Drum Barracks - Front

The Drum Barracks Civil War Museum is housed in one of two remaining structures of a thriving 60 acre, eighteen structure military post. The picture shows the front side of the building, which would have faced the sixteen acre parade grounds. The Junior Officers Quarters has two separate entrances and was originally built as a duplex with no doors connecting the two halves; interiors doors were added at a later date. It is believed that married officers occupied one half, and single officers occupied the other half.

Each of the barracks buildings held a company of soldiers, which consisted of approximately100 men. As many as 7,000 Union troops passed through Drum Barracks between 1861 and 1871.

Once the building was closed as a military facility, the 60 acres which made up Drum Barracks were returned to Phineas Banning and B. D. Wilson, the original donors. Later that year the buildings were purchased by these same two gentlemen at a government auction. The total price was $3,627. On August 31, 1873 the Los Angeles Star reported Wilson's gift of "10 acres of land; an elegant 2-story building which cost $25,000 and one large building, cost $5-6,000 adapted for boarding house; for educational purposes" donated to the Los Angeles Conference of Methodists. Wilson College opened in early 1874 as the first coeducational college west of the Mississippi. Although the school was a success, it closed a few years later, after the Methodist Church planned a larger school on 348 acres of donated land closer to Los Angeles. This school, which opened in October, 1880, became known as the University of Southern California.