Mount Vernon Arsenal
Encyclopedia
The Mount Vernon Arsenal-Searcy Hospital Complex is a historic district
listed on the National Register of Historic Places
in Mount Vernon
, Alabama
, in Mobile County
. It is currently home to Searcy Hospital, a state-owned and operated psychiatric hospital, and was formerly home to the Mount Vernon Arsenal, a United States Army
munitions depot.
munitions depot, located on the Mobile River
three miles west of Fort Stoddert
, approximately 30 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico
near Mount Vernon
, Alabama
. Along with the Kennebec Arsenal
in Augusta
, Maine
, it is one of the most complete antebellum
arsenals surviving to the present day. It was established by the United States Army in 1828 as an ordnance manufacturing base, the Mount Vernon Arsenal served as one of the US Army's main ammunition
plants from its inception until the Civil War
.
On January 4, 1861, troops of the Alabama state militia took possession of the arsenal on the orders of Alabama governor Andrew B. Moore
. The takeover from the small US Army force, commanded by Captain Jesse L. Reno
, was peaceful and bloodless. After Alabama joined with other seceded states to form the Confederacy
, the Arsenal was turned over to the Confederate Army
for the duration of the war. In 1862, after the Battle of New Orleans
, the Confederacy moved ammunition manufacturing from the Mount Vernon Arsenal to Selma, Alabama
. Selma offered a more secure location farther away from Union forces.
The Confederate Army held the Arsenal almost until the end of the Civil War. After the war was over, the Arsenal was returned to the federal government and the site was renamed the Mount Vernon Barracks. From 1887 to 1894 the Barracks was used as a prison for captured Apache
people, including Geronimo
and his followers. Walter Reed
, the United States Army
physician who confirmed that yellow fever
is spread by mosquito
es, served as post surgeon in the 1880s. In 1895, the site was deeded to the state of Alabama.
established a mental health facility on the site to relieve overcrowding of Bryce Hospital in Tuscaloosa
. The new facility was named the Mount Vernon Hospital upon its opening in 1902 but was renamed Searcy Hospital in 1919, in honor of Dr. J. T. Searcy, the first superintendent. It served African-Americans exclusively until 1969, when it was desegregated
following the Civil Rights Act of 1964
. On May 26, 1988, the Mount Vernon Arsenal/Searcy Hospital Complex was added to the National Register of Historic Places as a historic district. The district is made up of 25 buildings over 360 acre (146 ha), with nine of the structures dating from 1830s still in use. Searcy Hospital currently has 408 extended-care beds and a 124-bed intermediate care unit for patients with severe mental illness. Patients are housed in modern buildings. It also serves the female forensic in-patient psychiatric center for the southern one-third of Alabama.
Historic district (United States)
In the United States, a historic district is a group of buildings, properties, or sites that have been designated by one of several entities on different levels as historically or architecturally significant. Buildings, structures, objects and sites within a historic district are normally divided...
listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in Mount Vernon
Mount Vernon, Alabama
Mount Vernon is a town in Mobile County, Alabama, United States. It is included in the Mobile metropolitan statistical area. At the 2000 census the population was 844.-Geography:Mount Vernon is located at .According to the U.S...
, Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
, in Mobile County
Mobile County, Alabama
Mobile County[p] is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. Its name is in honor of a tribe of Indians, the Maubila tribe . As of 2011, its population was 415,704. Its county seat is Mobile, Alabama...
. It is currently home to Searcy Hospital, a state-owned and operated psychiatric hospital, and was formerly home to the Mount Vernon Arsenal, a United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
munitions depot.
Mount Vernon Arsenal
The Mount Vernon Arsenal was a United States ArmyUnited States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
munitions depot, located on the Mobile River
Mobile River
The Mobile River is located in southern Alabama in the United States. Formed out of the confluence of the Tombigbee and Alabama rivers, the approximately river drains an area of of Alabama, with a watershed extending into Mississippi, Georgia, and Tennessee. Its drainage basin is the...
three miles west of Fort Stoddert
Fort Stoddert
Fort Stoddert was a stockade fort in the Mississippi Territory, in what is today Alabama. It was located on a bluff of the Mobile River, near modern Mount Vernon, close to the confluence of the Tombigbee and Alabama Rivers. It served as the western terminus of the Federal Road which ran through...
, approximately 30 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...
near Mount Vernon
Mount Vernon, Alabama
Mount Vernon is a town in Mobile County, Alabama, United States. It is included in the Mobile metropolitan statistical area. At the 2000 census the population was 844.-Geography:Mount Vernon is located at .According to the U.S...
, Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
. Along with the Kennebec Arsenal
Kennebec Arsenal
Kennebec Arsenal is a historic arsenal and National Historic Landmark District on Arsenal Street in Augusta, Maine.The arsenal was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 and designated a Landmark in 2000....
in Augusta
Augusta, Maine
Augusta is the capital of the US state of Maine, county seat of Kennebec County, and center of population for Maine. The city's population was 19,136 at the 2010 census, making it the third-smallest state capital after Montpelier, Vermont and Pierre, South Dakota...
, Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
, it is one of the most complete antebellum
Antebellum architecture
Antebellum architecture is a term used to describe the characteristic neoclassical architectural style of the Southern United States, especially the Old South, from after the birth of the United States in the American Revolution, to the start of the American Civil War...
arsenals surviving to the present day. It was established by the United States Army in 1828 as an ordnance manufacturing base, the Mount Vernon Arsenal served as one of the US Army's main ammunition
Ammunition
Ammunition is a generic term derived from the French language la munition which embraced all material used for war , but which in time came to refer specifically to gunpowder and artillery. The collective term for all types of ammunition is munitions...
plants from its inception until the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
.
On January 4, 1861, troops of the Alabama state militia took possession of the arsenal on the orders of Alabama governor Andrew B. Moore
Andrew B. Moore
Andrew Barry Moore was the 16th Governor of the U.S. state of Alabama from 1857 to 1861, and served as Governor at the outbreak of the American Civil War....
. The takeover from the small US Army force, commanded by Captain Jesse L. Reno
Jesse L. Reno
Jesse Lee Reno was a career United States Army officer who served in the Mexican-American War, the western frontier, and as a Union General during the American Civil War...
, was peaceful and bloodless. After Alabama joined with other seceded states to form the Confederacy
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
, the Arsenal was turned over to the Confederate Army
Confederate States Army
The Confederate States Army was the army of the Confederate States of America while the Confederacy existed during the American Civil War. On February 8, 1861, delegates from the seven Deep South states which had already declared their secession from the United States of America adopted the...
for the duration of the war. In 1862, after the Battle of New Orleans
Battle of New Orleans (Civil War)
The Capture of New Orleans during the American Civil War was an important event for the Union. Having fought past Forts Jackson and St. Philip, the Union was unopposed in its capture of the city itself, which was spared the destruction suffered by many other Southern cities...
, the Confederacy moved ammunition manufacturing from the Mount Vernon Arsenal to Selma, Alabama
Selma, Alabama
Selma is a city in and the county seat of Dallas County, Alabama, United States, located on the banks of the Alabama River. The population was 20,512 at the 2000 census....
. Selma offered a more secure location farther away from Union forces.
The Confederate Army held the Arsenal almost until the end of the Civil War. After the war was over, the Arsenal was returned to the federal government and the site was renamed the Mount Vernon Barracks. From 1887 to 1894 the Barracks was used as a prison for captured Apache
Apache
Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...
people, including Geronimo
Geronimo
Geronimo was a prominent Native American leader of the Chiricahua Apache who fought against Mexico and the United States for their expansion into Apache tribal lands for several decades during the Apache Wars. Allegedly, "Geronimo" was the name given to him during a Mexican incident...
and his followers. Walter Reed
Walter Reed
Major Walter Reed, M.D., was a U.S. Army physician who in 1900 led the team that postulated and confirmed the theory that yellow fever is transmitted by a particular mosquito species, rather than by direct contact...
, the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
physician who confirmed that yellow fever
Yellow fever
Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease. The virus is a 40 to 50 nm enveloped RNA virus with positive sense of the Flaviviridae family....
is spread by mosquito
Mosquito
Mosquitoes are members of a family of nematocerid flies: the Culicidae . The word Mosquito is from the Spanish and Portuguese for little fly...
es, served as post surgeon in the 1880s. In 1895, the site was deeded to the state of Alabama.
Searcy Hospital
In 1900, the Alabama LegislatureAlabama Legislature
The Alabama Legislature is the legislative branch of the state government of Alabama. It is a bicameral body composed of the Alabama House of Representatives, with 105 members, and the Alabama Senate, with 35 members...
established a mental health facility on the site to relieve overcrowding of Bryce Hospital in Tuscaloosa
Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Tuscaloosa is a city in and the seat of Tuscaloosa County in west central Alabama . Located on the Black Warrior River, it is the fifth-largest city in Alabama, with a population of 90,468 in 2010...
. The new facility was named the Mount Vernon Hospital upon its opening in 1902 but was renamed Searcy Hospital in 1919, in honor of Dr. J. T. Searcy, the first superintendent. It served African-Americans exclusively until 1969, when it was desegregated
Desegregation
Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups usually referring to races. This is most commonly used in reference to the United States. Desegregation was long a focus of the American Civil Rights Movement, both before and after the United States Supreme Court's decision in...
following the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against African Americans and women, including racial segregation...
. On May 26, 1988, the Mount Vernon Arsenal/Searcy Hospital Complex was added to the National Register of Historic Places as a historic district. The district is made up of 25 buildings over 360 acre (146 ha), with nine of the structures dating from 1830s still in use. Searcy Hospital currently has 408 extended-care beds and a 124-bed intermediate care unit for patients with severe mental illness. Patients are housed in modern buildings. It also serves the female forensic in-patient psychiatric center for the southern one-third of Alabama.