The site was first chosen as a fort and then as an agency upon the advice of Col. Wright, who urged the warm climate and favorable conditions of all sorts, including a region of springs known among the Indians as '*Mool Mool".

It is reported that materials for the building were brought around Cape Horn, transported from Portland, Oregon, via the Dalles, to the fort. the extent of this is unknown.

May well be the only remaining all-iron building still used for its original purpose. It is also an early example of prefabricated construction, all its parts having been constructed by Architectural Iron Works in New York and shipped up the Hudson to be erected on the site.

In 1813 the United States and Britain were engaged in military skirmishes that later historians document as the War of 1812. One of the problem spots to the Americans was the area around present-day Troy, New York. Expecting an attack from the north at Lake Champlain, or from the west at Niagara Falls, the U.S. Army Ordnance Department (that department of the Army which purchases, manufactures and repairs weapons and ammunition) decided to locate an arsenal in that vicinity. To that purpose the U.S. Government purchased twelve acres of land from James Gibbon and his wife for the sum of $2,585. On the west bank of the Hudson River, the Village of Gibbonsville was directly across the river from Troy. In later years the name of the arsenal (and the surrounding town) was changed to Watervliet (flooding waters) and the installation grew and achieved national attention under that name.