The Deck Houses

The Deck Houses

Education; Lee County, AL; Auburn University; World War II; G.I. Bill of Rights; Alabama Polytechnic Institute; Federal Public Housing Administration; Life Magazine; Auburn Housing; Auburn, AL

As World War II neared culmination, Congress passed the G.I. Bill of Rights, ensuring a paid college education for American military personnel. America’s universities saw a massive influx of veteran students, and Alabama Polytechnic Institute’s experience was no different. The university lacked the housing facilities required to keep up with the enrollment increase. A special committee of faculty and administrators proposed to use deck houses as a temporary housing solution. These deck houses were actually portions of tugboats that the college acquired from the Federal Public Housing Administration in 1946 as U.S. Maritime surplus property. These ninety-three structures caused quite a stir, and were the subject of an article in Life Magazine. These tiny, light blue-gray structures contained two downstairs rooms with two bunks each and an upstairs study area. The college closed and sold the deck houses in 1949.

Taylor McGaughy

Image Source: http://www.ag.auburn.edu/heritagepark/history.php

Text Source: Ralph Draughon, Jr., Delos Hughes, and Ann Pearson, Lost Auburn: A Village Remembered in Period Photographs (Montgomery: NewSouth Books, 2012), 33.

Alabama Cultural Resource Survey

2014-11-26

Taylor McGaughy

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English

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