Algoma & the World War ll Victory Houses

As the country was digging its way out of the Great  Depression, housing was one of its great pent-up demands. Marriages had been delayed and many who did marry lived with family members or rented a spare room in the home of a stranger. As for Algoma, it looked as if things would improve when an April 1936 building boom brought expectations of ten or more homes to be built. In addition to reducing the shortages, home building would provide needed jobs.

Alleviating shortages was on the minds of many, and some of the suggestions were most creative. In 1916, even before the U.S. entry into what became World War l, there were thoughts of turning the old Goodrich side-wheel steamer Chicago into a floating boarding house. It was felt that if the boat was piped and heated with steam, its 100 staterooms could provide accommodations for 100-200 shipyard workers during the winter. Expense would be minimal. At least it was an idea that would upgrade one human habitation to another. Some of the upgrades began with what had begun as animal quarters.

Political strife in Europe - that which led to World War ll - also made for jobs, many created by Lend Lease. Then came the Day of Infamy. Countless numbers of couples married before the new husband was drafted, or before he was shipped out. The housing shortage continued.

Shortages had been in the news for years and by 1946 one staggering factoid made newspaper readers aware that the number of big trees destroyed by fire each year could have supplied enough lumber for building 215,000 five-room homes. By then, housing was being addressed, however in August 1948 Wisconsin’s health officer Dr. Carl Neupert expressed his concerns saying shortages were still felt beyond returning veterans. Neupert called attention to the health issues facing doubled up households or families living in makeshift structures. 

As World War ll era production workers relocated to such places as Algoma and Kewaunee, the already acute housing shortage was made worse. New building had been curtailed by the War Production Board, but then came Victory Houses, a square or rectangular no frills home. Depending on where they were built, they were mostly one-story structures of either wood or brick. 

During a 2004 interview, historian Millie Rabas told this blogger and two others how Plywood employees from Birchwood lived in her Kirchman hotel, doubling up in rooms and sharing beds. Sometimes the bed mates had never before met.  Algoma’s already critical housing shortage got even worse when Algoma Plywood announced intentions to transfer its veneer cutting operations from Birchwood.  The city council knew if there was any hope of meeting housing needs, Algoma had to be declared a critical defense area by the War Production Board. The city engineer was instructed to go forward in seeking such approval.

Algoma Plywood announced in August 1942 that it also was attempting to address the housing issue. The Federal Housing Authority eased up on restrictions and it looked as if the city would see as many as 20 new homes. The Plywood kept applications and offered employees information through General Manager G.H. Hunt. The homes were to be built for or by Algoma Plywood and Veneer or its employees only, or could be rented by Plywood employees for the duration of the war. The entire home cost was limited to $6,000 tops. There was also an effort to find buildings that could be converted to housing. There are some today who would be most surprised to learn their home had once served as a stable or barn. A month later the city council approved a plat for a Victory housing addition to the city, and Algoma Fuel Co. began erecting 7 homes for either rental or sale to defense workers.

By October, seven homes were going up in the old city gravel pit property along Division St., Four were being built on the west end of Steele and four more on Church St. The Fuel Company’s Frank Lohrey felt the home on the northwest corner of Division and Washington would be done about the 1^st of December with the other homes being completed at the rate of one a week. It was big news at Valentine’s Day 1943 when the Record Herald told readers that Mr. and Mrs. Hubert Knapmiller and daughter Margaret had just moved from Birchwood to live in one of the Division St. houses. At the same time the Wenniger apartments, across Church

St. from St. Mary’s School, were nearing completion. Six families would find housing in the modern building.

Then there was a new problem. In January 1943 Fire Chief A.F. Meyer discussed Algoma’s 1942 fire calls. There were 14 within the city limits. Damage amounted to just over $215,000, but an even bigger issue was better fire protection, particularly at a time when the city couldn’t meet its housing needs. Growing demands within the city meant a greater emphasis on equipment expansion and  equipment maintenance. Planning was of the utmost importance.

During May 1943 Otto Krueger started the basements for two homes at the bottom of the Church St. hill. One was on the northeast corner of Church and North Water while the other would be across Water St. That one faced north. The houses filled up as soon as they were ready, but still the need existed. Louis Welk was discharged from the Navy in February 1945 and had to remain in Dearborn, Michigan. Although Welk and his wife had planned to return to Algoma, the housing shortage kept him in Dearborn.

In August 1946 Ted Gartzke was named depot agent at Algoma. He was bringing his family, which included four children, from Winona, Minnesota, but there was no place for them to live. The move was delayed. The family did find a home on the Bucholtz farm and was eventually fortunate enough to secure one of the Division Street homes, but by then the war was over. The following August, it was the new football coach, Harry Schwartz, who had a rough time finding a home. Schwartz surely had too much school in his life. The only available place was the Third Ward school, also known as the Irving Demonstration School. When the Schwartz family arrived, the school had been cleaned and made as livable as possible. As so many others, the Schwartz family "made do." When the Louis Leischow family moved into their newly built Kodan farm home, their old home was moved to Algoma to provide living quarters.

Algoma Record Herald editor Harry Heidmann hoped to see the shortage alleviated in 1947. At the time Kewaunee was planning to build 25 new homes to solve its housing crisis. The editor wondered how it would go because all over Algoma there were basements dug, and here and there were foundations. Progress was slow, however, and little was going forward because essential materials were unavailable. Kewaunee had local financing and expectations were that wood could be cut from area woodlots and dried in kilns at local lumber yards. There were assurances that critical materials would be salvaged from government owned projects. But when?

April 1949 brought a new question. Liquor sales brought extra taxes designated for housing projects. Public policy was to stimulate construction where it was most critical. Editor Heidmann was ahead of his time when he opined the best way to build was to give the veteran a house payment from the special fund and allow him to build his house where and when he wanted to. Ten years later, in 1959, housing shortages still came to mind when Record Herald columnist Lois Pflughoeft quipped about the number of housing inquiries the paper got. She said she fully expected to see somebody living in the telephone booth at 4^th and Steele.

Housing and affordable housing opportunities are questions today, however the issues are far different than they were between 1930 and 1950.

Sources: Algoma Record Herald, Algoma's commercial histories Vol. 1 & 2; Cox-Nell House Histories found at Algoma Public Library; Wikipedia; Women of the Plywood, the War Years.