MONOGRAPHS OF KINNEY COUNTY’S ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE: Post Headquarters, Part 2

Part 1 can be found online HERE.

This bi-weekly feature examines the enduring unique architecture and historic associations to be found here in Kinney County by spotlighting individual buildings and providing brief histories, complimented by period photographs. Our intent is to explore the past, inspire the present, and build the future by showcasing the remarkable associations and legacies of structures which have stood the test of time and continue to contribute so much to the exceptional heritage of Kinney County. 

Our next subject is the “Post Headquarters,” placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 and designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 2024.

By the turn of the century the building was completely surrounded by a covered gallery porch. As the administrative burden and complexity of managing the post steadily grew the need for more office space warranted a stone addition to the rear of the 1857 building following the World War in 1919, which doubled its size. The hip roof was reoriented to a north-south line from the former east-west line of the 1857 building. The 1919 addition ... was built of quarry-faced, roughly squared limestone laid up as regularly coursed ashlar. All stonework, however, is composed of smaller stones and is of comparatively less quality than the original construction. By the 1930s the enlarged building was surrounded by a partially enclosed covered full gallery porch.

In 1942, early in the mobilization for World War II, the building experienced its third major alteration when a new addition of random pitch-faced limestone veneer with structural clay tile back up completely surrounded the building. The new office space created had plentiful large casement windows and the rear half of the building retained a covered porch supported by distinctive columns with brick pedestals and simplified limestone capitals forming a bracketed ogee profile on each side of the column shaft helping to support the concrete beams spanning between each column. Three distinguishing arches highlighted the front elevation of the building. Based on photographic evidence, a second floor of wood frame construction sheathed in asbestos- cement shingles was added sometime after February 1943, this was the final change made by the Army to the building. Fort Clark closed in August 1944 and was subsequently sold to the Texas Railway Equipment Company in 1946, which salvaged the frame construction but saved the buildings which would later comprise the Fort Clark Historic District.

From 1948 until 1971 the grounds operated as the Fort Clark Guest Ranch and the old headquarters building was renamed Las Moras Hall. For over a decade the building capably served as Ranch Headquarters. In 1959, John Wayne’s Batjac Productions approached George and Herman Brown for use of the fort to shoot scenes for Wayne’s epic film The Alamo. The post headquarters building became offices for the production company and the second floor was used as a dormitory for the film crew. Then on Sunday, November 15, 1959, a faulty heater set the building ablaze, completely gutting the interior. Most of the masonry construction survived intact with some smoke damage. Exterior walls including the original 1857 perimeter wall, the 1919 addition walls, and the stone walls and arched porches from the last addition remained. Decades have passed since that fateful day and a series of private owners have cared for the building. In 2006, a new owner purchased the building and has since responsibly restored and stabilized the masonry with the intent of continuously maintaining an appropriate level of preservation.

No other building in the Fort Clark Historic District better brings forth the hope of "if these walls could talk" than the Post Headquarters building, imagining that within its walls sleeps the rich history they have witnessed. In fact the phase may have originated in the world of architecture where walls play an important role in shaping the character and atmosphere of a building. For all too many years, in the absence of an official Texas Historical Marker, visitors to the Historic District have been left to wonder, “What was this building?” Sadly, local history frauds and Pinocchio historians have even gone so far as to mislabel this noble building the John Wayne House.

There is no denying the building’s age standing now at one hundred and sixty-nine years or the extent of its historic associations having seen eighty-seven years of military service. Architecturally the building displays three distinct periods of masonry the first of which is consistently judged to be the finest stone craftsmanship in the Fort Clark Historic District. Fort Clark’s Post Headquarters Building is a Texas treasure truly worthy of formal recognition. It remains the physical and symbolic centerpiece of the National Register Historic District and The Soul of Fort Clark!


Monographs of Kinney County’s Architectural Heritage is written by Bill Haenn, FCHC Senior Historian. Fort Clark Heritage Council is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, established in 2023, to advocate for the preservation and protection of the architecture and other historic resources in the Fort Clark National Register Historic District for the benefit  of the visiting public and future generations, providing for the advancement and strengthening of heritage tourism initiatives by growing recognition of and visitation to the Fort Clark Historic District and being committed to endorsing and promulgating the rich history of Fort Clark by expanding upon related educational and research efforts. Find this article and more online at  KinneyCountyPost.com