Two “Arsenals of Democracy”: Huntsville’s World
War II Army Architectural Legacy
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After completing his inspection of the other sites, Loucks
submitted his recommendation. On July 3, 1941, fire trucks raced through
town delivering an “EXTRA” edition of The Huntsville Times. The paper’s banner headlines heralded the
construction of a $40 million chemical war plant “south of [the] city
and extended to [the] Tennessee River.” Included in the reservation
composing Huntsville Arsenal was over 7,700 acres which were to be used
for construction of a depot area. |
Recognizing the tremendous economy of locating the new facility
close to Huntsville Arsenal, the Chief of Ordnance acquired a 4000-acre
tract east of and adjacent to the Chemical Warfare Service’s
installation. Initially known as Redstone Ordnance Plant (so named
because of the area’s predominantly red soil), the new post was
redesignated Redstone Arsenal on February 26, 1943.
Before the Army Came
The land acquired by the Army in 1941 to establish Huntsville
Arsenal (32,244 acres) and Redstone Ordnance Plant (4,000 acres) was
located in a part of the Tennessee Valley that archaeological remains
have proven was first inhabited over 2,000 years ago by a prehistoric
Indian culture known as Copenas. By the beginning of the 20th
century, the approximately 57-square-mile area of rolling terrain, which
contained some of the richest agricultural land in Madison County,
comprised such small farming communities as Pond Beat, Mullins Flat,
Union Hill, Elko, Cave Hill, Hickory Grove, Horton’s Ford, and Bettle
Slash.
| Cotton, corn, hay, peanuts, livestock, and various fruits and
vegetables were the primary agricultural products cultivated by the
area’s inhabitants. Although there was no electricity, indoor
plumbing, or telephones; few roads; and fewer cars or tractors, the
people who lived in the area that one former resident recalled as being
“nearly out of the world” prospered enough to support their won
stores, mills, shops, gins, churches, and schools. |
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Of the 550 families (about 6,000 men, women, and children) living
in this part of the county, 76 percent were African-American. Some of
the families were tenant farmers, but many, black and white, were
landowners who had worked the fertile soil of the region for several
decades. White or black, tenant or landowner, all of them were forced to
leave their farms when the Army came to Huntsville. Understandably,
there was much concern at first among the area’s residents about when
they had to leave and where they could go.
Despite some early rumors to the contrary, the Army postponed the
moving date until after the autumn harvest. This was done not only to
benefit the local farmers but to save the federal government the cost of
the crops that would have been abandoned. Because their farms were
located in a section of the reservation where construction was slated to
begin first, some families did have to move in July and August, 1941.
The majority, however, relocated to other farms or moved into town later
in the year. By the middle of January 1942, all of the area’s former
residents were gone.
The federal government also provided assistance to the displaced
farmers through the Farm Security Administration (FSA). The agency was
authorized to provide small grants for those without sufficient funds to
move; to help in locating new farms; to make loans to those with farming
experience but not funds to start over; to maintain a list of vacant
properties for sell or rent; and to give advice on the suitability of a
new farm.
The FSA also joined with the Alabama Relocations Corporation, a
private organization sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture,
“to buy or lease large tracts of land to be divided … and put in
shape for tilling,” with suitable shelter also provided. These farms
served as temporary stopping places for some families, while becoming
permanent homes for others “who proved themselves worthy of a chance
at ownership.”
Of the 550 families that had to relocate, 295 of them made their
own arrangements. A total of 273 of the original 550 moved to farms in
Madison or other adjoining north Alabama counties, while 183 moved to
town. Many of the latter found jobs at the arsenals, since former
residents of the Army reservation were given preference in hiring as
part of the government’s assistance effort.
In addition to more than 500 houses and other assorted buildings,
there were 3 schools for blacks; 1 church for whites and 11 churches for
blacks; 31 known cemeteries; and several black lodges. Certain
structures, such as the Chaney house built c. 1835, the antebellum Lee
mansion; and the Cedar Grove Methodist Church, were considered to be
among the oldest buildings in Madison County.
The Chaney house, which was relocated to another site on Redstone
Arsenal in 1955, has been so extensively renovated during the ensuing
years that it “possesses little architectural or historical
significance.” Originally remodeled for use as guest quarters for
visiting dignitaries, the Chaney house, renamed the Goddard House in
honor of the father of American rocketry, now serves as military
quarters.
