Fort Getty (Jamestown, Rhode Island)
Jamestown · Rhode Island · World War I and World War II
History & Significance
Fort Getty is a town park in Jamestown, Rhode Island, on Conanicut Island in Narragansett Bay. The fort was named for Colonel George W. Getty, who had a distinguished career in the Mexican–American War, American Civil War, and afterward.
Fort Getty's construction began in 1901 to defend the West Passage of Narragansett Bay as part of the Coast Defenses of Narragansett Bay during the Endicott Period. The post itself was small: only one 10-man barracks and one storehouse were built.
Fort Getty went into caretaker status soon after completion, but was garrisoned in World War I as a sub-post of Fort Greble. The development of the airplane and the submarine as military weapons made the fort obsolete almost before it was completed.
Early in World War II the fort's location was largely superseded by new defenses centered on Fort Church and Fort Greene. The fort became a prisoner-of-war camp for German prisoners.
For a short while after the war, the fort was used as a school to educate German POWs who had opposed the Hitler regime in the operation of a democracy. In 1948, the fort was disestablished, as were essentially all US coast defenses. Jamestown RI purchased Fort Getty from the federal government in 1955 for use as a town park, and it remains open to the public today.
Key Facts
Map
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🧳 Visiting
What you’ll see when you visit:
- Concrete gun battery emplacements from early 1900s coastal defense
- Narragansett Bay waterfront views and shoreline access
- Historic WWI and WWII military site with interpretive remnants
- Town park with camping and recreational facilities
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Getty
- https://jamestownhistoricalsociety.org/fort-getty-transformed-from-military-site-to-town-park/
- https://fortwiki.com/Fort_Getty
- https://smallstatebighistory.com/the-prisoner-of-war-camps-at-forts-getty-and-wetherill-in-jamestown-reeducating-world-war-ii-german-pows-with-the-best-of-intentions/
- https://www.jamestownpress.com/articles/jamestown-historical-society-100-years-endicott-fortifications/
- https://rhodetour.org/tours/show/34
Other Forts in Rhode Island
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