Hi, my name is Rob Spindler. I'm the university archivist for the A SU
library. And today we're going to talk about a SU and the post war period.
And specifically, we're gonna talk about Victory Village. Victory Village
is a storied place that appears in a few books and other articles about
the history of A SU. It was a uh fairly small trailer park that was set up
at the end of World War two in 1946 to provide housing for the influx of
veterans returning from the war and uh wanting to use their G I BILL
benefits, which helped them pay for tuition and other expenses associated
with the college education they were going to receive after they returned.
And so a SU, it was an interesting place in the 19 forties and there were
a lot of transitions and progress. What we're gonna do today is I'm going
to present some research that I did in the archives, the university
archives in the summer of uh 2018.
And so we're going to present information from the evidence that we've
been able to uncover from the archives last summer and we were able to
construct a nice narrative that tells us some of the story of Victory
Village. But there's probably more that we can learn from other sources at
other locations. So let's go in and we'll talk about Victory Village and
the history of A SU during World War two. And just after World War two
in 1939 the Arizona State Teachers College, which is what A SU was known
as in 1939. It was a fairly small institution and it um offered bachelor's
degrees and it had about five. it had 1336
students in 1939. Um This aerial photograph was taken from just above what
is today University Drive looking South. And you can see um old Maine in
the center of the photograph, you can see College Avenue, uh running
through the middle of campus in those days. It was a street that ran
through the middle of campus. Um And then, um off the top, right. Uh You
can see the area where Victory Village was eventually built. Um And so, uh
in 1939 this was a fairly small school offering bachelor's degrees, but
there was a special place that uh was uh the local hangout for most of the
students at a SU. In that time, it was called the Varsity Inn. And uh it
was uh uh uh what we used to call a soda counter or a small restaurant. At
the corner of College Avenue and University Drive. Um, the Varsity Inn was
owned by, named a man named, uh, Varsity Bill Bailey and Varsity Bill
Bailey was really popular on campus. All the students really knew him and
, uh, he was very close to them. You'll see, uh, in, uh, a video recording
we have just to the left of the Varsity and sign is the, um, Arizona State
teachers college football schedule. So, uh, this was the place that you go
before and after the football games and, you know, Varsity Bill would be
in there serving up the hamburgers and, and, uh, sodas. And so he made
friends with a lot of the students. This is important to our story for
Victory Village because in 1942 and 43 we had many, many students, um,
sign up and go to war in World War Two. And they wrote back to Varsity
Bill when they were in Europe when they were in Southeast Asia. And they
remembered him as a friendly face and they were in some ways homesick for
the city of Tempe and the college that they had attended. So they write
back to Varsity Bill and there are a large quantity of letters from these
, uh, servicemen, uh, actually during their service overseas, writing back
to Tempe asking how the weather is asking whether the college is growing,
asking all kinds of interesting things about the local history and, uh,
remembering their friends and teachers from the Arizona State Teachers
College.
So, what we see in the 19 forties is the uh wartime enlistment caused the
enrollment at the Arizona State Teachers College to drop from uh 1336
students to 553
by fall 1945. So during the war time, the school becomes a much smaller
place, there are far fewer students
in 1944.
You know, Bill Bailey is hearing all these le hearing all these stories
from uh the servicemen overseas and he's wanting to serve himself. And so
ultimately, he sells the varsity in and enlists in the United States Navy.
So here we come to the end of the war and early in 1945
A STC president Grady gamut, whose name might be familiar to you uh
anticipated the post-war surge and enrollment that would happen as a
result of the G I bill being considered and pay passed in the United
States Congress. And he began lobbying the um Arizona State Teachers
College Board of Education for the resources they would need to, to be
able to house all these uh new students or returning students coming back
from the war. Um And so he begins this quest to uh find the resources
necessary to be able to accommodate this influx of students. And on August
21st of 1945 which is right about as the fall semester is starting and
there are already veterans returning to a su at this point, Gamage first
writes the Federal Housing Administration at Phoenix requesting 100 and 50
trailers for temporary housing of GIS and their families. Um by August
27th, the National Housing Agency at San Francisco Office responds that a
supply of trailers is available and cites terms for leasing them at a, at
a fee of $1 a year.
