In 1943, as war raged in Europe and the Pacific, hundreds of civilian workers came to Layton to support the war effort at Hill Field and the Naval Supply Depot, and many found housing in Verdeland Park, a federal public housing project built on an eighty-five acre parcel purchased for temporary homes. Between January 1942 and January 1943, four hundred barrack-type buildings were assembled on land that is now part of Layton Commons Park and the site of Layton High School, and Verdeland Park was officially dedicated on December 20, 1943, with national and local housing officials participating. The prefabricated plywood units, painted pink, peach, gray, or olive green, had small front porches, hardwood floors, a living room, kitchen, pantry, bathroom, and from one to three bedrooms, with rents ranging from $21.50 to $31.50 per month. The courts, identified alphabetically from A to P, were arranged in cul-de-sacs, and tenants qualified only if one or two household members worked at Hill Field. Verdeland Park was annexed to Layton City on May 3, 1944, and in time it included an administration building, Verdeland Park Elementary School, and Utah's first day care center, with Building M-7 serving as a nursery for working mothers under head teacher Miss Ruth Malin. The elementary school opened on September 11, 1943, with six classrooms, an office, and a gymnasium-cafeteria, and it served the children of park residents under principal Ronald Wiscombe and an initial faculty of five teachers. The school library was expanded in 1946 through citizen and community support, and as a government-operated school its employees had to pass federal exams and meet educational and character requirements. In 1963, the school became the first in Davis County to have an integrated faculty when Mrs. Ruby Jewell Price was hired as a first grade Diversity Teacher, and in the late 1960s she later supervised a Kind Care Training Center for special needs children. After World War II, many returning GIs and their brides lived in Verdeland Park because rental housing was scarce, and as Layton subdivisions grew, many residents became permanent homeowners. The people who came from different places and backgrounds learned to live and work together, forming a large community family whose varied religions and cultures added lasting diversity and a unique social dimension to Layton.