Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Monday, March 7. 2016

Now for something completely different: Quonset Huts

You can't really obtain a sturdy, zero-maintenance dwelling or storage building cheaper than a Quonset Hut. Indestructible steel prefab housing, around $35,000. You put it on a slab.


And if you hate plumbing as much as Sippican does, just build an outhouse out back, near the lilacs.


After WW2, military surplus Quonsets were commonly seen. A family down the road from the farm raised their family in one, but it's been removed for many years. It had a wood stove. After the war, they were widely used as temporary housing for vets. They are easily insulated.


They lack charm other than the rural ugly charm. Sometimes you can see ancient ones on rickety farms in New England used as spare mini-barns or garages.


The US military first had them mass produced on Quonset Point, R.I. Hundreds of thousands of them were built.


Advantages of Quonset Huts.


New Quonset Huts for sale here.




Posted by Bird Dog in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 18:34 | Comments (12) | Trackbacks (0)

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USU had a number of them built for students on the GI bill and their families in 1946. They were later used as married student dorms. All gone now I think.
#1 chuck on 2016-03-07 19:48 (Reply)
Lived in many of them. Free of charge courtesy of Uncle Sam, in exotic places even.
#2 ron snyder on 2016-03-07 20:44 (Reply)
I lived in one at Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard with my Mother and Father and four younger siblings. Just for a month or so while my parents tried to find a real home in the Bay Area. Quonset Huts were just part of the Military Life. The toilets flushed and the shower was fine.
#3 annieoakley on 2016-03-07 21:21 (Reply)
"Indestructible steel prefab housing"? Not even. They rust like crazy, even when you keep them painted.

Drafty, too, especially the ones at Adak, Alaska.
#4 Ken Mitchell on 2016-03-07 22:30 (Reply)
We built one on our farm, twice. The first one acted like a giant para-sail when a freak gale arose late one afternoon -- we were building it on top of a hill parallel to the prevailing westerlies (probably not the best siting, in retrospect). The back end was still undone and open when 60 mph winds ripped and lifted the entire upside down U from the foundations, dragging it several hundred yards. That was a sight and sound to behold. Forty years later, I'm happy to report that Quonset Hut version 2.0 is still in place.
#5 gpc31 on 2016-03-07 22:39 (Reply)
There's one on a farm near me, on a hill aligned east-west. It's open on both end as it is used as a hay barn. A few years ago, a tornado went right over it wiping out houses on both sides of its path, but from all appearances left the quonset fully intact.
#5.1 JK Brown on 2016-03-08 09:30 (Reply)
Even some of the best of us started life in a Quonset hut. Cheap veteran's housing for the University of Colorado; made school choice easy for my old man. All clustered in a place fondly referred to as "Vetsville"., right next to Boulder Creek and the Timber Tavern. Life was good.
#6 Earl T on 2016-03-08 00:01 (Reply)
Some older Germans know them well as they lived in them at the end of WW2 following the 8th Air Force's "re-urbanization" of major German cities.
#7 Karl Horst (Germany) on 2016-03-08 06:05 (Reply)
I had forgotten them entirely. They were just part of the landscape everywhere growing up, but gradually went away.
#8 Assistant Village Idiot (Link) on 2016-03-08 09:43 (Reply)
Minor maintenance, caught by darkness, and had to lay over in one at Fernando de Noronha (couple of hundred miles NE of Natal) back in the '60s while supplying the island chain. Humidity was withering. No bad bugs.
#9 BillH on 2016-03-08 10:05 (Reply)
Some were used as classrooms at the U of Minnesota in the 1960's. I had a couple of math classes in them.
#10 rocdoctom on 2016-03-08 11:46 (Reply)
Spent lots of time in Camp Pendelton Quonset Huts. No plumbing in most. One hut in the row would be set up for showers, toilets, and laundry. The rest were for bunks and gear.
#11 NJSoldier on 2016-03-08 12:03 (Reply)

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