the United States' first operational anti-aircraft mi ...

surface-to-air missiles A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-aircraft sy ...

of the Boston and Providence Defense Areas. From 1959 to 1962 the

820th Radar Squadron The 820th Radar Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the Boston Air Defense Sector, stationed at the Fort Heath radar station, Massachusetts. It was inactivated on 1 December 1962. The unit was a General ...

, which was renamed an Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron in 1961, operated the Air Force portion of the facility. The station also had an FAA ARSR-1A

Air Route Surveillance Radar The Air Route Surveillance Radar is used by the United States Air Force and the Federal Aviation Administration to control airspace within and around the borders of the United States. The ARSR-4 is the FAA's most recent (late 1980s, early 1990s) ...

, and the air defense control site was demolished in 1969 (the bunker remained in 1971), and after a Rhode Island AN/TSQ-51 had opened by 1 July 1970, Project Concise closed the remaining Nike batteries in 1974.

Small Park

The FAA operated the ARSR-1 until the mid-to-late 1990s, and by 2005, the "Fort Heath property" acquired by the town had been converted to a municipal park. The fort land is a Formerly Used Defense Site (MA19799F184300).

References

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External links

Fort Heath at FortWiki.comList of all US coastal forts and batteries
at the Coast Defense Study Group, Inc. website
FortWiki, lists most CONUS and Canadian forts
{{FmrMAForts Installations of the U.S. Army in Massachusetts Coastal artillery installations of the United States Army Winthrop, Massachusetts Buildings and structures in Suffolk County, Massachusetts

Heath A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a cooler ...

World War I sites in the United States World War II sites in the United States Demolished buildings and structures in Massachusetts