Bonnie St, Marfa, TX 79843 For Sale

Bldg. 98 is a one of a kind adobe building originally constructed in 1911 as the officers quarters for Fort DA Russell in Marfa Texas. It was designed and constructed for the West Point cavalry officers who were stationed there to monitor the Mexican Border. During World War II it was used to house German prisoners. Patton captured several hundred German tank crewmen in North Africa early in the war. He did not want them to reenter the war and the war department settled them in this remote corner of Texas several returned to the area after the war and their descendants can be found to this day.

The building has a caretakers cottage and 7 bedrooms, 5 with private baths bar. a formal dining hall, a mess hall, a ballroom with wooden floor, and a bar. There are pictures of Patton and Eisenhower having a drink at the bar and posing for photographs.

A Marfa "cultural icon of heritage tourism," Building 98, was built between 1895 and 1920 at old Fort Russell, as a United States horse cavalry post. It houses the largest collection of WWII POW murals still in existence in the United States. These murals were created in two huge rooms within the 12,000 square foot property during WWII by two German prisoners of war. These German artists were among the 186 POWs billeted at Fort Russell at the request of General George Patton. Patton's Second Army defeated General Irwin Rommel's Afrika Korps in North Africa. According to the 1929 Geneva Convention, "important prisoners already acclimated to the area in which they were captured, should be relocated as prisoners to a similar climate". The climate of Fort Russell in the Big Bend of Texas is much like that of North Africa. The fresco design murals at Building 98 and the total property were designated a National Historic Place in 2004 by the United States Department of the Interior and designated as a Recorded Historic Texas Landmark in 2005 by the Texas Historical Commission.

It has been used as gallery sponsored by the National Federation of Women as an Exhibition Space and Artists Retreat . Frequent guests have stayed there for up to 3-months working on art to have an exhibit and presentation at the end of that time.

The Owner is retiring and is ready to sell.