Six men to a room

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Photo above: Row of rooming houses in Radford, VA, 1940. The influx of people was so great during this time that nearly every private home, and even some businesses, served as boarding houses.

As World War Two started in Europe, the US Government built multiple facilities to increase its capacity to manufacture ammunition. Two government-owned, contractor-operated facilities were built on the New River, far from the Atlantic Coast and any threat from attack. The 4,111-acre Radford Ordnance Works made smokeless powder in a bend of the New River. By the end of World War Two, it included 870 buildings.

Then in late 1940 the War Department purchased 45 tracts 12 miles away near the town of Dublin, acquiring 4,000 acres for the New River Ordnance Works. It manufactured the bags to hold the powder, and loaded them into projectiles.

The two facilities were combined in 1945 and renamed Radford Arsenal. 

Source: http://www.virginiaplaces.org/military/radford.html

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