Elmira’s selection as a state military depot and rendezvous point started an economic boom for the area. Local businessmen signed profitable contracts to provide building supplies, horses, clothing, kitchen wares and food to the military. Teamsters, carpenters and laborers were needed first to build the military barracks and later the prisoner-of-war camp. As the population nearly doubled, hotels and rooming houses were filled to capacity. Bars, brothels and gambling houses sprang up to serve the soldiers. Elmira was in a much better financial position at the end of the war than many communities because of its wartime boom.