University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Theses (Historic Preservation) Graduate Program in Historic Preservation 1994 Closing Military Bases: National Disaster or National Opportunity? Brooke Danielle Wortham University of Pennsylvania Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/hp_theses Part of the Historic Preservation and Conservation Commons Wortham, Brooke Danielle, "Closing Military Bases: National Disaster or National Opportunity?" (1994). Theses (Historic Preservation). 477. https://repository.upenn.edu/hp_theses/477 Copyright note: Penn School of Design permits distribution and display of this student work by University of Pennsylvania Libraries. Suggested Citation: Wortham, Brooke Danielle. (1994). Closing Military Bases: National Disaster or National Opportunity?. (Masters Thesis). University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA. This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/hp_theses/477 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Closing Military Bases: National Disaster or National Opportunity? Disciplines Historic Preservation and Conservation Comments Copyright note: Penn School of Design permits distribution and display of this student work by University of Pennsylvania Libraries. Suggested Citation: Wortham, Brooke Danielle. (1994). Closing Military Bases: National Disaster or National Opportunity?. (Masters Thesis). University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA. This thesis or dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/hp_theses/477 mm •:*;<! m::w Mi m uNivERsmy PENNSYL\6\NL\ UBKAR1E5 CLOSING MILITARY BASES: NATIONAL DISASTER OR NATIONAL OPPORTUNITY? Brooke Danielle Wortham A THESIS m Historic Preservation Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE 1994 Christa Wilmanns-Wells, Ph.D., Lecturer, Historic Preservation, Advisor Samuel Y. Harris; Adjunct Associate Professor of Architecture, Reader .D., l^roYessof^of Aj^hitectyre Graduate Group Chairman FWCARTS ]\\\q i^ UNfVERsrry OF PENNSYLVANIA UBRARIES ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank Tansill Johnson, whose generosity and willingness to give of her time, knowledge and position allowed me to have access to Department of Defense documents and staff to which I might not otherwise have been privy. The insights and commentar>' of Samuel Y. Harris on a variety of topics (to include, but not limited to, preservation) have also left an indelible mark on the author during the year that this work was researched and written. This thesis, as written, would also not have been possible without the encouragement, aid, and thoughtfulness of Christa Wilmanns-Wells, whose compassion is only exceeded by her intellect and ardent pursuit of education. Finally, 1 would like to thank James T. Wortham, Jr. and Penelope Kennedy Wortham, who have unconditionall> supported my past, present, and future academic endeavors as well as inspiring the topic for this thesis — in part because they were raised as militar>' brats and in turned parented their own, but also because they were integral members of the military community. Since they have retired, it is now a small town in Massachusetts which will benefit from their years of experience in what it takes to create, nurture, and pass on this sense of community. R Wortham — Page i i 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS INrRODllCTIQN Page 1 PART I: BACKGROUND THE CULTURAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE MILITARY AND AMERICAN SOCIETY Page 5 A BRIEF SOCIAL HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN MILITARY Page 8 Indigenous peoples Page 9 Colonization Page 10 Manifest Destiny Page 1 Industrial Revolution Page 13 International Expansion Page 15 World War II and the Cold War Page 16 The Future Page 17 MILITARY BUILT ENVIRONMENT HISTORY Page 18 The Colonial Period Page 20 A New Nation Page 22 The Nineteenth Century Page 25 The Civil War and the Creation of a Modem Nation Page 30 The Twentieth Century Page 33 The Cold War Page 34 WHY ARTIFACTS OF RECENT HISTORY SHOULD BE WORTHY OF CULTURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT WHILE STILL INTACT Page 36 PART 11: MILITARY BASE CONVERSIONS BASE CLOSURES PRIOR TO THE 1980s Page 40 THE BASE CLOSURE PROCESS Page 42 BRAC AIMS, ACTIONS, AND CRITERIA Page 44 SUPPORT SYSTEMS ESTABUSHED TO FACILITATE CLOSING AND REUSE Page 46 B. Wortham — Page i ii SURPLUS PROPHRTY GENERAL REGULATIONS AND PROCEDURES GOVERNING TRANSFER OF OWNERSHIP Page 49 FOR THE MILITARY Page 53 THE PRYOR AMENDMENT AND RECENT CHANGES IN BRAC Page 58 RELEVANT PLANNING ISSUES Page 59 COMMUNITY RESPONSE Page 63 STATISTICAL INFORMATION ON PREVIOUS BASE CLOSURES AND THE STATE OF THEIR COMMUNITIES Page 67 PART III: PRESERVATION AND PEACEMAKING PRESERVATION Page 73 IN GENERAL Page 