-. J., Nc.. IO.OO IRev. lC.?4

Li NuLl SI AiLS DLPA RIMIiNI OFF liii INiLt OR‘FOR NPS USE ONLY

NATIONAL PARK SERVtCE /

NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES 001 i 3 fl!’

INVENTORY --NOMINATION FORM gNJEREO LiEU 2H977

SEE INSTRUCTIONS IN HOW TO.COMPLETENAT/ONAL REGISTER FORMSTYPE ALL ENTRIES--COMPLETE APPLICABLE SECTIONS

flNAMEHISTORIC -

Camp EndicottAND/OR COMMON

Davisville Construction Battalion Center

LOCATION Davisville ConstructionBattalion CenterSTREET&NUMBEI1 ‘8" Street, 10th Street, a nailleless lane off U. S. Route 1parallel to "B" Street, and 7th Street. NOTFORFUBLICAIION

CITY. TOWN CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT

North Kingstown - # 2 Hon. Edward BeardSTATE CODE COUNTY CODE

Rhode Island - 44 Washington 009

flCLASSIFICATION

CATEGORY OWNERSHIP STATUS PRESENT USE

DISTRICT XPUBLIC OCCUPIED AGR!CULTUHE

.COMMERCIAL

.STRUCTURE BOTH .WORK IN PROGRESS PRIVATE RESIDENCE

SITE PUBLIC ACQUISITION ACCESSIBLE ENTERTAINMENT

..OBJECE PROCESS RESTRICTED GOVERNMLNI NTIFIC

._.DEING CONSIDERED XYES: UNRESTRICTED ..JNDUSTRIL TRANSPORTATION

XMILI [ARY

OWNER OF PROPERTYNAME .

U.S. Navy] jtjdyQf:_CQ ...anding.J2ffjcer.STREET& NUMBER

Naval.Constructjon Battalion Center -DavisvilleCITY. TOWN - STATE -

North Kingstown . Rhode Island.

LOCATION OF LEGAL DESCRIPTIONCOURTHOUSE.REGISTRY OF DEEDS,ETC Town Clerk’s OfficeSTREET & NUMBER . . -

80 Boston Neck RoadCITY. TOWN . STATE

North Kingstown Rhode Island

REPRESENTATION IN EXISTING SURVEYSTITLE

An Historical Survey of United States Navy Property in Rhode Island.DATE

August, 1974 .._.FEOERAL X.STATE COUN[Y .LOCAL

DEPOSITORY FOR

SURVEYRECOROS Rhode Island Historical Preservation CommissionCITY. TOWN STATE

Providence . . Rhode Island-

-I

BDESCRIPTION

CONDITION CHECK ONE CHECK ONE

_EXCELLENT DETERIORATED _UNALTERED XORIGINAL SITEXoooo - RUINS XALTERED _MOYED DATE_________FAIR UNEXPOSED

DESCRIBETHE PRESENTANDORIGINALIF KNOWN PHYSICALAPPEARANCE

Camp Endicott, in the heart of the Davisville SeabeeCenter,is surrounded by buildings and open spaces formerly used for ajumble of activities typical of a military post -- barracks,freight sidings, warehouses, a "mobile home" park, offices, agolf course, and officers’ housing. The proposed district,covering about seven 7 acres, is laid out in a straightforward street pattern with paved thoroughfares running east-west and north-south;. the area being nominated is the best-preserved portion of the once vast training camp. Four roads definethis neat, rectangular district: "B" Street on the north, 10thStreet on the east, a nameless lane parallel to "B" Street on thesouth, and 7th street on the-west.

Within this area stand seventeen 40-by-lOO-foot quonsethuts* manufactured by the Great Lakes Steel Corporation anderected in 1942 by the George A. Fuller Company and Merritt,Chapman Scott, contractors to the Navy for the developmentof Davisville and the Quonset Point Naval Air Station, immediatelyto the south. Built as training facilities for Camp Endicott,they are now vacant or used for storage see -photo # 1.

