Dragon Hill Lodge - History

History

The facilities that now comprise the Lodge have their origins during the first year of the Korean War when a mess hall opened as a recreational facility for general officers known as Hartell House. This mess opened in Busan, Korea on 7 July 1950, as the Commanding General's Mess, Eighth Army. It was moved several times from Daegu, to Seoul, back to Daegu and returning to Seoul again during the course of the Korean War. The Hartell House settled in several locations to include a location on the old Seoul National University campus before moving to its present building in 1952. Since 1978 the mess has proudly served the Commanding Generals of United Nations Command, ROK/US Combined Forces, United States Forces Korea, and Eighth U.S. Army.

American military personnel and their families who wanted to spend R&R time in Seoul used to stay at the Naija Hotel, in the northern part of Seoul. The Naija was comfortable, but small, had limited parking, and was distant from other American facilities at Yongsan. The need for a new facility was obvious, and in 1987, ground was broken for the Dragon Hill Lodge, across the parking lot from what was the Eighth Army Officers Club. The Dragon Hill Lodge, or DHL for short, was completed in 1990. In subsequent years, an addition to the DHL created more guest rooms and The Point fitness center. And, another addition created the Soldier's Tower, an additional wing with more guest rooms.

The Dragon Hill Lodge is a popular location for individual servicemembers as well as those with families to enjoy vacation time. It is also used for temporary lodging for families moving to or from Korea, and those visiting Yongsan on official business.

Read more about this topic:  Dragon Hill Lodge

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    This above all makes history useful and desirable: it unfolds before our eyes a glorious record of exemplary actions.
    Titus Livius (Livy)

    If usually the “present age” is no very long time, still, at our pleasure, or in the service of some such unity of meaning as the history of civilization, or the study of geology, may suggest, we may conceive the present as extending over many centuries, or over a hundred thousand years.
    Josiah Royce (1855–1916)

    Like their personal lives, women’s history is fragmented, interrupted; a shadow history of human beings whose existence has been shaped by the efforts and the demands of others.
    Elizabeth Janeway (b. 1913)