Fort Belvoir (Historical Marker)

Here follows the inscription written on this roadside historical marker:

Fort Belvoir:
Fort Belvoir is named for the 18th-century plantation that was owned by William Fairfax. The house burned in 1783. The U.S. War Department acquired much of the Belvoir tract in 1912 as a training center and named it Camp A. A. Humphreys for Maj. Gen. Andrew A. Humphreys, a former Chief of Engineers. During World War I the camp was enlarged and the Engineer School moved there. The camp was renamed Fort Humphreys in 1922. In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt changed the name to Fort Belvoir. The Engineer School moved to Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., in 1988.

Marker Erected 1999 by Department of Historic Resources. (Marker Number E-64.)


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Here follows the history of Fort Belvoir as published on the army's website:

Fort Belvoir is interlaced with the history of our great nation. Founded on the banks of the Potomac River and located adjacent to historic Mount Vernon, Fort Belvoir traces its beginning from the Douge Indians, serving as the home of Colonel William Fairfax (Belvoir Manor), providing a place of growth and learning for young George Washington, to hosting the Department of Defense’s largest construction effort with over $4 billion from the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Act.

In 1915, the U.S. Army began utilizing the Belvoir peninsula as an engineer training facility. In that year the Engineer School at Washington Barracks (now Fort McNair) began conducting summer training exercises on the government owned parcel on which Belvoir now sits. America’s entry into World War I in April 1917 led to the first wave of military construction, and resulted in the foundation of Camp Humphreys, named for Major General Andrew A. Humphreys, a distinguished engineer and administrator. During the Civil War, Humphreys served as chief of staff of the Army of the Potomac, and as commanding general of the II Army Corps. From 1866-79, he served as Chief of Engineers.

Plans called for the construction of 790 temporary wood-frame buildings. Several schools were operated on the facility. By the end of the war in November 1918, over 50,000 enlisted engineer soldiers and 4,900 officer candidates were trained at Camp Humphreys. At war’s end, the camp became a demobilization center where troops were prepared for their return to civilian life. The camp retained a small garrison after the war. In 1919, the 5th Engineers from Camp Humphreys were called to Washington D.C. to help quell racially motivated civil disturbances.

By 1919 the camp had grown from its original 1,500 acres to approximately 6,000 acres. The Army’s commitment to the post was demonstrated by the official relocation of the Engineer School from Washington Barracks to Camp Humphreys in 1919. In 1922 the camp was designated a permanent post and renamed Fort Humphreys. Throughout the inter-war years the Engineer School trained new engineer officers in the technical requirements of their duties. Programs offered included forestry, road and railroad construction, construction, mining, surveying, pontoon construction, photography, printing and cooking.

One of the more dramatic changes to Fort Humphreys during this period was its physical transformation. In 1926 the Army initiated an ambitious nation-wide building program designed to address deplorable living conditions at the nation’s military installations. Most of the temporary wooden buildings were demolished, and new permanent brick buildings were erected. New buildings were constructed in a Georgian Colonial Revival style. During the 1920s, efforts were made to clear and refurbish the Fairfax Manor ruins site and grave. Despite great public interest, the Belvoir Manor was not reconstructed; however, in 1935 President Franklin D. Roosevelt was persuaded to rename Fort Humphreys as Fort Belvoir to re-establish the installation’s colonial links. The name Belvoir, a French word meaning “beautiful to see,” had originally been used by Colonel William Fairfax to describe his colonial plantation.

The outbreak of World War II in 1939 resulted in another large expansion of the post. An additional 3,000 acres north of Route 1 were acquired to make room for the Engineer Replacement Training Center (ERTC) on North Post. In March 1941, the ERTC began to provide basic military engineer training to draftees. After mid-1942, Belvoir began training soldiers in numerous engineer specialties. By the end of the war in 1945, the ERTC at Fort Belvoir had trained roughly 147,000 engineer troops. The Engineer Board, which had been created at the installation in 1924, continued to make great strides in testing and developing new engineer equipment. The massive influx of inductees at Fort Belvoir prompted another wave of temporary construction during World War II. These “temporary” structures were only designed to last for five years. Many survived and were used well into the 1980s. At the end of the war, Fort Belvoir once again became a demobilization center.

