Original quonset huts
Lightweight prefabricated structures made of galvanized iron and semicircular arched ribs are called quonset huts. The quonset hut design is based on the Nissen hut that was developed by the Navy. The name of quonset huts comes from the name of the city where they were first manufactured, Quonset Point. Quonset huts can be shipped anywhere and assembled without skilled labor. They were commonly used by the military for barracks, latrines, and offices, but were later sold to the public and used primarily as commerical buildings.
The Nissen hut was developed by the Navy. The company hired to build quonset huts improved on the Nissen hut by using corrugated iron and arched ribs on the building. In later years, the two ends of the quonset huts were covered with plywood having doors and windows.Another improvement on the quonset huts was the addition of interior pressed wood lining, insulation, and a one inch tongue in groove plywood floor on a raised metal framework.
The original Quonset hut was sixteen feet by thirty six feet and could be put up in one day with a team of eight men. Quonset huts were modifed to a standard size of twenty feet by forty eight feet with a ten foot radius that created seven hundred twenty square feet of usable floor space. Four foot overhangs at each end to protect the entrances against the weather were sometimes added to quonset huts. Later, a warehouse size quonset hut of forty feet by one hundred feet was developed. The interior space of quonset huts is open and flexible.
Ouonset huts were not made after 1959. But because the quonset huts are so portable and adaptable, they are still in use in some places today. Many quonset huts served as homes and businesses after production stopped. Large universities and colleges that had an influx of students resulting from the GI bill used quonset huts on campus. Quonset huts are still around today although they are not used much anymore.