Editing Fort Concho (section)

===Preservation===
[[File:Fort Concho, Officer's Row, 1913.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Officer's Row in 1913]]

Following the closure of the fort in 1889, it was divided into commercial and residential lots and its buildings were accordingly renovated or demolished.{{sfn|National Park Service|1985|p=2}} Enlisted Barracks 3 and 4 were replaced with a series of residences, while the officers' residences were preserved as private homes.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Bluthardt|first=Robert|title=Through the Centuries at Old Fort Concho|url=http://newweb.ranchmagazine.com/index.php/item/140-through-the-centuries-at-fort-concho|date=November 1, 2010|magazine=Ranch and Rural Living|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190215215732/http://newweb.ranchmagazine.com/index.php/item/140-through-the-centuries-at-fort-concho|archive-date=February 15, 2019}}</ref> Additional buildings were built in and around the fort,{{sfn|National Park Service|1985|p=2}} including a school constructed on the parade ground in 1907. As early as 1905, however, influential locals tried to conserve the fort. J. L. Millspaugh, one of the merchants contracted to supply Fort Concho, suggested without success that the city buy it.{{sfn|Bluthardt|Flynn|1997|p=11}} That same year, realtor C. A. Broome formed the Fort Concho Realty Company in 1905 to sell his properties on the fort's grounds to the city. The eastern third of the fort grounds, which had remained preserved, was given to the city by the [[Santa Fe Railroad Company]] in 1913. Eleven years later, the [[Daughters of the American Revolution]] raised funds to preserve the fort and secured a designation for it as a Texas state historic site, with accompanying plaque.{{sfn|Handbook of Texas Online: Fort Concho National Historic Landmark}}

In 1927, a local named Ginevra Wood Carson acquired a room in the [[Tom Green County Courthouse]] for an exhibit on local history,{{sfn|Bluthardt|Flynn|1997|p=11}} and there established what would become the Fort Concho Museum.{{sfn|Handbook of Texas Online: Fort Concho}} After the museum began expanding into other rooms of the courthouse, Carson moved it into Fort Concho's headquarters building on August 8, 1930. Carson struggled to raise a sum of $6,000 (${{Format price|{{Inflation|US|6,000|1930}}}}, adjusted for inflation) to purchase the building from its owner, who in 1935 relented and accepted the $3,000 (${{Format price|{{Inflation|US|3,000|1935}}}}, adjusted for inflation) she had been able to raise.{{sfn|Bluthardt|Flynn|1997|p=11}} That same year, the city of San Angelo assumed partial administrative responsibility for the museum,{{sfn|Matthews|2005|p=61}}{{sfn|Field|2006|p=58}} to be managed by a [[board of directors]] headed by Carson until she retired in 1953. Funding for the museum was slashed during the [[Great Depression]] and [[World War II]], though four buildings were acquired in 1939. Further acquisitions occurred in the later 1940s, until the [[1950s Texas drought]] again strained municipal resources. The museum was made a department of the city of San Angelo in 1955, but only one property purchased in that decade; the Fort Concho Museum by this time controlled only about a quarter of the fort grounds. In the 1960s, the city of San Angelo sought to cede the Fort Concho Museum to the federal and state governments, but both were prioritizing other Texas forts.{{sfn|Bluthardt|Flynn|1997|pp=12–13}}

