Construction History
From the Archives: May 22, 1941
This 1941 cover image depicts assembly lines for prefabricated house sections, to be installed at Audubon Village, N.J. Audubon Village was a defense housing program of the Federal Works Agency.
The 500 houses were being built for workers at the nearby shipyard in Camden, N.J., through a sale or lease arrangement. Lumber was brought by rail, cut by circular swing saws and stacked into piles which supplied the assembly lines.
The assembly lines were substantially braced wood frames, notched and blocked off in various places to form jigs into which all the precut pieces of lumber would become a panel or section of a house.
A “fitter” filled the jig with the proper pieces, after which a “nailer” fastened them together. Precut wood sheathing was then laid on the frame panel and nailed into place. The completed panel, roughly 8 ft square, was then ready to be lifted off the assembly line.
The shop fabrication method permitted efficient employment of unskilled labor, lowering the cost of production. Houses were erected at the rate of 20 per day.
The project was spearheaded by Col. Lawrence Westbrook, an experienced practitioner in the field of low-cost housing, who headed an FWA branch, the Mutual Ownership Defense Housing Division.
The prefabrication work was done by Day Housing Corp., headed by Joseph P. Day, a well-known New York City real estate promoter.
Looking for quick answers on construction and engineering topics?
Try Ask ENR, our new smart AI search tool.
Ask ENR →
