The Navy established the Construction Battalion Center at Davisville less than a year after Quonset was completed. Davisville's mission was to "provide, manufacture, store, load and ship" materials and equipment needed to outfit departing naval construction units and re-fit those returning from active duty. (Recordation Report NCTC Davisville, p. 11). Davisville's landscape, with its miles of warehouses, railroad tracks, open-air storage yards and personnel barracks, reflects the scope as well as the nature of these activities. The completed base at Davisville would include seven discrete areas, each with a particular character related to its function. Davisville's subdivisions include:
Administrative Triangle (DAT)
Warehouse Triangle (DWT)
Camp Endicott (DCE)
Camp Thomas (DCT)
Advance Base Depot (DABD)
Advance Base Proving Ground (DABP)
West Davisville (WD)
By the time of Davisville's closure in 1994, most of its buildings were already closed and secured behind chain link fences, gradually sloping into decay marked by the return of a wild element in the landscape. Despite this, Davisville's infrastructure and physical layout remained mostly unchanged and remarkably true to its original character. In 1999, in hopes of attracting new businesses to the site, the state of Rhode Island removed Davisville's fences to begin a program of demolition. As demolition progresses, Davisville is quickly losing the coherence sustained for many years in spite of disuse and decay.