On July 4, 1961, Fort Concho was named a [[National Historic Landmark District]],<ref>{{cite web|title=List of NHLs by State|url=https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalhistoriclandmarks/list-of-nhls-by-state.htm|publisher=[[National Park Service]]|access-date=February 16, 2019|archive-date=November 14, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201114011601/https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalhistoriclandmarks/list-of-nhls-by-state.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> and on October 15, 1966, it was placed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Fort Concho Historic District|url=https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/66000823|work=[[National Register of Historic Places]]|publisher=[[National Park Service]]|access-date=March 22, 2021|archive-date=February 24, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200224191336/https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/66000823|url-status=live}}</ref> by the [[National Park Service]] (NPS). A plan was prepared by the NPS in 1961,{{sfn|Bluthardt|Flynn|1997|pp=12–13}}<!--Note: this source just dates the plan to the "early 1960s"--> and again in 1967.{{sfn|Handbook of Texas Online: Fort Concho National Historic Landmark}} In 1980, the Fort Concho Museum collaborated with Bell, Klein and Hoffman, an [[Austin, Texas|Austin]]-based architecture firm specializing in restorations,{{sfn|Bluthardt|Flynn|1997|p=13}} to prepare another, three-phase plan to acquire the rest of the fort's grounds and demolish its 19th and 20th century modifications.{{sfn|National Park Service|1985|p=2}} The museum began implementing that plan in 1981, spending over $900,000 (${{Format price|{{Inflation|US|900,000|1981}}}}).{{sfn|Bluthardt|Flynn|1997|p=13}} Those funds were raised by matched grants from the NPS via the [[Historic Preservation Fund]].{{sfn|National Park Service|1985|p=2}} The parade ground was then brought fully under the museum's control with the move of the school to a new campus.{{sfn|Bluthardt|Flynn|1997|pp=13–14}} An NPS survey in June 1985 found that the fort was in generally good condition, though a number of later buildings were still on its grounds.{{sfn|National Park Service|1985|p=2}} On January 1, 1986, it was named a Texas State Antiquities Landmark by the [[Texas Historical Commission]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Fort Concho (41TG57)|url=https://atlas.thc.state.tx.us/Details/8200000596|work=Texas Historic Sites Atlas|publisher=[[Texas Historical Commission]]|access-date=March 22, 2021|archive-date=September 22, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170922145032/https://atlas.thc.state.tx.us/Details/8200000596|url-status=live}}</ref> By 1989, the district consisted of 16 original buildings, six reconstructed buildings, and a stabilized ruin.{{sfn|Handbook of Texas Online: Fort Concho National Historic Landmark}}

In 2015, an anonymous donor gave $2,000,000 (${{Format price|{{Inflation|US|2,000,000|2015}}}}, adjusted for inflation) to the Fort Concho Museum.<ref name=GSA1>{{cite news|last=Tufts|first=John|title=Fort Concho to use $2M from mystery donor to rebuild parts of fort missing over a century|url=https://www.gosanangelo.com/story/news/2020/12/18/fort-concho-gets-2-m-mystery-donor-rebuild-missing-parts-fort/3933948001/|work=San Angelo Standard-Times|date=December 18, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201219125134/https://www.gosanangelo.com/story/news/2020/12/18/fort-concho-gets-2-m-mystery-donor-rebuild-missing-parts-fort/3933948001/|archive-date=December 19, 2020}}</ref> Two years later, the museum announced that it would use the donated money and other proceeds to expand its visitors center and rebuild Barracks 3 and 4 over 2018.<ref>{{cite news|last=McDaniel|first=Matthew|title=Fort Concho looking forward to big things in its 151st year|url=https://www.gosanangelo.com/story/news/local/2017/11/28/fort-concho-looking-forward-big-things-its-151-year/869227001/|work=San Angelo Standard-Times|date=November 28, 2017|access-date=April 2, 2021|archive-date=January 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210118011205/https://www.gosanangelo.com/story/news/local/2017/11/28/fort-concho-looking-forward-big-things-its-151-year/869227001/|url-status=live}}</ref> No commissions were made until December 2020, however, when the City of San Angelo announced imminent repairs to 14 buildings, and that the reconstructed Barracks 3 and the mess hall of Barracks 4 would house a research library on loan to the museum.<ref name=GSA1/> A permit was issued for the reconstruction of Barracks 3 and 4 in September 2021.<ref>{{cite news|last=Trammell|first=Matt|title=Reconstruction of Historic Ft. Concho Barracks Gets a Significant Boost|url=https://sanangelolive.com/news/san-angelo/2021-09-03/reconstruction-historic-ft-concho-barracks-gets-significant-boost|work=San Angelo Live|date=September 3, 2021|access-date=December 28, 2021}}</ref>