In general, emphasis at Fort Belvoir in the 1950s began shifting from training to research and development. Throughout the decade, the Engineer Research and Development Laboratories (ERDL) were involved in experimentation with a wide range of technical and military applications. During the 1960s, the primary focus of research at Fort Belvoir shifted to the development of Army vehicles. Between 1950 and 1980, the post began playing host to a variety of organizations including the DeWitt Hospital, the Defense Systems Management College, and the Defense Mapping School.

Fort Belvoir remained the home of the Engineer School until 1988. Due to a shortage of land for training at Belvoir, the Engineer School re-located to Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, thus ending the 76-year association between the Engineer School and Belvoir. The 8,600 acre post became an installation of the Military District of Washington. The post housed tenants from all armed forces, as well as a number of educational facilities.

By 2003, the installation came under the supervision of the Installation Management Agency, a new office designed to manage all garrisons throughout the world-wide Army. Belvoir has been designated a Strategic Sustaining Base for the Department of Defense in the National Capital Region. As time goes by, Belvoir continues to expand its mission and support to the armed services.


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Here follows a history of Fort Belvoir from the Fort Belvoir Housing History website:

Establishing Camp A.A. Humphreys:
Fort Belvoir is located on a small peninsula in the Potomac River approximately 18 miles south of Washington, DC. The land on which the installation is situated was part of a grant from James II of England to Lord Culpeper in 1688. The land descended to the sixth Lord Fairfax, who in 1734 offered the land to his cousin, Col. William Fairfax. Col. Fairfax completed his house, Belvoir, in 1741. Belvoir was destroyed by fire in 1783, and the ruins were further undermined by British bombardment during the War of 1812. The land surrounding the Belvoir ruin remained vacant for over a century.

In 1912, the U.S. War Department acquired 1,500 acres on what had been the Belvoir Plantation to establish a rifle range and summer camp for engineer troops stationed at Washington Barracks. The small training area, named Camp Belvoir, was located at the southern tip of the Belvoir peninsula and was used until America's entrance into the First World War.

World War I: 1914-1918:
With America's entrance into World War I, it became evident that a large camp was needed for training purposes. Camp Belvoir was recommended, and on Dec. 15, 1917, the Secretary of War approved the project for 16,000 troops, authorization to acquire land, and $3.3 million for construction. The cantonment was named Camp A.A. Humphreys in honor of the Civil War commander and former Chief of Engineers, Andrew A. Humphreys. Through purchases or condemnation, the Army acquired additional acreage during 1917 and 1918, expanding the original 1,500 acres to approximately 5,500 acres. In June of 1918, a second authorization was given to increase the cantonment capacity to 30,000, and this second wave of construction by the Quartermaster was completed by Oct. 31, 1918. Camp A.A. Humphreys soon became the ideal place for training. By the end of the war, over 50,000 enlisted men and 4,900 officer candidates had been trained at Camp A.A. Humphreys.

At the end of the war, Camp A.A. Humphreys became a demobilization center where more than 14,000 men were prepared for their return to civilian life. Instead of being disassembled like many other temporary Army installations established during World War I, the Army moved the Engineer School from Washington Barracks, DC, to Camp A.A. Humphreys.

Inter-War Period: 1919-1939:
When the Engineer School moved to Camp A.A. Humphreys, an immediate need for officer housing occurred. At first, an attempt was made to renovate World War I barracks into two-family housing. After four conversions, it was decided to construct single houses using surplus building materials from the war instead (400 Area). The houses were located in accordance with the official 1919 revised plan of the engineer's original 1918 design for Camp A.A. Humphreys. These quarters were not located along the parade but in a separate development which followed the contours of the Belvoir peninsula.

