New Cavalry Barracks
The earliest quarters for soldiers at Fort Clark were tents along Las Moras creek near the spring. During the fort’s 1870s building boom, three cavalry barracks were constructed, but by the late 1920s they had become too deteriorated for continued use. Three two-story stone cavalry barracks were constructed 1931-1932 to replace the three barracks that were razed. This new, fourth barracks was constructed on the site of the first post commissary which had burned in March 1892, leaving the site vacant for forty years. When the building was completed it contained state of the art facilities, including three 30 by 65 foot open bays for bunks and wall lockers, a mess hall, troop offices, supply and arms rooms and a latrine. The building was so modern and impressive that it was singled out in order to justify the retention of Fort Clark as a permanent military post.
The first occupants of the barracks were the soldiers of “F” Troop, 5th U.S. Cavalry. In 1941 the 5th Cavalry left the post and the barracks were used by the 112th Cavalry of the Texas National Guard. The Buffalo Soldiers of the 9th Cavalry, African American troops, moved into the barracks in fall 1942. Lastly, for the remainder of World War II, the barracks were occupied by 182 African American enlisted women of the Woman’s Army Corps Detachment of the 1855th Service Unit.
The two-story rectangular plan barracks is built atop a raised concrete basement. Load-bearing walls are of limestone webwall construction, with cast stone window sills and steel lintels. The main elevation is divided into fifteen bays by square wooden columns, with a cross-braced railing along the second-story porch.
Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2009
Marker is at the intersection of McClernand Road and Baylor Street, on the right when traveling west on McClernand Road.
Courtesy hmdb.org
