Hessian Barracks
A Revolutionary war prison and Civil War hospital

Historians believe the Hessian Barracks were built during the French and Indian War (1754-1763). The L-shaped two-story stone structure with gallery porches is what remains of the original building that was demolished in 1870 to supply materials for the Maryland School for the Deaf building adjacent to the barracks. The barracks are located on the school’s campus.

Much of what is known about the building comes from oral histories. The school’s first principal, William D. Cooke, following these histories, believed the barracks “were built during the reign of George II, and that they were occupied by General Braddock and his troops on their route to Fort Dusquene.” However, the State of Maryland did contract to build barracks in Frederick in the summer of 1777. A 1781 letter to Governor Thomas Lee, written by a British officer held at the barrack, reveals the barracks had not been completed by then—which leaves the possibility that the 1777 barracks were to be constructed on the site of the existing one. French prisoners of war captured during the undeclared 1799 sea war with France and British soldiers taken prisoner in the War of 1812 occupied the barracks.

In the 19th century the Barracks served several state and community needs, including a state armory and a silk worm production site; the barracks yard served as the Agricultural Fairgrounds from 1853 to 1860.

After the Battle of Antietam in 1862, the Barracks building served as a hospital for the wounded from both North and South. The barracks was chosen as the site of the  Maryland Institution for the Deaf and Dumb in 1867. Before the construction of the first building in 1871, the school met in the barracks. The Industrial Department of the Maryland Institution for the Deaf and Dumb continued to use the barracks for a few years after the construction of the 1871 school building. The school’s Board of Directors authorized demolition of the western of the two original barracks buildings