Roanoke buys vacant National Guard Armory

During much of its life the old National Guard Armory on LaFayette Highway was at the center of life in Roanoke. In its 50th anniversary month it may be again-just with a different mission.

Sitting deserted with that lost look of a rarely used building, it may soon be bustling with life.

Roanoke Mayor Spec Bonner, who has been trying to buy the brick and green-facaded building, said the deal would be concluded soon with the signing of papers. The city council has budgeted $50,000 for the purchase of the building appraised at $250,000. He does not have to have a CPA to tell him it is a good deal, he said.

He heard from a young man who works for state Adjutant General Mark Bowen telling him Roanoke could buy the building.

“Sen. Gerald Dial and Rep. Richard Laird called me and told me the purchase is approved,” he said.

“I sort of paved the way when they took the troops out of there a couple of years ago when it became apparent there was not going to be a battalion to replace it,” Laird said.

Under state law Bowen could not give the building to the city. About 22 armories have been closed, and some of those cities approached the comptroller about obtaining them. The cities were required to pay for an appraisal. Most armories are appraised at between $200,000 and $300,000 and they are not giving any away now, although he does not know what might have been done years ago, Laird said. In Valley years ago the school system wanted the armory next to it but the guard would not give it, he said.

With cutbacks Bowen has said the sale of the armories is helping keep the lights on for his organization, Laird said.

Roanoke was fortunate in that Laird has known Bowen for about 30 years and so has Dial, who serves with Bowen on the Armory Commission. The Commission met Dec. 19 and approved the sale of the building to the city, Dial said. The commission oversees all the National Guard armories in the state.

Bowen was a year behind Dial in school in Lineville.

Laird said Roanoke’s mission had a lot of support going in. He is pleased to see the plan come to fruition.

“It can really be an asset to the community and at a bargain price,” Laird said.

So many different groups can use it. It will be a great community project and a great building to have, Laird said. The facility is in great shape and the only problem will be the water, but the utilities board can take care of that.

General Bowen was real helpful and understood what the city wanted to do, Dial said. The armories were built by the state with money from the federal government. Many armories were built in the 1950s using the same design.

“It’s progress. The council, so far, has been very supportive of any programs they think we can do. I feel very fortunate to have them to work with,” Bonner said.

“We’re going to get people involved to figure out the best use of it. Various people have been throwing out ideas. I will welcome any letters, telephone calls, any suggestions-we may appoint a committee,” he said of future use of the facility.

Laird said it is a huge building and could be a multi-use facility. Partitions could be added so it could be a community center and provide space for the Boys and Girls Club but that is a decision for others to make, he said.

The man who ran the armory for 26 years and whose name it bears, 1st Sgt. Manley Clack, strongly favors using the building for the community.

“I think we need in the city of Roanoke a place where people can have community activities. Right now we have a basketball floor. We need a place for family reunions, singings, that kind of thing,” Clack said. People could be charged for using the building and those funds can be used to maintain it.

When not being used for National Guard activities the facility has been used for elections, for dances and for school Halloween carnivals (before they became fall festivals.) Black families especially used the facility for family reunions, he said. Now there is no place for large family reunions or community meetings. When voting sites were consolidated at the armory that made it easier for everyone, Clack said.

The mayor thinks the suggestion of using it for a community center is a good one. It could continue to be used as a voting location. But he remembers when the Masons and Kiwanians used it for functions, such as barbecues.

“People from all the county would be there shaking hands, talking, just one great gathering. People from different parts of the county were talking and visiting,” he said.

The building is in fair condition, he believes, he said, but it does need work. If used as a community center the main work would be installing a commercial kitchen, he said, which might have to be included in next year’s budget. Once the city gains possession work can be done as funds are available.

Clack was a civil service employee who was an administrative supply tech. The armory was built in January 1955 and was eventually named Ft. Charles M. Clack.

“I think it’s fine,” the city is buying the building, Clack said. “It’s sad they’ve shut down and we don’t have a guard unit in Randolph County. Part of it is the force structure we went to-with a full-time force you don’t have people who go to a place to work their entire career,” he said.

To increase rank people have to move around. They may work one place and live another. Everything is active guard and reserve now, not civil service, he said.

“One thing is they don’t have the strength to have one (an armory) everywhere,” he said. Not having full-time people living in the area where the armory is has not helped with recruiting, he said.

Dial said about 10-to-12 years ago the state had 24,000 National Guardsmen but with the drawdown of the troops and restructuring there are less than 13,000 now. Most states have lost units, he said.

“I’ve been retired about six years,” he said. He retired as assistant adjutant general.

At one time 138 people were attached to this unit, which fell under the Alabama Army National Guard headquarters in Montgomery. The unit has gone through changes, including a maintenance unit, from artillery to infantry. At one point it fell under the 31st Armored Brigade out of Tuscaloosa, then it moved to Langdale with A Company of the 167th Infantry, 1st Battalion, Clack said. Maintenance was then moved here but split between Tallassee and Roanoke.

“When they started activating all the people to go to Iraq and Homeland Security they moved all of them to Dadeville and Phenix City,” Clack said. Now there are two units in Clay County-one in Lineville and two in Ashland.

He stayed with the armory until it changed. In 1992 he began working for the Military Academy at Ft. McClellan and retired in 1998.

The armory closed completely last summer but it was inevitable with no one working full-time there, living in the county. No one kept the records and was there to answer questions and “most of them got tired of that and got out,” he said of local people serving in the National Guard.

The property, which is fenced in, includes a building in back that could be used for storage. Laird remembers using the building when his high school class was building a parade float.