Old Fort Bliss Barracks

by John Rust April 9, 2014

Heading up Fred Wilson Boulevard, there’s an entrance into Fort Bliss for William Beaumont Army Medical Center. What’s interesting is a large collection of largely unused old barracks and a lone empty chapel, baking in the west Texas sun.

The first 3 easily accessible buildings are right across from a parking lot, making it easy to check out. Given that this is an active part of base, I heeded all trespass warnings and didn’t check to see if any of the buildings were open. Plus who knows why these aren’t in use, there’s probably all sorts of contaminants like lead or asbestos inside. At the very least there were large piles of nasty pigeon poop all over the place, so I stuck to the dirt.

The 3 barrack buildings were all the same construction in various states of disrepair. It’s too bad they can’t be used for some more interesting purpose. Donald Judd’s Chinati comes to mind. Down the way was a small boarded up chapel.

Upon closer inspection, the front door that was boarded up had been kicked in, exposing the interior:

Looking in, you could tell it was completely empty so I didn’t venture any farther than my lens would go. A curious feature was the bridge to the entrance which I guess in the past would have had water. There were probably lots of past marriages here with lots of photo opportunities.

I didn’t want to get stopped and asked a bunch of questions, so it was time to bug out. After grabbing a few more shots, I headed out. The full set can be seen on flickr here: Old Barracks on Fort Bliss

9 comments

Vince Diaz April 9, 2014 at 8:32 pm

Saw these on Flickr earlier and was wondering where this was. Pigeons always ruin everything!

John Rust April 9, 2014 at 8:43 pm

I had saw them last weekend during my “lunch break” from the GUN SHOW. I may be remembering incorrectly, but as a kid I seem to recall my dad taking Community Collage Classes somewhere around here

Alex April 12, 2014 at 12:32 pm

Just to the west of the barracks there is actually a rather large gymnasium that is in a similar state of disrepair. Last time I was there, the door and been kicked in and the board covering it removed, so I poked my head inside. very interesting, the walls still retain the original mural paintings and the basketball court is still mostly intact, as well as a stage at one end of the gymnasium.

Lila May 6, 2014 at 11:17 am

Great pictures. Those “barracks” type buildings were hospital wards. Different buildings were for different “illnesses” In hospitals today, they would be different “floors”. My Dad spent a long time here. The old Beaumont was built like a “campus hospital”

John Rust May 6, 2014 at 11:44 am

Thanks! That certainly explains the difference in these buildings.

Lila May 6, 2014 at 11:48 am

On really hot days, they would push the hospital beds out on the porches so patients could get some breeze, health permitting.

Dave December 30, 2016 at 6:26 pm

I just came across these photos. My parents took me to Beaumont a few times in late 50’s and early 60’s when the entire facility was a collection of wooden structures. It wasn’t a hospital in the traditional sense, like the current concrete structures up the hill. When I had my tonsils removed, I remember being wheeled outside on a gurney between one building (surgery?) and another (recovery?). I guess if it rained, patients just got wet.

Speaking of wet, the bridge in front of the chapel would rarely have water under it. Since Beaumont was built at the base of the Franklin Mountains, culverts were needed to handle rushing water during heavy rainstorms that created flash flooding from the mountains once or twice a year. The rest of the time the grounds were bone dry.

Alex January 20, 2017 at 2:38 pm

Does anyone know of these buildings are haunted?

Joe M May 30, 2018 at 6:46 am

So Many great childhood memories of this place, There use to be walk ways between the 3 old hospital building, when I was there these buildings were not occupied, but the walk ways were still up and falling apart, The Church and the pool a long that same area was still in use till close to the Gulf War, there was also a day care near the church.
Across from the old hospital was two other abandoned buildings, from the inside of one looked like an old post office, from what I could tell, most everything was covered in pigeon shit. Past the old swimming pool was two storage units and a vet clinic. In the center was a small park park ( more like grass opening with some trees), and office building two barracks, a training building, the Guest House, and about 12-14 houses for families usually in the ranks of Sgt. To Lt. Col. Below that housing section was a number of buildings used for training, about 1990/91, they created the new guest house/ YMCA at the bottom and closed down the original Guest House., and by the first water tower there use to be a bar.
From what I see now from Sat. photos, mostly all of my childhood memories have been demolished and/or replaced with something else. Thanks for posting the pictures and bringing back some old memories.
Hardly ever saw water in those canals, except for the rare hard batch of rain that would come down every couple of years, and never saw or heard anything when were kids in any of the buildings, other then a bunch of pigeons

Old Fort Bliss Barracks