A Crowded Campus
The influx of thousands of veterans at Syracuse University resulted in the “GI Bulge” and an immediate demand for housing. To fill the need for buildings, the University arranged with the United States War Department to purchase surplus housing units made available to colleges with large veteran enrollments. Three hundred crated buildings arrived in May 1946 from California, 200 of which were used for housing.
Temporary Student Housing
Temporary housing peppered the landscape. A barracks camp called Collendale on the north side of East Colvin Street housed over 500 students. Across Colvin at the former University Farm (now Skytop and Slocum Heights) were 600 military-style housing units, including wooden two-family houses and one-story barracks for multiple families. In an apple orchard at Drumlins, across the street from the present Tecumseh Elementary School, married students stayed in 175 trailers. Single students lived in metal buildings where Manley Field House is now located, as well as on the hill at South Crouse Avenue and Irving Avenue. Until the new housing was ready on campus, students lived all over the Greater Syracuse area, including the New York State Fairgrounds, Baldwinsville Ordinance Works, and the Army Air Base at Mattydale.
Veteran students housed at places such as the Baldwinsville Ordinance Works and the Army Air Base at Mattydale were transported by bus to campus. Painted blue and orange, the buses were quickly nicknamed “Blue Beetles.”
Arguably the most prominent temporary structure was the Quonseteria, a dining hall on Comstock Avenue near the corner of Colvin Street. Erected in 1947, the Quonseteria served meals for South Campus residents and provided study and recreational space. The name for the structure was coined by Andrew Cisternino ’48, G’51, who garnered a $10 prize in a competition. Later the Food Service Bake Shop, a store room, Microbiology and Biochemistry Center, and wrestling team headquarters, it was demolished in the 1980s.
Trailers at Drumlins were 7 x 22 feet, just enough space for a couch with a hideaway bed, eating alcove and small kitchen. In the spring, the snow turned the trailer camp to a muddy mess, and residents called it “Mud Hollow.”
Veteran students opened their own cooperative store to serve families in the Drumlins Trailer Park. The University furnished the building and materials for shelves. The Co-op provided fresh vegetables and fruits, cosmetics, and other groceries. The clerk in this photo, Frances Marvin, and the customer, Charlotte Gates, were both wives of veteran students at Syracuse University.
In the foreground of this image are army barracks converted into apartments; behind them are demountable buildings containing two apartments each.
Temporary Classrooms
The University also set up multiple temporary buildings — 40 classrooms and 20 labs as well as studio and office space — around campus. Some were placed behind Crouse College with others constructed near Bowne, Sims, Slocum, and Machinery Halls. Despite the additional classrooms, faculty and students — veteran or not — still faced overcrowded classes.
“My classes were filled to overflowing with former corporals and sergeants, captains and colonels,” recalls William Fleming, centennial professor emeritus of fine arts. “The seats, aisles, and floors were wall-to-wall students right up to the place where I was standing. I had to spell out the names of artists and composers because I could not get to the blackboard to write them down.” -Alexandra Eyle, “Once the War Was Over,” Syracuse University Magazine, February 1987