Colleges and Universities Sites

The CWA and ERA completed repairs and improvements in state institutions across Mississippi in 1934 and 1935. At the University of Mississippi, the interior and exterior of two women's dorms were painted, music hall and campus residence were repaired and repainted, and six other buildings improved. In addition, a new warehouse was constructed, fence, walks and press booths for the athletic field added, drainage structures installed across campus, 525 feet of sidewalk laid, and a dorm destroyed by fire was razed and material salvaged. The total expenditure for the work was $24,043.23.

At the University of Mississippi, "...funds from New Deal agencies were also used for improvements in the university's athletic facilities. The baseball field was graded and enhanced and a new grandstand was added. The golf course was also enlarged and reconstructed, with new grass greens replacing the sand greens" (Sansing, 1999, p. 254).

Barnard was built in 1938 as a women's dormitory, and attached to existing dormitory Isom Hall, built in 1929. It is currently used to house ROTC at the University of Mississippi. It is defined as a "contributing building" in the historic center of the campus (Master Plan 2009, University of Mississippi).

These three dormitories were constructed in Georgian Revival style as Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works Mississippi project 1216-DS. The buildings were dedicated October 21-22, 1938, along with three other new dorms built on the campus of the University of Mississippi with New Deal funds. They are currently unoccupied, but are slated for renovation and restoration in the coming year. They will be used as office and classroom space following renovation. They are considered "contributing buildings" due to the "considerable legacy of architecturally significant buildings" in the historic center of the campus (Master Plan 2009, University of Mississippi, p. 35).

The Eastbridge Faculty and Staff apartments at the University of Mississippi were constructed by the PWA and consisted of eight, 2-bedroom apartments. The building has since been demolished.

Constructed primarily with Works Progress Administration funding, the University of Mississippi built 22 vernacular cottage-style houses on a new street named Faculty Row in 1939 (Walton, 2008). The three-bedroom houses ranged from 1200 to 1600 square feet, and were sided with clapboard. Each had a garage or carport (Mississippi Department of Archives and History). Only one of the houses remains on campus at this time. Others were demolished in 2007 according to MDAH. Twenty-one faculty houses were relocated to establish a development for affordable housing, however, according to the Lafayette County appraisal records, dates on those houses indicate construction in 1955...

Kennon Observatory, one of 39 buildings constructed by the PWA on the campus during the years 1936-1941, was designated a Mississippi Landmark in 2011. "Kennon Observatory was constructed in 1939, and once again, R. W. Naef was the architect.  Naef apparently held the reins to all of the New Deal construction on campus during those years."   (https://misspreservation.com/) Dr. William Lee Kennon was "instrumental in securing the funding for Lewis Hall and Kennon Observatory, and conceived the building design (University of Mississippi, Department of Physics and Astronomy history). An adaptation of classicism (J. Baughn, Mississippi Department of Archives and History), the observatory faces due...

Leavell Hall, was initially built as a men's dormitory housing 68 students. It is one of six dormitories constructed on campus with PWA funds during 1938. All six buildings remain and are in current use, or slated for renovation and resumption of use. Leavell was named for Dr. Richard Leavell, professor of philosophy and political economy from 1890-1909. "...conditions in Mississippi were worse than at any time since the Civil War (quoted in Harry Hopkins, 1936, Spending to Save: The Complete Story of Relief). With a state government in bankruptcy, Mississippi welcomed the federal funds that finally began to trickle down...

A project grant of $20,000 supported the construction of an Olympic-sized swimming pool west of the gymnasium in July 1936.

The Physics Building of the University of Mississippi campus, was built in 1939 as one of the last construction projects during the Public Works Administration. It was renamed Lewis Hall in 1977 for Dr. Arthur Lewis, a physics professor from 1939-1969. A research wing was added to the rear of the southwest corner in 1995.

"Congress granted permission for universities to use Works Progress Administration funds for fraternal housing. The Sigma Alpha Epsilon House, occupied in the fall of 1935, was the first built on Fraternity Row after the ban on fraternities and sororities was lifted. It burned in 1953" (Walton, 2008, p. 160).

