Audio Tour Stop 14
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The Lynch family came from northern Missouri during the initial construction period of Fort Leonard Wood. P. R. Lynch, the patriarch, was looking for employment or business opportunity in the local boom. Shelter of any kind was extremely scarce. He housed the family in a tent along the shoulder of Route 66. Pictured here are two of the three sons, Al (left) and Vic. |
| The Lynch family points out that, while many families have a picture of their first house, they have a picture of their first bathroom in Pulaski County. The "Eleanor," as government built outhouses were dubbed during the Depression and nicknamed for Eleanor Roosevelt, was built for the family by the WPA. |  |
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P. R. Lynch certainly was an entrepreneur. Realizing the housing shortage was a business opportunity, he bought a truckload of doors, fastened them together, set small trees for posts, and scavenged lumber for roof trusses. He covered this structure with canvas and filled it with used furniture and a King Heater or two. The Bunk House, as it was called, could sleep forty men. When the construction boom was over, P. R. dismantled the Bunk House and sold the used furniture, leading the family into the furnishings business. |