Efforts at Fort Leonard Wood to preserve a piece of the installation’s cultural history have resulted in national recognition

Efforts at Fort Leonard Wood to preserve a piece of the installation’s cultural history have resulted in national recognition. The National Trust for Historic Preservation honored Fort Leonard Wood last Thursday with the Federal Partnerships in Historic Preservation Award, during a virtual conference live-streamed from Washington, D.C., for rehabilitation work done here to save Building 2101, also known as the Black Officer’s Club. The building — renamed Countee Hall in 2019, in honor of the late artist Staff Sgt. Samuel Countee, who painted a mural featured in the building while he was stationed here during World War II — stands as a reminder of a time before segregation in the Army was ended by President Harry Truman in 1948. Countee’s mural is now displayed inside a protective glass case atop the building’s original stone fireplace.