The Army used the Lee mansion as an office building in World War
II and then as a residence for a number of years. It was sold and moved
off the arsenal in 1974. The historic Cedar Grove Methodist Church
building was relocated to a spot on Jordan Lane after the Army acquired
its land. Cedar Grove and Center Grove, another church on the arsenal
reservation, merged into the Center Grove United Methodist Church after
moving into Huntsville.
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Harris Home, circa 1941 (left) and the house today (right) |
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Throughout the war years and into the following decades, the Army
made use of many of the vacated buildings on the arsenal reservation
usually as office space, storage, or housing. Most of these structures
are gone, although traces of them can still be found. The only pre-Army
building still on Redstone Arsenal which has not been moved or altered
is the Harris house on Buxton Road, close to where the Lee mansion
originally stood. Part of the old home date from the early 1800s, but
most of it was built, starting in the 1920s, by joining two older
existing structures. It has been used as a military residence since
1941.
Huntsville’s Two “Arsenals of Democracy”
The first commanding officer of Huntsville Arsenal arrived on
August 4, 1941, and broke ground on the chemical plant the following
day. By March 1942, the installation’s initial production facility had
been activated. Huntsville Arsenal became the sole manufacturer of
colored smoke munitions, starting in October 1942. The dye used in the
production process colored the workers’ clothing and stained their
skins. Throughout the war years, it was not uncommon to see people of
rainbow hues in the Huntsville Area. As one former munitions worker
recalled, “You could tell the color of the smoke grenades we were
running out here by the color of the people walking around downtown on
the streets. The dye—yellow, red, violet, green—would get on your
skin and you had to wear it off. It wouldn’t wash off.”
In addition to colored smoke grenades, the arsenal was noted for
its vast production of gel-type incendiaries. It also produced toxic
agents such as mustard gas, phosgene, lewisite, white phosphorous, and
tear gas. During World War II, more than 27 items of chemical munitions
having a total value of more than $134.5 million were produced.
Personnel of Huntsville Arsenal won the Army-Navy “E” Award four
different times for their outstanding record in the production of war
equipment.
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The War Department formally established the Huntsville Chemical
Warfare Depot on March 6, 1942. Located in the extreme southern portion
of Huntsville Arsenal bordering the Tennessee River, the depot received,
stored, and issued such Chemical Warfare Service materiel as munitions,
bulk chemicals, decontaminating apparatuses, protective materials, and
spare parts for gas masks. To avoid confusion with Huntsville Arsenal,
the War Department changed the depot’s name on August 10, 1943, to the
Gulf Chemical Warfare Depot. |
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During the war, Redstone Arsenal produced such items as burster
charges, medium and major caliber chemical artillery ammunition, rifle
grenades, demolition blocks, and bombs of various weights and sizes.
Between March 1942 and September 1945, over 45.2 million units of
ammunition were loaded and assembled for shipment. For their outstanding
services in the manufacture of munitions, Redstone employees won the
aforementioned Army-Navy “E” Award five different times.
The Arsenal’s World War II Architectural Legacy
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The laying of paved roads and new railroad tracks was among the
first construction work started on Huntsville Arsenal in September 1941.
This resulted from the need for adequate transportation systems to
deliver heavy equipment and supplies to various construction areas.
Neighboring Redstone Arsenal experienced a similar need. |
After the Ordnance plant’s commanding officer shoveled the
first spadeful of dirt out of a cotton field in the southeastern corner
of the Army reservation in October, large bulldozers and other machinery
immediately moved in to begin constructing the first road to the
arsenal. About 75 miles of railroad track connecting the east and west
classification yards at Huntsville Arsenal, as well as lines to the Gulf
Chemical Warfare Dept and Redstone Ordnance Plant, were completed in
December 1941.
The first structures erected at Huntsville Arsenal were long,
two-story frame buildings located in the northeastern corner of the
reservation. Situated on land now outside the confines of the arsenal,
at the corner of what is now Bob Wallace Avenue and Jordan Lane, these
buildings served as temporary headquarters for the arsenal’s commander
and his staff. They moved into their new offices on September 14, 1941,
after operating briefly from borrowed space in the Huntsville National
Guard Armory and the Huntsville High School gymnasium. The Army also
made use of the farmhouses vacated when construction began in this part
of the arsenal.
