Posted on 08/02/2014 9:36:38 AM PDT by SandRat
Historic building, or deteriorating structure that long ago outlived its usefulness?
The continuing saga of the Mountain View Officers Club on Fort Huachuca appears headed toward an answer to that query, with an open house scheduled for Tuesday, beginning at 5 p.m. at the Murr Community Center.
The gathering will be less like a hearing, and more like an opportunity to gather information on what is being considered for Building 66050. Instead of a formal meeting, several “stations” will be set up where people can get answers to their questions and make comments.
Local and state organizations are outspoken on the historic value of the former club for black officers. Built in 1940 when the nation’s military forces were segregated, the Mountain View Officers Club was where the brass of local cavalry and infantry units enjoyed one of the few privileges of rank.
The historic value of the former club is not a top priority for the U.S. Army. Restoring the building and maintaining it requires funds the Army says it does not have in the face of budget cutbacks and force reductions. Instead of saving the structure, the Army is planning to demolish it.
Even if the building escapes the wrecking ball, it won’t stay on Fort Huachuca under the current plan. Post officials are amenable to third-party ownership, but would require that the structure be taken apart, then relocated someplace else.
History and historic structures are popular tourism attractions. Any doubt of that fact can be erased by considering the mileage Tombstone gets from the OK Corral, or Bisbee enjoys from the Queen Mine Tour.
To accomplish similar success with the Mountain View Officers Club may be too much to ask from local organizations energized by the idea of saving the structure. Estimates to renovate the building are as much as $7 million, without consideration for the continuing costs of operation and maintenance.
Anyone paying attention to local headlines knows the budget constraints facing the Army are real. Tentative projections for Fort Huachuca call for the reduction of 1,700 soldiers and 1,000 civilian positions as part of the cost-cutting effort.
Unless a serious and well-organized effort can be put in place quickly, the budget reality facing the Army will determine the fate of the club, and this historic treasure will be lost.
I must have missed the multiple movies made about Building 66050.
This is, of course, the problem with "preservationists." It is neither logical nor practical to try to preserve all old buildings. Some of them, with significant historical importance, absolutely. But not all.
If it was really that attractive or important a building, I would expect to see more than 8-10 images of it in a Google Search. It’s quite apparently neither, but I’m sure it’s significant to those who enjoyed it. If they can raise the $7 million, more power to them.
Buildings like the Mountain View Officers club were built all over the United States as a part of the mobilization for World War II. It fits into a general vernacular known as “World War II wood”. Over the years these temporary buidings have been demolished as they outlived their usefulness and their state of repair rendered them uneconomical. Most have some form of absetos that was installed over the years.
Over 20 years ago, the Army decided that the the WWII wood had to go. A few buildings have been preserved as a part of museums, but acres and acres of them are now gone. This building is nothing unique except that it served as an officer’s club for black troops during their WWII training. The post’s original barracks buildings, built when the 10th Cavalry was hunting the Apaches are preserved and are a much more significant historic relic of the Buffalo Soldiers.
If the black community wants to preserve the building, let them organize, raise money, and take the Army up on its offer. They probably won’t, they have come to expect the the Federal Government will just give them whatever they want.
Back in the day the Officer's Club used to be used as a dorm for visiting engineers.
In front of the OC was a pool lined by palm trees and irrigated small lawns.
In intermediate years Employee fams were allowed to use the pool on weekends and visiting personnel used to take a dip in the pool at the end of the (hot summer) day before driving off to lodging in Kingman or Lake Havasu.
Later budget cuts killed off the pool :-{.
Change happens.
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