The Eastern Point fort, never formally named, was sited to be able to engage any enemy approaching from seaward.

It was built near the end of the peninsula forming the eastern side of Gloucester's harbor, on the "high land of the farm of Thomas Niles".

Eastern Point was the only Civil War fort on the north shore of Massachusetts Bay not on the site of a previous fortification.

An author has examined a period photograph and determined that the 24-pounders could have been in the bombproof, which was sited for landward defense with embrasures suitable for cannon.

[4] In the 1920s a resort hotel or manor house named the "Ramparts" was built inside the fort, featuring two stone towers.