Historic Arts District

Street Scene at East Garrison circa 1940

Martinez Hall and the East Garrison Mess Hall Complex

by Cameron Binkley, DLI Command Historian

President Roosevelt responded to the Great Depression by creating programs to put Americans back to work, thus stimulating economic activity and promoting recovery. Designed not to compete with industry, the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration sought to conserve and improve state and federal lands, including on military bases.

Locally, the legacy of work relief can be seen at Martinez Hall, originally Fort Ord’s headquarters and now home to the Veterans Transition Center, and at East Garrison. Indeed, the first structures at East Garrison, originally known as Camp Ord, were built to house a regional CCC/WPA camp dating to 1934. Later funding allowed skilled WPA workers to construct the Camp Ord Mess Hall Complex for use by the Army during mobilization when troops at Camp Ord lived in tents. Martinez Hall and WPA buildings at East Garrison evoke the romanticized Spanish past by employing an architectural style know as Mission Revival. Typified by red tile roofs, white adobesque walls, and long Spanish verandas, these features stand apart from the more rapidly constructed utilitarian structures built at Fort Ord by contractors after the phase out of work relief. They are considered historic because of their association to the WPA, the Great Depression, and U.S. preparations for WWII.