Recent Past Preservation Network

The Quonset Hut

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SAVED! From Jennifer B., Holly, Michigan: This Quonset was saved by Lloyd & Helen Jenks in the late 1980's. The Village of Holly wouldn't allow anything to be done with it and there was talk of tearing it down. Mr Jenks converted it into a house inside and we purchased it in December of 2004. We now call this Quonset our home and couldn't be happier. We're thrilled to find out there are people out there trying to save these cool old buildings.
An assortment of Quonset Huts in Washington state, courtesy our state representative Michael Houser...	Quonset Hut house in Olympia.
Mel's Radiator Repair Service, Washouga.	Morton Supply, Yakima.
Glidden Paints, Ephrata.	Welding Shop/American Lake Medical Center, Tacoma.
HHG, Prosser.	Quonset Hut barn, Whitman Co.
B & C Steel Company Headquarters, Gering, Nebraska, ca. 1948. The building has been in the same family since it opened. Photographs by member Carol Ahlgren, 2004.
Demolished!	The Quonset Auditorium, Bowling Green, Kentucky, 1946. "A familiar sight when driving past State Street on the 31-W Bypass in Bowling Green are the two silver, half moon-shaped Quonset Huts perched on the south bank of the Barren River along the route of the old Dixie Highway. The larger of these two Quonset Huts now houses the Bale Tire Center but it was originally constructed as an entertainment venue called the Quonset Auditorium. Between 1946 and 1959 the Quonset Auditorium was known as the "Most Happening Place in Town" to both black and white audiences in Bowling Green and its pink neon sign marked the north end of the city for those traveling the Dixie Highway..." more Quonset Auditorium (1946) listed on KY Most Endangered List Preservation Kentucky recently added the Quonset Auditorium to its 2003 "Kentucky's Most Endangered List." One of ten buildings listed, Preservation Kentucky cited the Quonset Auditorium for its importance in the Dixie Highway's entertainment history. Update: The Quonset Auditorium was demolished in mid-October, 2003 by Bowling Green Municipal Utilities (BGMU)! Local preservationists nonethless are encouraged by the community's new appreciation of the recent past after their widespread effort to save the building. Contributed by Amber Riddington and Robin Zeigler.
	The Royal Theater, 22nd Street S., St. Petersburg, Florida, 1948. One of three African-American movie houses in St. Petersburg during the Jim Crow era. Now home to the Southside Boys and Girls Club. HPC #-00-03, designated historic building, October 2001. History \| Related story. Two other Quonsets known in St. Petersburg: old Soft Water Laundry at 22nd Street S and Fifth Avenue and the Neeld-Gordon garden center, 1258 19th St. N.
Multimedia Link: 360-degree views of Robert Motherwell's domestic variation on the Quonset-Hut in the Hampton's. Brought to you by Alastair Gordon, the author of Weekend Utopia, Modern Living in the Hamptons, and Paul Domzal of Edge Media, Inc., for the Friends of the Motherwell House. The house, built in 1945-46, was demolished in 1985. While you are at the site, check out the other VR offerings, including an interview with Peter Blake and Laboratories of Leisure Archival footage from the Betty Reese House, c. 1957.
	U.S. Government photo of Quonset huts as seen from Laguna Peak, Point Mugu, in 1946. Courtesy John H. Lienhard, University of Houston. Read the history of the Quonset in his "Engines of Ingenuity" series of essays on the web.
	National Solar Observatory, Sacramento Peak, New Mexico, 1948-49. One of four remaining from an original dozen constructed on this site.
Aerial view of a quonset hut, 3350-3352 20th Street, San Francisco, CA, at the corner of 20th and Shotwell Streets, in the Mission industrial area. According to the Assessor, it was built in 1946, and is 4,475 square feet. It is currently occupied as a live-in artist studio. Photograph by Moses Corrette, for the San Francisco Planning Department.
	Pier 66 Boatyard Office & Quonset Hut, San Francisco, CA. Determined ineligible for the National Register, but the State of California nevertheless recommended "special consideration in local planning." Download the official California Building, Structure and Object Record (Word document) for more details and photographs.
Demolished:	Gleneida Avenue Quonset hut, Carmel, New York. Once a movie theater, then a church, now gone. Story Rte. 9 Quonset, Hadley, Massachusetts, 1946-1997. . Once a polka palace, night club, restaurant and a tire barn, now gone. Story.