Camp Endicott was a

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

Seabee , colors = , mascot = Bumblebee , battles = Guadalcanal, Bougainville, Cape Gloucester, Los Negros, Guam, Peleliu, Tarawa, Kwajalein, Saipan, Tinian, Iwo Jima, Philippin ...

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. The population was 27,732 in the 2020 census. North Kingstown is home to the birthplace of American portraitist Gilbe ...

. 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 United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1978.

History

The vast training camp built at

Davisville, Rhode Island Davisville, Rhode Island is a village in the town of North Kingstown in the U.S. state of Rhode Island that was formerly the home of the Davisville Naval Construction Battalion Center, which housed the United States Navy's SeaBees. Village descr ...

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, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. During the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

, 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 repair. ...

, 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 having a semi cylindrical cross-section. The design was developed in the United States, based on the Nissen hut introduced by the British during World War ...

. 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

History

See also

References

External links