Fort Pickens and Mount Vernon Barracks: Geronimo's prisons, later Alabama's asylum for Black patients (Pensacola, 1886–88; Mount Vernon, AL, 1887/88–1894)

SUMMARYFort Pickens and Mount Vernon Barracks: Geronimo's prisons, later Alabama's asylum for Black patients (Pensacola, 1886–88; Mount Vernon, AL, 1887/88–1894) [Connections: Masonic color line, asylums, castles, wight, Nov 5, 2026]

RECORDNPS (Gulf Islands) says Geronimo and "15 other Apache men" were held at Fort Pickens. "The families were reunited at Fort Pickens in 1887." The prisoners were moved to Mobile "because of a yellow fever scare," then to Fort Sill, where Geronimo died and was buried in 1909. Wikipedia: "From 1887 to 1894 the Barracks was used as a prison for captured Apache people, including Geronimo and his followers." The same grounds then became the Mount Vernon Insane Hospital (also "Mount Vernon Hospital for the Colored Insane"), renamed Searcy Hospital in 1919. It "served African-Americans exclusively until 1969" and closed on 31 October 2012

PATTERNOne federal site served first as a prison for Apache families and then as a segregated asylum for Black Alabamians. Sections 2 and 3 meet on the same ground

LENS (WW9)The same walls held the nations and then the people renamed "colored."

OPENDates conflict. Alabama's historical marker gives the hospital as established in 1900 and opened in 1902, while another source says the arsenal was "adapted" in 1910. The years at Mount Vernon are given as 1887–1894 or 1888–1894. Check the NRHP nomination (ref. 88000676) and Army records

SOURCENPS: Apache Prisoners at Fort Pickens; Wikipedia: Mount Vernon Arsenal; Wikipedia: Searcy Hospital.