9 Jan 2024

The Black Experience at Fort Huachuca during WWII: An Interpretation and Exhibit Plan for the Mountain View Officers’ Club

Abstract: This technical report serves as a contextual planning document for an interpretive exhibit within and surrounding the Mountain View Officers’ Club, Building 66050, at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. During World War II (WWII), the Mountain View Officers’ Club served as the installation’s Black officers’ club. It served as various other uses until 2004, at which point it became vacant. Today, Fort Huachuca is planning to rehabilitate the building into a mission use space with an indoor-outdoor exhibit space for visitor use within the rehabilitation plan footprint, an 8.15 acre Area of Potential Effect (APE) including the WWII building and associated adjacent features. This report provides numerous potential Courses of Action regarding methods of exhibiting and interpreting historic materials and information in the public spaces within the APE. The Courses of Action chosen during a future Design-Build phase will be based on factors currently unknown, such as funding and staffing; thus, this document serves as a Phase I concept plan for ideas that will be further developed and finalized during the Phase II Design-Build phase. This report also provides guidance for course of action implementation pending factors currently unknown. Fort Huachuca will keep this report in both digital and analog format in perpetuity. ERDC-CERL will also publish it online and make it available to the public free of cost.

21 Jun 2023

A History and Analysis of the WPA Exhibit of Black Art at the Fort Huachuca Mountain View Officers’ Club, 1943–1946

Abstract: The 1943 art exhibition at the Mountain View Officers’ Club (MVOC), Fort Huachuca, Arizona should be considered one of the most significant events in the intersection of American art, military history, and segregation. Organizers of the event, entitled Exhibition of the Work of 37 Negro Artists, anticipated it would boost soldiers’ morale because Fort Huachuca was a predominately Black duty station during WWII. This report provides a brief history of Black art in the early 20th century, biographies of the artists showcased, and provides information (where known) about repositories that have originals or reproductions of the art today. The following is recommended: the General Services Administration (GSA) investigate the ownership of the pieces described in this report and if they are found to have been created under one of the New Deal art programs to add them to their inventory, further investigation be performed on the provenance and ownership of Lew Davis’s The Negro in America’s Wars mural, for the rehabilitation of the MVOC that the consulting parties agree upon the scope of the reproduction of the art, and request archival full reproductions of the pieces of art found in the collection of the Howard University Gallery of Art.

6 Oct 2022

Old Post Reevaluation, Fort Huachuca, AZ

Abstract: The US Congress codified the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (NHPA), the nation’s most effective cultural resources legislation to date, mostly through establishing the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). The NHPA requires Federal agencies to address their cultural resources, which are defined as any prehistoric or historic district, site, building, structure, or object. Section 110 of the NHPA requires Federal agencies to inventory and evaluate their cultural resources, and Section 106 requires them to determine the effect of Federal undertakings on those potentially eligible for the NRHP. Fort Huachuca is situated at the foot of the Huachuca Mountains in southern Cochise County, Arizona. It is located approximately 15 miles north of the border with Mexico and 75 miles southeast of Tucson. It was founded in 1877 as a frontier cavalry fort and remains one of the oldest military installations in the West. The objective of this report is to inventory the real property within Fort Huachuca’s Old Post, the historic core of the installation. Each resource is enumerated and accompanied by a list of reports discussing its potential NHL or NRHP eligibility. Subsequently, each resource is accompanied by a short description, which includes its location and current status within the recently created Old Post Historic District.

28 Dec 2021

Fort Huachuca Ranges: A History and Analysis

Abstract: Fort Huachuca Environmental and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) sent funds to ERDC-CERL to develop a historic context that assists Fort Huachuca personnel in identifying the likely history and provenance of numerous historic range features located across Fort Huachuca's training lands. The historic context will be used by cultural resources personnel to evaluate and manage the resources appropriately. Various historic training range features (e.g., structures, fragments, and items left over from previous activities) are located across the ranges of Fort Huachuca, representing its long and storied history. To help identify and catalog these features, ERDC-CERL conducted a field survey of the training ranges in 2016 in or-der to photograph the historic range features. Forty-one historic range features were identified. Researchers conducted archival research, literature reviews, and image analysis of historic and current maps and photographs to identify the 41 historic range features and place them within a chronological context of Fort Huachuca's training ranges. The report concludes with guidance on how to identify and associate sites and features within the overall historic training range chronology and evaluate them appropriately for significance and National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) eligibility.

23 Jun 2021

Historic Landscape Management Plan for the Fort Huachuca Historic District National Historic Landmark and Supplemental Areas

Abstract: The U.S. Congress codified the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (NHPA) to provide guidelines and requirements for preserving tangible elements of our nation’s past. This preservation was done primarily through creation of the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP), which contains requirements for federal agencies to address, inventory, and evaluate their cultural resources, and to determine the effect of federal undertakings on properties deemed eligible or potentially eligible for the NRHP. This work inventoried and evaluated the historic landscapes within the National Landmark District at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. A historic landscape context was developed; an inventory of all landscapes and landscape features within the historic district was completed; and these landscapes and features were evaluated using methods established in the Guidelines for Identifying and Evaluating Historic Military Landscapes (ERDC-CERL 2008) and their significance and integrity were determined. Photographic and historic documentation was completed for significant landscapes. Lastly, general management recommendations were provided to help preserve and/or protect these resources in the future.