These prefabricated structures follow standard quonset hutdesign. Bolted to concrete foundations, their steel arch-ribframes support a skin of curved, corrugated metal sheets nailedin place. Originally this galvanized outer skin was left exposed;nowall the buildings bear a coat of Navy grey paint. The endsor bulkheads of each hut contain a large two-leaf sliding metaldoor flanked by double, industrial six-light windows see photo # 2.The treatment of a few bulkheads has been altered, usually by substituting a standard 3-by-7-foot doorway and smaller double-hungsash. Running ninety-six feet along the sides of each hut is a con-tinuous range of windows glazed with ten-light wooden sash seephoto 1! 3. Each frame -is hinged at the top and swings open fromthe bottom. Many of these windows are rather deteriorated andsome have beenreplaced with translucent corrugated fiber-glasspanels.

- The interiors of several huts have beensubdivided, but mostremain as built -- single,-uninterrupted spaces rising a full 20feet. The walls are insulated between the arch-ribs with 1"blanket insulation, then furred-out and finished with curved 3/16"

See continuation sheet #1

*The building numbers are: B-ll, T-2, T-3, T-4, T-5, T-6, T-7, T-8,T-9,- T-10, T-ll, T-lZ, T-lS, T-16, T-l7, T-18, T-l9.

Form No. 1O-300a - -

Rev. 10-74

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF TI-lb INTERIOR FOR NPS USE ONLYNATIONAL PARK SER VICE

RECEIVED

NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACESINVENTORY-- NOMINATION FORM DATE ENTERED

CONTINUATION SHEET ITEM NUMBER - PAGE2

hardboard paneling see photo # 4. - -

The area within the proposed Camp Endicott district contained -H

more structures than stand there now, mostly other quonset huts. -

Though this building density has been diminished somewhat, whatremains of this portion of the camp still gives a suggestion ofthe original complex, with the buildings placed in ranks along

‘the narrow streets in the simplest arrangement possible.

GPO 892 455

L-

SIGNIFICANCE - - -

PERIOD AREAS OF SIGNIFICANCE--CHECK AND JUSTIFY-BELOW -

PREHISTORIC ARCHEULUUY-PREHISTORIC _COMMUNITY PLANNING _LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE _RELIGION400-1499 _ARCHEOLOGY-HISTORIC _CONSERVATION _LAW SCIENCE

_1500-1599 AGAICULTURE _ECONOMICS - _LITERATURE _SCULPTURE600-1599 XARCHITECTURE _EDUCATION XMILITARY .SOCJALJHUMANITARIAN700-1799 _ART CENGINEERING _MUSIC _THEATER

_1800-1999 - COMMERCE _EXPLORATION/SETTLEMENT PHILOSOPHY - _TRAN-SPORTATION900- _COMMUNICATIONS _INDUSTRY _POLITICS/GOVERNMENT 0THER ISPECIFY

- _INVENTION -

SPECIFIC DATES 1942 BUILDER/ARCHITECT

STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE - -

Davisville is an outgrowth of the secondary function ofQuonset Point Naval Air Station during the Second World War asthe base of operations for George A. Fuller Company and Merritt,Chapman Scott These private contractors were employed by thegovernment under terms of the Lend-Lease Act of March, 1941, todesign, fabricate, and erect military installations for Great -

Britain. By February, 1942, the managementand space requirementsof this activity had outstripped the capacities of Quonset Point,and the Davisville base was established just to the north; it was -

the first advanced base depot. Here matgriel was designed, tested,packaged, and shipped. -

The quonset hut was created at Quonset Point hence the nameby a team of architects and engineers working for the Fuller Company.Fabricated in several sizes the most common being 20-by-56, itwas conceived as a standard building unit -- inexpensive, easy toship, easy to erect, and versatile in accomodation -- ideal for use

