Volume 17 , Issue 2

Basic Facilities of POW Camps

This is a photo and layout of the Alva POW Camp. The upper part was the prisoner's compounds (non-commissioned officers & enlisted men on the left side; German Officers on the right side). Main Street (or Washington Ave.) separating the two compounds and 3rd street running east and west and on the north side of the prisoner's compounds.

The theater, Officers Club & Quarters, and the Hospital sat across the street from the non-commissioned officers & enlisted prisoners compounds. The lone Chimney, the Officers Club and the water tower are only reminders of the camp during WWII. Only memories and artifacts held at the "Cherokee Strip Museum" are what keep the Alva POW Camp fresh in our minds.

Basic Facilities of POW Camps

Chapel - post exchange (100ft. by 20 ft.), Also barber shop and Latrine.
Theater - 100 ft. by 20 ft. Production of plays, musicals art exhibits. Seated 250.
School - (100 ft by 20 ft.) Three room building for education.
Workshop - (100 ft by 20 ft.) Camp maintenance.
Gymnasium - (100 ft by 20 ft.)
Company dayrooms - 72 ft. by 20 ft. Games, reading, lounging, writing letters.
Carpenter Shop - (100 ft. by 20 ft.)
Tailor Shop - (20 ft. by 20 ft.)
Libraries -
236 Bed Hospital -
4 Orchestras
Barracks - 20 ft by 120 ft. and faced with sheet rock and covered with tar paper.

After the WWII the buildings were sold off and this barrack was moved to the 900 block of W. Flynn Street in Alva, Oklahoma. It sets on the north side of the street and approximately a half block west of the Middle School (where the Old Jr. High School used to be.)

This old barracks was moved to the northeast corner of Center & Eleventh Street in Alva, Oklahoma. There was another building moved to E. Flynn and used as a storage building. There was also a building moved down to Waynoka and turned into a "Beer Joint", but it was torn down and that is where the POW's Painted murals were discovered, removed and put permanently in the Santa Fe Depot Museum in Waynoka and the Cherokee Strip Museum in Alva.

If anyone out there has any "Old" or "New" photos of the "Old POW buildings that came from the Alva POW Camp after World War II, please send me a copy to share with everyone. I would love to see it.
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