Go back to the 1940s at the Marfa Visitors Center!

Swing was King and soldiers
danced all over the world in USO Halls

Today, Marfa's Visitor Center is in the USO Hall
and it is remarkably unchanged from the 1940s
except for the heritage displays

A block south of the main Hwy 90/Hwy 67 intersection in Marfa is a place visitors ought to experience.  The town's visitor center is located in a relatively untouched 1942 USO Hall, which housed many events for the military and the community when Fort D.A. Russell and the Marfa Army Air Field were in full operation. 

As you enter the building, the Visitors Center information (and helpful, friendly staff!) is in the foyer, but if you walk a little further into the "hall," you'll walk into a nearly pristine 1942 room.  Still in place are the original speakers and stage, and the hall has been enhanced by hundreds of portraits of soldiers.

Only a handful of "Type A Standard USO Halls" were constructed soon after the United States entered World War II. Construction started on Marfa's USO Hall in February 1942, and work was swiftly completed, as the building was ready for events in June that year. 

Now you can visit it yourself, and enjoy the soldier portraits and displays.  And, pick up travel information about Marfa and the entire region, as well!

Marfa's U.S.O. Hall....Visit it Today!

The interior of Marfa's U.S.O. Hall is nearly untouched from
its heyday during World War II.  Now the town's Visitor Center, you can
see it yourself...just south one block from the blinking light
in the center of town on Hwy 67 South.

Yesterday, we posted the 1941 Christmas menu from Fort D.A. Russell in Marfa, as part of our "Dining Along Historic Highways" series.  (See the full document--inside and out--HERE with our thanks to the Alpine's Museum of the Big Bend)   Today, take a look inside the U.S.O. Hall from that era! 

With the historical exhibits and photographs of soldiers and airmen, it takes little imagination to put yourself back into Marfa, 1941.

Read more about World War II in Texas, here.
Other Fort D.A. Russell sites you can visit in Marfa today include:
Building 98
Chinati Foundation

JOIN the Texas Mountain Trail!  Click HERE!