EXAMPLE PAGE - SCHOOL BROCHURE - DEMOCRACY - Flipbook - Page 82
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Quonset Huts
80 PUR D U E A LUMNUS
sculptures. The visual arts program remained in the former
barracks until 2003, and the spaces comprised classrooms,
studios, offices, and the Ralph G. Beelke Memorial Gallery.
Now named the Patti & Rusty Rueff School of Design,
Art, and Performance, it is housed in Yue-Kong Pao Hall.
—PURDUE UNIVERSITY
What are your favorite hidden gems
on campus? Tell us at alumnus@purdue.edu.
PUR DUE UN IV ER S ITY A RC H IVE S A ND S P EC IA L COL L ECTIO NS; D EBR IS (2 )
THIS QUONSET HUT at the
north end of the Armory was
an ROTC classroom when
space inside the Armory was
at a premium.
For a handful of temporary barracks buildings on the
West Lafayette campus, “temporary” turned out to mean
almost 57 years.
They were the last cluster of temporary structures on
campus, standing near Stadium and Northwestern Avenues, and it took from February to June 2004 to dismantle them. When they went up in summer 1947 with similar
buildings in the same area, they joined dozens of other stopgap structures rising to meet the flood of students on the GI
Bill. Erected with the help of student workers, the buildings
were used as chemistry and physics classrooms and laboratories, naval science and civil engineering spaces, the office
for veterans administration, and warehouses.
Purdue’s enrollment swelled from 3,356 students in March
1945 to 11,472 in October 1946. The University couldn’t raise
new buildings fast enough; supplies were often short and
many other universities, facing similar growth, were clamoring for materials too. Though the temporaries that were
constructed were often referred to as Quonset huts — akin
to small-scale airplane hangars with rounded roofs — not
many were actually Quonset huts. The last Quonset huts on
the central campus came down in 1969, and the last one at
the Purdue Airport was removed in 1999.
In March 1972, a fire in Matthews Hall forced the creative
arts offices to relocate to the barracks on Stadium Avenue. The
move was meant to be temporary, but in 1975, the buildings,
which had been labeled FWA (Federal Works Administration),
were renamed Creative Arts Buildings One through Five.
In the summer of 1976, a refurbishment brought dramatic changes to the appearance of the barracks, and the
drab buildings were changed into modern classrooms with
burnt-orange exteriors; safer, more attractive windows and
doors; and new landscaping, which included large public-art