Somerville was built in 1938 as a women's dormitory under Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works (which later became the PWA) Mississippi Project 1216-DS. It currently houses the English faculty and the Center for Writing and Rhetoric on the University of Mississippi campus. It is identified as a "contributing building" in the historic core of the campus.

The concrete structure football stadium was begun in 1937 with a capacity for 18,000 (Sansing) or 24,000 (Oxford Campus and University Buildings). The new stadium was proposed as a WPA project in 1936, and completed in 1941. The west side was completed in 1938 (Walton).

The Student Union Building was completed in 1939 on the campus of the University of Mississippi. It housed the bookstore, university post office, a grill, game room, barbershop, clothing store, and several meeting rooms (Sansing, 1999, p. 254). The Greek Revival style building was used as the student union building until 1973. It was renovated in 2004 and is currently used by the Computer Science Department and houses a student computer lab.

The Big Timber Pioneer reported in late 1934 that the Public Works Administration (PWA) approved $181,000 for "improvements and equipment" for what was then known as the Montana Normal College at Dillon. Of that, $100,000 came as a loan and $81,000 as an outright grant. We do not know more about what was done with the federal funding, but we suspect that the Main auditorium was constructed at the time. Mathews Hall and the Business & Technology Building also possibly date to the 1930s. And the project might have included landscaping and paths. More information is needed. Montana...

The Public Works Administration (PWA) provided funding for the Student Union building on the University of Montana campus in 1934 and the building was completed in 1936.  It is now the Fine Arts Building and houses the George & Jane Dennison Theater. According to the National Trust/ Montana Historical Society marker on the building, "Missoula architect C. J. Forbis ushered in a new campus building phase in 1935 with the construction of student union. The building’s placement and modern Art Deco façade broke ranks with the Renaissance Revival style called for in the old Carsley-Gilbert campus master plan. The old...

The Journalism Building on the University of Montana campus in Missoula, now known as Stone Hall, was constructed with Public Works Administration funding in 1936-7.  The three-story brick structure originally housed the Journalism School and the printing press of the student newspaper, the Montana Kaimin, and now is the home of the Department of Geology, the College of Forestry and Conservation and the Central and Southwest Asian Studies Center. According to the Montana Historical Society: "Dean Arthur Stone pitched four tents near the Oval in 1914, thereby founding the University’s School of Journalism. An old bicycle shed and later World War I...

"The recreational area known as Lewis Fields at the University of New Hampshire was begun in December of 1933 and finished in September of 1936. It was named for President Edward M. Lewis. The facility was built using funds from the various federal relief agencies set up to help alleviate unemployment during the Great Depression of the 1930's."  (https://www.izaak.unh.edu) Lewis Fields includes "six fields for football, soccer, and lacrosse, four baseball diamonds, a cinder track with a 220-yard straightaway, pits and runways for jumping and vaulting, fourteen composition and six clay tennis courts, concrete bleachers seating 1,750 spectators at baseball games...

This outdoor, one acre, "flow-through" pool was constructed by the WPA in 1937-38 on the UNH campus near the center of town. It has been a popular site ever since. This summer, the university announced plans to close the pool, but there is an ongoing, and growing effort to preserve this historic site.

"Albuquerque is home to scores of WPA buildings and works. Among the most prolific are the following- ... John Gaw Meem designed both Scoles Hall and Zimmerman Library on the campus of the University of New Mexico (the corner of University and Central). Both have undergone redesign and restoration, but still carry many of the architects innovative design features. Also on the campus of UNM, the Anthropology building is from that era, and contains three large murals by Joseph Imhof. The Old Albuquerque Municipal Airport (2920 Yale SE) is a Pueblo revival style two-story building that stands in the shadow of the Albuquerque...

