The western blockhouse, or Lunette

Topeka ? The U.S. House is expected to vote Tuesday night on a bill that would authorize the Fort Scott National Historic Site to officially acquire a Civil War-era blockhouse that has been in private hands since the end of that war.

Second District Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins, a Republican, introduced legislation in March to allow the transaction.

The building is known as the Lunette Blair or, more familiarly, the western blockhouse. But when the old fort was designated as a National Historic Site in 1978, the enacting legislation specifically prohibited the National Park Service from acquiring it, according to the park superintendent, Betty Boyko.

The western blockhouse, or Lunette

The old fort was originally built in 1842, during the Mexican War era, but it saw renewed activity some 20 years later during the Civil War because of its proximity to the Missouri border. During that war, the Army fortified the base with four blockhouses, or “lunettes.”

Soldiers during the war dubbed those buildings as Fort Lincoln, Fort Henning, Fort Insley and Fort Blair. Of those, Fort Blair, or “Lunette Blair,” is the only one still standing in the community.

After the war, the U.S. government sold the structures to private owners. Lunette Blair had several owners over the decades, including most recently the Molly Foster Berry Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

For many years, the image of the blockhouse was used as a logo for the Western Insurance Company, which was headquartered in Fort Scott until it went out of business in 1986.

Since then, Boyko said, retired Western employees, many of whom are members of the DAR and the Bourbon County Historical Preservation Association, have been maintaining the building on a volunteer basis. But as they have begun to age, she said, they approached the Park Service about handing the building over.

That, however, requires an act of Congress.

“I am pleased to see this legislation passed with strong bipartisan support, and I will continue to monitor the status of this bill as it makes its way to the House floor,” Jenkins said in a June 27 press release about the bill. “This is a great step forward and I am honored to help the Fort Scott community preserve the Lunette Blair blockhouse’s historical legacy.”