Conserving Texas's WWII Heritage
by David Woodcock, FAIA

The Eighth Annual Symposium of the Center for Heritage Conservation (CHC) at Texas A&M University brought together more than 80 participants March 2-3, 2007, to examine the importance of “Conserving Texas’s World War II Heritage.” The two-day symposium introduced guest lecturers from around the state who are actively involved in studying and saving Texas’s significant contributions during World War II and the state’s efforts to remember and preserve that heritage. The symposium demonstrated the dedication and passion of the preservation community and shared techniques and approaches that are broadly applicable to heritage conservation. 

The events started Friday morning where visitors (including many architects there to earn AIA Continuing Education credits), students and faculty from six universities, and interested community members arrived at the Riverside Campus off Highway 21 in Bryan, Texas. Beautiful weather added to the enjoyment of the day, but the setting at the Old Chapel was a stark reminder of the symposium theme. What is now the Texas A&M University Riverside Campus was built in 1943 as the Bryan Army Air Base, whose history as a pilot training facility, the first to perfect instrument flying, was told by historian Kerry Chandler of Texas State University. His specific area of interest is the effect of military base closures on small communities. His research allowed him to relate the air base’s life, mission, and interaction with the local community. Subsequent lectures focused on "Developing a Historic Structure Report (HSR)" and "Long-Span Timber Construction."

CHC Director David Woodcock, FAIA, and Pat Sparks, president of Sparks Engineering in Austin, gave a workshop on “Historic Structure Reports and Condition Assessments,” using the NPS Preservation Briefs 17, 18 and 43 as guides for such work.

Woodcock referred to the output of a fall 2006 graduate class at the College of Architecture that developed case studies of three buildings on the Riverside Campus. Sparks, a licensed professional engineer with a national reputation in preservation practice, discussed a series of case studies in the investigation, analysis, and rehabilitation of existing structures.

A World War II amphibious Jeep sits in front of the Old Chapel at Riverside Campus.

Before the lunch break, Brent Mullins, a former Marine and president of the Museum of the American G.I. in College Station, Tex., described his 25-year involvement in restoring military vehicles he has recovered from both WWI and WWII and displayed a fully-restored amphibious Willis Jeep from the museum. Architecture faculty members Vallie Miranda, PhD, MArch, and Julie Rogers, PhD, MArch, have used the 45-acre museum site for student design projects, and the growing collection has international significance.

The afternoon session opened with a workshop on long-span wood structures presented by David Fischetti of Cary, N.C., another national leader in preservation engineering best known for his leadership in moving the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. This was followed by an opportunity to see HSRs and condition assessments put into practice on the base through guided tours of three buildings from WWII and the Korean War. Traveling by bus across the sprawling former military base, the visitors were greeted by a team of graduate students who introduced the buildings, their history, and current conditions.

CHC Director Woodcock speaks about the construction details of a Korean War warehouse.

Each participant received a book that included the detailed student HSRs for each of the buildings, two of which (the Flight Engineers Hangar and a 1950s warehouse) used timber long-span structures; the third was a typical WWII barrack, one of the few remaining on the base.

The Friday-night dinner featured Tom Hatfield, PhD, director of The Institute for Studies in American Military History, The Center for American History, at the University of Texas at Austin. Hatfield spoke about the WWII experiences of James Earl Rudder, then a Lt. Col., who received the assignment to lead his Ranger group up the 100-foot tall cliffs at Pointe du Hoc, Normandy, to destroy a series of guns that commanded the beaches that would become known as Omaha and Utah, immediately prior to the D-Day landing on June 6, 1944. In the audience were several members of the Rudder family as well as Robert Reid, professor emeritus of oceanography and of civil engineering, who landed with the troops on June 7, 1944, to advise on weather and water conditions. Rudder, who later became president of Texas A&M University, was an A&M graduate and one of thousands who came from Texas to serve in WWII.

Saturday’s lectures were held in the Geren Auditorium at the College of Architecture and continued to cover the issues of history and conservation technology related to Texas in the Second World War. Guest lecturers included William McWhorter of the Texas Historical Commission and Heather Goodson of the Texas Department of Transportation, who discussed their agencies' active military sites programs and initiatives to preserve Texas’s WWII heritage at the local level. Participants were fascinated by the maps showing airfields, training bases, and prisoner-of-war camps that spread over the entire state. Many air training bases, like the one in Bryan, were situated to take advantage of existing rail connections, flat topography, and proximity to the oil refining capacity on the Gulf of Mexico.

The relationship between Texas’s WWII history at a local level continued as Texas A&M anthropologist Michael Waters, PhD, and local historian Cathy Lazarus gave a presentation titled “The Lone Star Stalag: The German POW Camp at Hearne, Texas.” They talked about the prisoners’ relationships with the locals and how they kept themselves entertained with artwork and theatrical performances. They also described the darker side of prison life and the murder of a prisoner identified as an informer.

A presentation on the CHC's project at Point du Hoc in Normandy, France, was given by Robert Warden, MArch, CHC assistant director and associate professor of architecture, and Richard Burt, PhD, of the construction science faculty. Both have been involved in work at Pointe du Hoc over several years, most recently in the Cliff Stabilization Study (funded by the American Battle Monuments Commission) of the eroding cliffs that Earl Rudder and his men scaled during WWII. The study team consists of a WWII historian, an archeologist, and civil engineers from the United States and France, who are providing extensive new information about the Nazi fortifications and the effect of the shelling from the Battleship Texas and the intensive bombing that preceded the D-Day landing.

Barry Ward of the Battleship Texas Foundation spoke of the restoration and preservation issues that are currently affecting the battleship, now berthed in the Houston Ship Channel at San Jacinto and part of the Texas park system. The ship, built for WWI, is the last surviving dreadnought battleship, and its existence is severely threatened by the fact that it remains afloat. Ward reviewed the conceptual and fiscal options for balancing protection of the vessel while allowing for maximum interpretation of this unique example of American naval heritage.

The symposium ended with a presentation on Randolph Air Force Base: “From Cotton Fields to National Historic Landmark.” Often referred to as “The West Point of the Air,” the base was begun in 1926 with a unique plan based on the English Garden Cities movement. It comprises more than 350 buildings, the most famous being the headquarters building at the center of the base, known as the Taj Mahal. Base historian Bruce Ashcroft, PhD, presented the National Historic Landmark with powerful images and an interesting history of the base.

David G. Woodcock, FAIA, is a professor of architecture and director of the Center for Heritage Conservation at Texas A&M University. He also serves on the AIA HRC 2006 Advisory Group.