The Social Side of The National Army – 1918
Hostess House Maintained by the Young Women‘s Christian Association at Camp Devens, Ayer, Massachusetts. GGA Image ID # 13afecd57d
The war and navy departments’ commissions on training camp activities were created at the beginning of the war to supply our young men everywhere in training with the normality of life. Raymond B. Fosdick, chairman of these twin commissions, wished to accomplish this by creating as little new machinery as possible.
Therefore, the Young Men's Christian Association, the Knights of Columbus, the Jewish Welfare Board, the American Library Association, and all such already existing organizations were called upon to lend their cooperation.
The Young Women's Christian Association came into the camps later with that unique institution the Hostess House, designed primarily to take care of women visitors and furnish a place for meeting the men.
The commissions were determined to cover the whole ground in furnishing amusement, recreational, and educational facilities for soldiers and sailors. Wherever there seemed to be a gap that no existing agency was particularly prepared to fill, the commissions supplied the need direct.
In this way, the Liberty Theatres were furnished, meeting the problem of a place for evening entertainment. Post Exchanges, or soldiers' co-operative stores, were similarly started in the sixteen National Army camps.
Everything is on sale there from a shoeshine to a pink valentine, and from an ice-cream soda to a songbook of the kind that the men use when they gather by thousands for mass singing.
Club life is made available through the Y.M.C.A., the K. of C., and in a few camps, the Jewish Welfare buildings, where men may read, write, loaf and smoke, listen to music and write letters home.
In the auditorium of each building, entertainments of all sorts are given, and supplement programs arranged for the larger Y.M.C.A. auditoriums and for the Liberty Theatres.
The Hostess House furnishes the home life of the camp and has come to be very popular.
With the library to provide plenty of good literature and a quiet place in which to read, with the Post Exchange playing the role of country store or corner drugstore not only in supplying his needs but in furnishing a place to meet his friends and swap stories, the wants of the man in uniform are pretty thoroughly taken care of.
Thirty-six library buildings have been completed in the military camps of the country, and others are underway. These structures are made possible by a special grant of three hundred and twenty thousand dollars from the Carnegie Corporation, and by other funds.
The type of building chosen is new in the library world. It is a wooden structure of a rather dull design, similar to those usually found in modern military camps.
Most of those in the cantonments are one hundred and twenty by forty feet, while those in smaller camps are ninety-three by forty feet. Special attention has been given to providing adequate facilities for heating, ventilation, and light, with many additional features now being added to make these quiet, restful retreats more and more attractive.
Some of the buildings have spacious open fireplaces built into inviting nooks. Others have closed porches, and all are equipped with fire extinguishers, drinking fountains, and running water.
The interior is one large reading room, with two bedrooms at one end for the library staff, consisting of trained librarians. All shelves are open for inspection, and those of each building contain from ten to twenty thousand volumes.
There is a comfortable seating capacity for about two hundred readers. Library branches are maintained in the barracks, the mess halls, the hospitals, the Y.M.C.A., and the K. of C. buildings.
Each of the sixteen National Army camps has been provided by the commissions on training camp activities with a Liberty Theatre having a seating capacity of three thousand and a stage large enough to accommodate the scenery for a Broadway production.
It is furnished with real footlights, dressing rooms, and scenery sufficient for any ordinary play. Regimental bands appear at every performance in the orchestra pit.
Nine theatres of a smaller type have been completed in the National Guard camps, and others are in the course of construction. The entire sixteen of these camps will be equipped with them.
The size of the National Army cantonment theatre is one hundred and seventy-nine by one hundred and twenty feet. The stage is sixty by thirty-two feet and the floor of the house one hundred and thirty-two by one hundred and twenty feet.
The National Guard camp theatre has a seating capacity of one thousand. The building is sixty by one hundred and twenty feet, and the stage twenty-two by forty feet. The house floor is approximately ninety by sixty feet.
Each theatre has five entrances and fifteen exits and is so constructed as to be quickly emptied in case of fire.
Much of the construction work has been completed by electricians, scene painters, and other expert mechanics who were discovered among the men assigned to the camps.
Chautauqua tents are used for “shows” in the smaller camps, where regular dramatic productions, vaudeville, and movies are provided by the government.
The Hostess House is a large, brown, bungalow-like building set near the entrance to the camp and stands out distinctly against the background of unpainted army houses.
Of the five-million-dollar Y.W.C.A. war fund, one million three hundred and fifty thousand dollars was appropriated as an initial fund in starting work on the Hostess House.
Seventy buildings are in operation. Some of the larger cantonments have two, or even three, where the number of negro troops makes one advisable for colored women.
Women architects have had entire charge of Hostess House plans. While the structures vary somewhat in size and detail according to the demands of the situation, in general, they are similar.
The utmost degree of attractiveness in keeping with camp life has been attained both inside and outside. Each one has a large chimney in the middle of the living room, a restroom for women, out of which opens a fully equipped nursery, and a cafeteria where attractive meals are served.
Interior of the Camp Library at Camp Grant, Rockford, Illinois. GGA Image ID # 13b02511de
The building is electric-lighted and steam-heated, as are also the sun parlors, which usually extend across two sides.
The second floor of the more significant buildings contains not only the bedrooms of the resident hostesses and staff but emergency sleeping quarters for women stranded in camp.
The Y.M.C.A. has been on the ground from the first.
Before the camps were entirely completed, its representatives had their headquarters established in tents. They were ready with a welcome for the incoming recruits. They dispensed information and good cheer. In fact, one of the secretaries accompanied each of the inbound troop trains, going from car to car, addressing the men informally, telling them what the Y.M.C.A. stood for in the camp, and preparing them for the sort of life that would greet them there.
