Old Fort Park in Fort Pierce

Old Fort Park sits in the 800 block of South Indian River Drive, on the Indian River south of downtown Fort Pierce, and the city's Public Works park list classes it as urban open space.

The City of Fort Pierce Public Works Department park list gives the location as S Indian River Dr (800 blk) and the park type as Urban Open Space (City of Fort Pierce City Parks list). That list, marked Updated: 10/3/2013, places the park under City Operated Facilities. The city's About Fort Pierce page names Old Fort Park among the parks that attract residents and visitors, in the same list as Marina Square, Veterans Memorial and the Indian Hills Restoration and Recreation Parks (About Fort Pierce).

City of Fort Pierce parks are open from sunrise to sunset unless otherwise posted (City of Fort Pierce City Parks). The city's parking rules add that overnight parking in or adjacent to city parks and beaches is prohibited (Fort Pierce Parking).

Yes, in part: the National Register nomination for the Fort Pierce Site on South Indian River Drive says the fort ground lies partly on private property and partly in a public park, though there are no visible remains of the fort.

The nomination, prepared in April 1973 by the Florida Division of Archives, History and Records Management, describes a site of about 6.2 acres centered near latitude 27 degrees 26 minutes 10 seconds north, longitude 80 degrees 19 minutes 14 seconds west (Fort Pierce Site nomination). It says Indian River Drive runs parallel to the river not far from the edge of a bluff that rises sharply from the water, that the land west of the road is mostly flat except for an earth mound, and that the mound, located in the park, is well covered in foliage. The same form describes the park portion as owned and maintained by St. Lucie County. The City of Fort Pierce Public Works park list, by contrast, places Old Fort Park under City Operated Facilities (City of Fort Pierce City Parks list).

The nomination also records that the site as a unit had not been excavated by professional archaeologists, and that a house once stood in front of the mound until it was removed around the middle of the twentieth century. The Old City Hall nomination adds that the fort was placed on a bluff, the highest point visible, on the west bank four miles south of the Indian River Inlet, near an Ais mound and a spring (Old Fort Pierce City Hall nomination).

The U.S. Army built Fort Pierce during the Second Seminole War as one of a chain of forts across the peninsula, and named it for Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Pierce, whose brother Franklin Pierce became the 14th President.

According to the Fort Pierce Site nomination, the campaign of the fall and winter of 1837 to 1838 sent Pierce and the First Artillery Regiment south along the Indian River, and by January 2 the force had reached a point on the west bank about four miles south of the Indian River Inlet (Fort Pierce Site nomination). The regimental assistant surgeon's journal, quoted in the form, called it the highest point of land on the whole river, with a bluff ten or fifteen feet above the water; the regiment camped on the beach and began a palmetto log blockhouse on the heights. The Old City Hall nomination gives the same story and notes the date varies by account: late 1837 by some, perhaps the morning of January 2, 1838 by the surgeon's journal (Old City Hall nomination, historical context).

The post served as a support station for troops around the Indian River Inlet. The Fort Pierce Site form says the commander of the entire campaign arrived in January with a large force and stayed a few days, when Fort Pierce served as quarters for the Army of the South, after which it reverted to a supply and support post and may even have been abandoned for a time.

A plan of Fort Pierce dated July 30, 1839, which the nomination credits to the National Archives, shows a blockhouse near the river linked by picket lines to log company quarters, officers quarters and a stockade, with a hospital standing apart to the south.

The Fort Pierce Site nomination describes the plan in detail: the blockhouse stood about twenty-five yards from the west bank of the Indian River, picket lines tied it to company quarters a few yards north and to a second company quarters to the west, two officers quarters closed the west side, three contiguous log houses formed the north side, and a picket fence, or stockade, ran parallel to the river along the whole front of the complex (Fort Pierce Site nomination, description). The buildings were described as log houses, presumably of palmetto logs like the original blockhouse.

That 1839 layout reflects a rebuilding. The form says the Fourth Artillery Regiment reinforced or rebuilt the fort between the late fall of 1838 and the summer of 1839, probably in the cooler months, and that by July 1839 the commanding general reported Fort Pierce rebuilt and reoccupied. The plan also marked a large swampy pond to the west; the 1973 form noted that a body of water at that spot had become part of a golf course, with the Florida East Coast Railway running between it and the park.

The Army abandoned Fort Pierce in August 1842, settlers used it as a stopping place, and its buildings were later destroyed by fire, with the Old City Hall nomination giving 1843 for the burning.

The Fort Pierce Site form records a final occupation by the Third Artillery Regiment from late March 1841, and one event of note: in May 1841 the Seminole leader Coacoochee came to Fort Pierce after an offer from the Army commander in Florida, and the post issued him a horse for the trip to Tampa for his final surrender (Fort Pierce Site nomination). It says no other specific event of importance occurred before the abandonment in August 1842, and quotes an 1844 newspaper describing the fort afterward as a general stopping place for travelers and a resort for settlers on the St. Lucie and Indian Rivers, who stored supplies there.

Soldiers left behind buttons, bottles and other articles, and the 1973 form says this collection, known as the Neiman collection, was then on display at the small museum of the St. Lucie County Historical Society. In 1879, the form adds, a sea captain brought his family to the area and set up a trading post at what a contemporary source called the location of old Fort Pierce. The Old City Hall nomination picks up the thread: pioneers of the 1840s along the Indian River used the ruins of Fort Pierce as a reference point for land claims (Old City Hall nomination).

Old Fort Park marks the Second Seminole War post that gave Fort Pierce its name, which is a different place from Fort Capron, a later fort built near present day St. Lucie Village.

The Old City Hall nomination says settler families who left the Indian River for St. Augustine in the 1840s did not return until the 1850s, after the government built Fort Capron near their homesteads, the site of present day St. Lucie Village (Old City Hall nomination). Old Fort Park is also distinct from the downtown waterfront parks on the same city list, such as Marina Square and Veterans Memorial, which the About Fort Pierce page names separately (About Fort Pierce).

Nothing of the fort survives above ground at Old Fort Park, so the National Register form's plan and description are the record of what stood there. The Fort Pierce historic buildings guide covers the downtown National Register buildings, and the Fort Pierce parks guide covers the other city parks.