Quonset Hut Village, ca. 1946.
These round-topped buildings were part of a temporary solution to a housing shortage that lasted for over a decade. At the end of World War 2, veterans and their families found New York increasingly expensive and crowded. To amend this dilemma, New York City Planning Commissioner Robert Moses convinced the city to purchase 500 federal surplus Quonset huts, light-weight corrugated steel structures that were easy to move and fast to assemble. A familiar sight for vet, these shacks had served as barracks and offices during the War due to their portability.
The Quonset huts formed villages in the Queens neighborhoods of Canarsie, pictured here, as well as Jackson Heights, Middle Village, and Corona. The Canarsie village occupied the waterfront area enclosed by Rockaway Parkway and Seaview Avenue, stretching all the way to 108th Street to the East and adjacent to the Canarsie Pier, a popular fishing destination. These temporary living arrangements were later replaced by more permanent public housing towers like Bay View, which now occupy a portion of the area that the village once sat upon.
Unfortunately for the veterans, the promise of affordable housing came as a grave disappointment. The huts arrived much later than anticipated and builders found that the work required to convert these half-shells into living units was extremely labor-intensive. Dwellings were adorned with a round stove in the living room which was meant to serve as the heating vestibule. But the families complained that it was near impossible to keep the cold or the weather out from the inside of their houses in the winter months. The poor quality of the Quonset Huts meant many veterans and their families relocated outside of New York, leaving the city with a large surplus of steel shacks. On August 10th, 1952, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle ran an advertisement that read the following: "Quonset Huts - $250, Easy to reassemble, excellent condition, recently used. Suitable: Summer Home, Mountain Camp, Beach Bungalow, Manufacturing, Garage, ETC. Buy NOW at a fraction of the original cost."
By 1955, the Canarsie Quonset hut village was cleared away to make way for the Bay View Houses, a middle-income housing development intended to entice families who were looking to move to the suburbs.
