PAGE FOUR
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
MARCH 28,1946
Another 'Solution' To Veteran Housing: Trailertown
Kansas State Homes Have Only One Room, 22 By 8 Feet, With No Running Water
By BECKY VALLETTE (Daily Kansan Managing Editor)
Manhattan. (Special) Kansas State college is partially solving its housing problem this semester by setting up 100 trailerhomes on the campus to take care of married veterans and their families.
These veterans have bath tubs and running water, but not in their homes. They have sidewalks and tidy yards, but they live in one room, 22 by 8 feet. Despite the disadvantages, they like it!
The college spent about 25 trailers. They are arranged in g of land near the campus. The have named Campus Court, was set up on a 5-year basis as a temporary solution to the housing problem.
The college spent about 25 thousand dollars to furnish the trailers. They are arranged in groups of eight circles on a piece of land near the campus. The trailer camp, which the veterans have named Campus Court,
Trailers are of two general types — standard, which rent for $18 a month, and expandable, which rent for $24 a month.
These homes are composed of one room, in which the families cook, eat, sleep, dress, rest, study, wash dishes, and entertain company. When they moved in, the veterans' wives found the homes completely furnished except for 10-cent store dishes and a few knick-knacks.
dishes and a few knives
"You have to leave all wedding gifts home with mother, as there just isn't room," one wife laughed.
Most of the furniture has a double or triple purpose—the studio couch is used for sleeping and sitting; the table for studying, eating, and playing bridge. At one end of the room, there is a door which, when closed, gives a child his own private nursery.
For an enterprising young bride, a trailer isn't the best place to learn to cook, as her stove is a kerosene number. And, since there is no regulator on the oven, baking is the worst problem. Many of the wives supplement cooking with hot plates and pressure cookers.
A 1-gallon can above the sink furnishes the hot water, which drains through the sink into a bucket. So when a gallon of fresh water is brought into the trailer, the bucket under the sink must be emptied. One of the husbands "favorite" household duties is carrying water twice a day.
The trailers are wired for electricity, and are well heated with distillate, a fuel similar to kerosene. For the sake of fire protection, there is an extinguisher in each trailer.
One side of the room serves as a bedroom, and the other as a dining-living room. The narrow kitchen is in the middle of the room opposite the entrance.
Four bath houses are placed about Campus Court. They contain all the conveniences, even a tub. A partition in the middle divides the sides for men and women. One of the real adventures at Campus Court is a night trip to the bath house. Recently a fire destroyed one of the bath houses, but it will be replaced soon.
Campus Court has two wash houses, complete with a brand new machine, tubs, and three ironing boards. Clothes lines are nearby. Since 100 families can't wash on Monday, a sign-up chart for the machine is placed in the wash house to avoid the confusion.
At present there is only one telephone booth, plus one located in the camp office. However, about 30 to 40 telephones will be available soon for installation in trailers for those who want private lines.
A small yellow ice house is located near the office. Ice is delivered there each day. Then the veterans heave and carry ice to their own homes.
They also have to carry cans of fuel to their trailers. Veterans are allowed to keep only a 5-gallon can of distillate and a 1-gallon can of kerosene near their trailers. Larger drums or barrels would be a fire hazard.
Both Manhattan and the college are cooperating to make life at Campus Court as convenient as possible for the veterans and their families. Milk is delivered daily to the trailers by the College dairy. The Manhattan paper is dropped at their front step.
Each night wives may leave grocery lists in a box provided in the wash house. These lists are picked up at 7 a.m., and groceries delivered to the trailers.
Laws are made and order is kept at Campus Court by its own mayor-council government. The veterans completely run their own city, with the College acting in an advisory capacity. One councilman represents each circle of trailers. If any of the veterans or their wives are dissatisfied, they take their problems to their councilman. The mayor and councilmen are elected each semester.
A set of regulations was composed by the governing body, and "distributed to each member of the "city." Each family is assessed 25 cents a month to be used later for camp parties. Mayor Gerald W. Bunyan frequently posts bulletins and suggestions about the camp.
Campus Court is clean and wellkept. Each family is individually responsible for keeping its own yard tidy. If it doesn't, the mayor plans to assess a small fine. Then the college hires someone to haul trash away each day.
