MONOGRAPHS OF KINNEY COUNTY’S ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE (#15): Fort Clark’s World War II Post Chapel, now Brackettville’s First Baptist Church

This bi-weekly feature examines the enduring unique architecture 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 “Fort Clark’s World War II Post Chapel, now Brackettville’s First Baptist Church.” The building is an enduring classic example of mobilization construction during World War II, and one of only a very small handful remaining in the nation.

Built in the fall of 1941, before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Fort Clark’s post chapel met the spiritual needs of soldiers of America’s Greatest Generation serving at the post, until 1944. The chapel faced the main post flagpole, occupying the space between the post theater and officers’ quarters Nos. 6-7. Constructed according to plans and specifications officially termed “Mobilization Buildings/Regimental Chapel/Type CH-1,” dated January 23, 1941, the design was that of a standard World War II U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 700-series chapel. It is a frame building built on a three-bay rectangular plan with a steepled bell tower and a gable entry porch. Fort Clark closed in August 1944 and two years later was sold, on October 29, 1946, by the Federal Works Agency to the Texas Railway Equipment Company.  That same year the First Baptist Church purchased the chapel building and moved it to its current
location in Brackettville at the corner of North Ann Street and Veltman where it has faithfully served the congregation for the past eighty years. The building has architectural and historical distinctiveness as a survivor of World War II temporary mobilization construction of a standard regimental chapel.

Lieutenant Will Paulding’s 1874 map of Fort Clark shows a picket church located where the Patton House stands today. Lieutenant French’s diary makes multiple references to attending church but not to the location. A 1915 map of the post shows the original post hospital in use as a chapel and library. So as with other posts on the frontier Fort Clark had no building solely dedicate to worship services. 

Prior to 1923, only 17 installations nationwide had permanent chapels leaving most chaplains to search for a place to hold services, often times outdoors. In the twenty-two years leading up to World War II, less than a million dollars was spent on chapel construction in the Army, chaplains using theaters, mess halls, recreation buildings, tents, the parade ground or a clearing in the woods instead of chapels.

Just prior to our entry into World War II, the thought to build chapels for units of the expanding Army began to emerge during many conferences held in the Office of the Chief of Chaplains. In early 1941, under pressure from First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, standardized architectural drawings for Army chapels were developed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The architecture resembled Colonial Revival style churches found in New England.

On Eleanor Roosevelt's urging, Army leadership calculated that chapels could make a big difference to soldier morale. Thus, the Construction Division built a church that looked like a church, with a steeple and a cross, with pews and a lectern and an altar rail. From the outside, the 700 Series chapel; would have not looked out of place in a New England village.

The chapel was planned to resemble the small country churches which dot the countryside of America. Simple dignity marked the outward appearance of the chapel, the construction being of clapboard on a wooden framework, set on a concrete foundation. The inside was equally simple and attractive. The seats, which accommodated 300 downstairs, were built with slat backs and had kneeling benches for those who use them in worship. The choir loft, which had seats for an additional 57 worshippers, also contained an electric organ which provided music for all services.

The altar attracted the most attention. Designed to serve all faiths, it was movable and constructed so as to be adaptable for use by several religious groups. A series of doors and panels, with a recess above the altar provided the essential requirements for each type of service. Both pulpit and lectern were built to serve particular needs and, like the altar, were movable. There were two chaplains’ offices, one on each side of the altar, and at the front of the building were a consultation room and a cloak or vestry room, one on each side of the entrance.

With these chapels, religious worship in the Army was taken out of improvised buildings and the open fields in a historic construction program that provide for a total of 604 chapels, at $21,220 each, in posts, camps and stations throughout the nation where soldiers of the Protestant, Catholic and Jewish faiths made their devotions in an appropriate setting. The chapel building program reflected the Army’s concern for the moral welfare and spiritual training of the trainee and its recognition of the spiritual qualities of true military character. It was part of the Army’s determination to fulfill its duty to God as well as to country.

In 1983, Congress directed the Department of Defense via the Military Construction Authorization Act to demolish all remaining World War II-era temporary buildings. The Defense Department coordinated with the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation as part of the preparation for the department-wide demolition effort. Sadly despite their unique character the iconic regimental chapels of World War II have vanished.

Fortunately the congregation of Brackettville’s First Baptist Church had the vision to save Fort Clark’s chapel from the wrecking ball long before by purchasing the building in 1946 and moving it to its present location where it has retained the majority of its architectural features for several generations. There is no available count of how many regimental chapels survive but certainly it is a very small number. Brackettville’s First Baptist Church could well be the only example left in Texas, if not west of the Mississippi. To be designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark would make the building a source of community pride for years to come.