NAS Chase Field-Building 1009

Building 1009 (The Enlisted WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) Barracks Building), was constructed in 1944 to house women naval enlistees, is the only surviving barracks building dating from the initial period of construction at NAS Chase Field. Since the WAVES were an essential component in the World War II-era training mission of the base, the barracks building relates to the historic context, Chase Field: A World War II Naval Auxiliary Air Station, 1943-1946, and to the statewide context, U.S. Military: 1919-1945. One of five enlisted barracks constructed during the war, the 2-story, the wood-frame building is a typical example of an enlistee barracks. Like nearly all military construction projects initiated after the United States entered the war in 1941, the barracks is one of the hundreds of simple, temporary buildings intended to serve only for the duration of the emergency and, as such, lacks unique architectural distinction. However, the Enlisted WAVES Barracks Building closely represents the contributions of its personnel to the mission of the base and the outcome of the war. Further, as a building specifically associated with women's contributions to the war effort during a period of national crisis, the WAVES barracks building is a rare tangible link to that association and conveys a sense of the all-encompassing nature of the emergency that required the sacrifices of all its citizens, men and women alike, to the successful prosecution of the war. The Enlisted WAVES Barracks Building is noteworthy primarily for its historical associations and is therefore nominated to the National Register of Historic Places at the local level of significance.