G. Stanley Wilson Sites

Evidence of Works Progress Administration (WPA) involvement in the former Banning High School building, now Nicolet Middle School, comes from a non-copyrighted pamphlet with no clear title or page number, that was handed out at the 2005 all-class reunion of Banning High School. The following text is from the pamphlet:   “In 1933 a huge earthquake stuck Long Beach, California, and did major damage to that city. It also cause parts of Banning High School to be considered unsafe. The Auditorium was condemned and the remainder of the school was in poor condition. “In 1935 the Depression had spread across America and...

The Old Fullerton City Hall (now the Fullerton Police Department) was built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1939. It was completed over a 3 year span and cost over $130,000.  The building was built in a Spanish Colonial Revival architectural style. Key characteristics include its central 3-story tower and cupola. Decoratively, it has beautiful terra cotta and ceramic tile work throughout the building and extensive iron wrought elements. It’s a stunning example of New Deal architecture. Additionally, the former Fullerton City Hall houses a large 3-wall mural named the “History of Southern California” by Helen Lundeberg.  A new city hall was...

The high school was originally built by the PWA in 1938. A PWA plaque still marks the school. In addition to the 12 original classroom buildings of Spanish mission design, many other buildings of varying styles have been added since. "This project consisted of two buildings at Palm Springs and one building at Banning. The illustrations show the south wing at Palm Springs, the other buildings being similar in character. They are all constructed of reinforced concrete designed to resist earthquake shocks. The project was completed during 1938 at a construction cost of $303,282 for all three and a project cost...