Mule Barn

Historical photo of the Mule Barn on a winter's day.
This attractive building was built in 1913 in Alcoa to house mules used in grading and earth moving during early construction of the Aluminum Company of Americia's (ALCOA), (formerly Alcoa, Inc. and now known as Arconic Inc.) South (Smelting) Plant. In 1918, the Mule Barn was remodeled and operated by the company as the Aluminum Company of America School which later changed to "Bassel School" even before the new Bassel building was constructed in 1923.  Later remodeling made it into the Municipal Offices, along with some office spaces for ALCOA. After these had moved, the Mule Barn was razed in 1961.
The second municipal building for the City of Alcoa stood where the present-day Alcoa Post Office is located. The building was built extremely strong because, as Alcoa’s first city manager V.J. Hultquist put it, "the mule was an important member of the construction organization." The photo above is provided by Alcoa Photo Archives.