The second World War drove Orange into unprecedented industrial growth as wartime shipbuilding expanded from 1940 onward, drawing thousands of workers with the promise of steady employment after the Great Depression and increasing the city’s population from 7,400 in 1940 to more than 60,000 by the end of the war. To address the resulting severe housing shortage, the federal government began the Riverside Addition Housing Project in 1942 along the Sabine River within walking distance of the shipyards, meeting fuel and tire rationing demands while supporting wartime production. The fan-shaped development soon contained thousands of temporary prefabricated duplexes, expanded further in 1943, and grew into a vast housing area with three elementary schools and local businesses. It was then the largest federal housing project ever undertaken. After the war, many units were sold, moved, or demolished, and Orange never assumed control of the development because of concerns about inadequate infrastructure. The last houses were removed in the 1980s, leaving few physical reminders of a project that had been vital to the home front during World War II.