Community Centers Sites

"Built in 1935, the Scipio Town Hall is one of over 480 public works buildings constructed in Utah under various New Deal programs during the Depression years of the 1930's and 40's. ... The Scipio Town Hall was intended for use as a town hall and as a meeting place for all civic and political functions in the community. Two Scipio men Will and Lew Critchley were the brick and stone masons on the building. Several years after construction, probably during the 1940's, the brick work on the front was added. ... The building was renovated in 1988 with funds...

The Sink-Crumb Post 72 American Legion Hut, located on the northeastern corner of 2nd and Cherry streets in the small Clay County community of Knobel, is a tin-roofed cypress log building designed in the Rustic aesthetic common among American Legion buildings erected during the early 1930s. Little is known about the construction of the building other than the fact that local men cut and notched the logs from which the building was constructed. The hut was completed in early 1934, and the first meeting was held there on March 30. The Clay County Courier reported that “Sink-Crumb American Legion Post, No....

The federal National Youth Administration (NYA) constructed the historic Snow Rogers Community Center in 1939. It is located north of Gardendale, Alabama, across from Snow Rogers Elementary School.

Originally known as Southside House, Ithaca, New York's Southside Community Center was constructed by the federal Work Projects Administration during the 1930s. The WPA reported in 1940: "For many years the only community center was a ramshackle building. This has been replaced with a modern stone and brick structure which serves as a meeting place for the Girl and Boy Scout troops, Cultural Congress (minors), two women's clubs, a home bureau unit, Parent-Teachers Association, Christmas club, which distributes clothing and baskets at Christmastime; Men's forum and other organizations. The center is a fitting contribution by WPA to one of the...

This large armory in downtown Sperry was constructed by the WPA, and is now used for other public purposes: "Guard unit members mustered out to WWII from this store front location in September 1940, but returned to a sprawling new WPA-built armory that had been dedicated in 1941 on the site of the old town baseball field.  The armory building housed various military units until 1990, and in 1991 the complex was deeded to the Town of Sperry by Tulsa County commissioners.  Town offices were immediately moved into the facility, where they have remained.  In 2007, taxpayers funded a $500,000 remodel...

The Works Progress Administration built a community building in Spotted Horse, Campbell County, Wyoming.  

"This building was constructed by the Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) in 1938. It was originally proposed to be a building that could be used as a polling place on election days and as a community recreation hall. The School Board saw the project as an opportunity to rectify certain deficiencies of the Spring Lake School, constructed in 1919, which had no kitchen, lunchroom, or library. Thus it became an undertaking to serve the school as well as the community. This building was constructed by the Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) in 1938. It was originally proposed to be a building that could be...

Now known as the Springer Cultural Center, what was then the main post office for Champaign, Illinois received a New Deal-era addition. Actually, the building received an addition in 1929, though it was razed seven years later to accommodate the larger construction, which effectively doubled the size of the original building, in 1936. A home behind the property was also demolished to make way for the new rear addition. The facility was converted into a what was known as the Springer Federal Building in 1966. Listed to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, the building was deeded to the...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built and completed improvements at the Springtown Tabernacle in Springtown TX. The Inspection Reports indicate the perimeter stone and wood fence was constructed in 1934. The pavilion (as it is called in the NPS Inspector Reports) was constructed in the latter part of 1937. There was no marker on site indicating that it was constructed by the CCC. There is a marker designating the structure as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark (2017).

"After withdrawing an application to the PWA, St. Augustine's municipal officials initiated the St. Augustine Civic Center project through the CWA. ... In 1935, residents and administrators celebrated the completion of the building under the FERA banner." (NRHP Nomination) The St. Augustine Civic Center is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Stone Cottage in Addison, Texas, originally called the Addison Community Building, was built by the Work Projects Administration (WPA) between 1939 and 1940 as the permanent meeting place for the Addison Home Demonstration Club. The official project number was 65-1-66-362. The building originally cost $4,600, which the Addison Home Demonstration Club helped raise through bake sales. The building is rock veneer construction on a concrete foundation. It had a kitchen, restrooms and fireplace. The building was the original home of the Addison Centre Theatre until it fell into disrepair. In 1998 the City Council voted to remodel the cottage at a...

