Quoddy Village

Hydro Power

In 1935, a village was constructed in Eastport to house 5,000 workers for the outrageous Passamaquoddy Bay Tidal Power Project – also known as the Quoddy Hydro Project. This was an FDR-championed public works project which was intended to produce electricity by harnessing the extreme tides in the Bay of Fundy. I’ll be writing a Tale about the project.

The village was called Quoddy Village and was built 3 miles from downtown Eastport on a 232 acre plot of land. Funding for the hydro project was stopped after just one year and the entire project was abruptly shut down. But the government didn’t want to waste this newly established village. So they simply repurposed it – a few times.

Today

When I visited Quoddy Village in late September, 2024, I didn’t recognize much from the old photos of the village that I had seen online. I did see the old drill hall that the city is still using. A fellow named Bruce Bean wrote a post in 2017 and included photos of old Quoddy buildings that either have been destroyed in the 7 years since, or that I simply did not see in my drive around the area. I did find an article that said the Navy barracks building was lost in a fire in November, 2017. The old photos show a village with new construction, very few trees, and views out to the bay. What I found in 2024 were mostly modest, modern homes surrounded by trees. There is a monument and plaque to the fallen Seabees by the entrance. So if you happen to visit, you may need to dig deeper (and/or find a local guide) who can show you more of what remains from the old village.

A Village is Born

In 1935, construction began on Quoddy Village. It started with a parade and fireworks in Eastport to celebrate the beginning of the project. Then the Army Corp of Engineers arrived and quickly built an entire village located about 3 miles outside of downtown Eastport.

The engineers built 128 homes, roads, a church, movie theater, hospital, and a school. Thousands of construction workers and their families moved into the new homes and began construction of the dams, train tracks, and facilities needed for the hydro power generation.

The Hydro Project Dies

In the August of 1936, just a year after construction began, Congress voted to cut off all funding for the project. Work abruptly stopped, and the engineers tore down the dams, power generation facilities, and tore up the train tracks. But they left Quoddy Village standing.

The cancellation of the Quoddy Project left the town of Eastport in a very bad spot. So bad that in 1937, the town of Eastport declared bankruptcy.

So now Quoddy was just a remote village with no inhabitants. But the Government didn’t want to just let this new investment go to waste and allow the village to deteriorate. So they brainstormed ways to utilize it. Enter the WPA.

Youth Training during the Depression

In 1937, Quoddy Village was turned over to the National Youth Administration (NYA). The NYA was established by FDR in 1935 as part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The intent of the NYA was to provide work and education to youths from 16-25 who were having trouble finding employment during the Great Depression. By the time the NYA was shut down in 1944, it had helped over 4.5 million youths.

From 1937 to 1944, the “Quoddy Regional Project” as it was called, took in hundreds of needy New England and New York boys that were selected by local committees. The NYA transported the boys to Eastport where, for a minimum of 5 months (two 11 week periods), participants were housed, trained and evaluated by staff. They were referred to as “Junior Workers” and were paid $13/month.

When they arrived, they were given various tests including physical and mental exams, as well as tests of their knowledge, ability, and competencies. They were put up in two dorms, 2 boys to a room.

Although the primary goal was to provide vocational training so they could get hired, they were also tutored in Math, English, and Citizenship. Boys went to dances and movies, played sports, published a newspaper called the Quoddy Eagle, elected a Mayor and Council. The Project also provided medical and performed procedures, including circumcisions!, tonsillectomies, and hernia repair in their 20 unit hospital. Dental care was coordinated with local dentists and corrective glasses were provided as needed. They at 3 healthy meals per day and it was noted that there was:

“an almost immediate gain in weight on the part of the great majority of junior personnel”

Training groups ranged in size from 150-500 boys. Supervisors and foreman were hired to instruct, test, and oversee the groups. Some boys who showed special aptitude (about 10%) returned as part of the next group as “Junior Supervisors.” Those boys received $18/month ($5/month raise over the Junior Worker wage).

