Fort Dallas Fort Dallas was a military base during the Seminole Wars , located on the banks of the Miami River in what is now Downtown , Miami , Florida , United States . History . Old Fort Dallas was established on the plantation of Richard Fitzpatrick in 1836 as a United States military post and cantonment ( and not as a fortification , although it is more than probable that there was a stockade surrounding it in its early days ) in southern Florida during the Seminole Wars . It was named in honor of Commodore Alexander James Dallas , United States Navy , then in command of the United States naval forces in the West Indies . The first commandant was Lieutenant F . M . Powell , who remained in command about two years . From 1836 to 1857 it was occupied much of the time by troops , but was not a military reservation . Quite a number of buildings were erected , and today only two remain . In addition to these , there were a dozen comfortable dwellings besides the slave quarters , stables , and a blacksmith forge . The Post Surgeon occasionally took meteorological observations . Fort Dallas remained in Union hands during the American Civil War and was abandoned afterward . During the war , the place was occupied by refugees from many places , and at the close of the war by a band of desperadoes . Judah P . Benjamin , who served as Attorney General , Secretary of War , and Secretary of State for the Confederacy , made his escape to Cuba through Indian River and Bay Biscayne . In describing the trip , he refers to the rough treatment he received at the hands of occupants of the fort , but , he added that it was a beautiful and picturesque spot , with its white houses and fine parade ground . The interior of the fort has been improved , and care has been taken to preserve the exterior unchanged . When the soldiers left , the fort became the base for a tiny village established by William H . English , the new owner , which he called Miami . Some of the buildings were razed to the ground and removed to other locations , and in 1872 , while the property was occupied by Dr . Harris , all the remaining buildings except the two still standing were burned , the fire originating accidentally in the house occupied by Dr . Harris . In 1891 , Julia Tuttle brought her family to live in a large home on the Miami River that had been in use when Fort Dallas occupied the spot . Tuttle repaired and converted the home into one of the show places in the area with a sweeping view of the river and Biscayne Bay . The “ barracks ” , as they are called , remained on the site as the only remnant of the fort until 1924 when an apartment building was slated to occupy the site . The coquina stone building was disassembled in sections and moved to Lummus Park on the north side of the Miami River at Northwest River Drive and North Third Street . This barracks served as plantation slave quarters , then as army barracks during the Seminole Wars , and , before being moved here stone by stone , finally as Julia Tuttle ' s home in 1891 . In 1895 , following the successful efforts of Tuttle and fellow landowner William Brickell to attract a railroad , Fort Dallas was part of the site of the new city of Miami , Florida when Henry M . Flagler extended his Florida East Coast Railway south from Palm Beach . Perhaps coincidentally , Tuttle , Brickell , and Flagler were all originally from Cleveland , Ohio .