This former Brunswick military base teems with local history

One of the most prominent structures in downtown Southport, Fort Johnston also has an outsize place when it comes to local history.

The former military base on the Cape Fear River has its origins in the first half of the 18th century, when European settlers were just beginning to lay down roots in Southeastern North Carolina.

According to a 2010 StarNews story that uses Wilson Angley's 1996 book “A History of Fort Johnston on the Lower Cape Fear” as its primary source, the fort's creation by the British was spurred when France sided with Spain in the War of the Austrian Succession against England in 1744.

The very next year, N.C. Gov. Gabriel Johnston, for whom Fort Johnston is named, decreed that a fort be built on the Cape Fear to protect both Wilmington and Brunswick Town, which was still inhabited at that time, from Spanish raids.

It was a good idea that came a bit too late. By the time the fort was completed in 1749, the Spanish had already looted Brunswick Town a year earlier. Even so, Fort Johnston would play a big part in military affairs, both locally and nationally, for more than a century.

MyReporter: The story behind Fort Johnston in Southport

Soldiers from Fort Johnston helped fight the French and Indian Wars for the British in the mid 1750s. During the Revolutionary War, local rebels burned the fort.

Once it was in American hands, Fort Johnston was rebuilt in 1795, which is also the year that Southport, then known as Smithville, held its first Fourth of July celebration. It's a tradition that continues to this day with the N.C. Fourth of July Festival, of which Fort Johnston is a focal point, hosting an annual naturalization ceremony , concerts and more.

The building known as Fort Johnston today is actually the old Garrison House, which dates to 1810. (It's not the oldest surviving structure in Southport, which is thought to be the Walker-Pyke House about a block away at 115 E. Bay St. It dates to around 1800.)

The fort was taken over by Confederate forces during the Civil War, then returned to U.S. control after the South lost. It remained a military base until 1881 and used by the federal government for decades afterward, housing agencies including the U.S. Signal Corps, the National Weather Service, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Surveying Corps. It was even used as a USO during World War II.

Fort Johnston was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, and in 2006, the federal government transferred control of the property to the city of Southport. It is now the site of the Fort Johnston-Southport Museum and Visitors’ Center and the Southport Historical Society .

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: This former Brunswick military base teems with local history