DUANE
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Duane's take
The official marker tells this one, and I'm just the voice carryin' it down the road. Out in Presidio County, where the land runs wide and the sky runs wider, there stands a building that's been holding secrets in its walls for over a hundred years. Building 98, Fort D.A.
Russell. Constructed in 1920, it was built to house the Officers Club and Bachelor Officers Quarters, a place where the brass could eat, drink, and sleep off whatever the borderlands threw at them. Adobe and concrete, pebbledash finish, an A-shaped footprint.
Two courtyards: one completely enclosed, one enclosed on three sides. Solid. Deliberate.
The kind of building that knows it's going to be standing a long time. And then the war came. From 1943 to 1945, the latter years of World War II, Fort D.A.
Russell took on a different kind of resident. German prisoners of war. Men from Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps, soldiers who had crossed deserts before, though not quite like this one.
Now here's the part that'll stop you in your tracks. Those prisoners, locked inside Building 98, picked up brushes. And they painted.
Ornate artwork, right there on the interior walls. Murals showing views from a courtyard. Scenes (and this is the detail that lingers) typical of west Texas.
Men far from home, painting the place they found themselves in. The walls of Building 98 still hold that evidence today. Adobe and memory, sealed together.
Some stories don't need much embellishment. They just need you to walk inside and look up.
What the marker says
Constructed in 1920, Building 98 housed the Officers Club and Bachelor Officers Quarters for Fort D.A. Russell. During the latter years of World War II, from 1943 to 1945, German prisoners of war from Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps were housed at the fort, and evidence of their ornate artwork can be found on the building's interior walls. Murals depict views from a courtyard and include scenes typical of west Texas. Constructed of adobe and concrete, Building 98 features a pebbledash finish and an A-shaped footprint, with one courtyard completely enclosed and another enclosed on three sides. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2004