Site of Harmon General Hospital

Duane's take

Now, I'm drawing straight from the official marker on this one, so let me tell you what it says about a place that rose up fast and mattered deeply. This is the story of Harmon General Hospital. The United States Army established it right here in Gregg County in 1942, and they named it for Colonel Daniel W.

Harmon, a medical officer in the regular Army, born in 1880 and gone by 1940. He never saw what would be built in his name. But what they built was something.

Two hundred and twenty buildings, constructed rapidly, on a hundred and fifty-six acres. You stop and picture that for a moment. A hundred and fifty-six acres of Texas ground transformed, almost overnight, into a working hospital complex.

The facility was activated on November 24, 1942, with Colonel G. V. Emerson as its first commanding officer.

Surgery, physical therapy, laboratory analysis, dental care, medical treatment. That was the medical heart of it. But Harmon General wasn't just a hospital.

It was a community unto itself. A post exchange, a chapel, a library, a post office, a bank, a theater, a gymnasium, a laundry, mess halls, barracks, living quarters for the nurses and physicians. Everything a person might need, all within those hundred and fifty-six acres.

Major M. K. Moulding later succeeded Colonel Emerson as commanding officer.

And here is a detail the marker offers without flinching: in May of 1945, two hundred inmates from the prisoner of war camp at Fannin were assigned to work at the hospital. The war was still grinding to its end, and even here, in this place built to heal, the world's complications were present. The facility closed when the last of its twenty-five thousand wartime patients left in December of 1945.

Twenty-five thousand patients. That number deserves a breath. And through all of it, the community of Longview showed up.

The Garden Study Club of Longview landscaped much of the grounds, and among their projects, they planted what the marker calls an allee of crepe myrtle along the original main entrance. A row of flowering trees to welcome the wounded. By 1976, when this marker was set down, LeTourneau College occupied the site.

The buildings changed hands. The mission changed. But that crepe myrtle, planted by the women of the Garden Study Club, that was their signature on a place that had seen twenty-five thousand stories come through its doors.

What the marker says

Established here by the United States Army in 1942, Harmon General Hospital was named for Colonel Daniel W. Harmon (1880-1940), a medical officer in the regular Army. 220 buildings were rapidly constructed on the 156-acre site, and the hospital was activated on Nov. 24, 1942, with Colonel G. V. Emerson as the first commanding officer. Harmon General had facilities for surgery, physical therapy, laboratory analysis, dental care, and medical treatment. Associated with the hospital were a post exchange, chapel, library, post office, bank, theater, gymnasium, laundry, mess halls, barracks, and living quarters for the nurses and physicians -- all combined to make the facility a self-reliant community. Major M. K. Moulding succeeded Colonel Emerson as commanding officer. 200 inmates of the prisoner of war camp at Fannin were assigned in May 1945 to work at the hospital. The facility closed when the last of the 25,000 wartime patients left in Dec. 1945. The hospital attracted wide community support. The Garden Study Club of Longview landscaped much of the grounds. Their projects included an "allee or crepe myrtle" planted along the original main entrance. LeTourneau College now (1976) occupies the site.