The Works Progress Administration built the Stuart City Park and Community House in Stuart City FL, Martin County. The City was a cosponsor. The community house housed public gatherings and also served as a hurricane shelter. The location and status of these projects is presently unknown to Living New Deal.  

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the Memorial Building in Hinton, Summers County. The structure served as a community center. The building foundation was not part of the work performed by WPA crews. Operating no. 65-41-871. State Serial no. 354-357.

Constructed by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) in 1935, the Sylva G. Martin Community Center is a one-story masonry structure, built in a rectangular plan inspired by the simple bungalow. The high-quality stonework is its most notable feature with wall surfaces fashioned from local oolitic limestone, cut and finely laid in irregular courses. There are five bays across the front with a porch across three bays. A gable roof covers the main portion of the building with shed roofs over the front porch and rear. Four square piers of oolitic limestone support the front porch roof. The space between...

The Alley Dwelling Authority (ADA) funded the construction of a community building for the Syphax Houses and surrounding area, ca. 1942. It is unknown to the Living New Deal if this building still exists. The ADA was one of the earliest New Deal initiatives to provide better housing for low-income Americans. It replaced unsafe alley dwellings in Washington, DC with more modern and affordable houses and apartments. The ADA existed from 1934-1943 as a federally controlled special authority. It then slowly evolved into today’s DC Housing Authority, an independent agency of the DC Government. The Syphax Houses Community Building was part of the...

"Built at a cost of approximately $32,000, and designed by Bryan W. Nolan, this armory was completed in 1937 using WPA labor. It consists of a one-story administrative wing, and a large barrel-roofed drill hall. The armory is built of uncoursed, squared white and tan polychromatic sandstone in a castle-like style....   "The administrative wing has a flat roof, with a stepped roof line and entrance which is slightly projected. The main entrance has double aluminum and glass doors, with the entrance and flanking windows having black cloth awnings. Some of the tall, narrow windows have the original steel frames and 2-over-4...

Constructed of a “restrained Art Deco style”, it has a limestone façade with terra cotta decorative elements, similar to though smaller than those on the adjacent Homer G. Phillips Hospital. Upstairs, there is a gymnasium, the basement being a swimming pool and locker rooms. The center was named after a black Civil War hero and politician.

The accompanying photograph is of a view of the town in the 1930s. Tanner Hall is seen on the center-left side of the picture. The WPA building was initially used as a gymnasium and was later extensively remodeled. It is now a Community Center. Other buildings that are seen in the photograph are Farnsworth Pool, Little Hall, yacht basins with covered boathouses, the city dock, sea walls and Trailer City, among the public building and lakefront beautification projects funded by the Works Progress Administration and directed by Mayor George Walker in the 1930s. In his seven-year tenure as mayor, Walker secured more...

Between 1937 and 1938, the National Youth Administration (NYA) built a stone structure on the east side of Santa Anna, Texas for a Texas Ranger memorial museum and reunion hall. Funded by the citizens of Santa Anna, the complex was dedicated at a Texas Ranger reunion in August 1939. Texas Rangers operated in the Santa Anna area as early as the 1870s, with many of the Rangers settling in the area after their term of service ended. Former Rangers founded the Texas Ex-Rangers Association and held annual reunions around the state. Santa Anna hosted a reunion in 1935 and became a permanent...

New York State's Office of Children and Family Services website states: "he Tonawanda Indian Community House (TICH) located in Akron, New York ... a two-story cypress log structure, was erected by Native Americans under the Works Progress Administration and dedicated on May 13, 1939. It was built to meet the social, cultural, recreational and health needs of the Tonawanda Reservation. In addition to a gymnasium/auditorium, locker room area, kitchen and various meeting rooms, TICH houses a library and medical clinic funded by the New York State Department of Health. Genesee County and the New York State Office for the Aging...

