Air University Main Headquarters (Montgomery, Alabama)

 military, NRHP - National Register of Historic Places, historical building, United States Air Force

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Listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) as "Building 800 - Austin Hall".

Built: 1930-1931
Architect: Algernon Blair
Expanded: 1934
Architectural style: Renaissance Revival
Area: 1.82 acres
Date added to NRHP: 3/2/1988

Austin Hall was constructed to house the Air Corps Tactical School (ACTS), which relocated from Langley Field, Virginia, to Maxwell Field in 1931. It was named in honor of Lt. Charles B. Austin, an ACTS instructor known for his brilliant teaching techniques, who died shortly before the school's relocation. In front of the entrance, a wing and propeller monument commemorates the Air Corps Tactical School. The propeller was taken from a plane that was similar to those flown at the Tactical School. Austin Hall was constructed in two phases. The northern portion was completed in 1931; an addition that doubled its size was constructed in 1934. ACTS facilities included a conference room, classrooms, a map room, a library, offices, and an auditorium with a stage. The Tactical School was the Army air arm's first and only school prior to WWII that taught the tactics and techniques of military aviation. Most key air officers who served in WWII attended the school in the 1930s where they learned and developed the concept of air power so successfully employed during the war. At the end of the war, three of the Air Forces' four-star generals and 11 of the 13 three-star generals were graduates of ACTS. Austin Hall currently serves as Air University Headquarters.