Billy Mitchell Village

San Antonio, Texas

Billy Mitchell Village is a postwar military housing development historically associated with Kelly and Lackland Air Force Base in southwestern San Antonio, Bexar County. Designed by architect Erwin Gerber for the United States Department of Defense, Billy Mitchell Village was constructed on 94 acres in three phases between 1949 and 1951.

Billy Mitchell Village is an excellent local example of a postwar housing development constructed by the United States Department of Defense to entice employment and retention of military enlisted and civilian personnel in the years leading up to the Cold War. From its passage through 1962, Section 803 (called the Wherry Act) of the 1949 Housing Act enabled the construction of 62,475 military housing units, including Billy Mitchell Village, nationwide. Like all Wherry Housing, Billy Mitchell Village met FHA Minimum Property Standards and provided affordable housing for Air Force personnel that was comparable to private sector housing. Completed in two phases between 1949-1952, the development was once touted as the largest military housing project in the nation’s history. Former FHA employee and architect Erwin Gerber designed the nominated district as Garden Style apartment complex with Colonial Revival-style buildings in a park-like suburban setting. The nominated district is a coherent 33.5-acre subsection of 22 apartment buildings and 19 carports completed in 1950 that represents the project’s first phase of development. Billy Mitchell Village is nominated to the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion A in the area of Military History and Criterion C in the area of Architecture at the local level of significance.