WorldWar II was recently over and everyone wanted to build some long-delayed home or business buildings; consequently there was a severe shortage of conventional building materials, particularly studs, joints, and other wood framing lumber. The story was told that somehow architect Milton Ryan obtained a carload of 2x4 ends in various sizes up to a couple of feet long which he laid up like bricks and built a house. He was also said to have done much the same thing with a load of ammunition boxes.

            The Great Lakes Steel Company had been supplying Quonset huts for the recent war effort and had developed a building system featuring rolled steel plate units to which other materials could be nailed.

            Recently separated from the armed forces, I was employed as a draftsman by the firm of Smith, Pitts, & MacPherson Architects. One of the principals, DeHaven Pitts, was building a residence with the system and Jack Lapham and Johnny Fielder came to us to plan and build the Flying L guest ranch using the Quonset design for several of the buildings.

            Gidney Talley brought us his theater project and Gordon Smith designed the building using a Quonset for the auditorium with conventional construction for the remainder. However, as I recall, the Great Lakes ‘nailable’ steel unit system was employed throughout. Doug Lansing and I did much of the drawing before we both resigned and enrolled in the architecture program at the University of Texas in Austin.

            Doug Lansing was employed with the architectural firm of Phelps, Dewees, & Simmons for several years until his untimely demise.

            I was later employed by O’Neil Ford until I was recalled into the Air Force, wound up in Alaska, and spent the next forty years there before retiring and moving back to San Antonio – only to find that I had become somewhat of a Rip van Winkle as far as architectural matters were concerned.

 

                                                                                    Harry R. Geron