In 1922, the installation was authorized permanent status and redesignated Fort Humphreys. Between 1921 and 1926, most funding for construction at military posts had been slashed. By 1926, the Army had initiated a nationwide building program to address concerns regarding the deplorable living conditions at its installations. Congress passed Public Law 45, which authorized the sale of 43 military installations and directed the money from the sale into The Military Post Construction Fund for the remaining installations.

New planning concepts were used at Army installations with this building campaign. The new layouts aligned closer with the planning of industrial towns or college campuses than the traditional fort. The difference was especially noticeable in family housing, which was arranged in informal groupings for officers, non-commissioned officers, and students rather than in rows facing the parade. Also, standardized plans became prevalent, resulting in the implementation of a construction program using the most effective and economical means possible. Both of these historical themes can be seen during the 1920s and 1930s development of Fort Humphreys.

By the 1920s, Fort Humphreys' original, hastily built temporary construction was deteriorating. When Fort Humphreys was designated with permanent status, the Corps of Engineers developed a plan. The revised plan retained the street layouts of the original cantonment plan. The Corps also introduced a large, centrally located parade. This plan, the first official plan for Fort Humphreys, was approved in 1927, and construction of barracks, post headquarters, officer housing, a theater, gymnasium, post-exchange, bakery, officers clubs, storehouses, magazines, roads, and walkways was undertaken. The style chosen for most of the base buildings was described as "a very attractive Virginia Colonial style, most appropriate for their location, and was considered the most appropriate option. The buildings were constructed of red brick with limestone fillings...." Larger buildings were built with reinforced concrete skeletons, while components of some smaller buildings were wood frame with masonry veneer. By the spring of 1929, the installation was home to 70 officers, 750 enlisted men, and 350 civilians, including families of married officers and soldiers. The new construction at Fort Humphreys was laid out with the administrative and instructional buildings arranged along one side of the parade ground, with barracks, theater, gymnasium, post exchange, and post office in two squares on the opposite side. The non-commissioned officers' housing (Gerber Village) was arranged in two blocks behind the barracks area, while the officers' housing built in the early 1920s (400 Area) had been placed along a picturesque, curving road in a parklike setting. Warehouses and support buildings were located on the outskirts of the installation.

In 1932, a new revised layout was approved. A large part of this revision was a new housing area for senior officers (Belvoir Village). During the Great Depression, Public Works Administration (PWA) projects completed most of the construction on military installations from 1934-1938. Most of these projects were officer and non-commissioned officer housing. Both Jadwin Loop Village and Gerber Village expanded in 1939 with the addition of row houses using PWA workers.

During this time period Fort Humphreys began to focus on the history of the site. Surveys and archeological excavations of the Belvoir Plantation started occurring in the 1920s and continued into the 1930s. In 1935, Fort Humphreys was renamed Fort Belvoir in reference to the former estate. By 1939, most permanent construction projects had stopped due to the mobilization efforts with the possibility of attack.

World War II: 1940-1949:
Construction programs accelerated in 1940 with the outbreak of World War II in Europe and Japanese expansion in Asia and the Pacific. The United States decided to begin preparing for the possibility of joining the conflict, and one of the actions performed was the expansion of Fort Belvoir by adding 3,000 acres north of U.S. Route 1, North Post, to make room for the new Engineer Replacement Training Center (ERTC), established at Fort Belvoir in March 1941. Housing (including Grays Hills Village and Youngs Village) and an 800-patient hospital were also constructed at this time. With the influx of inductees, a wave of temporary construction occurred in an attempt to house approximately 24,000 enlisted men and officers. A Temporary Emergency Construction Program began Oct. 21, 1940, to construct 643 new buildings. This construction project consisted of 281 barracks, 72 mess halls, 96 warehouses, 18 officers' quarters, 25 headquarters buildings, 18 recreation halls, a bakery, a cold storage plant, a laundry, an incinerator, three theaters, service clubs, a guest house, prison stockade, infirmaries, post exchanges, gasoline stations, dental clinics, classrooms, utility shops, power magazines, more repair shops, fire houses, filtration plant, and a 55-building hospital complete with central heating plant and enclosed walks connecting the wards and buildings. [5] Support utilities were also part of this building program, including roads, railroad construction, water mains, and power lines. The 800 patient-station hospital alone had quarters for 40 officers, 72 nurses and 324 enlisted men.

