The Old Hickory Powder Plant, if the conclusion of the war had not prevented its completion, would have given employment to 25,000 men. In that remote location it was necessary to construct not merely the plant but houses in which these workmen with their families would live. In short, it was necessary to build the physical part of the city of something like 100,000 population. Not merely must residences and other buildings be constructed, but they must be provided with water, lights, sewerage, sidewalks, streets, all of the conveniences of a modern city, and the whole gigantic task must be carried to completion in the shortest possible time.

Mason & Hanger Company built a city of 2,500 buildings to house and care for the workers in the plant. An adequate idea of the completeness of this preparation can be best given by listing the number and kinds of houses constructed:

In addition to the buildings above listed, other miscellaneous structures were erected such as boiler houses, commissary in the Mexican Village, pay check booths, pay check banks, pay booths, stables, where hundreds of horses and mules were sheltered, employment barracks, employment receiving houses, and outhouses for workmen, of which about 1,200 were built, sheds, etc. The majority of the buildings above referred to were located in the Camp and Village Area, but the Mason & Hanger Company also erected a number of the plant buildings, located in the Plant Area, such as air dry houses, solvent recovery houses, change houses, shipping houses, office of mechanical department, etc. The buildings last mentioned in the plant area were all heavy frame structures lined with galvanized iron, and many of them had concrete foundations while the buildings in the village were all frame structures, built of number one yellow pine, with the exception of a few which were built of brick.
On November 18, 1918, when the work in the village was virtually at a standstill, on account of the signing of the Armistice on the 11th, about 85,030,031 board feet of lumber, wall board and Cronolite had been laid in the village at the average rate of 277 board feet per carpenter, which performance established a world's record, when considering the many types of houses erected, all of which were of a substantial character, while many of them had claims to pretentiousness. And on the day above mentioned, the erection of the buildings in the camp and village area was 99.81 per cent completed and only about 165,360 board feet of lumber were required to be erected in order fully to complete all the structures which had been authorized.
But between September 10 and September 13, both inclusive, when a special drive was made to see how much could be accomplished in a day in the matter of house erection, was there a record made which perhaps will never be equaled again, as indicated by the following figures: