Trailer City

During the years immediately after World War II, Henderson needed living space for married veterans and their families. At first, the College had to resort to temporary structures. President McBrien announced in December, 1945, that the College had received an allotment of 50 trailers from the National Housing Agency as “living quarters for married veterans attending college under the provisions of the so-called G. I. Bill of Rights”.

Set up east of the drill field and west of Womack Hall on the site later occupied by the Student Union, the 50 trailers were spaced and sidewalks laid according to government specifications. “Trailer City,” as the site was soon called, contained 25 standard trailers that could accommodate two persons each and 25 expansible trailers that could house as many as five persons each. Each trailer contained a refrigerator, kerosene heater, oil stove, sink, closet, cabinets, cots, tables, and chairs. Tenants had to furnish bedding, dishes, and cooking utensils. Trailer City also had “two toilet and bath units, providing hot water, and a laundry unit with adequate facilities”.

Since many of the families of veterans in Trailer City had small children, in October, 1946, President McBrien cautioned students who owned automobiles to "drive carefully while using the driveways.” He reminded students that “even one accident could mean tragedy”. To prevent such a tragedy on campus, a short time after Dr. McBrien's warning, the College built a few concrete speed breakers at intervals on the east-west campus drive by the trailers west to Twelfth Street.

By the 1950s, Trailer City was gradually "being removed from the Henderson scene”. In 1954-55, having served their emergency purpose to provide living space for veterans of World War II, the trailers were sold as lodges to hunters and fishermen and as cottages to others for a tourist court in Gurdon. To an editorial writer in The Henderson Oracle in April, 1960, the remaining speed breakers were “an old relic” that should be removed. After reviewing the necessity for the speed breakers at the time they were constructed, the writer then noted: "Now the children are gone from the streets, Garrett Hall is the only place on the campus where there is a possibility of children living. Thus it seems that the breakers actually serve no cause. The automobiles today are also different in many respects than those of the early 1940s. Each year the cars are built lower and lower and it has reached a point to where it is almost impossible for a driver to get his car over the concrete without dragging. As a matter of fact many cars have been banged around by the breakers until they have had to be repaired. If there is a logical reason for the speed breakers to remain on the campus, then more power to them. However, if they are just remains of a past era, it looks like they could be eliminated with nothing but joy for the automobile owners of the Henderson campus." In 1964, the College removed the speed breakers, and the last vestiges of Trailer City were gone.