Mountain View Officers' Club, built in 1942, is a historic structure that originally served as an

officers' club Officers Club, The Officers Club or similar may refer to: * Officers' Club (Belgrade), a building in Belgrade, Serbia * Officers Club, Dhaka, a government (and related) officers' club in Bangladesh * Officers Club Services Ground, a cricket groun ...

for African American soldiers stationed at

Fort Huachuca Fort Huachuca is a United States Army installation, established on 3 March 1877 as Camp Huachuca. The garrison is now under the command of the United States Army Installation Management Command. It is in Cochise County in southeast Arizona, appr ...

, Arizona. It was long vacant, but was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017 and there have been plans for its renovation.

History

Fort Huachuca had the highest number of African American soldiers at any military installation in the United States between the years of 1892 and 1946. In 1942, the Mountain View Officers' Club was one of 1,400 buildings built to accommodate Fort Huachuca's Black infantry divisions. The club is the fort's only surviving recreational facility from this time. The club was vacated in 1998 and has since faced multiple threats of demolition.

Restoration efforts

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017 as a result of two years of discussions between the U.S. Army authorities at Fort Huachuca, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Arizona State Historic Preservation Office, the Arizona Preservation Foundation, the Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation, and other consulting parties. The listing included one contributing building and four

contributing structures In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distric ...

. Includes historic photos and nine photos from 2012. In 2018, Arizona State Parks and Trails received $500,000 from the National Park Service’s African American Civil Rights Fund for the purpose of restoring the club. The National Trust for Historic Preservation's African-American Cultural Heritage Action Fund has also supported restoration efforts with a 2018 grant. Additional financial supporters have included the Pascua Yaqui tribe and Buffalo Soldier organizations. In January 2023, Fort Huachuca signed a programmatic agreement for the rehabilitation of the Mountain View Officers' Club. A viable plan to rehabilitate the building as a Range Operations Synchronization Center is moving forward and has been submitted for Army funding consideration. The rehabilitation plan also provides exhibit space for consulting parties to tell the story of the Black World War II military experience.

References

External links

Analysis of the Mountain View Officers' Club: Fort Huachuca, Arizona, Army Corps of EngineersMountain View Officers’ Club at Fort Huachuca, National Trust for Historic PreservationMountain View Black Officers Club, Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation
Military installations established in 1942 Buildings and structures in Cochise County, Arizona Clubhouses in Arizona African-American history of the United States military 1942 establishments in Arizona Military officers' clubs African-American history of Arizona National Register of Historic Places in Cochise County, Arizona {{Arizona-NRHP-stub