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Few people know where the origins of the Quonset Hut come from, but if you are from Rhode Island you do know where the name originates from: Quonset, Rhode Island. A term from the native Narragansett Indians meaning border.
http://www.seabeesmuseum.com/quonset_huts.html
http://www.seabeesmuseum.com/quonset_huts.html
Military History
Construction
CB: Seabee (WW II)
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 10
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I had a relative stationed in Quonset Point and during my time in the USMC I have lived in and worked in them for many years, also my section made straight sides rather then curved side walls .We hung maps and had a lot of storage behind the walls
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We lived in Quonset Huts in both Boot Camp and ITR. My buddy got caught smoking and had to stand at attention facing the curved wall. He looked like a backward C after 10 minutes!
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Good post. Heard the origin back in the fifties. Men in the family from WWII and Korea knew the story. As country boys we saw military surplus of all sorts. Always curious about Quonset hut used on farms, automotive shops and all sorts of storage and light industrial uses. There was even a large Quonset hut in use at West Point High School West Point Virginia. Band and chorus on one end with shop class and Future Farmers of America on the other.
Then when it was my turn though out the Marine Corps they were the luxury structure.
What a great design now part of history.
Then when it was my turn though out the Marine Corps they were the luxury structure.
What a great design now part of history.
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My father was stationed out of Quonset Point / Davisville and Newport during his thirty year Navy Career. Retired from the Navy there and eventually the Navy Exchange. Had a place in Shore Acres right on the Narraganset Bay overlooking Jamestown island, with Davisville to our right. He is buried in the Veteran's Cemetary in Exeter, Rhode, Island. We had a lot of Seebee friends up there. We knew about Quonset Huts long before the had them on Gomer Pyle. Cheap and quick to build, well suited for the island warfare during WWII. The British were living in them in Nasiriyah when I was in Iraq in 2006 - 2007.. They closed QP during BRAC in the early 70s and the Seebees were slit up east and west. I know the east headquarters are at the naval base in Gulfport, Mississippi. That's where their museum is located. Been there, one of my reserve storage centers was collocated there. Not sure about the west headquarters. Electric Boat now uses the old naval base to construct submarine hull pieces, which they float on barges down to New London, Connecticut, where they assemble their submarines. We were stationed there also.
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Here in West Palm Beach we have a bunch of the huts near where I live. They are used for everything from a church, warehouses, and auto repair facilities. Where I grew up, we had a "campground" that contained four quonset huts. They had a concrete foundation, and no doors, but they were nice. I would absolutely make one of these huts into a house. Simple, easy to maintain, relatively inexpensive. What more could you ask for? CW3 Kevin Storm thanks for sharing.
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Quonset Huts didn't fare too well at Camp Geiger NC when we had a few hurricanes that passed over us. All that was left after one hurricane was the cement decks & everything else was scattered all over the base.....
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Fascinating stuff. The design also lent itself to stacking sandbags as a quick and dirty protection from shrapnel. I well remember that we attempted something similar on a miniature scale in Vietnam with corrugated half pipes. Dig a trench. Span it with corrugated half pipes. Cover with sandbags. Too bad that in the Mekong Delta where I served the water table was inches below the surface and our bomb shelters quickly turned into lap pools....
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CW3 Kevin Storm that background certainly is interesting. The fact that it was first used at a nearby Naval Base makes a lot of sense for using the local Narragansett Indian name.
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LTC Stephen F.
CW3 Kevin Storm - I concur with you. When I first enlisted we were barracked in modified designs of the Quonset Hut at Fort Leonard Wood in 1974. Those barracks were more rectangular than the original Quonset Hut. One thing that struck me was the tremendous noise when rain fell on the roof of steel buildings. As you can imagine hail was almost deafening. Here is a picture of my first barracks - BCT for 12B.
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LTC Stephen F.
CW3 Kevin Storm - No a Butler company built building looks closer to a Quanset Hut design but is less rounded. Here is an image of a steel Butler building group.
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