Historic Salem, Inc., Salem, Massachusetts - Historic Burial Grounds Endangered Resources

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Most Endangered Historic Resources

Fort Lee, overlooking Salem Willows

History/background

Fort Lee probably started as an earthwork and gun platform somewhere between 1690 and 1694. The height of the mount and its view toward Salem and Beverly harbors made it a logical site for a coastal fortification.

In 1742 the town, with funds provided by the General Court, erected breastworks and gun platforms there. A week after the burning of Portland, Maine, on October 16, 1775, the town of Salem voted to put the Forts on the Neck and on Winter Island in shape to defend the town. By the next spring a committee from the Provincial Congress reported that this fort "now erecting on an eminence not far distant from those already mentioned, commands Beverly & Salem Harbours in a very advantageous manner. "This Fort, we must own, does credit to the Gentlemen of the Town of Salem…".

The fort was modernized and the firepower strengthened to the point where the fort was manned by 16 eight-pound cannons. British threat made it necessary to refortify the fort. It was rebuilt under the direction Richard Gridley, complete with a stone walled gun magazine, and was garrisoned by over one hundred artillerymen.

According to Old Naumkeag, it was named Fort Lee in honor of General Henry Lee, commander of the northeastern division of the country, who in 1775 selected this hill as a place for a formidable fort. One historian of the National Park Service suggests that it was named for Colonel Jeremiah Lee of Marblehead, and another source believes it was named for Colonel William R. Lee of Marblehead. For Lee was repaired in 1809 and again in 1863, and according to a story Salem Evening News, there were four cannon there in 1934.

The fort was again repaired and garrisoned as defense against the threat of Confederate Raiders during the Civil War. This was the last active role that Fort Lee had as part of Salem's coastal defense. Four post Civil War cannons, on top of the earthen walls of the fort remained in place until scrapped for the WWII war effort.

Source:
This material largely based upon research done by Gilbert L Streeter as quoted in the Salem Evening News in an undated clipping in a scrapbook at the Phillips Library.

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