Barracks

Facts

Completion Date: 1917

Demolition Date: 1928

Original Purpose of Building: The barracks were designed to house classrooms for lower grades (primary and intermediate) of the practice school. In late 1918, it briefly housed the Students’ Army Training Corps (SATC).

Current Use: Destroyed

History

It is difficult to establish whether “the barracks” was so named because of its appearance, resembling military-style living quarters, or its eventual—albeit brief—use as the same. The building was a long, single-level structure which connected the barn of the Oviatt House and the Libbey House (both are no longer standing) and housed the younger students of the practice school. On August 12, 1918 the War Department asked the Oshkosh Normal School to establish a unit of the SATC on campus. The barracks were used to house the student-soldiers. The students in the SATC were not all current Oshkosh Normal students, but membership was limited to high-school graduates who wanted to learn the “art of war” while taking classes at the Oshkosh Normal School. After the war, college classes were moved into the building as it became increasingly dilapidated and less safe for children.

President Harry A. Brown, a vocal crusader for the improvement of buildings on campus, convinced Governor Fred Zimmerman to visit the Oshkosh Normal School and take a tour of some of the campus buildings. On a very rainy day, President Brown and the Governor found an instructor and a student moving a desk out of the way of a substantial leak coming from the ceiling in the barrack’s office. Other students were found to have moved their seats to avoid other leaks. The events in the barracks convinced Governor Zimmerman that the investment in the physical plant was sorely needed and, soon after, the building was condemned.

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