"Albuquerque is home to scores of WPA buildings and works. Among the most prolific are the following- ... John Gaw Meem designed both Scoles Hall and Zimmerman Library on the campus of the University of New Mexico (the corner of University and Central). Both have undergone redesign and restoration, but still carry many of the architects innovative design features. Also on the campus of UNM, the Anthropology building is from that era, and contains three large murals by Joseph Imhof. The Old Albuquerque Municipal Airport (2920 Yale SE) is a Pueblo revival style two-story building that stands in the shadow of the Albuquerque...

  The Public Works Administration funded the construction of the Zimmerman Library at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. The Zimmerman Library website describes the history of the New Deal structure: "Library collections continued to grow and in 1936 UNM James Fulton Zimmerman secured Public Works Administration funding for campus construction that included $370,000 for a new library building. The impressive facility was designed in the Pueblo Revival Style by John Gaw Meem. Miss Shelton turned the first shovelful of earth at the building site on December 2, 1936 and the new library was opened on April 1, 1938. As before, students, faculty, and...

Multiple New Deal agencies, including the Public Works Administration (P.W.A.), Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.), were involved in dramatically developing and transforming what was then the North Texas State Teacher's College (now University of North Texas - Denton TX) in Denton. Federal assistance was responsible for several new buildings on campus in addition to other infrastructural developments.

The University of Northern Colorado received WPA support for at least two projects: remodeling the library in 1938, and constructing an Art Deco extension for the Student Union (also known as Gray Hall) in 1939.

Located on the University of Oregon campus. Work on the ornamental Dads' Gates began in August 1940. They were formally dedicated on February 8, 1941, as part of the 14th annual Dad's Day celebration weekend. The UO Dads Club was the sponsor and underwriter of the project. The Dads Club was a patron-parent organization established in 1927. The concept for the gates began in 1938 and was supported with funding from the Dads Club with additional support from a PWA program. Abbot Lawrence, a UO architecture graduate and son of Ellis Lawrence, created the design that was executed by metal...

In 1935 when a baseball park was constructed near McArthur Court, plans got under way to create formal gates and entrances. The park was named Howe Field for Herbert Crombie Howe, an English professor and athletics supporter. Early on, Fred Cuthbert, UO's landscape architect, and Orion B. Dawson, blacksmith, were involved in the designs. Dawson was concurrently working on iron projects at Timberline Lodge. Funding for the project came from the Works Projects Administration, several UO classes, the Soldiers' Memorial Fund, and the Associated Students of the University of Oregon. The gates, sometimes known as the Soldiers' Memorial Gates, also...

"By the mid-1920s, the "Old Libe" (now Fenton Hall) had inadequate space to hold library materials even with its 1916 addition. Library collections were stored in several campus locations, including the second floor of Condon Hall. As a consequence of the Depression, Librarian Matthew Douglass with the strong support of Senator Fred Steiwer as able to obtain funding for a new library as a Public Works Administration project. The cost of the library, approximately $460,000, was paid through US gifts and loans and support from alumni and friends -- no state funds were expended for construction. Construction began on September...

The expansion and development of Puerto Rico’s education system was central to the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration’s (PRRA) agenda. The agency earmarked $2,062,954.40 for the development of the University of Puerto Rico, which remains the most important higher-education institution on the Island. The new buildings built by the PRRA included the Home Economics Building, Library Hall, Teachers’ College Hall, Normal School, the Biology Building, and an auditorium. “With these funds the following buildings have been constructed at the University of Puerto Rico: an auditorium with a capacity for 2,000 persons; a library with room for more than 50,000 volumes; a home economic...

The main campus of the University of Puerto Rico was founded in 1903 in Río Piedras.  Part of the campus, including the athletic field, was built with the help of the PRRA. "In 1924 the Chicago firm of urbanists Bennett, Parsons and Frost were contacted to design a master plan for the future development of the University. It wasn’t until 1935, with the establishment of the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration (PRRA) and the large sum of federal funds that it invested for public works in Puerto Rico, that the partial design and construction of the so-called Plan Parson began. Under the supervision...

The Civil Works Administration and the Puerto Rico Emergency Relief Administration built the Radio and Hurricane Research Laboratory, at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras.

