First Territorial Capital of Kansas

Fort Leavenworth was the site of Kansas’ first territorial capital… for a little less than two months.

From October 7 to November 24, 1854, Governor Andrew J. Reeder conducted territory business in the Old Assembly Hall, the one-story, brick-and-stone building you see on the left side of the rendering above. No legislature ever met here – that claim to fame goes to Fort Riley, where members held their inaugural (and highly contentious) meeting in 1855. The cities of Shawnee Mission and Lecompton also have some claim to early territory governance, as abolitionist and pro-slavery politicians clashed for control of “Bleeding Kansas” and attempted to de-legitimize various elections and push their own agendas.

In 1874, the Old Assembly Hall gained a new neighbor. After a report on the inhumane treatment faced by military prisoners gained attention from Congress, a bill was signed calling for the construction of a separate facility for convicted soldiers. Using inmate construction and materials quarried on site, stone walls grew, and the U.S. Military Prison accepted its first inmates from Alcatraz in 1878. In 1915, its name was changed to the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks, and at its busiest could house 3,000 prisoners. A new facility was constructed in 2003, so what you see before you are a few of the walls and administrative buildings of the former prison “castle.”

Wayside Point of Interest #12