Directly across Craycroft Road stand the remains of the three westernmost officer's quarters. The Fort was abandoned in 1891 after the end of the Apache Wars, and the buildings were left empty. Removable parts such as doors, windows and fixtures were auctioned off and incorporated into homes throughout the Tucson Basin. By 1900 a Mexican settlement or ranchería had grown in and among the old Fort buildings and became known as El Fuerte, The Fort. The people of the village came by and large from Tucson and northern Sonora.
A few Anglos moved into the old buildings as well. Mrs. Dolly Cates bought the property containing these officer's quarters in 1900 and established "Mrs. Cates' TB Sanitorium." She ran it until 1928 when the Adkins family bought the property. They started Adkins Steel and Tank Manufacturing Company in 1934. (There is no public access to these buildings.)