Excavating the history of the Hessian Powder Magazine
CUMBERLAND COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM)– The Hessian Powder Magazine was Built in 1777, as part of a Continental Army Depot at Carlisle known informally as “Washingtonburg.” This depot would eventually become the Carlisle Barracks we know today, housing the U.S. Army War College. The Hessian part comes from the belief it was built by Hessian prisoners of war captured at the Battle of Trenton in December of 1776. However, according to John Leightown Jr., Curator at the Army Heritage and Education Center:
“We know there were Hessian POWs here. What we don’t know is, did they do any work to build this particular building.”
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Recently, The Army Heritage and Education Center was assigned operational responsibility for this building. But documentation of the building was scattered, and the architecture of building itself has never been thoroughly studied. In fact, the most solid evidence the building was a powder magazine is that the stone and brick walls are six feet thick.
That’s why an archeologist and students from Juniata College are digging around the building, and an architect from the National Park Service is studying the structure, for what’s called a Historic structures report.
“Which at its most simple terms is a planning document for owners of the building,” says Rebecca Cybularz, a Historical Architect for the National Park Service, which will produce the final report. “Figure out what they have, how it’s changed over time, the current condition, and then we provide recommendations for its future use and treatment.”
Learning the history of the Hessian Powder Magazine
The building was repurposed over the years. In the 1830s the building was turned into a guard house, and became known as the Hessian Guard House. John Leightown Jr. notes that change was just the first of many.
“Part of the Medical Service Field School, it was used as a darkroom, used for general storage, a lot of different uses.”
And it saw a lot of alterations, inside and out.
“We’re starting to notice that a lot of the partition walls probably were added after original construction,” says Rebecca Cybularz. Over the years porches, chimneys, and cupolas were added and removed. The building now looks pretty much as it did in 1777 – except for one thing.
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“We had a ground penetrating radar survey done. That’s giving us up to 16 targets,” says Dr. Jonathon Burns, archeologist at Juniata College. “So we’re doing what’s called ground truthing, and digging the hole and seeing what actually gave us the reflection.
Eight of those targets were right along the building, and matched up features shown on early maps. The archeologists excavated a series of external buttresses, with foundations dug down to bedrock.
“That allowed us to immediately answer one of the main questions, which was, was this struture a power magazine? And we can definitively say yes, because you wouldn’t buttress anything other than that.”
“They were all the way up the side of the building, keeping pressure against these super thick walls, so that if it did explode, it would go through the roof, instead of around the base. So this was built for function.”
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Not only did they find the buttresses, they uncovered an important clue. “We did find one military coat button, which helps us date the demolition of those buttresses because it was in the fill of the demolition,” say Dr. Burns.
There’s a lot more digging, sifting, sorting, researching and writing to do before the historic structure report will be ready.
“It usually takes us about 18 months,” explains Rebecca Cybularz. “This is kind of the beginning of our site work and research, so we’ll start in earnest in July, then about 18 months after that.”
John Leightown Jr. is already working on plans to upgrade the exhibits in and around the Hessian Powder Magazine. “We’re organizing a documentary film on the project, which will air June 14th, 2025, birth of the United States Army, and we hope to have the new interpretation in place by July 4th, 2026, birth of the nation.”
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