Harmon General Hospital Chapel

Duane's take

The way the marker tells it, here's the story of the Harmon General Hospital Chapel. The U.S. Army authorized Harmon General Hospital in 1942, naming it for Colonel Daniel Warrick Harmon, and the place was up and running from November of 1942 all the way through December of 1945.

That's a wartime hospital, and you can imagine what kind of weight those walls absorbed. Right in the middle of all that, in January of 1943, this little ecumenical chapel opened its doors. Protestant clergy, Catholic clergy, Jewish clergy, all of them served under that roof.

Not every place in 1943 could say that, and this one could. When the war wound down and the hospital closed out in December of 1945, the Le Tourneau Foundation acquired the property in 1946 and brought it into life as a college. The chapel, though, spent several years as a storage facility.

A storage facility. After everything it had been. But here's the thing about a well-built structure with good bones: it held on.

Enough of its original fabric survived that they were able to renovate it in the late 1950s, and then again in 1983, when it was formally given a name of its own. Speer Chapel. It's still standing today, and the marker will tell you it's well-preserved.

That front-facing gabled roof, the center projecting entrance with the roof sitting below a central steeple, those wood sash windows. A vernacular chapel, is what the record calls it. Plain in the best possible sense.

Built for a moment of great need, named twice over, and still there on the grounds of what used to be a wartime hospital. Some things just refuse to be stored away.

What the marker says

Authorized by the U. S. Army n 1942 and named for Col. Daniel Warrick Harmon, Harmon General Hospital was in operation from November 1942 to December 1945. This ecumenical chapel opened in January 1943. Protestant, Catholic and Jewish clergy served here. The hospital property was acquired by the Le Tourneau Foundation in 1946 for use as a college. Despite several years as a storage facility, the chapel retained enough of its original fabric for renovation in the late 1950s and again in 1983 when it was formally named Speer Chapel. The structure remains a well-preserved vernacular chapel. Its notable features include a front-facing gabled roof, center projecting entrance with the roof below a central steeple, and wood sash windows. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1997