- at remote new installations where building materials and skilledworkers were not available, and shipping was a problem. The 40-by-lOU quonset, for example, required but 12½ tons of steel andoccupied 350 cubic feet of cargo space; it supersededa vertical-walled structure of the same dimensions-which used 20 tons of steeland occupied 650 cubic feet of shipping space. Moreover, a 40-

-by-lOO quonset hut could be erected by a crew of twenty-four unskilled workers in four days. Soon bases were being built for theUnited States as well as Great Britain in North America, Europe,Asia, Africa, and the Pacific, and the demand for quonset hutswastremendous. The U. S. Navy alone erected over 160,000. Both interms of design and because of its dispersion throughout theworld,the quonset hut must be considered one of the most universal ofstructures.

The design-team included Otto Brandenberger, Tomasino Secondino,Robert F. McDonnell, and Dominic Urgo. These Fuller employees workedunder Navy supervision in extremely hurried and tense conditionsto produce plans and specifications. They based their solution bna concept supplied by the Navy which derived from the British Nissenhut developed during the -First -Wirl-d War. The semi--cylindrical formof the quonset was taken from the - See- continuatioh sheet II 2 -

--

- -Form No. 10.300a

c IReq 10-74

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF TIlE INTERIOR IFOR NPS USE ONLYNATIONAL PARK SERVICE I

- IRECEIVED

NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES IINVENTORY-- NOMINATION FORM TE ENTERED -

CONTINUATION SHEET 2ITEM NUMBER PAGE

2

Nissen hut-i its purpose was- to create a structure of greatstrength which could be sandbaggedwithout collapsing to protectit from artillery bombardment. But all particulars of quonset hutdesign, materials, and mode of fabrication -- the most importantaspects of the building -- were new. Significant contributionsto the final product were made by subcontractors, particularly inthe development of new forming techniques to produce arch-ribframes and curved, corrugated sheet metal roofing. The structureswere repeatedly modified and redesigned, but always with the -

same dual objectives: economy and utility. -

The quonset hut epitomizes the dogged, adaptive, problem-solving approach of the American war effort -- a team of technicians given a specific problem for which a solution was demandedwithin a restricted time-frame. Credit for American success inthe war is in part attributable to this nation’s ability to produce solutions like the quonset hut. Universal and anonymous, itevokes a critical and still-familiar moment in world history.

As the war escalated in 1941 and 1942 it became imperativefor the United States to have military construction units to build -

overseas bases, -bridges, harbors, and other facilities within thewar zone. The best-known of these were the Navy’s ConstructionBattalions, the "Seabees". Camp Endicott, one of the first Seabee--

- training stations, was established at Davisville in June, 1942.The 15,000-man camp was erected around the tents of the firsttrainees, and the seventeen 40-by-lOO quonsets still standing . -

there included in this nomination are the best-preserved part ofthe camp, as well as the best-preserved group of quonset hutsinRhode Island. They are significant, not only as quonset huts,standing where this building-type originated, but also in theirarrangement, for they reflect the uncompromising matter-of-factnessof a typical war-time military camp

- Long disparaged for their drabness, and neglected as a resultof our national myopia to the impact of America’s contributionsto the Second World War, quonset huts, including those at Camp -

Endicott, are among our most under-appreciated historic buildings.- - - - -

C

GPO 892 455

flMAJOR BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES

_____

Building the Navy’s Bases inHistory of the Bureau of Yard’s indHiiödksEngineer Corps: 1940-1946;Office; Washington; 1947.