The Camp Library at Camp Lewis, American Lake, Washington. GGA Image ID # 13b067748c
The Navy Young Men’s Christian Association Building at Philadelphia. GGA Image ID # 13b0f6856a
The Y.M.C.A. operates one hundred and seventy-eight army and navy stations at present. At the largest, there are fourteen buildings with an entire staff of secretaries and other officials.
The new standard service, or so-called type "E" Y.M.C.A. building, is an impressive architectural achievement. It is the last word in utility, in an economy of space, material, and money, and in adaptability to a multitude of different uses.
The problem was to find buildings that would be "all things to all men." The demand was for some sort of structure that would simultaneously be home, club, church, schoolhouse, and entertainment center, for the men in the ranks: a place where the whole varied army Y.M.C.A. program could be going on at one time without any phase seriously interfering with another.
There would be facilities for movies, lectures, or religious talks, and where at the same time the man who wanted to write home, buy a stamp or a money order, wrap up a package, borrow a book or a magazine, play a game of checkers or chess, enjoy a chat with his chum, or a heart-to-heart talk with the secretary, could do so.
The type "E" building, with its modification, the type “F” building, in use in National Guard camps, is the solution to the problem. Only a visit to one of these great camp centers can give an adequate idea of how admirably it fulfills its purpose.
The single-story Y.M.C.A. buildings in the camps are easily distinguishable by their dark green coat of stain from the bare and unpainted barracks that flank them. Numerous broad windows in the sides and double dormer windows in the roof flood the interior with sunshine, and doors placed at convenient intervals afford ready access.
Alongside and parallel to the large wing snuggles a smaller one, connected to the larger by a broad passageway.
Once inside the building, it is seen that the more massive wing is the auditorium, the smaller the social hall. In the former are permanent benches. There is a stage at the far end, with a piano on it, and a moving picture screen.
Shelf-desks, for writing, run all around the walls and two extended hinged shelves, one in the middle of each half of the auditorium, are ingeniously fastened to the posts that support the roof and may be raised for writing or lowered when the room is to be used for a gathering.
At the end of the smaller wing farthest from the desk, which is located in the connecting passageway, a colossal stone or brick fireplace lends a cheerful, homelike atmosphere. The ubiquitous shelf-desks on the walls are here, too, on all sides.
Still, the space in the center of the long room is frequently full of comfortable chairs donated by forethoughtful friends. The rocking-chairs that are usually included among gifts from individuals are often the only ones to be found in camp.
Settees and high armchairs also help the soldier to forget for a time how long it has been since he said goodbye to the formerly unappreciated furniture comforts of civilian life.
At the big cantonments, a Y.M.C.A. headquarters building is necessary. From it, the activities in all the centers in any one camp are directed. There the head camp secretary, the camp athletic director, the camp song leader, the camp religious work director, the camp educational secretary, the camp social director, and the other head secretaries have their offices and rooms.
In the Living Room of the Hostess House at Camp Devens. GGA Image ID # 13b1858146
The Liberty Theatre at Camp Taylor, Louisville, Kentucky. GGA Image ID # 13b1beff69
Their building likewise is the acme of convenience and efficient arrangement. It is an elongated two-story structure with the entrance slightly to the right of the middle of the longer side.
This entrance leads into a small lobby where are desks, very welcome heating furnaces for the entire building, chairs, and halls leading to the right and left. Numerous offices for the various camp secretaries, a larger committee room, and storerooms lined with shelves, which are filled with all manner of requisites for camp work open on the two halls.
Across one end of the building is a one-story “lean-to" storeroom for heavier materials and supplies. This place is equipped with scales, trucks, small block and tackle, and the like.
The second floor of the headquarters building is divided lengthwise by a hall that runs from end to end. Doors open into the bedrooms of the secretaries, into a well-filled linen closet, and into the bathroom. The latter is equipped with basins, showerbaths, and other customary fixtures. Every inch of space is skillfully utilized.
Interior of the Hostess House at Camp Lewis. GGA Image ID # 13b2270b1d
In addition to the auditoriums comprising one wing of every type “E” building, a vast central auditorium is being built in each of the large cantonments. This structure measures one hundred and thirty-one by one hundred and six feet and will seat two thousand eight hundred and three men.
Several hundred more can be accommodated in the standing room. This type of building will be used for plays, vaudeville, concerts, lectures, and large religious gatherings.
On Sundays, it will be open to Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish chaplains in turn, and weekdays will find it in almost constant use. The central part is free from all supporting posts and is large enough for two basketball courts.
At one end is a spacious stage. Footlights, spotlights, and scenery facilities have not been overlooked. The auditorium, like the other Y.M.C.A. buildings, is heated by stoves placed on concrete foundations at frequent intervals.
The building known as type "F" is in use in some of the camps and cantonments for serving smaller units instead of the type “E” structure. The “F” building is simply the “E” building with the social hall left off and is used for serving units of less than two thousand men. The auditorium wing is made to serve all the many needs of the soldier.
The total number of Y.M.C.A. buildings either in operation or under construction in the camps and cantonments of this country is somewhat more than four hundred.
Of these, about one hundred and fifty are standard service buildings, and approximately one hundred and twenty-five are of the "F" type. Besides these permanent buildings, one hundred and thirty tents are in use at various points.
Headquarters buildings for each of the thirty-two National Army cantonments and National Guard camps are included in the total, as well as eighteen auditoriums for the National Army, for one embarkation camp, and one Regular Army expansion camp. A standard service building usually costs somewhat less than nine thousand dollars.
Robert H. Moulton “The Social Side of the National Army,” in The Bellman, Volume XXV, No. 631, 17 August 1918, p. 179-184.
