Interim Period, 1910 - 1912

Interim Period, 1910 - 1912. . Few structures were erected at Fort Bliss in the years between the Spanish-American War (1898) and the Mexican Revolution (1910-1921). When war between the United States and Spain broke out in 1898, Fort Bliss's infantry and cavalry troops were deployed to the Philippines and Puerto Rico, leaving only a handful of civilian and military personnel-as few as one officer and four enlisted men-to garrison the post. The return of Army regulars at war's end prompted much-needed improvements and repairs to Fort Bliss. Among these were new roads, a telephone system, and building construction and repair., In 1906, the El Paso Electric Railway Company built a streetcar line to Fort Bliss five miles away. This greatly augmented contact between city and post, which had formerly been linked only by freight lines and an unpaved road., Building 51, the 1904 post library, and Building 53, the 1909 post exchange, canteen, and bowling alley, provided the troops with educational and recreational opportunities. Other structures erected during this same period include the water tower to the north and Building 2010, a horseshoeing shop built of local blue limestone, where Lieutenant George Patton may have conducted his horse shoeing school., Building 228, the Pershing House, was built in 1910 from standard Army Quartermaster plans, the brick version of a design that can be found at other posts in stone and wood. Home to Fort Bliss Commanding Generals until 1934, the house has hosted Buffalo Bill, Mexican Generals Huerta and Obregón, Francisco Villa, and General John J. Pershing, whose residence it was from 1914 through early 1917. The first 48-star American flag flew here in 1911 in anticipation of New Mexico and Arizona statehood the following year.,