Mount Vernon Arsenal, Military arsenal in Mount Vernon, Alabama.

Mount Vernon Arsenal is a former U.S. Army munitions depot near the Mobile River, about three miles west of Fort Stoddert and some 30 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico. With the Kennebec Arsenal in Augusta, Maine, it is one of the most complete antebellum arsenals still standing. The site also holds the now-closed Searcy Hospital, and its tower arsenal was heavily damaged by fire on April 10, 2026.

The United States Army founded this site in 1828 as a weapons manufacturing and storage facility. Its function changed more than once over the following decades, shifting with the needs of the military during and after the Civil War.

The site's name comes from the Mount Vernon Arsenal, established in 1828; after the Civil War it was renamed Mount Vernon Barracks, and in 1910 it became the Mount Vernon Insane Hospital for Black patients, renamed Searcy Hospital in 1919. The facility was segregated until 1969 and closed in 2012. The complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 26, 1988, and was named to Alabama's 2025 Places in Peril list.

The site is closed: Searcy Hospital shut in 2012 and the arsenal tower was badly damaged by fire on April 10, 2026, when the roof collapsed and more than 20 fire departments took six hours to put it out. The complex stands about three miles west of the old Fort Stoddert site and some 30 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico, so it is viewed from outside rather than toured.

Between 1887 and 1894, the site held the Apache leader Geronimo along with around 450 prisoners of war. Walter Reed, who later became known for his work on yellow fever, served as the post physician during those years.