| Additional Information: | A 'site file' titled "General Mitchell Airport, Air Reserve Station" exists for this property. It contains additional information such as correspondence, newspaper clippings, or historical information. It is a public record and may be viewed in person at the Wisconsin Historical Society, State Historic Preservation Office. Previously surveyed in 2007.
2007-
Building 301 is located at 300 East College Avenue on the east side of C Street at General Mitchell International Airport (IAP) Air Reserve Station (ARS) in the City of Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin. Building 301 is a rectangular-plan, high-bay, reinforced concrete building that rests atop a concrete foundation. While the west facade is exposed and includes a concrete block enclosed vestibule entry, the north, south and east facades are covered by an earthen berm. Building 301 is capped by a flat roof that supports ventilation structures, and Building 403 (Force Protection-Small Arms), a small modern wood-frame guard booth located at the northeast corner of the roof which was constructed in 2001.
Statement of Significance
Building 301 was constructed in 1956 as the reservoir for the US Air Force Reserve (AFRES) installation at General Billy Mitchell Field, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was built according to standard designs conceived by the Office of the Chief Engineer of the US Army (US Army Corps of Engineers [USACE], Washington, DC, 1955). During the early years of the Cold War (1946-89), the military constructed multiple installations to strengthen national defense and building structures according to standard plans saved time and money.
As described in the Historic Building Inventory and Evaluation, General Mitchell International Airport Air Reserve Station prepared for the Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence (AFCEE) in 2007, Building 301 has played an evolving role in the history of the installation which has been home to the 440th Airlift Wing (AW) since 1957, a unit of AFRES dedicated to providing air transport and airlift for deploying troops, cargo, and humanitarian aid in support of national policy. For the first two-and-a-half decades of its existence, it functioned as the installation's reservoir, an independent water supply system that would enable the installation to remain open and active in the event of a major catastrophe. The reservoir's pump house was located in Building 300 (Pumping Station). In the 1980s, the reservoir was closed and converted the indoor small arms range, and as a result, Building 300 was converted into a training classroom (Threshold Design, 1983). Building 301 has been altered over time, including a change in function.
2024: This former water reservoir has undergone few, if any changes since it was last inventoried. The footprint and exposed elevations of the structure, which is banked into the side of an manmade hill, have undergone minimal alterations since it was built in 1956. The structure's function was altered around 1980 when its use as a reservoir was decommissioned and it was converted into an indoor firing range. Although components reflective of its original use have been removed, the 1956 astylistic utilitarian structure is associated with the early, Cold War era activities of the air reserve station. Specific or significant events associated with the structure have not been identified.
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| Bibliographic References: | AFCEE. Historic Building Inventory and Evaluation, General Mitchell International Airport Air Reserve Station. 2007.
Threshold Design, Inc. "Small Arms Range-Building 301." Drawing No. 301-003. 1983. On file at Building 106 (Civil Engineering), General Mitchell IAP ARS, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
USACE Washington, DC. "Emergency-Type Construction, Reservoir-Ground Storage-Building 301." 1955. Drawing No. 301-001b. On file at Building 106 (Civil Engineering), General Mitchell IAP ARS, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. |
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