Fort Moore

About

Fort Moore was a U.S. Military fortification built on Fort Hill (now called Fort Moore Hill) overlooking Los Angeles, California. The fort was constructed soon after the conquest of California in 1847, towards the end of the Mexican–American War.

Pueblo de Los Ángeles was first occupied by U.S. troops in August 1846, however the troops were forced out during the Siege of Los Angeles. In the course of the siege, American troops had climbed to the top of the hill where they erected a temporary barricade before being ejected from the city. When American troops again took Los Angeles in January 1847, they began construction of a fort at the site of the hill-top barricade. Known as the Post at Los Angeles, work on the fort was not completed before military leadership decided to replace the unfinished fort with the larger Fort Moore.

Thus, Fort Moore became the second fort and third fortification to be built on Fort Moore Hill. The fort was decommissioned within just a few years and the hill was divided up for different uses. Over the decades, the city’s first non-Catholic cemetery was established on the hill, many of Los Angeles’ elite built their mansions near its crest, and the local school district constructed various school buildings atop the hill.

In 1949, much of the hill was removed during construction of the Hollywood Freeway. In 1958, the Fort Moore Pioneer Memorial was completed to memorialize the fort and pioneers. Today, the Ramón C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts is a significant institution on what remains of the hill.

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)。Photography via Wikimedia Commons.