The contractors on this project were Charles H. Tompkins Company of Washington, DC, and Potts and Callahan Construction Company of Baltimore. The architect-engineer was Slaughter, Saville and Blackburn Company Inc. of Richmond, Va. Around 12,000 men were employed at the peak of construction.

Civilian defense workers required housing as they moved to new job locations. The Federal Public Housing Administration provided most of the housing needs at this time. Child care facilities were common in the villages designed at this time for working mothers, since women made up huge a portion of the workforce.

Keeping up troop morale during the war years became almost as important as training. Fort Belvoir offered many entertainments, including dances, art classes, amateur theatrical productions, and sporting events. The newspaper was full of upbeat articles about life on post.

Once again, after the war, Fort Belvoir became a center for demobilization. In 1945, the Engineer Replacement Training Center and the Engineer Officer Candidate School were phased out, but both programs were brought back in the 1950s during the Korean Conflict and again in the 1960s with the Vietnam build-up. After World War II, a shift started to occur at Fort Belvoir from training to research and development. The Engineer Research and Development Laboratories (ERDL) were used to develop new technology. The Army experimented with standard house designs using new building materials in an effort to meet the Army's housing shortage (Thermo-Con House).

Cold War: 1950-1990:
At the end of World War II, an estimated 15 million service personnel returned home to the United States, a country already in a housing shortage. A large peacetime fighting force had to be maintained due to the build-up of nuclear weapons after the war. The Wherry Act was put in place to help relieve some of the shortage. Within several months of the Wherry Act being signed in 1949, the Army proposed a 350-unit housing development at Fort Belvoir, Lewis Heights Village.

The Korean War was another significant period in the history of Fort Belvoir. The Engineer Replacement Training Center was reopened and began training troops for Korea. The center continued in operation through September 1953, providing training to over 30,783 engineers. The Engineer Officer Candidate School was also in session during this time. The school, which functioned for three years, commissioned over 2,000 engineer officers.

From fiscal years 1955 through 1957, Congress authorized and appropriated funds for about 10,000 new housing units for the Army. This volume of construction with appropriated funds was unusual, but it served to bridge the gap between two large domestic privatization programs.

During the summer of 1955, construction of 300 housing units was in process at Fort Belvoir, with 276 units for non-commissioned officers and the remaining 24 for officers. The total worth of the housing units was over $3 million. Dogue Creek Village was part of this.

Fort Belvoir opened the DeWitt Hospital in 1957, which provided regional healthcare services for a total of 500 patients, including facilities for 250 patients in-house. Dewitt Hospital was one of seven hospitals that Congress authorized in 1953 to be built in the Army modernization program. The SM-1 Nuclear Plant also became operational in 1957. The plant generated electricity for commercial use and reduced the use of fossil fuels. The nuclear facility was used until 1973, when it was decommissioned.

By the time the Capehart Act passed in August 1955, Fort Belvoir was still in need of additional family housing. The Department of Defense approved an additional Title VIII project of 618 units at Fort Belvoir, Colyer Village, Fairfax Village, George Washington Village, and River Village. Initially, these housing projects were intended to be similar to Lewis Heights Village, with rowhouse buildings containing four, six, and eight units. However, by August 1956, the Army determined that Fort Belvoir's needs would be better served with duplex buildings. The initial project was redesigned, and an additional $2 million was added to the project budget. These changes were influenced by the recognition that the proposed units were too small and did not comply with the recommended square footages for each of the military ranks. Additionally, multifamily-style buildings as outlined in the original proposal were assessed as the least desirable building type. Also by this time, a new public law, Public Law 1020, had been put in place for Capehart projects to make use of modular design.