Then September 5th Gamage identifies in a memo to the National Housing
Association Regional Construction Advisor. Uh trailers may be available
and located in Arizona Gamage, you know, realized he needed to do some of
his own homework to move this problem along. And he was able to identify
trailers that were in the town of date land. There were 50 there, the
Marana Air Force Base near Tucson had 80. Um the memo sites mesa is having
63 trailers. I'm thinking this might be falcon field which was an air
force training uh facility in Mesa at the city of Tollison on the west
side had 63 trailers and there were six in Patagonia. So Gamage is
identifying the resources that are potentially available, but he needs
permission to be able to use them. And he also needs resources to be able
to install these things with the plumbing and electricity and make them
work
on September 28 of 45. Uh There were actually pieces of legislation that
were entered in the United States House of Representatives and the Senate
with earmarks for this trailer camp that President gamut envisioned. Those
bills were unsuccessful
in October gamut travels to DC to meet with the great Senator Carl Hayden
, um and General Omar Bradley of the Veterans administration to talk about
options for housing the veterans as they're coming home. He's actually not
able to personally meet with either of those individuals. He does meet
with their staff and conveys the urgent need for an infusion of housing
and resources to handle uh the return of all of these veterans in November.
G writes mo best of the Arizona Board of Regents, newly founded Arizona
Board of Regents was established in uh 1940 s that year, 1945 he writes
best with a progress report and indicates uh that a deal for some land
south of Apache Boulevard, uh south of campus was off. Um So things were
not exactly working very well in 1945 trying to get this project started.
Uh He uh in gamut had a meeting with veterans and as a result of that
meeting with the veterans that were on campus in, in the fall of 45 he
requested 25 trailers from Marana for immediate installation for the
married veterans without Children. So there were trailers that were uh uh
used for married veterans without Children. There were other kinds of
housing used for uh veteran families that had Children. Uh In this meeting
, they discussed and President gamu established a rental rate of $12.50 a
month, 1250 a month, uh plus utilities. So the veterans paid for this
housing. Uh and then Gamage begins seeking financing through th a $3000
appropriation of local funds. The school is now called the Arizona uh
State College and uh, or a Plan B which is to get local citizens to
finance this uh uh purchase or, or uh leasing of trailers uh through a
bank.
Um And so in January of 1946 President Gamage is a, actually able to
conclude a contract with the National housing Agency. Um He is able to
acquire 16 family dwelling units and uh dormitory accommodations for 66
single people. Um The dormitory uh accommodations were uh ultimately uh
small uh wooden buildings that had uh four apartments in each row of
buildings. We'll see some photographs of those in a moment. Um uh Excuse
me, the family dwelling units were these four apartment units, the
dormitory accommodations were for uh were actually uh dorm rooms that were
being constructed on the south side of campus.
Um They established uh uh eligibility requirements for the veterans. Uh
eligible tenants were described as distressed families of servicemen and
veterans and their families and single veterans attending educational
institutions. Uh These include families of those continuing to serve in
the war and those who served during the present war, not including those
with dishonorable discharges. So there were certain criteria of whether
you could be eligible for this uh housing that was being uh rebuilt
in 1946. We have a uh a plan uh that was developed by a local architect,
uh Kemper Goodwin who uh also designed several other campus buildings. And
uh in this plan, you can see this row of trailers uh in the top cell of
the plan and the uh very recognizable uh curve from Mill Avenue onto uh uh
Apache Boulevard. This site later becomes the site of construction for the
g Auditorium, which was Frank Lloyd Wright's last design, but before that
, it was basically an open field. And uh so uh they had intend, they
imagined this row of uh trailers um in this design and uh and they
imagined many more trailers that ultimately uh may have come along much
later, we didn't find that evidence in the records.
So in March of 46 President Gambi writes to uh Walter Bim of Valley
National Bank and confirms that 50 trailers have been installed uh In that
first cell we saw in the design a moment ago, you could see that a
financial statement shows that the Valley Bank provided a $15,000 loan.
