Fort Heath

Fort Heath
Part of Harbor Defenses of Boston
location: Winthrop Highlands at Grovers Cliff
Southeastward view with the face of Grovers Cliff along foreground shore, large rectangular white area on west (right). Pictured items not on the 1921 map include the roads through the barracks area connecting to the off-post intersection that is now the Highland Av & Pond St intersection (right).
Fort Heath Location in Massachusetts
Coordinates	42°23′22.36″N 70°58′10.15″W / 42.3895444°N 70.9694861°W / 42.3895444; -70.9694861Coordinates: 42°23′22.36″N 70°58′10.15″W / 42.3895444°N 70.9694861°W / 42.3895444; -70.9694861
Type	coastal artillery site and radio/radar station : General William Heath (Continental Army) namesake: Fort Heath Apartments
Site information
Owner	private and municipal
Condition	private apartment complex and municipal park
Site history
Built	c. 1898
In use	1898–1966
Demolished	1947 – buildings 1969 – control site tbd – nuclear bunker 1979–1980 – FAA radar & building
Battles/wars	World War I World War II Cold War

External images

1938 map with AAA emplacements

155 mm cannon under construction

AMTB Battery 945

Fort Heath was a US seacoast military installation for defense of the Boston and Winthrop Harbors with an early 20th-century Coast Artillery fort, a 1930s USCG radio station, prewar naval research facilities, World War II 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 The fort's military structures have been replaced by a residential complex, including the luxurious Forth Heath Apartments, and recreation facilities of Small Park, which has both a commemorative wall and an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.

The Grover Cliff geodetic survey station marker was emplaced in 1847 (42°23′22.79″N 070°58′08.643″W / 42.3896639°N 70.96906750°W / 42.3896639; -70.96906750, lost by 1922), and the military site was renamed Grover's Cliff Military Reservation. 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. 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.