Fort Concho once occupied 1,640 acres. Today’s historic landmark covers 40 acres, with the buildings and parade ground that were the fort’s nucleus now part of San Angelo’s street grid, just southeast of the KCM&O tracks. At the time it was decommissioned in 1889, Fort Concho contained 28 structures, 20 of which are extant, including 4 enlisted men’s barracks, 8 officers’ quarters, the school-house/chapel, a hospital, and a commissary. Fort Concho’s architectural resemblance to Fort Davis (FV32) is as striking as is the total dissimilarity of their settings. All the buildings are made of ashlar limestone walls with hipped, wood-shingled roofs. The residential buildings, the hospital, and the administration building have wide galleries. Barracks One and Two, at the northwest corner of the parade ground, are now a visitors’ center, with extensive exhibits on the history of the fort and West Texas.
The fort was the base for many of the most important campaigns of the U.S. Army against Indian tribes in Texas and their removal to Indian Territory. The post was garrisoned by the 10th U.S. Cavalry, a Buffalo Soldier unit.
Fort Concho closed in 1889, and in later years buildings were reused or removed, and houses and a school were built on the fort’s grounds. In 1929, a group called the Fort Concho Museum began efforts to restore the historic fabric, purchasing and restoring buildings one by one. The fort was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961, and work on restoring the buildings has continued. A master plan created in 1980 by Austin architects Bell, Klein and Hoffman has helped shape the restoration efforts, and today the fort is owned and operated by the City of San Angelo. A copy of the 1880s Post Bandstand was reconstructed in 2015 by Henry W. Schmidt on the west end of the parade ground.
San Angelo architect Oscar Ruffini’s two-room, board-and-batten, false-front, office/residence was relocated in 1951 from 11 N. Chadbourne Street to the eastern edge of the post grounds. Downtown businesses complained for years about the shack in their midst, despite the fame of its owner, until it was finally removed with much fanfare.