The work the boys did was real – not made up for the project. Based on their arrival testing, each boy was assigned to a specific trade unit for 11 weeks of training. Training was provided in Aviation, Carpentry, Culinary, Clerical, Drafting and Planning, Electrical, Automotive, Landscaping, Machine Shop, Mapmaking, Medical, Painting, Plumbing, Radio, Recreation, Sheet Metal, Warehouse, and Woodworking. In addition to maintaining the village as part of the training, some of the units performed work for other agencies – especially ones related to aviation and mapmaking.

After 3 weeks of training, each boy was evaluated to make sure they were performing well and suited for the trade unit they were in. Those that weren’t succeeding in their assigned unit were reassigned to another unit. After 11 total weeks in a unit, each boy was reassigned to another unit to learn a second trade.

Wartime Changes the Village

By 1941, with World War II in full swing, the training at Quoddy was modified. Instead of giving the boys 2 11 week periods to learn the basics of two trades, they instead provided training for 8 weeks, then the boys were assigned to specialized training for up to a year. The specialized training was intended to train the boys to specifically help in the war efforts, with a focus on aviation, machining, and metal work.

In 1941, Eleanor Roosevelt visited Quoddy Village. She took a ferry from her home on Campobello Island, then took a taxi to the Village. She was “impressed by the excellence of the work shops and by the tremendous interest which the boys show in the work they are doing in aviation mechanics and the regular machine shops.” She furthered:

“I think the NYA project at Quoddy is a very valuable project, for it seems to be turning out good men.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

She also commented on the “extraordinarily good” gliders that the boys were making and noted that they were building a landing strip nearby. That airport is still in use today.

Quoddy Goes Co-Ed

The success of the war-focused training of boys at Quoddy inspired the NYA to expand to the training of young women, ages 16-24. So in February, 1943, the first group of girls arrived at Quoddy Village. Just like with the boys, it provided free transportation to Quoddy, lodging, and training. Pay was slightly less for the girls at $10.80/month. Training was to be from 10 weeks to 3 months in length and they would receive free transportation home upon successful completion of the program. Training would be focused on aviation and repair, and the most successful would be selected to train on aviation instrumentation. Additional training on radio, drafting, sheet metal, machine shop, and welding was offered.

The Village Closes Again

As World War II progressed, the U.S. war industry was in full production and hiring loads of workers. It was determined that the NYA really wasn’t needed any more because work opportunities were so abundant for young men. The NYA was shut down. Within three weeks, Quoddy Village was abandoned again. I couldn’t find exactly when the NYA training was shut down, but it must have been Summer of 1943. So the group of girls that arrived in February, 1943 may have been the last training group.

Enter the Seabees

So again, not wanting to leave the Village empty, the Government assigned ownership of Quoddy Village to the U.S. Navy in September, 1943 to establish a Seabee training facility. It was renamed Camp Lee-Stephenson, after the first two Seabees to die during the War in the Pacific, in a Japanese air raid at Rendova Island in the Solomons.

Navy Seabees are formally known as the United States Naval Construction Battalions (Seabees comes from Construction Battallion – CB). Seabees are the Navy’s construction force and were established in 1942. Seabees build bases, airfields, roads, bridges, and other support facilities. Seabees also feature in the musical South Pacific.

So Quoddy Village, with its houses, dorms, dining hall, etc. was transformed into a Naval Seabee base and 1,300 Seabees promptly moved in. They renamed all of the streets after Seabees that had died with Lee and Stevenson. They also built additional buildings, including the 600 foot long drill hall that still stands today.

Thousands more Seabees moved into the camp over the next few months and the place was (pun-intending) buzzing.

Tear Up the Town

The community was asked to step up and support the Seabees so the Elks building in Eastport was converted into a USO center and the Methodist Church in Calais was converted in a Service Building.

Nearby was RCAF/RAF Base Pennfield in New Brunswick. So the flyers stationed there, along with the newly arrived Seabees, would regularly converge on Calais to spend some money and get some sometimes raucous R&R. It was reported that the Gem restaurant in Calais was so overwhelmed by hungry Seabees that they had to close for two weeks to allow their staff to “recover from exhaustion.” The Navy had to assign more buses to the camp to transport Seabees to and from Calais.

