Derry Army Air Corps Base

The Derry Army Air Corps Base was a military installation active during the 1920s and 1930s, most notably housing the segregated Company E, a unit of African American soldiers. The base is the site of the Black Spot, a makeshift enlisted men's club that became a popular jazz venue, and the location of its fiery destruction by the Maine Legion of White Decency in 1930, an event that killed dozens and ended the cycle of violence in Derry for that period.

Location and Layout

The base was situated on a large patch of land—better than a hundred acres—north of West Broadway, where a greenbelt was planted. It had three runways, one of which was paved, but most of the soldiering was make-work. The base included a separate barracks for the twenty-seven men of Company E, located half a mile from the other seven barracks. This "special" barracks was heated by a balky wood furnace, lacked storm windows and insulation, and was supplied with wood on a catch-as-catch-can basis. The men laid deep banks of pine and spruce boughs around the outside for insulation. When a complete set of storm windows was procured, the men were detailed to Bangor for the day; upon their return, every window had been broken.

Company E and Segregation

Company E was a segregated unit of African American soldiers. The NCO Club on the base was off-limits to them. Instead, Major Fuller gave Company E an old requisition shed, which they renovated into their own club, dubbed the Black Spot. The men hammered, nailed, and cleaned, cutting additional windows and installing a kitchen. The floor remained dirt, kept oiled down. The club became a popular venue for a hot Dixieland combo formed by the soldiers, drawing white civilians from Derry and surrounding towns, including fraternity boys from the University of Maine. This interracial mingling angered the local elite, particularly the Town Council and the Maine Legion of White Decency.

The Fire at the Black Spot

On a Saturday night in early November 1930, members of the Maine Legion of White Decency attacked the Black Spot. Some came through the greenbelt between the base and West Broadway, wearing white sheets and carrying torches. Others arrived in a brand-new Packard automobile, driven onto the base via Ridgeline Road. The attackers doused their torches with gasoline and threw them through the back windows into the kitchen. The fire spread rapidly. The band was playing loudly, and the club was packed with perhaps two or three hundred people. The single door became jammed as people panicked, trapping many inside. Private Trevor Dawson commandeered a cargo truck and drove it into the side of the building, creating an opening. The final death toll was around eighty, including eighteen from Company E. The fire ended the cycle of murder and disappearance in Derry for that period.

Aftermath and Legacy

The army dispersed the survivors of Company E. Will Hanlon, Mike Hanlon's father, was one of the survivors. He later returned to Derry and bought a farm. The fire at the Black Spot is a key example of the town's history of violence and its periodic cycles of terror. The base itself was later replaced by Derry Community College.