What time period did metal corrugated buildings come into common usage? One example being the Rix Products Pike Stuff “modern metal buildings”.
Also when did the standard for distribution warehouses become the tilt up concrete walled type structures ?
if it matters by location I’m asking about Texas and the south western US. I would be curious if the answer differs by region of the country. Thanks.
I’d say after World War 2. There were a lot of quonset huts sold as surplus and repurposed for any number of things.
In the 1950s a lot of industrial construction was done with concrete blocks. The first steel buildings I remember aside from corrugated grain bins, etc, were the Armco Steel building “kits” from the mid 60s. By the early 70s everyone was building them because they were relatively quick and inexpensive. You just had to put in the footings and the slab and you were on your way. I’d hazard a guess that most farm machine sheds are these steel building kits nowadays.
The same principle is true with the modern warehouses. The concrete slabs go up quickly; however, the individual slabs must be supported until the entire shell is completed or they’ll collapse. Once built the slab warehouses are quite strong. It is also interesting to note that a lot of manufacturing facilities use this same construction, so your slab warehouse can host a variety of functions. The only drawback for modelers is that they all look very similar. Incidentally, the floor isn’t poured until the shell is up and the roof is installed.
(edit) I don’t remember seeing much of the slab warehouses before the 1990s. Now, they’re all over the place.
I seem to recall that in general conversation a reference to any metal building it was refered to as a ‘Butler’ building.
https://www.butlersteelbuildings.com/
They started out in 1901 and have been prevalent in the design and construction of many pre-fab steel buildings.
As far as ‘tip-up’ (tilt-up) buildings go I think these are the results of developments in pre-stressed concrete. I know of a building that was constructed during WWII and it used precast concrete roof panels.
Tilt up construction explained here:
https://www.korteco.com/construction-industry-articles/basics-tilt-construction/
Thomas Edison had dabbled in building cast concrete houses and at least the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western and the New Haven both designed and built cast concrete signal towers.
170623_50_tobyhanna by lmyers83, on Flickr
Good Luck, Ed
Concrete and steel commercial buildings was a death nell of the red brick, stone block and wooden buildings. Quick and easy replaced craft and style. What a shame.
Pete.
The Lackawanna ran just north of the “Cement Belt” in the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton area. The Lackawanna Cutoff was the first major use of concrete in the US.
"The Lackawanna Cut-Off (also known as the New Jersey Cut-Off, the Hopatcong-Slateford Cut-Off and the Blairstown Cut-Off) was a rail line built by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad (DL&W). Constructed from 1908 to 1911, the line was part of a 396-mile (637 km)
Just South of Adele, Georgia on Interstate 75 there is a huge abandoned industrial complex.
It was built to manufacture pre-fabricated cast concrete houses that would be hurricane proof. The investors thought this would become all the rage in Florida and coastal areas.
The walls are not the weak part in storms. No one bought any, and now Georgia has a rotting eyesore right on the main N/S thoughway.
-Kevin
My guess would be the early 1900s, as the steel mills in nearby Hamilton, Ontario still have lots of them left, or nowadays, being razed.
Wayne
There can be a gap between when some new innovation is introduced, and when it became common. I don’t doubt that steel buildings were first made in the early 1900s, but I don’t think they were common until much later. I do know that Vernon Smith in his book “One Man’s Locomotives” noted that when he began his railroad career working for a Minnesota ore mining operation in the 1920s, their buildings were all corrugated steel because the company (like many iron mining companys and several railroads) were owned by US Steel.
Yeah it’s helpful to know both when something was introduced as well as when it became common.
Those butler buildings are exactly what I had in mind and appears to be what that model I mentioned in OP was based on.