The Union City Armory was undertaken in Union City, Tennessee during the Great Depression with the assistance of the Public Works Administration (PWA). The rare PWA funded Armory was constructed in "restrained Art Deco" (Van West, p. 87) style for a total cost of $30,000. The armory fulfilled both military and local community functions, serving as the base of Company K, 117th Infantry Regiment of the National Guard during World War II as well as hosting community events. The armory became private property in 1980.

Along with Tandy, Gamble, and Carver House recreation centers, Vashon Community Center was constructed as one of four community recreation centers to served the African-American population in St. Louis. Vashon Community Center served the population living in the Mill Creek area of St. Louis, MO which was a mixed use area with manufacturing and housing. Although it was built in 1936, it was not finished until 1937, a delay of 8 months which caused a great deal of controversy and claims of indifference by the city government towards the population. When completed, however it quickly became a center of the...

The original Vereins-Kirche (Society Church) was the first public building in Fredericksburg. It was used for church services by the different denominations in early Fredericksburg. “The Vereins-Kirche was also used as Fredericksburg's first school, established under Leyendecker in 1847, and also as a town hall, a fortress, a sanctuary, and, in 1896, a pavilion for Fredericksburg's fiftieth anniversary celebration. In 1897, however, having fallen into disuse and disrepair and regarded as an obstruction to traffic on Main Street, the Vereins-Kirche was torn down. When the Gillespie County Historical Society was formed in 1934, its first goal was the construction of...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) performed minor repair work at the old wooden Veterans Memorial Building in Walnut Creek, California. "Dedicated in 1925, Walnut Creek’s Veterans Memorial Building served as a meeting place for local veterans and other organizations and frequently hosted dances in the second-floor ballroom. For a number of years, the building also doubled as a County courthouse. The building was razed in 2006, and local veterans have a new building in Lafayette." WPA Project No. 65-3-2793, App. Date 11/20/35, $302, "Cleaning interior woodwork and painting interior rooms, halls and floors of Memorial Building." WPA Project No. 65-3-2703, App. Date 2-3-36,...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) conducted work at the Veterans Memorial Building in Concord, California. "Constructed in 1929, The Veterans Memorial Building served briefly as city hall. Today, numbers of community meetings and social gatherings are held there." concordhistory.com WPA Project No. 65-3-2740, $302, App. Date 11-20-35, "Cleaning interior wood works, painting interior wood works in the county owned Memorial Building." WPA Project No. 65-3-2740, $225, App. Date 2-3-36, "Cleaning interior woodwork & painting interior rooms, halls & floors of the County owned Memorial Bldg. located in the town of Concord."

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) employed 14 persons during the Great Depression in a WPA painting job on the 1932 Veterans Memorial building. According to posts on the building Facebook page, the building continues to house many community events. WPA Project No. 165-3-2146, App. Date Apr 2, 1937, $1,217, Total Funds $1,484, Average Employed 14, Federal Man-Hours 1,096, "Paint the Municipal Buildings in the city of El Cerrito, Contra Costa County and perform work incidental thereto. Exclusive of projects specifically approved. City owned property."

The Veterans' Memorial Building was constructed in 1934-36 with financial aid from the federal Public Works Administration (PWA) and unemployed workers drawn from the State Emergency Relief Administration (SERA), which was funded largely by federal government assistance.   It is a beautiful example of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture, designed by local architect Rudolph Polley. It features a bell tower, a large auditorium, a serene courtyard and some interior detailing. It is in excellent condition to this day (2019). A park was laid out at the same time across the street, using county funds and probably relief workers, as well. The building (and park) passed...

W.P.A. Bulletin, 1937: "In the middle 1800s a two-story wooden building on Stevens street, Peabody. served as a town hall and later as the city's first high school (after Peabody became a city). But population increased as the city's leather business prospered and the old building became inadequate for changing conditions. So it was abandoned and seemed to sadly view the passing parade of modern life. Fidelity Post, 1011, 'Veterans of Foreign Wars, needed a clubhouse. City fathers donated the old town hall and high school for the purpose. A WPA project built a cement floor in the cellar, adding shower baths....

