The storage and maintenance of farm vehicles and equipment is another important farm function. In the early twentieth century, these functions could be fulfilled with a small garage for an automobile or farm truck along with a central barn driveway to store the tractor. But as the size and variety of farm equipment increased, larger storage structures were needed. Quonsets were added to many farms in the mid twentieth century as a place to store and maintain equipment. As machinery has outgrown the Quonsets farmers have added large, pre-fabricated metal sheds to the farmstead.
Farmers often installed their own gas tanks on the farm to fuel their equipment. Scale houses were constructed so that loads of grain and livestock could be weighed on the farm.
Quonset:
The Quonset was developed during World War II. A lightweight, prefabricated structure, it could be easily shipped and erected without skilled labor. Constructed of corrugated galvanized steel, the buildings had a semicircular cross section. The support-free, open plan interior space was easily adaptable to a wide range of uses. After the war, the Quonset type was quickly adopted by farmers as all-purpose farm buildings. They were most often used as machine storage and workshop buildings, though they could also be adapted to grain storage. Quonsets in Phillips County include both those order pre-fabricated and shipped to farms in pieces as well as locally produced exampled. Interior support structures include wood as well as steel framing. Exterior coverings include steel and aluminum.
