Fort Leavenworth, Building No. 184, 629-631 Grant Avenue, Leavenworth, Leavenworth County, KS

Significance: The importance of the Grant Avenue quarters derives from the original architectural design and from the association with the Command School at the turn of the twentieth century. The individual architectural details of the Grant Avenue quarters can be attributed to styles of American residential design. But the comprehensive design does not represent any single style. Rather, it is a synthesis of many elements. The most apparent influences are American Georgian and Romanesque as seen in such details as the front two and a half story gable projection, gable dormers, and paired arch windows. These are familiar architectural elements that would produce ordinary houses but for the original association of these diverse stylistic features within the context of a formal design on a massive scale. The result is the simultaneous fusion of familiar and traditional elements and original architectural design. The quarters were built shortly after the reorganization and expansion of the Command School at Fort Leavenworth. The changes that occurred at the School were in response to weaknesses in military instruction brought to light in the Spanish-American War in 1898. The revitalization of the School necessitated additional housing for officers attending the school and money was allocated for the erection of the Grant Avenue quarters.
Survey number: HABS KS-53-L
Building/structure dates: 1901 Initial Construction
National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 66000346