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Fort McPherson

U.S. Army base in Georgia, USA

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 21, 2026
Entity authorityQ3710071 ↗
Source-derived summary

Fort McPherson is a former United States Army installation in Atlanta, Georgia, named for Major General James B. McPherson. The Army established a predecessor post in west Atlanta in 1867 during the Reconstruction era. After that post was abandoned in 1881, Congress authorized the purchase of land for a new installation in 1885. Fort McPherson subsequently served as a hospital and recruit-training center during the Spanish–American War, an internment camp for German prisoners of war during World War I, and a reception, hospital, and separation center during World War II. In its later years it housed several major Army commands, including the U.S. Army Forces Command, U.S. Army Reserve Command, U.S. Army Central, and the Installation Management Command's Southeast Region.

As a result of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure process, Fort McPherson closed on September 15, 2011. Portions of the former post were subsequently transferred or sold for new uses. In 2015, Tyler Perry purchased 330 acres for Tyler Perry Studios.

Military history

Origins

Situated on 487 acres (1.97 km2) and located four miles (6 km) southwest of the center of Atlanta, Fort McPherson is rich in military tradition as an army post dating back to 1867. It was during that year that a post was established in west Atlanta on the grounds where Spelman College is now located. Between the years 1867 and 1881, the post was garrisoned in turn by elements of the 2nd, 16th and 18th U.S. Infantry Regiments and the 5th Artillery.

Editorial summary

“Fort McPherson” enters the record as u.S. Army base in Georgia, USA. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Fort, McPherson and Army can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1867, 1881, 1885, 2005—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1885. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Fort, McPherson and Army.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Fort McPherson” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Fort, McPherson and Army provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3710071. VIAF identifies the subject as 137380927. The Library of Congress control number is n97119822. Authority coordinates are 33.706, -84.433. 4 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1867, 1881, 1885 and 2005.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Fort McPherson” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.