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Show World's Largest Mobile Comniunity, Built of 3,300 Trailer Coaches, Will House 13,000 Naval Workers i Removal After War Will Leave No Ghost Town; Improvements in Construction Expected to Stimulate Future Use by Migrant Workers. From wasteland to a city of 3,300 homes in 46 days! That's the wartime "miracle" of Trailer City at Portsmouth, Ports-mouth, Va., where 13,000 persons will soon make up the world's largest mobile community. When the navy found it was impossible to recruit workers for the Norfolk navy yard because of housing shortages, the Federal Public Housing Authority was requested to supply accommodations quickly. The huge trailer project is the FPHA's answer to this request. Nothing approaching this feat has ever been seen in housing. hous-ing. Through the combined efforts of manufacturers, government govern-ment officials, contractors and local workers, 100 mobile homes a day were transported to the site and placed on foundation foun-dation blocks, ready for occupancy. Since all the units were ' 'i e All other needs of this city, larger than St. Augustine, Fla., are being provided by the FPHA. Equipped playgrounds dot the 290-acre site, and two schools have been erected for the children. A non-denominational church will be available to all residents. Four community and recreation rec-reation buildings will provide facilities facili-ties for stage shows, motion pictures, pic-tures, games, meetings and dinner parties. completed and . furnished at mid-western mid-western factories, it was a matter of a few minutes for four men to emplace them and connect electric lines. The successful completion of this project, which is expected to be fully occupied about July 15, is the high-point high-point of a revolutionary change in housing techniques, motivated by war necessity. Deliver Complete Unit. Completely reversing the centuries-old method of transporting parts or sections of houses to the site and then assembling them, the trailer trail-er coach industry has applied assembly-line methods to home-construction and delivers complete units, including essential furnishings. furnish-ings. Just as mass production techniques tech-niques have changed automobile manufacture from small-scale output out-put at high prices to million-unit capacity ca-pacity at low cost, this new construction con-struction method for homes brings speech quantity and economy into housing at a time when all these factors are imperative for the war effort. In manufacture, this method saves 90 per cent on manpower. The mobile mo-bile houses require less than one-third one-third the ordinary amount of critical criti-cal materials, permitting much greater volume from a limited stockpile. stock-pile. The average trailer coach, Four large play areas, each large enough for a full-sized baseball field, will be available for adults, and seven sev-en stores will occupy a large commercial com-mercial building, eliminating the need for traveling into the city to shop. Each trailer has a plot at least 26 by 46 feet. Drainage has made the soil fertile, and a Victory garden gar-den usually appears outside each unit a few days after the family moves in. Some build small picket fences around their gardens, adding add-ing the final touch of suburban atmosphere. at-mosphere. All trailers when delivered were standard olive drab, but because camouflage is not important at this site they are being repainted various vari-ous hues, to suit the taste of the occupants. FPHA rentals on these furnished homes range from $6 to $9 a week, far lower than prevailing rates for j I .. :..., -, . , . - ."' This little girl even finds room for her dollie in one of the 3,300 trailers of the settlement near Portsmouth, Va. Whole families can comfortably occupy one of the new units. Playgrounds, Play-grounds, schools and recreation centers cen-ters have been built to accommodate accommo-date the residents. find wheels again and serve vagabondage vaga-bondage or house migratory workers, work-ers, and the ground that had been host to a thriving city will once more be an open field no worse for wear. For Portsmouth there will be no bad effects, no 'ghost' slums, no regrets." re-grets." In this project also is seen the forerunner of a vast field for trailers in post-war Europe. With millions of persons returning to ravaged cities, cit-ies, communities like Trailer City will pop up to house them until permanent per-manent quarters can be constructed, construct-ed, he predicts. If American manufacturers manu-facturers can get sufficient materials mate-rials in time, it is not unlikely that they will provide units for hundreds of towns as big as Portsmouth's to dot the European topography. See New Trailer Use. Peacetime uses for trailers will also show the effects of their wartime war-time use. Large groups of migratory migra-tory construction workers, moving from one reconstruction job to another, an-other, will use trailers so they can move their homes with them. Seasonal Sea-sonal