The depot had a wharf on San Diego Bay to load and unload supplies.

The depot supported Southern California forts, stations and posts with military supplies.

The land for the depot was sold to the US Army by Gray, Johns, George F. Hooper, Davis and wife, Jose Aguirre and wife, and the heirs of Miguel de Pedrorena on September 12, 1850.

The Great Flood of 1862 turned the depot into a sea of water and mud.

[2] A historical marker was put at the site of the former San Diego Barracks in 1955, on West Harbor Drive, half a block east of Ruocco Park, by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors and the Historical Markers Committee.