Visiting Officers’ Quarters, Building 279-280

This duplex residence on F.E. Warren Air Force Base was built to house two non-commissioned officers or sergeants and their families, and followed Quartermaster Plan number 82-D. The building reflects the Army’s decision in 1882 to make Fort D.A. Russell a permanent post, and replace its original wood housing with more permanent brick structures. It also reflects a change in the Army’s policy toward families, which were not previously accommodated on military installations.

The two-and-one-half-story, side-gabled, symmetrical brick building sits on a stone and concrete raised basement. The six-bay facade has entrance doors in the two outer bays and vertically aligned windows in the center four bays. The doors and the six-over-six windows have segmental-arched tops, with the first-floor windows slightly larger than those of the second floor. Semicircular windows with tracery illuminate the gable ends. A single brick chimney rises from the center of the roof, and a single wood porch supported by square posts with chamfered corners and metal pipe railings runs the length of the facade. A full-length back porch has been enclosed with wood siding. Originally, each side of the duplex had one water closet, one wash sink, one laundry sink, and a bath tub. Both units of the duplex are now used to house distinguished visitors to the base.