Just off York\u2019s Roosevelt Avenue at Fahs Street, people today reside in two-story government-type housing.
\nThe houses clash with the style of their single-unit neighbors in the Fireside area, but motorists passing by have probably grown accustomed to them.
\nBut these houses were anything but nondescript when introduced to York in 1943… .<\/p>\n
\nFirst, they represented country living in those days before York crowded its own boundaries.
\nSecondly, they helped alleviate an acute wartime housing shortage caused, in part, by a flood of defense workers laboring in York\u2019s factories. Landlords did not like to rent to defense workers and servicemen because they were so mobile. Men in uniform were usually awaiting callup, leaving behind spouses who could not pay the rent, or so it was believed.
\nThe first 50 of the houses opened with a grand tour by representatives of the York Chamber of Commerce and defense plants in mid-1943.
\nArchitect Harry R. Lenker was on hand to point to the coveniences in the attractive homes: hardwood floors, hot water heating, painted plaster walls, gas stoves and refrigerators.
\nThe four-room houses rented for $33 monthly, and those with five rooms cost $35.
\nThe housing need caused other wartime housing to sprout up, but many did not remain standing long enough to become World War II relics. Sometimes, the housing was very temporary in nature.
\nAbout 150 trailer homes for defense workers popped up at the former York County Home tract near the county prison at the north end of Broad Street.
\nThe National Park Service supervised the park, made up of trailers accommodating families of four and six.
\nSome of the trailers were equipped with shower, toilet and laundry facilities. Designers shaped the park so that none of the homes were farther than 150 feet from a trailer toilet.
\nSo there it is, overlooked York County landmark No. 20, World War II-era defense worker housing. Other overlooked York County sites and landmarks (See posts under York Town Square):
\n— The Little Courthouse
\n— Prospect Hill Cemetery
\n— War Mothers Memorial
\n— Work War II USO at former York County Academy gymnasium
\n— York\u2019s Salem Square soldiers monument
\n— York\u2019s Cookes House
\n— York\u2019s rowhouses
\n— Wrightsville\u2019s monuments
\n— The Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge
\n— Memorial trees along highways Route 30 & Susquehanna Trail.
\n— The Inches
\n— Camp Stewartstown
\n— The Wrightsville Bridge supports
\n— New York Wire Co.\u2019s factory whistle
\n— Mary Ann Furnace
\n— York\u2019s Hartman Building
\n— Hanover\u2019s Iron Mike and The Picket
\n— York\u2019s Eberts Lane
\n— Helen Reeves Thackston Memorial Park<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Just off York\u2019s Roosevelt Avenue at Fahs Street, people today reside in two-story government-type housing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7,11,28,25,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives-all-posts","category-explanationscontroversy","category-local-landmarks","category-unsungobscure-sites","category-war","category-world-war-ii"],"yoast_head":"\n