73 IN TERMS OF MILITARY BASES Page 81 PEACEMAKING Page 83 HOW TO MAKE GOOD PLACES? Page 88 THE MILITARY BASE AND A SENSE OF PIACE Page 93 PART TV: APPENDICES INFORMATION RELEVANT TO APPENDICES A-D Page 96 APPENDIX A: MAJOR BASE CLOSURES AND THEIR COMPLETION LMTES Page 98 APPE.NDIX B: BREAK DOWN OF 107 CONVERTED BASES INTO lAND USIi AND REDEVELOPMENT PIANS OF 24 BASES SINCE 1988 Page 101 APPENDICES C-1 THROUGH C-6: VARIOUS RANKINGS STATE BY STATE Page 102 B. Wortham — Page iv APPHNDIX D: STATES WITH THE lARGEST ESTIMATED NUMBER OF PRIVATE SECTOR JOB LOSSES DUE TO THE DEFENSE DRAWDOWN, 1991 TO 1997 Page 114 INFORMATION RELEVANT TO APPENDIX E Page 115 APPENDICES E-I THROUGH E-52: STATE PROFILES Page 117 RIBUOGRAPHY Page 223 B. Wortham — Page v LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS I. Map of Colonial Fortifications Page 21 II. Map of Transition fortifications Page 24 III. Map of The Permanent System Page 26 IV. Map of land Frontier Forts Page 28 V. Map of Major Base Closures and Realignments: 1988, 1991 & 1993 Page 43 VI. Site Plan Illustrating the Surplus Property Transfer at the Charlestown Naval Yard Page 54 B. Wonham — Page vi INTRODUCTION The ascendance of Mikhail Gorbachev as head of the Soviet Union in 1985 signaled not only the beginning of internal change for his country, but also an irreversible shift towards a new world order. An immediate result of the thawing of the Cold War has been the substantial down-sizing of the U.S. military, one part of which has been and will be the deactivation and closure of U.S. militajy installations both within and without the United States. In 1988, the Secretary of Defense's Commission on Base Realignment and Closure began to determine those American installations no longer deemed necessary. The collective impact that these base closures will have on their local communities is staggering. And without thoughtful planning for the reuse of these installations, the residual long-term impact could be devastating. Concern for the economics of base conversion is evident. Concern for the preservation, however, may not be so transparent. A thesis analyzing the reuse of military bases belongs under the rubric of preservation for three reasons. First, these militar>- installations are not anomalous constructions on the American built environment, but reflective of the culture which it serves to protect. Their design is derivative of the shared American environment. Thus the resulting architecture and landscape of the military base is archetypal of the common American experience. Second, many of these military bases, both in function and development, are artifacts of the Cold War. The Cold War has ineffably and ineluctably affected American culture and its shared system of beliefs. And it is precisely because the Cold War is of recent history that these bases should be approached with the guiding principles of preservation in mind while they are still intact and B. Wortham — Page 1 military their memory can be maintained. Finally, the planned reuse of these it the bases should respect the military artifacts existing there, whether is in form of total restoration or through an integrated planning and adaptive reuse approach which considers both the historic environment as well as the contemporary one. This thesis, while catalyzed by recent events surrounding defense conversion, has been researched and written under a guiding principle that the disasters and opportunities occurring today in America can be best of scrutinized by placing them in a larger and historical context. The writing of this thesis was also directed by the existing literature on the subject military installations and their conversion. The result is a paper which attempts to synthesize information, which does not currently exist, in a comprehensive format (whether published or unpublished) integrating military socio-cultural history with the realities of the current conversion. As a result, this paper has been divided into four main parts. cultural relationship Part 1 serves to articulate the history of the paid to between civil and military American society with particular attention their social relationships and the design of the militar>' built environment. should be respected as Part 1 also introduces the idea that recent history having the same value as "ancient" history in the integration of military laid artifacts into the American heritage. With the historical foundation being the current military- in Part I, Part II elucidates the elements surrounding Part civilian situation: namely, the closing of numerous military installations. not currently exist II includes a comprehensive explanation (one which does dispersal in the available published and unpublished literature because of the of the numerous agencies involved in base closure)