And other sources suggest that the first National Bank, a different Valley
Bank also made loans and that the alumni association acted as a nonprofit
agent for these transactions. Um They had to have a separate agent uh
apart from the uni from the college in order to do this, um all of the
loans that were made from the banks were paid off within two years and uh
mostly they were paid off from uh the rental fees paid by veterans.
And then, uh Gamage writes, there has been the finest co-operation from
every source on this project. And uh I'd like to uh read a passage from
that memo that I think uh describes the nature of this collaboration. The
uh enabled Victory Village to be constructed. G writes to Walter BMS.
The major item was that of making it possible for us to secure the money
from the Valley Bank. Mr Myers, Mr Whiston, Mr Haas of the Phoenix Chamber
of Commerce cooperated fully Colonel Osborne of Williams Field with army
equipment, did the entire job of moving the trailers. They also did a lot
of the site preparation, uh different groups on the campus made a real
contribution in cleaning the trailers, making curtains and slip covers and
in giving the small touches so helpful in making the situation attractive.
The alumni association have been very helpful and very much interested in
this work. So what you have are a lot of different parties coming together
to help out these veterans and uh make their transition to civilian life
as comfortable as possible while preparing them to be successful at the
Arizona State College. And the photograph we just put up is a, a wonderful
image from a scrapbook, uh, of one of the, um, uh, women's service
organizations on the campus and you'll see, uh, curtains being sewn by one
individual and then, uh, two individuals mopping up the inside of one of
the trailers. Uh, it's one of very few surviving photographs of the
insides of these trailers.
So July 15th, 1946 President Gamage, uh, puts together a status report
regarding this transition, uh, by July 1546 he has 66 dorm units ready for
occupancy. Uh 100 units contracted and allocated for construction, which
means he has the funding and you have the contracts in place to build
another 100 units and then 50 units in the process of contracting. Um This
is uh July 1519 46. So he's got about a month before the beginning of the
of the false uh 46 semester. Uh There, the family units um there are 16, 1
and two bedroom units available by August 1st will be available by August
1st. Um 16 units are converted from the National Youth Administration
building 50 trailers we talked about before uh occupied since Feb February
1st 1946. Um these were probably acquired from the post and Japanese
American interment camp and that's a very different um story that I've
done some research on as well. Um uh And 50 units were contracted and
allocated in 35 units in process. So he's looking at somewhere close to
400 total units to accommodate these veterans and uh many of them in place
, many of them still planned and in progress.
So by 1946 we have this lovely aerial photograph and you can actually see
uh the trailers there and we zoom in a little bit. Uh you can see the row
of trailers and then you'll see these four long structures uh south of the
trailers and those are the uh veterans with family units. Um Each one of
those had four a one or two bedroom apartments in them. So those are the
16 family units and then you have the 50 trailers uh in the middle of the
trailers, you'll see these long sort of whitish rectangular spaces. Those
are laundry facilities.
You have to think of all this stuff and when, when the students come, uh
especially with families, there are a lot of additional needs that need to
be cared for.
So, enrollment changes radically in this period too. Uh So in 1945 you
have five hun we're down to 553 students from 1300 change which we said
before the following year, we're back up to 2180
students. So 394% increase in one year. Uh And then by 1950 as more and
more of the veterans come back, uh We're at 4045 students, massive growth
, very hard to accommodate that when you really need bricks and mortar for
all of these students. The state press reported in September of 46 of 2060
students. Um, 1343 were men and 717 were women. Um, there were 1120
veterans on campus and 777 of them, uh, were their first time students at
the Arizona State College. So there's, uh a massive transition. You have
se over 700 students who had never been there before. Uh You have a 394%
increase in the number of students on campus uh between in one year and uh
the university is really struggling to accommodate uh this influx of
students and to provide them with quality educational services.
So, what was it like to live in Victory Village? Um Here's a great photo
of the, the trailer park portion of it. These were the trailers that were
occupied by um uh either married or unmarried veterans without Children.
