U.S. Naval Air Station, Senior Officers' Quarters Q-4, Q-4 North Avenue, Pensacola, Escambia County, FL

Significance: Quarters 4, historically known as Quarters B, is one of eight unique residences at NAS Pensacola representing a distinct period in the development of the Pensacola Navy Yard. The two-story, irregular plan, masonry and wood-frame residence exhibits Italianate influences and features a hipped roof and prominent covered wraparound porch. on Significant interior architectural features include plaster ceiling medallions and historic period millwork. The core structure of Quarters 4 was built ca. 1850s and served as detached kitchen to earlier quarters at the installation. Fires set by the Confederate Army during the Civil War destroyed the quarters, with the exception of the detached brick kitchens. For ten years following the Civil War, the Navy used the former kitchens as temporary quarters for naval officers. A building campaign in the mid-1870s brought greatly needed and long over due improvements to the officers' quarters on North Avenue, including Quarters 4. The improvements transformed the entire neighborhood and completely changed its physical character. Modifications to Quarters 4 typified those made to other residences on North Avenue. In 1874, Quarters 4 attained its current appearance with the addition of a second story and wood-frame verandas and with the exception of the installation's inactive statues from 1883 to 1900, housed senior officers of the Navy until the closure of the Pensacola Navy Yard in 1911. In the years following the establishment of Naval Aeronautical Station Pensacola in 1914, Quarters 4 continued to provide housing for senior officers of the Navy until it was damaged in 2004 by Hurricane Ivan. The building is currently vacant. Quarters 4 continues to display qualities of mid- to late nineteenth century military residential architecture. Quarters 4, as well as the other extant quarters on North Avenue, survives as a tangible link to the history of the Pensacola Navy Yard in the post-Civil War period.
Survey number: HABS FL-517
Building/structure dates: 1874 Initial Construction