In the late 1860s, due to overcrowding in the fort, a request was made for having exterior officers quarters erected to provide suitable quarters for officers and their families. In 1869, the Quartermaster Department authorized four wood frame officers' cottages at the Post of Goldsboro, N.C., to be dismantled and transferred to Fort Macon. The cottages were then rebuilt in a row on the northeast slope of the fort glacis about 135 feet from the fort's walls. The cottages were simple wood frame weather board structures consisting of four rooms separated by a central hallway. Each cottage had a porch and veranda extending across its front. At the rear of the cottage was breeze way connecting a kitchen and servant's quarters. The houses were about 40 feet wide by 55 feet long. Their foundations were brick piers. Two fireplaces heated the four rooms of the main cottage while a third fireplace served the kitchen. Interior walls were of lath and plaster.

Period drawings exist of the houses, along with a complete bill of materials for the repairs to one of the houses that provides details and information as to how they were built. The cottage will be built approximately on its original site adjacent to the walkway as one approaches the fort. it will be furnished with examples of period furniture and used for interpretation of soldier and family life at the fort in the late 19th century. Helping with the interpretation will be living history volunteers in period dress.


Period of Interpretation: The four Officer's quarters at Fort Macon were erected in 1869-70. They were used to house garrison officers and their families until the garrison was withdrawn at the end of Reconstruction in 1877. The interpretation will reflect military and family life during this seven year period.

Furnishings: The fumishings will reflect 1860s to 1870s Victorian-style furniture and amenities. Of necessity, many of the larger and more important fumishings will be antique originals. The furnishings will include pieces for a parlor/living room, two bedrooms, dining room, servant's quarters and kitchen. They will also include toys and childrens' play-things since the house will be set up to portray occupancy by both a married officer's family and an unmarried officer. A furnishings committee of the Friends of Fort Macon, in cooperation with the park staff, will be responsible for obtaining suitable fumishings. Many period photographs exist to serve as a guide. There are numerous restored historic houses of the period which can provide additional documentation of what such an officer's quarters would have contained.

Exhibit Layout: The house will be interpreted as being occupied by a married officer, his wife and children, as well as by an unmarried officer. Because of overcrowding in the fort, it was common that the quarters were shared by more than one officer, including married and unmarried officers. The house is to be laid out in the manner described in the Jeannie Coues letter of March 12,1870. On the left side of the hallway, the front room is to be the parlor. The rear room is to be the bedroom for a married officer and family. On the right side of the hallway, the front room is to be set up as quarters for an unmarried officer. The rear room is to be the common dining room. Of the two rooms at the rear of the house, the one on the right is to be the kitchen and the one on the left set up as a servant's quarters.

The house will be interpreted as the quarters for Dr. Elliott Coues, his wife Jeannie and their daughter Edyth. Dr. Coues, the Fort surgeon, was a nationally recognized ornithologist and spent much of his time at Fort Macon collecting and mailing specimens of coastal birds to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. We have considerable insight into Dr. Coues' activities through copies of letters he wrote to many of his associates in related fields. The same is true for the Coues family life as reflected in letters written by Jeannie Coues to her sister and other friends.