The next major building campaign came in the mid 1970s. Fort Belvoir received a face lift with the addition of a new enlisted barracks complex on North Post. The face lift also included the consolidation of company administration and supply buildings, as well as the construction of branch dispensary and PX facilities, a central energy plant, gymnasium, chapel, new mess hall, an indoor pool, theater, recreation center, and a battalion and regimental headquarters. In addition, some of the existing family housing received upgrades such as air conditioning and complete kitchen improvements.

Congress also funded some 1,445 new units, with 850 earmarked for Army personnel, including 628 three-, four- and five-bedroom townhouses and duplexes and 222 two-bedroom garden apartments. Ninety units were built for officers, 60 for senior personnel and the remaining 700 for E4s and E5s. The Navy and Coast Guard received 595 duplexes and townhouses, with 25 of them for officers and the remainder for enlisted personnel. This was the first time that Fort Belvoir housing was not intended to house installation personnel. Woodlawn Village is the only Fort Belvoir housing area which initially offered housing to all five branches of the military. Also during this construction phase, many additional facilities were instituted at Fort Belvoir, including the U.S. Army Reserve Center, Communications/ Electronics Evaluation and Testing Agency, Coastal Engineering Research Center, and the Topographic Research and Development Laboratory. The Defense Systems Management College (DSMC) and the Defense Mapping School (DMS) both became operational in the 1970s.

Privatization of Housing: 1990-present:
During the 1980s and 1990s, the installation expanded again with the relocation of Department of Logistics Agency (DLA) and Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM) to Fort Belvoir. In the 1990s, the Army closed 112 of its installations in the U.S. and realigned another 27, moving many functions to Fort Belvoir.

In 1996, Congress passed Public Law 104-106. This provided a process for military installations to leverage private capital in order to enter into a limited partnership with a private developer to construct, renovate, operate, and maintain housing (Residential Communities Initiative, RCI). Its goal was to eliminate inadequate military housing in the United States by 2007.

During the late 1990s, Fort Belvoir's existing housing inventory totaled 2,070 units. In 2003, the military housing at Fort Belvoir became privatized under the Army's Residential Communities Initiative program, which allowed for significant improvements to the housing, amenities, and infrastructure at no cost to taxpayers. Today, the public-private partnership owns and operates the award-winning housing community with a mission to provide military families the same qualify of life in housing as the civilians they defend.

Fort Belvoir's family housing is an important part of the installations historical context. The existing, historic buildings provide valuable insight into the history, architecture, and domestic life of the installation.


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Here follows an article on Fort Belvoir from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Fort Belvoir (/ˈbɛlvwɑːr/ BEL-vwar) is a United States Army installation and a census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. It was developed on the site of the former Belvoir plantation, seat of the prominent Fairfax family for whom Fairfax County was named. It was known as Camp A. A. Humphreys from 1917 to 1935 and Fort Belvoir afterward.

Fort Belvoir is home to a number of significant United States military organizations. With nearly twice as many workers as The Pentagon, Fort Belvoir is the largest employer in Fairfax County. Fort Belvoir comprises three geographically distinct areas: main base, Davison Army Airfield, and Fort Belvoir North.

History of the Plantation:
The Fort Belvoir site was originally the home of William Fairfax, the cousin and land agent of Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron the proprietor of the Northern Neck, which stood on land now part of the base. William Fairfax purchased the property in 1738 when his cousin arranged for him to be appointed customs agent (tax collector) for the Potomac River, and William erected an elegant brick mansion overlooking the river, moving in with his family in 1740. Lord Fairfax came to America in 1747 and stayed less than a year at the Belvoir estate before moving to Greenway Court. The Fairfax family lived at Belvoir for over 30 years, but eldest son (and heir) George William Fairfax sailed to England on business in 1773, never to return. The manor home was destroyed by fire in 1783.