Tuesday night dances were organized by the USO and held in the Calais gymnasium and were well-attended. A Christmas dance was held at the Camp and girls and their chaperones were “brought in” to dance with the young men.

While the USO tried to provide safe, controlled, and family-friendly entertainment for the Navy boys, they were young and it was wartime. So they easily found other ways to blow off steam that often included booze and fights – sometimes with the Canadian flyers, and sometimes among themselves. Here is an account from the Sept 27, 1944 Calais Advertiser:

“A hot argument between a half-dozen Seabees in a North Street house resulted in a brawl during which the boys took free swings at one another with bottles. When the fracs was over the boys were pretty well cut up, with three of them so seriously hurt they had to be removed in an ambulance. One had his nose and jaw broken, one suffered an ugly scalp wound and a third a possible fracture in addition to a severe gash across the forehead. Three women in the house were not cut but roughed up considerably. Three rooms were wrecked and there was blood everywhere. The participants were taken into custody by the Shore Patrol.”

Sleepy Calais was overrun amd overwhelmed. Wives of Seabees visiting their husbands had trouble finding rooms and Calais even had to convert the unused Opera House to a dormitory so that the booze-filled Seabees could sleep somewhere if they were unable to make it back to base.

The Navy Leaves Quoddy

Almost as quickly as they arrived, they left. The last Seabee battalion pulled out of Camp Lee-Stephenson in October 1944, just over a year after the Camp was established. I’m sure Eastport and Calais were both sad and relieved.

Post-War Attempts

Next up for Quoddy Village was an August 1947 plan put forth by an entrepreneur from New York named Frank Cohen. The Quoddy Village Displaced Persons Project, also known as the Quoddy Village proposal, was intended to bring 25,000 displaced Jewish persons and families from war-torn Europe to Quoddy. At Quoddy, they would receive vocational training and would assemble farm machinery, light trucks and tractors. These people would then be sent with the machinery to South American countries.

The problem was that Cohen needed the Navy to sell the Village to Eastport at the “public benefit allowance rate” which would also make it tax-exempt. They needed the War Assets Administration to classify the proposed project as an educational and public welfare project, thus entitling them to the near free selling price. Senator Owen Brewster supported the plan.

This project certainly would have put quite a burden on the city because they would have to provide services to the village including extra police, fire, medical, education, and public works facilities and personnel. But in spite of these obstacles, the city of Eastport was firmly behind the plan, seeing the project as a humanitarian and economic opportunity.

The Navy wanted real money for the village, upwards of $300,000 and wasn’t willing to budge. Cohen made several under-market offers for the property, but was denied each time.

By all accounts, Cohen was indeed a philanthropist, interested in helping displaced Jews. But he was also a successful businessman who delivered $1,000,000 worth of guns, gun mounts, recoils and tank armor to the British every month during the war. Cohen was hoping to use these now-trained folks in the companies he owned in South America. He even offered all of his assets as bonds for temporary transit vias to be issued to the Jewish DPs. He got quite a bit of public pushback during the summer of 1947 and the project was often mentioned in the newspapers. The NY Times published an article saying that some opponents were accusing Cohen of wanting to bring DPs over so he could use them as unpaid “slave labor.” In any case, his plan fell flat when the government refused to budge.

The War Assets Administration did receive other bids for the village including proposals to create an all-boys school, a fishing and packing company, and shoe factory.

One interesting bid also involved displaced people. It proposed to use Quoddy as a campus for Baltic DP University.

After World War II ended, Eastern Europe was in shambles, especially the Baltic area including Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. Camps in Germany were full of displaced persons from these countries. A group of Baltic professors from who were living in the displaced person camps in Hamburg (under British control) recognized that many of their fellow refugees simply had no hope for the future and couldn’t go home. They decided to open up a “university” to educate motivated folks in March 1946. The university operated for three years and educated hundreds of students from all three countries.

The Baltic University bid was also rejected by the War Assets Administration.

What’s in the Village Today

I was unable to find much information about what happened after 1947. It looks like some of the buildings, including the drill hall, are owned by Eastport and the homes became privately owned. Along the southern shore, there is Rossport by the Sea, which is a complex offering lodging and retreats.