Excerpt from "Houses for Defense"

Published in House and Garden, February 1942.

"From Hawaii to Maryland, at military posts and defense plants, a war time home building program is under way."

As war industry regions and military hubs experienced an ever increasing influx of workers and military personnel, the housing shortage became acute. Recognizing that the problem could become even more severe as the war continued, the House Public Buildings and Grounds Committee, a group in the U.S. House of Representatives, discussed housing needs. Under the leadership of Fritz G. Lanham (1880–1965), the group introduced a potential solution, which became known as the Lanham Act when it was passed by Congress in October 1940. The act appropriated $750 million to the Federal Works Agency for the construction of large housing projects in crowded war industry centers, also referred to as "defense" centers. Created exclusively for war industry...