Camp Reynolds was a World War II Army Camp from 1942 to 1946. Its original name was Shenango Personnel Replacement Depot (commonly referred to as Camp Shenango). On September 21, 1943, it was renamed Camp Reynolds after PA Civil War hero Major General John Fulton Reynolds who was killed on July 1, the first day of the battle of Gettysburg. The camp was located in Pymatuning & Delaware Township in Mercer County, PA.
In 1994, the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission placed a historical marker there to note the historic importance of the location.
History
On June 24, 1942, the United States Department of War announced the authorization and award of contracts totaling more than $3,000,000 for construction of a military installation near Shenango, Pennsylvania to receive, process, and forward both officers and enlisted men for service during World War II. Acquisition of land in Pymatuning Township, Mercer County, Pennsylvania, began almost immediately with cooperative landowners from a total of 26 farms paid an average of $70 per acre for their potato fields. The first parcel of 57 acres was purchased for $40,500 and included space for warehouses. An additional 114 acres were then acquired at a cost of $10,252. By the time land procurement ended in November 1942, 3,300 acres had been acquired at a total cost of $182,000.
Initially, military leaders determined that time spent at the camp by individual members of the military would depend on the demand for replacements and each serviceman's branch of operations. Ultimately, more than a million troops passed through the camp on their way to East Coast ports of embarkation and the war's European theater of operations.
Construction phase
Upon receiving their contract awards, Gannett, Eastman, Fleming of Harrisburg, and Mellon-Stuart Construction Co. of Pittsburgh designed and built the encampment to last just three years, but also to be unlike any other military depot at the time. Upon completion, it would include barracks for 30,000 troops, chapels, dayrooms, fire stations and hundreds of fire hydrants, guest quarters, gymnasiums and three obstacle courses, a 100-bed hospital, latrines, libraries, mess halls, motor pool, post exchanges, rifle range, service clubs, theaters, and warehouses. The base would also be equipped with its own infrastructure, including more than 100 miles of electric lines, 25 miles of paved roads, 22 miles of water lines, two 250,000-gallon water tanks (painted in a large red-and white checker pattern and situated at the southern end of the encampment), a sewage treatment plant, 18 miles of sewer lines, and a waste disposal facility.
Civil Service examiners began taking applications for immediate employment hires. The project then ramped up quickly as thousands of engineers and construction workers arrived and 4,200 men employed by the main contractors and 24 subcontractors began working 10-hour days and six-day weeks after ground for the first supply building was broken near the overhead highway bridge on Route 18 on July 8. In short order, the War Department ordered the expansion of the camp's battalion area to accommodate an additional 30,000 troops, followed by a subsequent expansion of the camp's housing capacity to 90,000 troops.
Although trailer camps were established to handle the sudden influx of workers and their families, housing facilities were limited. As a result, Greenville's population increased by 60 percent - from 8,149 in 1940 to 13,015 in 1943 (or higher, according to Mellon-Stuart records which showed a workforce high of 16,500 at one point).
Although the final project cost for construction of the entire camp complex was never officially announced, one figure revealed that just one segment of the project (10 dormitory units erected on the west side of Route 18 to provide housing for 180 families) cost $624,466. The cost for the entire camp complex was reported to have topped $19,000,000. Post-war, the ten dormitory units to the west of Route 18 were converted into a county-owned housing project (known today as Fay Terrace) while the 250,000-gallon, red and white water tanks continued to supply water to the area for many years, and helped contribute to the area's housing growth during the 1950s.