Staff Officers' Quarters

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll let the stones do most of the talking. Way out at Fort Clark in Kinney County, the U.S. Army started putting up stone officers' quarters back in 1873; nine of them, cut from the same stubborn rock the Texas hill country has never been shy about offering up.

Nine buildings ought to be enough, you'd think. But the Army, being the Army, looked around not too long after and decided that the senior staff officers needed something a little more fitting for their rank. So in 1888, they raised one more.

This one was something. A two-story stone duplex, built in a T-plan, with a full-width front porch stretching across the front like it had nowhere better to be, which, out in that corner of Texas, it didn't. The designers weren't just following a blueprint from some office back east, either.

They took what the Army called standard military housing and they bent it, just enough, to suit the materials at hand and the particular persuasion of the regional climate. Stone walls that breathe cool air when the summer sun is doing its worst. A porch wide enough to catch whatever breeze decides to come through.

Now, a lot of officers passed through those quarters over the years. Plenty of names that time has let go. But one name stuck; and if you know anything about the twentieth century, you already feel the weight of it coming.

Among the residents of this building was General George S. Patton. The same walls that were cut from Texas limestone in 1888 once sheltered the man.

That porch, that T-plan, that stone duplex built because nine just wasn't quite enough, it held him. Some buildings just have a way of outlasting every expectation anyone had for them.

What the marker says

The U.S. Army built nine stone officers' quarters at Fort Clark beginning in 1873. The need soon arose for additional housing for senior staff officers, and this building was constructed in 1888. Built in a T-plan, the two-story stone duplex features a full width front porch and is a good example of military standard housing adapted to the materials and climate of the region. Among the house's residents was General George S. Patton. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1990