arlington hall campus

[Hoofbeats4@xxxxxxx]

The first thing the Signal Corps did when they leased, or bought, the 
beautiful campus of the exclusive Arlington Hall School for Girls was to put 
up a double chain-link fence all around it, topped with barbed wire.  Even 
that didn't spoil the beauty.  I remember standing outside the fence with the 
wife of one of the officers, and she said, "Oh, look!  They've caught two 
little trees! " Sure enough--there were two little maple trees growing 
between the two fences.  There were wrought-iron gates and a sweeping 
circular drive leading up to  the big brick building that had been the 
administration building.  That became HQ for the SIS.  Then some other 
temporary buildings were constructed beyond HQ, two-story with tar-paper 
roofs.  I believe Security Section was in B Building, and the foreign code 
systems were in C Bldg.  
    A huge cafeteria was installed in one of the buildings--we were several 
thousand employees by then, and they all had to be fed.  That is where I had 
my first taste of pecan pie.  more later  Frances