Fort Heath
Major General William Heath

"Fort Heath, named after a Revolutionary War General, stood on this strategic Grovers Cliff headland and served as a link in our East Coast defense network from 1899 until 1965. Three 12” guns on hydraulic lifts were first installed, cable of firing sixteen miles to sea. As a Coast Artillery tracking station during the World Wars, Ft. Heath once had a 90mm anti-motor torpedo boat fixed battery and two 155mm guns. In the 1950’s, the 'Missile Master' controlled the area’s Army Air Defense NIKE AJAX anti-aircraft missile system. After 1965, the FAA converted and integrated one large radar dome in the air traffic control system for Logan Airport. The town of Winthrop established this park in 1992."

"Fort Heath was a US seacoast military installation for defense of the Boston and Winthrop Harbors with an early 20th-century Coast Artillery fort, a 1930's USCG radio station, prewar Navy research facilities, World War II batteries, and a Cold War radar station."

"Fort Heath (1895-1965) - An Endicott Period Coastal Fort first established as Grover's Cliff Military Reservation (1895-1899) in 1895 near Winthrop, Suffolk County, Massachusetts. Named Fort Heath in G.O. 43, 4 Apr 1900, after William Heath, a delegate from Massachusetts to the Federal Constitutional Convention, who served faithfully and honorably as a Major General in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. Abandoned in 1965."

The fort was named for Major General William Heath (1737 - 1814), an American farmer, soldier, and political leader from Massachusetts who served as a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War

Memoirs of Major General William Heath