The Quonset Hut Motel near Colfax

The Quonset Hut Motel just outside of Colfax was built right after WWII when war surplus Quonset Huts were made available to the public. They became quite popular for all sorts of buildings as they could be gotten fairly cheap and were quite portable, as the photo below shows.

Quonset Hut being installed in Japan just after the end of WWII.

Quonset is a name for a small town in Rhode Island, where the military manufactured the huts for the WWII war effort. . Quonset is an Algonquian word meaning "small, long place."

Over the years, Quonset Huts were used for many different types of business and even as homes. In this case, a motel was developed, taking advantage of the huts. The photo at the top of the post looks to be just before the later one taken below. The large Quonset in the first photo seems to be missing in the bottom photo, though the rock chimneys seem to be standing.

A different view of the Quonset Hut Motel. Photo: Donner Summit Historical Society, Norm Sayler Collection.

Map of the site. Click the map for a closer view.

Today there is only one Quonset Hut left. The site can be visited by heading north from Colfax on Highway 174. Interestingly, the Lincoln Highway, 1913 to 1927, took a course where the owner eventually placed the Quonset Huts. You can see the route on the bottom map. During the motel's existence, the newer Highway 40 passed straight in front of the site.

Quonset Hut Motel site today on Highway 174, Colfax.

Colfax, Placer County, 1870s

This is a fabulous photo from the Placer County Museums showing a portion of the business district of Colfax taken in the 1870s, during the town's heyday.

Wimpy's Fireplace

This building still stands along California route 174, which is the old Highway 40, and before that the Lincoln Highway. just north of Colfax. It's an unusual shape for a house, so when I came upon this photograph, it helped to identify what it was. Wimpy's Fireplace served food during the era of Highway 40 before Interstate 80 bypassed this area.

This place is just past the site of the Quonset Hut motel, so it may well have been the place to get grub when staying the night in your Quonset hut. Notice how the building doesn't face the road straight on. The road used to pass right in front of the building and up the small hill.

Does anyone have more information about Wimpy's Fireplace?

Today’s view.

Location.

Highway 40 bridge construction, Colfax, 1938

This 1938 photo shows the construction for Highway 40 overpass that crosses the Union Pacific Railroad line, just north of downtown Colfax. In 1963 the State renamed this section Route 174, which took traffic away from the downtown run the Lincoln Highway had made and allowed traffic to skirt the downtown area and proceed more quickly to Grass Valley and beyond.

Map of area.

The above map shows the Lincoln Highway route, in purple, and the site of the Highway 40 bridge. The Quonset huts were a motel made from a series of surplus Quonset huts leftover from WWII. Here is a link to an article about the motel.

Photo: Donner Summit Historical Society, Norm Sayler collection.

Lets stay in a Quonset hut tonight!

Driving the old roads like the Lincoln Highway or Highway 40, you come upon the early rest stops and motor lodges that once lined the highways. Back in the day, people had to stop more frequently on their travels. Your auto might need to have it's radiator filled, gasoline topped off, or oil added. Most stops would have food available, and some even had rooms to rent for the night. Early motor lodges and motels were seen frequently in all the small towns along the way as people didn't travel as far each day.

Just outside of Colfax, along old Highway 40 and Lincoln Highway (today's Highway 174), one could cozy up to their very own Quonset hut, complete with stone fireplace, at the Quonset Village Motel. Quonset huts were quite popular just after World War II when the Army sold their excess war supplies, including these huts. We capitalize Quonset as it's Quonset Point, Rhode Island, where the huts were built.

The view today. One Quonset hut is still standing, and all the stone fireplaces are lined up in front of their long-gone huts. Click the above photo to control the view.