#FlashbackFriday: Fifty-Five Years Ago, HQ Moved to Dallas

In 1966, seeking a location in the central part of the country, Exchange leaders made the decision to relocate headquarters to Dallas after having been based in New York City since the late 1940s.

The move took place over several weeks in late 1967, beginning with the relocation of two computer units on Oct. 20. Transfer of six offices/divisions began after work hours on Oct. 27.

As associates began to move in, workers were still installing floor tile, ceiling fixtures and more on unoccupied floors. The initial move involved 700 associates occupying the third and fourth floors on Oct. 27. Occupancy of the first and second floors followed on Nov. 3 and 10; the fifth-floor move-in happened Nov. 17.

The sixth floor featured three seminar rooms and a reception area. It eventually became home to the Skyline Restaurant, a home for special events and after-hours camaraderie for more than 30 years before it closed on June 1, 2021, after months of inactivity during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Brigadier Gen. Joseph Hardin (with engineering director Col. Clayton A. Rust, left) puts the finishing touch on a headquarters plaque. Joseph Hardin Drive, on the west side of the building, is named for the general, who led the Exchange at the time of headquarters move from New York to Dallas.

The late-1967 move-in was actually the second Dallas move that year—the official move from New York to Dallas was in January, as associates moved into temporary offices before the HQ building was complete. At times, various headquarters elements were in three separate facilities in the city.

The first headquarters for the Army Exchange Service (the forerunner of the Army & Air Force Exchange Service) opened in 1941 in the Munitions Building in Washington, D.C. Soon, the offices moved to the Pentagon, then to New York City by the late 1940s.

Dallas headquarters is on Walton Walker Boulevard, named for native Texan Lt. Gen. Walton Walker, Eighth Army commander during the Korean War. Walker, a Veteran of both World Wars, was killed in a jeep accident north of Seoul in December 1950. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery in 1951, the year that Walton Walker Boulevard was given its name. Camp Walker, home to the Korea Southern Exchange, is named for him.

Joseph Hardin Drive, on the west side of the building, is named after the brigadier general who led the Exchange at the time of the move from New York.