Point Frederick (Kingston, Ontario)

The peninsula is located at the south end of the Rideau Canal where Lake Ontario empties into the St. Lawrence River.

Fort Frederick, at the south end of the peninsula, is a feature of the Kingston Fortifications National Historic Site of Canada.

The area, eventually to be called Kingston, was relinquished to the British after the Seven Years' War and became a receiving centre for Loyalists fleeing from the American Revolution.

[1] When the Provincial Marine relocated from Carleton Island to Kingston, Point Frederick was established as a naval depot in 1789.

[2] During the War of 1812 Point Frederick became a dockyard from which attacks were launched on the American bases at Sackets Harbor and Oswego.

[3] The Point Frederick War of 1812 Commemorative Plaque, which was installed in 2013, outlines the "Strategic importance: During the entire War of 1812, Canadian, British and American land and naval forces campaigned across a vast territory from the Mississippi Valley, through the region south of Montreal, and well into the territories of the Atlantic coast.

For the Anglo-Canadian Forces, the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario was the strategic linkage for manpower and vital supplies for all inland points including the provincial capital, York, the Niagara Peninsula, and further garrisons west.

At the end of 1814, the Kingston Dockyard produced the largest naval Squadron on the Great Lakes, with 1,600 personnel serving on the massive flagship St. Lawrence, on four other ships, and four smaller vessels totalling 518 guns.

Since Point Frederick was a narrow peninsula, officer`s quarters and a fence could be built to control access, effectively isolating the grounds.

In 1909, two squash courts were built on the shore of Navy Bay to the south of the gymnasium, Panet House and the water-pumping plant.

In 1918, a temporary wooden building was erected south of the Fort Frederick dormitory for use as a naval college gymnasium and a 'quarterdeck' for divisions and evening quarters for thirty-two cadets and twenty-nine ratings who had been rendered homeless by the Halifax Explosion of 6 December 1917.