Size of 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 Navy developed the Nissen hut in 1941. The Nissen hut was changed to use corrugated iron and arched ribs to become the quonset hut. The two ends were covered with plywood which had doors and windows.Another way the Nissen hut was improved was by adding interior pressed wood lining, insulation, and a one inch tongue groove plyood floor on a raised metal framework.
The first quonset hut measured sixteen feet by thirty feet and could be assembled by a team of eight men in one day. Quonset huts were later modified to the standard size of twenty feet by forty eight feet with a ten foot radius resulting in seven hundred twenty square feet of floor space inside. Four foot overhangs at each end to protect the entrances against the weather were sometimes added to quonset huts. Other sizes included a forty feet by one hundred feet warehouse model of the quonset hut. The inside of a quonset hut 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.