Quonset Hut: Prefabricated War Time Architecture

This Quonset Hut, located at 3535 Lowerline St. in Gert Town, will be considered for demolition by the NCDC on Dec. 5, 2011. (Photo by New Orleans Lady on Flickr.)

By Wesley Cheek, Tulane Intern

The Quonset Hut, prefabricated, metal, elongated semi-circular structures strongly associated with World War II, was based on the earlier British Nissen Hut. The Nissen Hut was developed by Major Peter Norman Nissen of the 29th Company Royal Engineers for the British Army during World War I. The idea behind them was to have a structure that was easy to assemble by a small group of unskilled people and didn’t take up too many materials or too much room on a transport ship. Efforts to popularize these corrugated steel huts, held up by wooden ribs and tension wires, for domestic consumption after World War I fell flat.

However, the U.S. military was paying attention. The Davisville Naval Construction Battalion Center, located at Quonset Point, Rhode Island, developed its own prefabricated building in 1941 to support the war effort. Made from corrugated steel sheets with plywood covering the ends and wooden floors, the Quonset huts had insulation between the pressed wood interiors and the steel exterior. Nevertheless these huts were notorious for feeling frozen in the arctic and sweltering in the tropics.

A wooden version, made of spruce, was also manufactured and called a Pacific Hut. The wood lessened temperature migration and prevented rust. It also saved steel, which was in high demand during the war years.

There are many different types of prefabricated, semi-circular structures used by the U.S. military during World War II that are commonly referred to as Quonset Huts yet may be a different structure with a similar appearance. From the aforementioned Pacific Hut to the Emkay Hut, the Portaseal Hut, the Armco Hut, the Jamesway Hut and the Multiple Building, many variations on a similar concept were utilized.

In fact, there were different versions of the Quonset Hut itself. The T-Rib Quonset Hut was the original. It had Masonite walls and was curved all the way to the ground. The Quonset Redesign saved both shipping space, and usable space within the buildings by maintaining a curved roof but flattening out the sidewalls. Stran-Steel Quonset Huts were the most prodigiously produced form of the building. They were built by the Great Lakes Steel Corporation and shipped around the world.

During World War II upwards of 150,000 Quonset huts were manufactured. They were used for everything from offices to latrines. After the war many of these buildings were transformed into temporary housing, such as the Rodger Young Village in California. Surplus units were sold to the public. These have found many uses, from housing oil workers, to drying fish. They have been made into movie theaters, grocery stores, churches and bakeries. Some have been made into permanent housing with great success such as the Daniel House in Knoxville Tennessee by architect Jame Fitzgibbon, which is one of several Quonset Huts on the National register, and the award winning home of architects Michael and Jane Frederick.

Quonset Huts were designed as a utilitarian structure the could be assembled by unskilled labor in a time of crisis, they have become everything from landmark to eyesore. Nevertheless their ability to be transformed into whatever use is neededfrom them continues to be the Quonset Hut’s strong point, 70 years after their initial conception.

Learn more about Quonset Huts:

Tin-Can Treasures: Are Quonsets, steel hangar-like huts left over from WWII worth preserving? (National Trust post)

Style Guide: Quonset Huts 1941 – 1960 (Washington State Department of Archaeology & Historic Preservation)

Hut Sweet Hut: The winner of Best Before and After in Southern Living’s 2009 Southern Home Awards was a Quonset hut in Beaufort, S.C., that’s been renovated and incorporated into a larger home.