---
kind: "range"
citation: "16 U.S.C. §§ 437–440"
title: "16"
from: "437"
to: "440"
count: 4
release: "119-102"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/16/437..440"
---

# §437. Fort McHenry; restoration and preservation


The [Secretary](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-1) of the Interior is authorized and directed to begin the [restoration](/usc/16/6456.md?p=2) of Fort McHenry, in the [State](/usc/16/6456.md?p=2) of Maryland, including the [restoration](/usc/16/6456.md?p=2) of the old Fort McHenry proper to such a condition as would make it suitable for preservation permanently as a national monument and perpetual national [memorial](/usc/16/450ss–1.md?p=2) shrine as the birthplace of the immortal “Star-Spangled Banner” written by Francis Scott Key, and he is further authorized and directed, as are his successors, to hold the said Fort McHenry in perpetuity as a military reservation, national monument and historic shrine, and to maintain it as such, except that part mentioned in [section 439 of this title](/usc/16/439.md), and that part in use on March 3, 1925, by the Department of Commerce for a light and fog-signal station under revocable license from the Interior Department with the maintenance of the electric lines thereto and such portion of the reservation, including improvement, as may be reserved by the [Secretary](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-1) of the Army for the use of the Chief of Engineers, the said reservation to be maintained as a national public monument, subject to such regulations as may from time to time be issued by the [Secretary](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-1) of the Interior.


# §438. Repairs and improvements; how made


Any and all repairs, improvements, changes, and alterations in the grounds, buildings, and other appurtenances to the reservation shall be made only according to detailed plans which shall be approved by the [Secretary](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-1) of the Interior, and all such repairs, improvements, or alterations shall be made at the expense of the United States, and all such improvements, together with the reservation itself, shall become and remain permanently the property of the United States.


# §439. Land for use of Secretary of the Treasury


Permission is granted the [Secretary](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-1) of the Treasury to use permanently a strip of land sixty feet wide belonging to said fort grounds, beginning at the north corner of the grounds of the fort and extending south sixty-three degrees thirty minutes east, six hundred and eighty feet to the south corner of the site set aside for the immigration station at Baltimore, said strip of land being located along the northwest boundary of the land ceded to the Baltimore Dry Dock Company and the land of the said immigration station, the same to be used, if so desired, in lieu of acquiring, by purchase or condemnation, any of the lands of the dry dock company so that the [Secretary](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-1) of the Treasury may, in connection with land acquired from the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, have access to and from said immigration station and grounds over the right-of-way so acquired to the city streets and railroads beyond, the [Secretary](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-1) of the Treasury to have the same power to construct, contract for, and arrange for railroad and other facilities upon said outlet as fully as provided in the Act approved March 4, 1913, chapter 147, Thirty-seventh Statutes 889, setting aside a site for an immigration station and providing for an outlet therefrom, but the Interior Department shall have equal use of the railroad track and other roads so constructed, over which to reach the city streets and railroads beyond from the other part of the fort grounds.


# §440. Closure in times of national emergency


The [Secretary](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-1) of the Interior may, in case of a national emergency, close the said Fort McHenry and it may be used for any and all military purposes during the period of the emergency and for such period of time thereafter, as the public needs may require.