FORT ORD LANDMARK COMES TUMBLING DOWN

By Victoria Manley vmanley@montereyherald.com

Stilwell Hall, the once-mighty structor whose demise sat dangling -- literially-- before it for two years, has been reased from the Central Coast landscape.

The building had opened as Fort Ord's Soldiers Club in 1943 and remained a venue for entertainment and recreation for 50 years for troops until the military base closed in 1994.

In 2001, when a piece was taken down before it could fall off an eroding cliff near the shore, the structure became controversial as Army and political officials argued over whether it should be restored or demolished.

The dust eventually settled with the conclusion it would be too expensive to salvage or relocate the building. And last week, it was taken down without much attention.

"Everything has pretty much been flattened," said Army spokesman Bob Britton. "Within the past week or two weeks, the last thing standing was the frames of the ballroom."

A special ceremony commemorating the structure will be held sometime next month, Britton said.

The 52,000-square-foot Stilwell Hall was the social hot spot for soldiers who served in World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the Persian Gulf. It was built at the behest of its namesake, Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell, who commanded Fort Ord and the 7th Infantry Division at the outbreak of World War II.

The building's demise actually began in the winter of 1983, when erosion had erased roughly 400 feet of sand dunes and left the structure sitting at a cliff's edge.

"We lost a big part of the bluff in one night," said Fred Meurer, the Army's director of engineering and housing at the time and current Monterey city manager.

End of an era for military's Stilwell Hall

Stilwell Hall remained opened, however. To help it stay secure, the Army poured tons of rock down the cliff in an attempt to stop further erosion.

"We thought that might last five to 10 years, Meurer said. "It actually lasted much longer."

The broken concrete, or "rip-rap," remained solid. But in 1987, part of Stilwell's parking lot colapsed into the ocean, prompting further concern. But at that point the Army already had been contemplating closing Fort Ord, which it did in 1994.

In 1998, the rear patio of the already abandoned building dropped off as more erosion continued to eat away the sand beneath it. And in 2001, more erosion occured and left part of the foundation exposed and hanging in midair. A demolition date was set in September of that year.

Efforts to restore and relocate the building soon emerged, prompting engineering reports and lenghlt debates. A preservation society tried to raise money needed to move the building , and ideas surfaced of using Stilwell as a train station, visitor center and music hall.

It would have cost upward of $24 million to move and restore the building. Ideas of a new life for Stilwell fell apart when money didn't materialize.

The $2.2 million demolition project began in September, when a construction crew from Alaska started removing the main building's red roof tiles. In keeping with the promise recycle as much of the building as possible, the Army donated the tiles to the city of Monterey, which will use them to re-roof some of its historical buildings.

Meurer said arrangements have been made to give bundles of some of the tiles to Stilwell's family, "as souvenirs."

Some of the dirt excavated from the demolition has been trucked over hiway 1 to the state Department of Transportation, which is making improvements to Second Avenue on the former military base. Wood from the building was sent to a recycling plant in Marina, where it will be turned into mulch, Britton said.

It was shortly thereafter, Meurer said, that the Army gathered some of Stilwell's surviving family members to "brief them" on the condition of the building. "Basically, that the long-range prognosis was not good."

Now that Stilwell Hall has been squashed, the "rip-rap" that had been dumped on the slope below Stilwell 20 years ago will be removed in order to open up the beach.

Full restoration of the site and the surrounding 886 acres to make way for the new Fort Ord Dunes State Park is due for completion by February, Britton said. "It's all on track."

Despite the smooth schedule, many, including Britton and Meurer, still pause to remember Stilwell's legacy.

It's a piece of our military history," Meurer said.