In Alabama, a Postwar Neighborhood Built from Bomb Crates.

Story from the archives by Lawrence Hurley / July 2, 2004

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House constructed from pine boxes used to ship bombs (West Huntsville Civic Association)

In one of the less publicized dividends of World War II, resourceful north Alabama residents spotted opportunity when thousands of unused bombs were returned after the war to the Army's arsenal in Huntsville to be dismantled. It wasn't the bombs that people wanted, of course, but the boxes they were shipped in.

Because of a lumber shortage, residents were eager to buy the pine boxes as the 100,000 M54 cluster bombs were unpacked. Like many other cities after the war, Huntsville, 100 miles north of Birmingham, was on the cusp of a population boom and a housing shortage. Selling the boxes for 25 cents each turned out to be good business on both sides; the profits helped pay to dismantle the bombs.

The Huntsville Arsenal, founded in 1941 on a 30,000-acre site southwest of the city, was a chemical-munitions manufacturing and storage facility. After the war it merged into the adjoining Redstone Arsenal and played an important role in missile and rocket development. Huntsville remains a major player in the aerospace industry today.

At first, the bombs were removed at the arsenal and the boxes were trucked to another site to be sold. But demand was so great that by the second week civilians received permission to collect the bounty directly from the arsenal.

 

Another bomb-crate house

The tin-lined boxes became building materials for houses in the Lowe Mill area of the city, with the wooden panels used for floors and roofing. The panels, still bearing army markings, were used for floors, walls, and roofing.

Michelle McMullen, a member of the West Huntsville Civic Association, believes that most of the "bomb-crate houses," as they have been dubbed, have since been demolished, but several remain. McMullen's parents, Leslie and Dorothy, helped family members take apart the boxes—pulling out the nails and flattening the tin liners inside. They even straightened the nails for recycling.

"They re-used everything they could," McMullen says. "Some of the bigger boxes had hinges that were used for cabinets and doors."

Leslie McMullen, who still has an intact box in his garage, began his career as a carpenter building the bomb-crate houses. "People would buy a whole truckload for three or four dollars and have it delivered," he says. He recalls that some people used the metal linings to strengthen walls or to roof cow sheds until they could find higher-quality material. Others used wooden pallets to supplement the supply of crates.

 

A less sturdy bomb-crate house

The discovery is a quirky diversion for the association, which has been compiling evidence for its campaign to nominate Lowe Mill for the state's "Places in Peril" list—and ultimately for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. The association has found that many of the houses built from crates were of poor quality and did not last long. But some were normal, cottage-style homes that are indistinguishable from other houses in the neighborhood.

Located about a mile from the center of Huntsville, Lowe Mill was the city's first suburb, having sprung up around the textile mill from which it got its name at the end of the 19th century. About a third of the houses date from that time and would have accommodated mill workers, but most were built from the 1920s to the 1950s.

 

Another neighborhood house built from bomb-crate material

The crates were originally constructed at Huntsville Roofing, a family-owned business in Lowe Mill that had to build additional sheds and lay a railroad running to the arsenal to accommodate the surge in business.

Michelle McMullen believes the houses can benefit the West Huntsville Civic Association's efforts to put Lowe Mill on the map. "We feel the bomb-crate houses are a unique part of Americana and will help us as we continue our efforts to make Lowe Mill a destination site," she says.

This story was originally published on May 10, 2002.

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