irwinleighton

Cantonment, Wrightstown, N.J. (LOC)

from The Library of Congress

• Art Siegel said:

  Irwin & Leighton, which built the camp (now Fort Dix), is still in business. This from their website: "THE UNITED STATES ARMY CANTONMENT AT CAMP DIX The Camp Dix project, although one of Irwin & Leighton’s earliest, stands even today as one of its most meaningful because of the signifi cance and importance of the project to the World War I effort, and the speed in which it was built. Irwin & Leighton was chosen to build the Cantonment at Camp Dix when the site’s installment began in 1917. The initial project was required to be completed under a very aggressive time schedule to meet the impending demands of World War I. To do this, Irwin & Leighton directly employed and/or coordinated the efforts of hundreds of workers who, in accordance with the custom of the day, arrived at work in shirt and tie, changed into work clothes and changed again to go home. Irwin & Leighton established an onsite Employment Offi ce where seventeen clerks screened applicants who arrived by train and motor car. A fl eet of autos was required to make the weekly commutes to the Philadelphia National Bank for the workers’ payroll. The project started in July of 1917, in farm fi elds. The scope involved ten sections of multiple barracks and support buildings as well as extensive infrastructure work. In less than sixty days, the entire project was substantially complete. In that time, Irwin & Leighton used forty million board feet of lumber, which was brought to the site by rail and erected in production fashion. When the company hit stride, it was completing one barrack per day. Irwin & Leighton’s onsite superintendent was E. M. Campbell. The company further organized the project with “Heads of Departments” for survey, concrete, carpentry, sheet metal, plumbing, electrical, road construction, water and sewers, a pumping station, etc. The 31,000 acre complex is located inside the Pineland National Reserve in Central New Jersey, and was named for Major General John Adams Dix, a veteran of the War of 1812 and the Civil War. Used as a staging ground and training area for units during World War I, it was made a permanent Army post in 1939 and was renamed as Fort Dix." www.irwinleighton.com/images/IL100Years C2.pdf