FORT SILL, Okla.-- The 77th U.S. Army Band, "The Pride of Fort Sill" along with the bagpipers of "Costello's Own" have a new home.
The band moved from its building at 922 Randolph Road to the former Child and Youth Services Youth Center and Civilian Personnel Advisory Center, located at 1721 Fort Sill Blvd.
The unit moved administrative functions into the east end of the building Jan. 17, and was scheduled to move the remainder of its functions March 1.
The new building offers significantly more room, almost double in comparison to the band's previous location.
"It has 15,375 square feet, which is just over the Army's standard of 15,000 for a band our size," said Sgt. 1st Class Eric Cryer, the noncomissioned officer responsible for coordinating the move. "With the pipers, we end up with just about the right amount of space.
"I tell people that they're moving us into the stables, but you could hardly ask for a better building to support our operations," said Cryer.
He said Building 1721, as well as the current U.S. Postal Service building, were both horse stables for the horse-drawn artillery in use at Fort Sill when they were built in the early 1900s.
"They didn't leave it on our building, but if you look at the back of the post office you can see where they left the jib, the crane they used to pull hay up into the rafters for the horses."
Over the years, the horse stables were converted into a service club with a 5,000-square-foot ballroom and stage, which will become the main rehearsal hall, and a series of small offices, just the right size for individual practice rooms.
"It's as if over the past 100 years the building evolved into an ideal band training facility, so this is not an expensive move for the Army. In this time of fiscal austerity, this is a winning situation for everybody. It's a perfect location, and I'm sure the Lawton-Fort Sill retirement community will enjoy seeing a military band practicing their marching drill when they go to shop at the commissary. We hope that they will hang out and watch us for a while," Cryer concluded.
Warrant Officer 1 Matthew David, band commander, further emphasized the ideal nature of the building.
"It's not state of the art like the 2nd Infantry Division Band in Korea, but it meets and exceeds the needs of the 77th Army Band. "
David went on to compare the band's old building to the new facility.
"Music rehearsal rooms need a tall ceiling, especially for the low frequency instruments which have long sound waves and need a lot of space to fully resonate, such as the low brass and bass guitars.
The old building had low ceilings which were not acoustically sound and the room was too small for music rehearsals," said David.
"The new building also provides each musical group within the band its own rehearsal space, including a whole wing for 'Costello's Own.' This way they can practice their bagpipes inside and not have to worry about disturbing other music groups or office work as bagpipes are a very loud instrument," said David. "Without a whole wing to themselves, they would do as they did before, go outside and practice."
The future of Building 922 has not been determined.
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