From Blackhawk Garage to Naval Armory

Badger Shipmate, Vol I, No.3, April 1988
John Washbush, Class of 1964, Editor

Ever wonder how the Unit acquired the palatial digs we now know as the Naval Armory?  Here’s the answer.

In January of 1942 the University actively explored acquiring the facility then known as the Blackhawk Garage for use as an ag engineering laboratory facility.  UW President Clarence Dykstra supported the idea because acquisition would “round out the holdings of the University on University Avenue and it will give us an opportunity at a later time to revamp what is now an eyesore from the standpoint of municipal and university planning.”  The University proceeded to invest the princely sum of $1 in a real estate option to purchase the property for $47,500 (the option period was open from January 19-31).  One important player in the drama, Governor Julius Heil, was not impressed.  The governor let it be known that he did not think much of a proposal to use the garage as a laboratory to “teach farmer boys how to repair farm machinery, when very likely the boys know more about repairing farm machinery than the professors.”  Apparently ag engineers never did get any respect!

The purchase plan was set aside.  However, the inauguration of the Navy Enlisted Radio School in April of 1942 moved the issue of Blackhawk back to the front burner.  What clinched the matter was the need to move code instruction out of the Field House so that the basketball team could begin practice for the 42-43 season (this was probably the last time UW basketball received aggressive support from campus administration!)  At any event, on the 4th of August the Regents agreed to purchase the building for $38,500, and this time the Governor agreed (or was this simply shrewd bargaining?).  In short order the Blackhawk Building was converted to a code instruction facility filled with rows of long tables topped by typewriters and headsets.  Passers-by soon got used to the loud, repetitive “clack --  clack -- clack” coming from behind its walls as scores of trainees (nearly 15,000 in all) learned morse code, typing and message format.

At war’s end, and after establishment of a permanent Navy presence via the NROTC program, the Regents had every intention of building a new naval armory (plans for a join Army-Navy armory are on file in the University Archives; the site was to have been that portion of University Bay Drive now occupied by the J.F. Friedrick Center).  Predictably the Capital Times howled about “this attempt to make the university an outpost of seaboard militarism.”  Other needs intervened, however.  In order to accelerate clearing dorms and to better accommodate the return of veterans, the University assigned the Blackhawk building to the new Department of Naval Science for use as a “temporary” naval armory.  After the final Radio School commencement in September of 1945, the conversion process commenced.  Classrooms, offices, libraries, storage areas, and a lounge were constructed.  Also installed were signaling equipment, a variety of ordnance (the 5”/38 and the Mk 37 fire control equipment are still there, although the system is now inoperative), and a submarine attack trainer.

The post-war explosion of the student body made the “temporary” situation one of increasingly longer duration.  In April of 1948 the Wisconsin Alumnus spotlighted the NROTC Unit in an article which noted that “instruction is presented at a temporary Naval Armory at 1610 University Ave.  A new armory is planned but the critical need of materials for housing has postponed it until a later date.”  Forty years later Clarence Dykstra’s “eyesore” still stands proudly as the “temporary” naval armory.  The attack teacher is gone, the east wall is pinned, and, in 1982, the gas storage tanks were dug out from under the front of the building.  A few years ago the University even installed energy efficient windows.  Actually, the old gun mount and fire control director probably are the primary reasons the building survives – no one wants to pay for their removal!