All Purpose Shop

All Purpose Shop. Lewistown Satellite Airfield Historic District. During World War II, the Army Corps of Engineers built almost 1,300 airfields. These rapidly constructed facilities followed standardized plans, all of which included an All Purpose Shop. The unassuming one-story buildings served as the bases' much-needed maintenance centers. In Lewistown, as at other satellite airfields, flimsy construction material, quick assembly, and heavy use made for a busy maintenance crew. As "all purpose" as the shop that served as their headquarters, the crew built shelves, tables, and benches and fixed broken toilets and broken windows. They efficiently repaired damage to the airfield's buildings, whether caused by weather or by the hundreds of men who temporarily made their home here. As the military undoubtedly anticipated, the young, reckless airmen were not the most careful of tenants. Among other equipment, the shop housed table saws, drill presses, and hand tools for woodworking. During Lewistown's notoriously harsh winters, the crew relied on two coal-burning stoves to warm their workshop, whose single-pane windows and uninsulated lathe and tarpaper walls did little to retain the heat.