The ruins of the Belvoir Mansion and the nearby Fairfax family grave site are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

History of the Fort:
The post was founded during World War I as Camp A. A. Humphreys, named for Union Army general Andrew A. Humphreys, who was also Chief of Engineers. The post was renamed Fort Belvoir in the 1930s at the request of Howard W. Smith, a Congressman from Virginia, in recognition of the Belvoir plantation that once occupied the site. The adjacent United States Army Corps of Engineers Humphreys Engineer Center retains part of the original name.

Camp Humphreys was established in World War I as the U.S. Army Engineers Training School. It served as the post-graduate institution for U.S. Military Academy engineers and a finishing school for engineering troops headed to war.[3] The school, which came to host the Engineer Officer Basic Course, relocated in 1988 from Fort Belvoir to Fort Leonard Wood, in Missouri.

As a result of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission, a substantial number of personnel were transferred to Fort Belvoir, and others were civilians employed there. All major Washington, D.C.-area National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) facilities, including those in Bethesda, MD, Reston, VA, and Washington, D.C. were consolidated at a new facility, the NGA Campus East, situated on the former Engineer Proving Ground site. The cost of the new center was $2.4 billion.

The Army Historical Foundation announced in March 2017, its intent to begin the construction of the National Museum of the United States Army at Fort Belvoir. The museum, set on 84 acres (34 ha), will tell the story of the army since 1775. The 185,000-square-foot (17,200 m2) museum will feature historical galleries, an "interactive Experiential Learning Center" and the Army Theater. There will also be outdoor venues including a Memorial Garden, Amphitheater, Parade Ground, and Army Trail. It opened to the public on 11 November 2020.

In 2020, in the wake of the George Floyd protests and petitions to rename U. S. army bases with names related to the Confederacy, it was proposed that the fort be renamed as well. While not named after a Confederate officer, it was renamed after a slave plantation that was once owned by prominent 18th century Loyalist land owner George William Fairfax. Representative Howard W. Smith, who requested the 1930 renaming, was an old-school Southern Democrat who was sympathetic to the then-popular Dunning School of history that revered the Confederacy, and resented a base in Virginia being named after Andrew A. Humphreys, a Union Army general. The name of the base has been criticized as improperly nostalgic for slavery and the antebellum era.

In June 2021, the fort was initially included in a list of military bases to be considered for renaming by a newly created Naming Commission. Later in March 2022, the Commission determined that Fort Belvoir did not meet the criteria provided in the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act for making a renaming recommendation. However, the Commission recommended that the Department of Defense conduct its own review of the naming of the fort based on results of the commission's historical research.

Units and agencies:
Fort Belvoir serves as the headquarters for the Defense Logistics Agency, the Defense Acquisition University, the Defense Contract Audit Agency, the Defense Technical Information Center, the United States Army Intelligence and Security Command, the United States Army Military Intelligence Readiness Command, the Missile Defense Agency, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.

Fort Belvoir is home to the Virginia National Guard's 29th Infantry Division (Light) and elements of ten Army Major Commands; nineteen different agencies and direct reporting units of the Department of Army; eight elements of the United States Army Reserve and the Army National Guard; and twenty-six Department of Defense agencies. Also located here are the 249th Engineer Battalion (Prime Power), the Military District of Washington's 12th Aviation Battalion which provides rotary-wing movement to the DoD and Congress, a Marine Corps detachment, a United States Air Force activity, United States Army Audit Agency, and an agency from the Department of the Treasury. In addition, Fort Belvoir is home to National Reconnaissance Office's (NRO) Aerospace Data Facility-East (ADF-E).