Office of the U. S. Army Depot Quartermaster
This adobe building was constructed in 1872 as an office for the Fort Yuma Quartermaster Depot. It replaced a room in a corner of the depot storehouses where, according to Captain J. G. C. Lee, Quartermaster, ". . .the noise of the arrivals and departures of boats. . . the piling and unpiling of boxes, hammering, nailing. . .the car, heavily laden being rolled in and out, and the heavy tramp of the labourers going to and fro. . . " had become intolerable.
While not formally designated as the Quartermaster Depot until 1865, the U. S. Army had been using the Arizona site because of its advantageous location for transferring supplies arriving by steamboat. From here, heavy freight wagons carried goods to military post and civilian settlements all over Arizona Territory, from the 1860's until the 1877 arrival of the railroad changed the transportation scene.
After 1875, the Signal Corp maintained a telegraph office and weather station in part of the building, remaining until 1891. Civilian workers for the U. S. Weather Service and U. S. Border Commission occupied the building until 1966. Arizona State Parks Board acquired the building in 1969 and fully restored it in 1987.
Marker can be reached from North 4th Avenue north of West 1st Street.
Courtesy hmdb.org