This section became the installation troop area in 1942 when
arsenal headquarters moved to Squirrel Hill off of Goss Road. Most of
the buildings were converted into barracks, but others served as a
chapter, theater, and officers club. Some of the buildings were used for
apartments to house members of the original Von Braun rocket team after
they moved here in 1950 from Fort Bliss, Texas. The Army’s own space
and rocket museum was set up in the area in 1965, but was dismantled in
May 1971. Several of the display items were subsequently loaned to the
Alabama Space and Rocket Center. The last major activity to be located
in the area was the Civilian Personnel Office, which moved to the south
end of the arsenal in 1976. The buildings in this area, which became
known as “Splinter Village” in its final year, were demolished and
sold for scrap in 1977.
One of the lesser known structures located on Huntsville Arsenal
during World War II was a prisoner of war (POW) camp designed to hold
655 inmates. The Army Corps of Engineers built the original camp for 250
prisoners sometime in 1944, but the remainder of the facility
was constructed under the supervision of the Post Engineer using
POW labor. The camp was in use by the time Karl Spitzenpfeil, a former
inmate, arrived in August 1944.
Prisoner labor was used for a variety of tasks, such as working
as mechanics for the Motor Pool; laboring for the Engineering Services
Division at the sawmill, in the limestone quarry, or on the rock
crusher; assisting with the mosquito control program; and serving as
cooks and kitchen help at the Huntsville Arsenal Officers Club.
Approximately 1,100 captured German soldiers were imprisoned on the
arsenal at one time.
According to Karl Spitzenpfeil, who returned to visit the arsenal
in June 1982, “life in the Huntsville camp was not a hardship.”
Although the prisoners had to work hard, there was always enough to eat;
there were occasional outings for swimming; and there were two cases of
beer for each prisoner on his birthday. In addition, the Army paid the
POWs 80 cents a day for their work and allowed the prisoners to use the
money to buy things at the post commissary.
Located on what is now Dodd Road, northeast of the present gate
into NASA, no traces of the arsenal’s prisoner of war camp remain. The
barracks and guard house were dismantled many years ago, and the tents
that housed some of the prisoners no doubt were removed at the end of
the war.
Another of Huntsville Arsenal’s lesser known facilities was the
airfield built to accommodate the planes used to test clusters of
incendiary bombs and smoke grenades. Flight testing of all incendiary
bombs produced by Huntsville Arsenal as well as those “turned out by
all other arsenals and 15 private concerns under contract,” was
carried out in a proofing area known as the South Bombing Range.
In addition, a 500-foot bombing mat and a simulated village of 50
wooden shacks known as “Little Tokyo” were built. The latter area
was obliterated by February 1944, but the concrete bombing mat remains,
a reminder of an all but forgotten piece of the arsenal’s past. The
airfield is also still in use, but it has been extensively renovated,
expanded, and upgraded to accommodate modern air traffic for the Army
and NASA.
Several other Huntsville Arsenal structures built in World War II
also remain functional. The old headquarters building 111 on Squirrel
Hill served as the main office for the Ordnance Guided Missile Center
after Redstone Arsenal took over the chemical plant’s land and
property in June 1949. It was later used as the Officers Club until
being converted into office space in 1985. Other Squirrel Hill
structures, such as the old Post Hospital, also function as office
buildings today.
The only World War II-era buildings in that area of the
reservation still being used for the purpose for which they were
originally constructed are the quarters built in 1942 for the officials
of Huntsville Arsenal. Located near the headquarters building for the
officers’ convenience, these structures have been renovated several
times but are still serving as military housing.
In addition, in what is now the Ordnance Missile and Munitions
Center and School (OMMCS) area other World War II vintage
administrative, storage, and production facilities fulfill a variety of
useful functions. Farther south within the arsenal reservation, storage
igloos and warehouses built for the Gulf Chemical Warfare Depot continue
to be used for the same purpose.
The first building on Redstone Arsenal was completed in November
1941. Designed primarily as quarters for the post’s bachelor officers,
the structure temporarily served as the plant’s first headquarters
until the permanent administration building was finished in March 1942.
Building 7101, as Redstone Arsenal headquarters was most commonly known,
functioned as administrative office space until the structure was
finally torn down in 1986.
Although both the bachelor officers’ quarters and building 7101
are gone now, the three houses constructed in 1943 for Redstone
officials continued to be occupied until the 1990s. Situated in the area
behind building 7101, these three-bedroom frame residences, along with
seven others like them added in 1947, made up what was known as
“headquarters circle.” The center of the arsenal’s community life
in the 1950s, this area was “for several years the most prestigious
address on post.” More recently the modest dwellings, which once
housed some of the arsenal’s most well known commanders, were home to
senior noncommissioned officers and their families.
Although several of the production and storage buildings erected
on Redstone in World War II are still standing and still occupied, many
of the arsenal’s original structures no longer exist. One of the more
interesting of these was the old fire station #3 on Redstone Road.