Appreciating the difficulties under which these 100 veterans are living, and admiring their initiative in transforming trailers into homes. Kansas State is cooperating with them to make their surroundings more pleasant.
"Ninety-eight per cent of the veterans and their families are happy and enthusiastic about Campus Court," Duncan smiled. "The other? per cent wouldn't like any place."
From the minute windows of their trailers, veterans can see only more trailers, painted a drab army-green Their view from everyside is tree-ess, grassless, monotonous.
(Photography courtesy Kansas State College News Bureau.)
Now the veterans want a lighter, brighter color for their trailers, both outside and in. The College will furnish the paint and do the outside, and the veterans will take care of the inside.
Sidewalks seemed to be the first need. The college furnished the and the cement, the veterans the labor.
With spring has come a desire for green grass. The college furnishes the seed and instructions, the vet-evans do the planting.
It is this close cooperation between the College and the veterans, which has made Campus Court such a great success.
Phonee 425
LAWRENCE OPTICAL
1025 Mass.
CO.
Here's an air view of the Kansas State "solution" to the veteran housing problem—a trailertown named Campus Court. Situated right on the college campus, the housing area cares for (more or less comfortably) some 100 veterans and their families. Their living space in a standard trailer is one room—only 22 by 8 feet large.
Poetry Contest Judges Selected
Final judges for the annual William Herbert Carruth poetry contest which closes at noon Monday have been selected. They will decide on the winning poetry after preliminary choices have been made by a local committee.
John Ciardi, instructor of English at the University of Kansas City, William Howie, a former English instructor at K.U., and John Hankins. English professor are the final judges.
Mr. Ciardi has had published some of his own poetry, and is represented in the current issue of "Atlantic Monthly." Mr. Howie is a K.U. alumnus, and is now working on his doctor of philosophy degree at Harvard.
Four-in-One Necktie
Indianapolis (UP)—Carl M. Combs of Indianapolis has a four-in-one necktie that proves the thrift of the Scots. His son-in-law brought him the tie from Scotland. It has four different colors and patterns, both sides and both ends being different so that it can be worn four ways.
Montreal. (UP)—Soviet agents in Canada were ordered by Moscow to obtain information on American troop movements to Europe and from there to Asia, it was revealed today at the hearing of a Canadian Communist charged with giving secret information to Russia.
Fluorescent
Study Lamps
$11.75
NOW AT HANNA'S!
2-Burner Hot Plates $15.95
Hanna Radio Shop 933 Mass. St.
For the
SMARTEST BONNET
In the Easter Parade See Our Spring Collection Today at the
ACKERMAN HAT SHOP 945 Ky. Phone 165
Swarthout To Serve
Dean D. M. Swarthout has been asked by Karl Krueger, director of the Detroit Symphony orchestra, to serve on the advisory editorial board of "The Musical Digest."
Washington, (UP)—The ordinary potato emerged today as a "secret weapon" in the government's wheat conservation campaign.
With reassurances that spuds are "no more fattening than bread," the Agriculture department asked housewives to serve them three times a day—breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Square Dances Are Popular
Los Angeles (UP)—Old-fashioned square dances and homespun music are more popular than modern jive and swing on playgrounds here, the city recreation department reported today.
Arkansas City Librarian to Retire
Arkansas City (UP)—Miss Gertrude Hull, veteran Arkansas City librarian who began her career when
the library opened in 1908, will retire April 15, it was announced today.
New Course at Hays
Hays. (UP)—Plans for addition of graduate study leading to the master of science degree with a major in business education were announced today by officials of Fort Hays, Kansas, State college. The new courses will be offered beginning this summer, under the direction of Dr. George Heather.
Los Angeles. (UP)—The Compton rural cemetery, burial ground of early-day California settlers and pioneers, has been accepted by Los Angeles county as a "historical landmark" and will be preserved as such.
Washington, (UP)—The government put its housing programs for veterans into higher gear today when it stopped huge amounts of less-essential construction in order to save building materials and prepared a new program of emergency housing units.
Cemetery Is 'Historic Landmark'
Thanks A Million
On Our Third Anniversary Let Us Say
For Letting Us Serve You
MORGAN-MACK MOTOR COMPANY 609 Mass. Phone 277
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