World War Two;iiñd the Civil

U. S. Government Printing

See continuation sheet 3

rnGE0GRAPHICAL DATAACREAGE OF NOMINATED PROPERTY about 7 acres - -

UTM REFERENCES -

AIl,91 1219, 71 4, QOl I ,610,81 3,6,01 Bll,9 I l2I97I3, 9,01 14 ,oIp1gI 7, vs, nlZONE EASTING NORTHING - ZONE EASTING NORTHING

CI1I9I I2I9,7l0i90I 14,610,812,8,01 DIl,91 1219171110101 l41610,81318101VERBAL BOUNDARY DESCRIPTION

"B’ Street to 10th Street; 10th Street to a nameless laneparallel to "B" Street; the lane to 7th Street; 7th Streetto "B" Street. -

LIST ALL STATES AND COUNTIES FOR PROPERTIES OVERLAPPING STATE OR COUNTY BOUNDARIES

STATE CODE COUNTY - CODE -

STATE CODE COUNTY CODE

mFORM PREPARED BY -

NAME / TITLE

David W. Chase, Chief of Field Services -

ORGANIZATION - DATE -

Rhode Island Historical Preservation Commission September 2, 1976STREET& NUMBER TELEPHONE

- 150 Benefit Street 401 2772678CITY OR TOWN - STATE

Providence, - - Rhode Island

mSTATE HISTORIC PRESERVATION OFFICER CERTIFICATIONTHE EVALUATED SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS PROPERTY WITHIN THE STATE IS:

NATIONAL._. STATE LOCAL.._

As the designated State Historic Preservation OffiCer for the National Historic Preservation AEt of 1966 Public Law 89-665. Ihereby nominate this property for inclusion in the National Register and certify that it has been evaluated according to thecriteria and procedures set forth by the National Park Service.

FEDERAL REPRESENTATIVE SIGNATLIR

TITLEState Historic Preservation Officer

DATE

FOR NPS USE ONLYI HERESY CERTIFY THATIHIS PROPERTY IS INCLUDED IN THE NATIONAL REGISTER

DATE

DIRECTOR. OFFICE OF ARCHEOLOGY AND HISTORIC PRESERVATION -

ATTEST: DATE -

KEEPER OFTHENATIONAJ REGISIER - - .

- - . - - - - .‘ /211

orrnNo. l0-300aclRe 10.74

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR FOR NPS USE ONLY - - -

- - NATIONAL PARK SERVICE -

RECEIVED -

NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES -

INVENTORY-- NOMINATION FORM DATE ENTERED -

- 3 9 2CONTINUATION SHEET ITEM NUMBER PAGE

Chase, D. W. : An Historical Survey of United States NavyProperty in Rhode Island Rhode Island Historical

- Preservation Commission; Providence, R.I. ; 1974.

Davisville Naval Construction Battalion Center; building records.

Jackson, Henry G; "The Quonset Hut"; Rhode Island History,VI # 1, January, 1947; Rhode Island Historical Society,Providence

McDonnell, Robert F.; interviews, 1974.

GPO 892 455

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CAMP ENDICOTT HISTORIC DISTRICTDAVISVILLE CONSTRUCTION BATTALION CENTER

NORTH KINGSTON,R.1.

11RiLJ

IT- ‘5 IH 11-161

LL 11-171

DISTRICT

L_LIMITS -

APRIL, 1976 SCALE I’2OO’

Camp Eridicott

North Kingstown, Rhode Island

Richard Longstreth October 1975

Rhode Island historical Preservation Commission

General view of Canip Endicott, including building

T-6, T-7, T-9, T-1O, T-12, and T-17.

#1

Ft

Camp Endicott

North Kingstown

Richard Longstreth October 1975

Rhode Island Historical Preservation Commission

Bulkheads if buildings T-19 and T-18.

#2

Camp Endicott

North Kingstown, Rhode Island

Richard Longstreth October 1975

Rhode Island Ilistorical Preservation Commission

Typical window and siding detail, building T-5.

#3

-‘/

-_---.t 41 s

/

Camp Endicott

North Kingstown, Rhode Island

Richard Longstreth October, l97S

Rhode Island Historical Preservation Commission

Typical undivided interior of a 40 x 100 foot

Quonset Hut building T-6

#4

296

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