Constructed in 1942 as the fire house and jail for Redstone Ordnance
Plant, the building was described in a 1983 historic properties survey
report as a “military building with unusual pretensions to style. The
two-story wood shiplap-sided building is derived from a standard World
War II Army building prototype but varies from the prototype through the
employment of such distinctive architectural features as a curved entry
by and a five-story watch tower.”
Set on a hill near building 7101, so that it overlooked the
original ordnance production lines, the fire station was used in the
capacity for which it was chiefly built until January 1983. For two
weeks prior to its disposal, the building served as a training aid for
arsenal fire fighters who put out blazes in individual rooms. The shell
of the structure was set afire for the last time on March 18, 1985, and
allowed to burn to the ground. Although the architectural historians who
surveyed the fire station recommended that it be preserved by finding
“an adaptive use … that will not alter its distinctive architectural
character,” the cost for the building’s conversion and upkeep were
too prohibitive.
Other Evidence of Redstone’s Past
Except for the aforementioned structures which still stand as
reminders of Redstone’s World War II origins, at first glance there
appears to be little other evidence of the arsenal’s wartime roots.
Most of the pre-Army dwellings and outbuildings were typical of small
farm communities throughout the 1940s South. Once they ceased to be
useful to the Army, the majority had no intrinsic value or historic
worth to justify their preservation.
Likewise, none of the structures hurriedly erected by the Army in
1941 and 1942 to meet the immediate need for office space during the construction
of the arsenals were worth preserving once they no longer served any
useful purpose. The rather volatile nature of the munitions work carried
on at the arsenals is another reason why some of the original production
buildings no longer exist: they were destroyed by explosions or fires.
Still others were damaged by storms and flooding.
When production ceased at the arsenals after the war, some
buildings were leased temporarily to private chemical manufacturing
firms. One gas mask production line was even converted for use by the
Keller Motors (formerly the Dixie Motor Car) Corporation for the
manufacturing, assembling, testing, and selling of automobiles and
related products. The General Analine Facility, the buildings of which
were constructed by the Army in 1943 for use in the production of iron
compounds, has been under lease since 1949 for the same purpose.
After Huntsville Arsenal became part of neighboring Redstone
Arsenal in 1949, however, most of these leases were terminated and many
of the chemical munitions buildings were remodeled to accommodate the
installation’s new Ordnance rocket and guided missile mission. The
same was true for the original Redstone Arsenal structures.
As the post’s missile and rocket responsibilities have
continued to expand in subsequent years, most of the old World War II
buildings have been extensively renovated to extend their usefulness,
primarily as office buildings. According to the 1983 historic properties
survey, these buildings, which date back to 1942 and 1943, have “no
specific architectural, historical, or technological significance at
this time.”
Despite the fact that almost all the pre-Army buildings are gone
and most of the World War II-era structures no longer can be easily
identified as dating from the war period, to the informed eye there is
still evidence of the post’s pre-missile era origins. The way in which
arsenal structures are spread out within the reservation is mute
testimony to the installation’s former use. Chemical munitions
production buildings had to be widely separated to prevent the spread of
explosions or fire from one plant to the next. The location of
administrative areas and officer housing at either end of today’s
arsenal is indicative of the fact that once there were two installations
with separate headquarters areas.
While many of the roads on post reflect Redstone’s modern
function as the home of the Army’s rocket and guided missile programs,
several of the most traveled routes were named for Chemical Warfare
Service soldiers killed during World War I (e.g., Buxton Road, Goss
Road, Patton Road, and Rideout Road) or past chiefs of the Ordnance
Corps (e.g., Bomford Drive, Croxier Drive, and Hughes Drive). Hale Road,
Loeffler Park, and Valim Reservoir memorialize the flight crew of an
Army Air Forces plane that crashed while on a routine testing mission at
Huntsville Arsenal during WWII.
Redstone Arsenal also has an active historic preservation program
that protects such areas as the pre-Army cemeteries located throughout
the reservation and various significant archaeological sites. In
addition, the post newspaper has enhanced general awareness of the
installation’s history by publishing interviews with older employees
who once lived in the communities that predated the Army in this area as
well as other pieces on the arsenal’s past.
Redstone’s position on the technological cutting edge in
missilery and space has not totally obscured its World War II. The
legacy of this era is an enduring one. Today’s arsenal is an
interesting blend of the past and present, a mixture that can be seen
easily by the interested observer.
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