Maison du Patrimoine et des Cités Provisoires

Description

These prefabricated wooden frame delivered in elements to be assembled by the American army, housed thousands of GI’s waiting to return to the United States, at the end of the war. The Gonfreville-Orcher plateau was one of the largest transit camps for the repatriation of American troops. Called “Camp Philip Morris”, it could accommodate up to 35,000 soldiers simultaneously. One of the barracks now restored invites you to plunge back into the period of the famous cigarette camps.

Once the soldiers left, these barracks provided accommodation for some 600 local families who had lost everything during the bombing. True pieces of life from this transitional period during the reconstruction of the city of Le Havre and its surroundings, these makeshift dwellings were occupied until the 1970s. It is to maintain the memory of this period of local life that the city and the Gonfrevillaise des Cités Provisoires (AGCP) restored a second barracks.