This building is dedicated to the memory of Mrs. Elizabeth Schenck Smith, the daughter and wife of Army officers. In 1920, Mrs. Smith founded the Fort Leavenworth Women's Club, the forerunner of today's Wives' Club. Agendas included women's suffrage, public protection of mothers and infants, prohibition of child labor, and equal pay for equal work. She also founded the Fort Leavenworth PTA which, insofar as known, was the first PTA in Kansas.

Mrs. Smith accompanied her husband to various foreign outposts and in one instance, "home" was a tent on the Mexican border. At age 60 she learned Braille and copied books in Braille by hand; two of these books are in the Library of Congress. Her entire life was devoted to Army community life and women's issues.

Mrs. Smith died in 1978 at the age of 96. Her legacy lives on in the Officers and Civilians Wives' Club.

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