Camp Endicott was a

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

Seabee United States Naval Construction Battalions, better known as the Navy Seabees, form the U.S. Naval Construction Forces (NCF). The Seabee nickname is a heterograph of the initial letters "CB" from the words "Construction Battalion". Dependi ...

facility, part of Davisville Naval Construction Battalion Center at Quonset Point in

North Kingstown, Rhode Island North Kingstown is a town in Washington County, Rhode Island, United States, and is part of the Providence metropolitan area. Its population was 27,732 in the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. North Kingstown is the birthplace of American ...

. A surviving portion of the camp, now mostly demolished, was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1978.

History

The vast training camp built at Davisville, Rhode Island in 1942, provided more than 100,000 men of the U.S. Navy's Construction Battalions, better known as "Seabees," with construction training during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. During the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

, eight Naval Mobile Construction Battalions representing some 4,000 Seabees were homeported at Davisville, in addition to 1,200 civilians. Mordecai Thomas Endicott

Named in honor of Rear Admiral Mordecai T. Endicott, the first Civil Engineer Corps Officer to be appointed Chief of the former

Bureau of Yards and Docks The Bureau of Yards and Docks (abbrev.: BuDocks) was the branch of the United States Navy responsible from 1842 to 1966 for building and maintaining navy yards, drydocks, and other facilities relating to ship construction, maintenance, and repai ...

, Camp Endicott (later established as the U.S. Naval Construction Battalion Center, Davisville) was also the birthplace of the

Quonset hut A Quonset hut is a lightweight prefabricated structure of corrugated galvanized steel with a semi-circular cross-section. The design was developed in the United States based on the Nissen hut introduced by the British during World War I. Hund ...

. These semi-cylindrically shaped, prefabricated, portable buildings were designed and produced at Davisville and shipped to various places throughout the world. Because of its design and worldwide dispersion, the Quonset Hut is considered one of the most universal structures in the world. The Camp Endicott Historical District at Davisville was established to preserve some of these structures as well as a portion of the former Camp that played a vital role in World War II. The seven-acre District, located at the southern boundary of the Center, contained 17 huts. When the area was slated for demolition, a few of the surviving huts were relocated to the Seabee Museum and Memorial Park elsewhere on the former camp grounds.

References

External links

BASE: Advancing a Post-Military Landscape
An extensive photographic survey of the Davisville & adjacent Quonset Point Naval Bases completed in 2000 by Erik Carlson & Erica Carpenter. {{Coord, 41, 36, 09, N, 71, 26, 16, W, display=title United States Navy installations Buildings and structures in North Kingstown, Rhode Island Military installations in Rhode Island Narragansett Bay Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Rhode Island Military facilities on the National Register of Historic Places in Rhode Island National Register of Historic Places in Washington County, Rhode Island Government buildings completed in 1942 Military installations established in 1942 1942 establishments in Rhode Island 1994 disestablishments in Rhode Island Demolished buildings and structures in Rhode Island Military installations closed in 1994 Historic American Buildings Survey in Rhode Island Military Superfund sites Superfund sites in Rhode Island Quonset huts

History

See also

References

External links