farm workers will do the same thing. Lighter and more powerful automobiles will make road travel more popular with salesmen and professional men, and trailer homes will permit them to keep their families fam-ilies together while they travel. An upsurge in travel interest following fol-lowing wartime repression will enhance en-hance the normal market for trailers, trail-ers, too, and thousands of families who are finding these mobile homes satisfactory during the war will decide de-cide to retain this type of living. The trailers that were moved into Portsmouth are tributes to the manufacturers' man-ufacturers' ingenuity, for they are as sturdy and comfortable as prewar pre-war models despite sharp curtailments curtail-ments in available materials. The chief shortages rubber for tires and steel for under-carriages are not serious because the units are placed on foundation blocks and are immobilized for the duration of the war, unless they are to be moved to another site after their first assignment is filled. However, shortages of such basic materials as masonite, plywood and stainless steel have necessitated substitutions. sub-stitutions. The Portsmouth trailers have less than 275 pounds of steel, only three pounds of copper, and use homeosote in place of masonite. The experimentation required by these substitutions will pay real dividends div-idends in the future, experts predict. "We've learned better ways to do things," these experts say. "We now can save weight, add space and increase comfort without increasing cost. After a year or two, when we get a supply of the new light metals and plastics we'll produce trailers that will be luxurious and practical and at a small cost." Meanwhile, the Portsmouth project proj-ect is doing a big war job. Incoming Incom-ing workers pour into the project every day, "bringing their families into a new type of living experience. Once in, they plan to stay. "This kind of life," explains one worker after five days in his trailer, trail-er, "is as much fun as camping and a lot more comfortable." A total of 3,300 trailers dot 290 acres near Portsmouth, Va. Here, 13,000 workers in the Norfolk navy yard will make their home for the duration. Each trailer has a plot at least 26 by 46 feet adequately drained, and Victory gardens already have been set out. furnished and installed, costs about 60 per cent as much as the low-priced low-priced demountable house. Further important savings are made in manpower man-power at the site, since four men can have a trailer ready in a few minutes, while even a demountable ! house requires several hours. Since i war housing is needed in labor- scarce areas, this has made trailers j even more popular. Employment in the Norfolk Navy Yard, which is to be served by the Portsmouth trailer community, is due to increase about 40 per cent in the next few months. The speedy i availability of the mobile homes will make it possible for the navy I to recruit workers long before it could have if it had to wait for other types of living units. The effect on the naval shipping program will be important to the early completion of the war. . Trailers Accommodate Families. Of the 3,300 units in Trailer City, 2,640 are standard trailers, normally normal-ly housing two to four persons. The other 660 are expansible mobile houses, which are transported like trailers but have wings that are opened at the site to form extra rooms. With a few quick movements move-ments these expansibles form four-room four-room homes. comfortably accommodating accommo-dating families of six. This proportion of two sizes provides pro-vides ample quarters for large families fam-ilies as well as smaller ones. sub-standard quarters in the city. Electricity is provided at cost. Although Trailer City at Portsmouth Ports-mouth is the high-point of the FPHA use of trailers, it is expected to be followed soon by similar projects in other severely congested centers. The government already owns more than 35,000 units, situated in nearly 200 parks throughout the country. Portsmouth Enthusiastic. Portsmouth is enthusiastic about its infant addition, for the housing shortage has been its greatest headache head-ache since the emergency began. But even more than the speed of its completion, the project's effect on the city after the war is appreciated. appre-ciated. Residents are glad that when the need subsides this emergency "subdivision" will be moved en masse, leaving only the vacant field it mushroomed from, instead of a "ghost" community. George F. Miles, president of the Trailer Coach Manufacturers association, asso-ciation, whose members supplied the mobile units for the project, sums up this aspect: "This city's birth is spectacular, its contribution to the war effort will be noteworthy, and its fate when the war ends will make a dramatic sequel to the whole tale. For unless post-war needs exceed expectations, the whole community is likely to disappear even faster than it came. The workers will move on to peacetime peace-time occupations, the trailers will |