This unadorned building served as the community center at the post, functioning as chapel, library, schoolroom, and Friday night ballroom. Mattie Belle Anderson, the town's first schoolteacher, wrote that a non-commissioned officer taught the post's children there five days a week, that officers' families used it for dances on Friday nights from 8 to 12 with music by the post band ending exactly at midnight, and that every Sunday evening the post chaplain preached there. The building later became the scene of Lieutenant Henry O. Flipper's controversial court-martial proceedings. Flipper became the first black graduate of West Point in June of 1877, accepted a commission one month later as a second lieutenant assigned to Company A of the 10th United States Cavalry, and won praise for excellent field service during the Victorio War. He then served as Acting Commissary of Subsistence and Post Quartermaster at Ft. Davis. In 1881 he was accused of embezzling government funds and conduct unbecoming an officer and gentleman. He was found innocent of embezzlement, but, under prejudicial overtones, was found guilty of improper conduct and dishonorably discharged from service in 1882. He later became the first prominent black civil and mining engineer in the United States and served as Assistant to the Secretary of the Interior from 1921-1923. After Henry Flipper and his descendents sought to clear the charges against him, the Army Board for Correction of Military Records reviewed the court-martial transcripts in 1976 and changed his discharge to an Honorable Discharge dated June 20, 1882.