And there's 50 of these trailers laid out in this space. Um And you can
see the little uh road, the driveway going down next to a um So to really
understand what it was like in Victory Village, uh I wanna turn to another
passage I'll read for you. Uh That was written by uh the founding
university, university archivist Alfred Thomas in 1960
Alfred Thomas was actually in 1946 the uh university registrar. So he was
uh one of the people really under the gun. But he had AAA personal
experience walking through Victory Village when it existed. So he, he
writes in 1960 to go into Victory Village at night was to stumble over
Velocipedes and baby buggies and step on squeaking toys to be beheaded by
clothes lines, blinded by study lamps. And to get lost in eccentric
streets. To go There in daytime was to find G I wives laundering and
shopping cooperatively babysitting each other's offspring. Many of the
wives actually attended classes and pooling their scanty funds when
government checks were late. Really wonderful description.
So here are the barracks. Uh These are the small barracks buildings with
the one and two bedroom apartments. Um You can see all the uh you know,
they, they have to have electricity, all the wiring that was done. Uh At
this point it looks like pretty temporary installation.
Another view of the actual trailers.
And yes, they, they did laundry, they had Children and diapers and laundry
and all of the things that you would expect families to do were
accommodated in Victory Village.
I love this, this photograph. It's just great. Um And you know, again, you
know, many of the wives took classes, some of them didn't, they had to
work together to care for the kids while the wives were in classes or out
shopping or doing other things. And so uh it it, it did literally take a
village uh here at Arizona State College in 1946.
So as uh the uh veterans came back with their families and, and ultimately
became students and tenants, they began to have some concerns that they
wanted to express to the university administration and, and they organized
in different ways. So there was a Victory Village Wives Council that was
established as early as October 1946. Here are the three officers uh from
the Wives Council and they began to take interest in living conditions at
these facilities.
There was an organization called the Ari of Vets, uh composed from
veterans from all of the branches of the armed services and they sponsored
a basketball team in the Phoenix Metropolitan League.
So the tenants and they organized, they began to talk to the university
about things that they wanted in in this housing. Um And January 2nd, 1947
Norma Burhans uh executive council member at Victory Village number 18,
wrote g about hot water issues in the various units. Um In Fe February
14th, 1947 a resident inquired about the absence of swamp coolers or air
conditioning during the summer months and it turned out they did not
resolve this in 1947. So the veterans lived in 1946 and 1947 in non air
conditioned facilities uh during the summer. Uh they did install swamp
coolers in 1948. Uh to resolve some of that. But uh you know, again, it's
back to the days when there was no air conditioning. Uh and there's a long
history of not having air conditioning in Phoenix. Um personal belongings
insurance was, was not provided by the university. This suggests that
there may have been some issues with crime um that the tenants were asking
about insurance and then mail service had to be uh reestablished and they
had rural route, mail service to the Palm Grove apartments, which is where
the dorms, some of the dorms were that was due to start March 1st uh in 47.
So, you know, like so many things at a su we, we, we scrambled to build
to accommodate the demand for education. And um so we're, we're very good
at putting things together quickly, but then there's a lot of details, a
lot of issues that come up after we get things open and running and that's
what you're really seeing here is the the tenants uh giving that feedback
and helping improve the conditions and the things they didn't think of the
first time.
And then uh finally, uh in 1951 the Arizona Republic um does this very
interesting uh little series of articles called Mr and Miss Mr and Mrs Joe
College. And the, the focus of the article, the intent of the article was
to talk about a different kind of student that was now emerging and
becoming an important part of the university experience. We have returning
military veterans, anxious to learn, anxious to transact, transition back
to civilian life, um, and attending college with their families. And so,
uh, the, this was very, very different from the traditional college
student who is the son or daughter and comes in by themselves, moves into
a dorm, uh, or gets an apartment in the area. Now, they had to think about
how do we make it a good place for families. And so this is really
interesting group of, of, uh, news articles and I have a few news clips
here from that to give you a sense of how the newspaper media portrayed
this new kind of college student that was born as a result of the G I Bill.
And that's basically what I have for you today. I hope you've learned a
few things about the post-war transitions at the Arizona State College. Uh
, and, uh, the many changes that have occurred over the years at Arizona
State University. Thank you very much.