Officers' Row Quarters

Duane's take

Here's what the official marker at Officers' Row has to say, and I'm going to tell it the way it deserves. Fort Clark. Established as a U.S.

Army garrison way back in 1852, out here in Kinney County where the land is hard and the sun doesn't apologize for a thing. Now when those first soldiers arrived, they weren't exactly moving into anything you'd call quarters. Crude log huts.

Houses of palisade construction. The kind of shelter that says, we got here, and that's about all we've got. But armies tend to stick around, and sticking around has a way of demanding something sturdier.

By 1857, somebody with authority decided the structures had gotten badly dilapidated (and that's the marker's word, badly) and a new program began to replace them. Quarried stone. That's what this country offered, and that's what they used.

Then comes 1873 and 1874, and these eight residences go up. Designed and built as duplexes, each one meant to house two officers' families. Three large rooms on each floor.

Two fireplaces per building. And here's the detail that tells you someone was thinking about Texas summers: a fifty-five foot front porch. Fifty-five feet.

You could pace that thing for a while before you ran out of porch. The buildings closely resemble quarters going up on other military posts during that same period, reflecting what the marker calls an evolutionary adaptation of military design; suited to local materials, suited to the regional climate. That's a careful, considered way of saying: they figured out what worked out here.

Now, nothing stays the same forever, not even stone. In 1885, a remodeling project came through and changed the houses from a rectangular plan to a T-plan. The army kept adapting.

And in 1918, Fort Clark contracted with Central Power and Light Company for electricity. The twentieth century, arriving on schedule. Fort Clark kept standing, kept serving, right up until 1946, when it was deactivated.

Then it was sold to the Brown and Root Corporation. A military post, handed off to private hands. And the story doesn't stop there.

In 1971, the fort property became something called Fort Clark Springs; a private recreational community. Those old officers' quarters, built for men who'd been posted to the frontier, got rented out to members and guests. For a few years, anyway.

Then in 1974, the houses were offered for sale to members of the Fort Clark Springs Association. So those eight duplexes, raised from quarried stone in 1873 and 1874, designed to shelter two families apiece through frontier postings on one of Texas's harder edges, they're still standing. Still occupied.

The fifty-five foot porch hasn't gone anywhere. Some structures just outlast everything the world tries to put them through.

What the marker says

Fort Clark was established as a U.S. Army garrison in 1852. The original quarters were crude log huts and houses of palisade construction. In 1857, a new program began to replace badly dilapidated structures with buildings of quarried stone. Designed and constructed in 1873-74 as duplexes to accommodate two officers' families each, these eight residences closely resemble those built on other military posts during that time period. The buildings reflect an evolutionary adaptation of military design suited to local construction materials and the regional climate. Each duplex has three large rooms on each floor, two fireplaces and a fifty-five foot front porch. An 1885 remodeling project changed the houses from rectangular to T-plan. The army contracted with Central Power and Light Company for electricity in 1918. Fort Clark was deactivated in 1946 and sold to the Brown and Root Corporation. In 1971, the fort property became "Fort Clark Springs", a private recreational community. The officers' houses were rented to members and guests until 1974, when they were offered for sale to members of the Fort Clark Springs Association. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1991