The central location of the former British military headquarters shows the importance of the infantry garrison in early Fredericton. (Today the country's major military training area-Canadian Armed Forces Base Gagetown-lies just to the southeast.) In 1869, shortly after Confederation, the British garrison vacated the quarters. Once stretching from Queen Street to the river between York and Regent streets, the compound retains few of its original buildings. Now a pleasant park known as Officers' Square, the old parade ground is the site of the former officers' quarters, a three-storey stone building with white arches, constructed in 1839 with additions in 1851. A few blocks to the west, the Guard House, built in 1827, stands adjacent to the soldiers' barracks, a stone building with red-painted wooden terraces. Both have been restored and furnished.