Camp Mabry

For about six months in 1918 the camp housed the School of Automobile Mechanics, run under an agreement with the War Department and the University of Texas, which trained some 6,000 civilian men to repair vehicles and in other trades. UT's resident architect, George Endress, oversaw the designs. Four of the school's six two-story brick barracks survive as Buildings 10, 11, 14 and 15. Building 6, its dining hall, built by the Austin contractor Johnson and Shaffer, now houses the Texas Military Forces Museum, and Building 45 served as an infirmary in the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic.

What the plaque says

Camp Mabry The original 85-acre tract (gift of Austin citizens in 1892) was the site of annual encampments for the Texas Volunteer Guard, an elite militia constituted in 1876. Because larger maneuver, parade, and drill areas were needed, the guardsmen worked actively to acquire more land. With state and federal purchases, the camp at its largest consisted of over 430 acres. By vote of guardsmen, the camp was named in 1898 for Adjutant General Woodford Haywood Mabry (1856-1899), who provided forceful leadership for the militia. In 1914 (after the National Guard was created 1906) the State of Texas built an arsenal here for stores formerly held in the Capitol. This was a campsite for United States Army during the first World War, and was principal site until 1928 for annual guard encampments. During World War II, it was an ordnance engine rebuild station for the United States Army. For many years, Texas Department of Public Safety patrolmen were trained at Camp Mabry; Texas Rangers had their training command here until 1953. This has been headquarters since 1954 for the state Adjutant General. Other post installations include Texas Army National Guard state Officer Candidate School and the U.S. Property and Fiscal Office and Warehouse. (1968)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Mount Bonnell — 1.1 mi
  Austin's old lookout over the Colorado, named by an 1838 traveler, picnicked on by George and Libbie Custer, and reached by a 1939 flight of about 100 limestone steps.
• Harry Ransom Center — 2.1 mi
  The University of Texas archive where a Gutenberg Bible and the earliest surviving camera photograph are always on view, free, beside the papers of Watergate and the movies.
• Bullock Texas State History Museum — 2.4 mi
  The state's history museum at the head of Congress Avenue, built around the hull of La Salle's ship La Belle, raised from Matagorda Bay with 1.8 million artifacts.
• LBJ Presidential Library — 2.4 mi
  A ten-story travertine archive on the University of Texas campus holding 45 million pages from a presidency of civil rights laws, the War on Poverty and Vietnam.

More markers nearby

• Texas in the Civil War - Adjutants General — steps away
• Major John B. Jones — steps away
• William Steele — steps away
• Texas in the Civil War - Federal Forces — steps away