This broad, flat portion of Griffith Park, later the site of the current Los Angeles Zoo and Interstate 5, began as an airfield for pioneering aviators and later the National Guard before becoming Rodger Young Village. By 1946, veterans housing shortages had reached near-disaster levels and building materials were scarce, so more than 100 acres of the former airfield, already connected to gas, water, and sewer lines, were used for a rapid housing project of Quonset huts. In barely more than two months, about 1,500 huts were assembled and divided into 3,000 homes, rented for $34 a month unfurnished or $40 furnished. Named for Rodger Young, a World War II private who posthumously received the Congressional Medal of Honor after drawing fatal fire so the rest of his cornered platoon could escape, the village was dedicated on April 27, 1946, with several Hollywood celebrities in attendance. Its two aviation hangars were converted into a market, pharmacy, barber shop, hardware store, movie theater, church, elementary school, thrift shop, and other businesses and services, including a popular shop for newborn supplies. The village had many small children and 500 expectant mothers were estimated there in 1946; in its first year, the grammar school enrolled 977 students, far more than Los Feliz Elementary School south of the park. The village was also notable for racial and ethnic diversity greater than that of nearby neighborhoods. Each 80-foot-long, 20-foot-wide hut was split into two dwellings with two bedrooms, one bath, a living room, and a kitchen; furnished units included an icebox, a stove, and surplus military furniture, with a shaded porch and a small strip of lawn in front. Residents often used telephone booths placed about 100 feet apart and worked to make the Quonset huts into homes. The village was officially shut down on March 14, 1954, when the Los Angeles area veterans housing emergency was declared over.