A series of stone barns arranged around a central Colonial Revival building. Designed by Edwin E. Cull, of Providence. Demolished in the early 2000s. The site is now a large parking lot.

A large building, built as a women's dormitory. This was the first major building on campus built of a material that wasn't Westerly Granite, in this case brick. This Federal Revival dormitory was designed by Providence architect Albert Harkness, who would go on to be one of Rhode Island's first modernist architect. The building was named for and dedicated by Eleanor Roosevelt. It is one of the three buildings constructed by the PWA on campus.

A substantial building, built to house the library and administration offices of what was then Rhode Island State College. It was that school's first full-scale library. The architects were Jackson, Robertson & Adams of Providence, then the state's most prominent architects. This building is a conservative, well-proportioned Colonial Revival structure. Like most of the school's buildings, it was built of Westerly Granite. This is one of three buildings on campus built under the auspices of the PWA. It is the school's most well-known building, and is on the URI Logo.

A large, Colonial Revival building, built to house the Home Economics department of what was then known as Rhode Island State College. It is built of Westerly Granite, then the dominant building material on campus. The building, designed by Monahan & Meikle of Pawtucket, was built between 1936 and 1937. It is one of three buildings built by the PWA on campus.

The University of South Carolina was the beneficiary of a large influx of New Deal funds from various agencies throughout the Great Depression. In "The Prosperity of the Depression," the university's website writes the following with regard to this era of the campus's history: "It is interesting to note that almost as many buildings were built during the Depression as during the period 1908-1930. A world economic crisis occurred in 1929, the harbinger of the Great Depression. Even before that, in 1927, state appropriations for permanent improvements had ended. On the one hand, the Great Depression meant severe financial constraints for the...

The State Teachers College in Hattiesburg received funding from ERA in 1934 and 1935 for improvements and repair to several buildings on campus. The school received $28,532.89 for repairing the hospital building, redecorating the interior of the library, renovating four campus cottages, placing flood-lights on the athletic field, refinishing floors in the president's home, and enlargements and alteration of the demonstration school gymnasium along with brick veneering of the exterior. the library was enlarged and improved. At least two of the buildings (president's home and demonstration gymnasium) are extant.

Plant Hall was formerly known as the Tampa Bay Hotel. It was built in the late 19th century. By the 1930s it was in disrepair until the WPA restored the building and converted it into use by the University of Tampa. One wing of Plant Hall now houses the Henry B. Plant Museum.

The student body of the University of Texas increased from 6,000 in 1920 to 10,000 in 1930, necessitating an extensive building program for the university. The university added Andrews Dormitory for women and Roberts Dormitory for men in 1936. The Public Works Administration provided a grant of $114,000 and a loan of $354,000 for these two buildings of which $239,000 went to build Andrews. The university named Andrews Dormitory for Jessie Andrews, the first woman to graduate from UT (1886). Andrews was the third dormitory built for women on-campus. It opened in September 1936 to house approximately 118 students. The building...

"The student body of the University of Texas increased from 6,000 in 1920 to 10,000 in 1930, necessitating an extensive building program for the university. Carothers Dormitory for girls was one of the first buildings constructed. It is three stories and a basement in height and provides 61 double bedrooms, living room, dining room, matron's suite, staff bedrooms, and the necessary kitchens and service rooms. The building is semi-fireproof, the exterior walls being brick trimmed with stone and stucco. It was completed in March 1937 at a construction cost of $250,572 and a project cost of $264,923."

Beginning in 1939, the university housed its athletes in Hill Hall. The five story building (including basement) is of Spanish Renaissance style with red roof and tan bricks. The Public Works Administration provided a grant of $46,636 and a loan of $57,000 to cover the cost of construction. When originally opened the building housed 84 men. Hill Hall is named for Dr. Homer Barksdale Hill of Austin who volunteered to treat UT athletes from 1893 until his death on July 18, 1923. As its athletic programs grew, the university added Moore Hall in 1955, just south of Hill Hall and connected to...