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the Vine Hill School and Community Building (also known as Horney Buck School) in 1939 in Cape Fair. The building served as a school during the week, as a community center on Saturdays, and as an interdenominational church on Sunday. The structure bears a painted sign above the door that reads "Vine Hill Community Building, 1939 WPA." Above the stone header, a stone plaque reads, "School District No. 30." Behind the main structure there are two outhouses. The stone construction resembles the school building, which suggests that it was also built by the WPA.  

Now a visitor center, what was constructed as a community center in Truth or Consequences was constructed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1938. From The New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties (2004): "A WPA project completed in 1938, the former Hot Springs Community Center is one of the best examples of the Spanish-Pueblo Revival style in Sierra County. On a concrete foundation, the building is one story with a flat stepped roof with parapets. The greater height of the central core of the building denotes the auditorium located at the rear of the building. Consisting of a steel...

The Public Works Administration funded the construction of the Walker County Home in Jasper. The exact location or condition of this facility is unknown to the Living New Deal.  

"The Washita Valley Community Center at 1500 S. Henderson is built into a hill and is one-story on the front and two-story at the rear. It is constructed of native sandstone and has large window openings filled with glass blocks. A back porch on the second level is accessed by a metal stairway. Several original doors have been blocked in with sandstone. The community center is located next to the Washita Valley Park. It was constructed by the WPA in 1935 with an appropriation of $5,156. This year, the building was refurbished and is now a social space for the town,...

Scottsbluff's historic former Carnegie Library—now the West Nebraska Arts Center—received an addition constructed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1936. "The 62-foot addition, built in 1936 by the W.P.A., was designed by architect O. J. Hehnke of Scottsbluff. The addition maintains the original material, parapet, cornice, basement, and window lines." The addition projected from the east end of the building.

West Peru Grammar School was built in December 1936 with the help of a $11,000 PWA loan. The school contained all eight grades plus the kindergarten, for which there were three teachers and a teacher/principal. Once the West Peru Grammar School was open other area schools began to close and send their students to West Peru. From 1938 to 1942 all seven of the other town schools closed. Over the next few decades the school was enlarged several times to meet the needs of the growing student population. In 2004, Peru merged with Dixfield, Canton and Carthage, in School Area District...

The Willcox Women's Community Center was sponsored by the City of Willcox and completed in 1936. The project was completed with federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) labor. Project O.P. No. 65-2-166

The Williamsport Community Building at Byron Memorial Park, in Williamsport, Maryland, was constructed by WPA workers in 1938. The building is still used today, highlighting once again the enduring value of WPA projects.

The Works Progress Administration built facilities at the Willow Wood Community Center. The park is still in service today under the name Willow Wood Recreation Center.

The National Youth Administration built the Wilson Park Community Building in Bedford IN. Originally a shelter house, now (2022) a community building, features high-quality stone work including a large fireplace visible in pictures on the City of Bedford web page.  

The National Youth Administration (NYA) built the Wilson Park Shelter House in Bedford IN. Originally picnic shelter, 2022 (apparently) storage building. The material and workmanship of New Deal projects in Bedford, Indiana is remarkable. The city is the center of the Indiana limestone industry the, for example, provided the stone for the Empire State Building. Even the "park rustic" projects show a high level of fit and finish that is a credit to local stone workers.

"The 'New Deal' legislation passed under President Franklin Roosevelt's administration set the stage for the construction of the Wishek Civic Center.  The Wishek Civic Center was built under the auspices of a federal worker relief program known as the Works Projects Administration (WPA).  The WPA put unemployed laborers to work on public projects of all types in a successful effort to generate income for themselves and get things done in communities across the nation. The City of Wishek benefited from several of these projects.  The city park, community swimming pool, Wishek Civic Center and many of the sidewalks in town were...