Education and Health Sites

"The Future Homemakers of America Home Economics building at the Calico Rock School had been on the drawing boards for over two years before the National Youth Administration notified the local school district that construction could actually begin in December, 1940.  The Home Economics Building was built of native stone to the east of the school's main building and the gymnasium."   (https://www.arkansaspreservation.com) The Plain Traditional stone building was begun in 1940. Stone was quarried by "hand, hammer and chisel" approximately 1/4 of a mile from the building site. The NYA youth who quarried stone and built the building were between 15-18...

Repaired roof and made ground repairs.--Healy, p. 70. WPA workmen also worked on the African wildlife exhibit.

The former Camarillo State Hospital for the Insane was closed in 1997 and became the CSU-Channel Islands campus. The old hospital was begun in the early 1930s, but when the Roosevelt Administration came into office, the Public Works Administration (PWA) took over funding the project in 1934. With the aid from the PWA, the hospital was completed in 1936.  At the time, it was the largest and most advanced mental institution west of the Mississippi.  

Located in the small town of California, Pennsylvania, “Cal U” is a public university that was founded in 1852. The main campus consists of 38 buildings situated on 92 acres of land. Then known as the State Teachers College, California University of Pennsylvania benefited during the Great Depression from a large construction project enabled by the federal Public Works Administration (PWA). The PWA provided a $188,000 grant for the project, whose final cost was $540,686. Construction occurred between February and December 1938. (PWA Docket No. 1844.) A physical education and industrial arts building were constructed on the campus. The present status of...

The Callahan County Hospital was built by the WPA in 1938-1939 in an Art Deco/Art Moderne style to serve the rural population of Callahan County, Texas. The hospital operated at least through the 1960s, as late as 1966. The building is currently used by the Texas Department of Human Services.

The WPA built this addition to Calumet High School in 1938. The site is now Calumet Junior High School. From Waymarking.com: The Calumet High School building was constructed in 1920. It is a one-story red brick building with high stepped parapets. There is stone coping and stone blocks for embellishment. The addition to the school extends to the north and consists of one-story flat roofed classrooms. The first section is brick, with ribbon windows set in two units of four, and one unit of five. The section to the north of this is also one-story flat roof, but has a single unit...

The WPA contributed $101 in order to "Improve Comanche School." WPA Project 65-3-2463, Application date 10-24-35. The town was founded in 1849 during the gold rush. Rich mining at nearby Cat Camp, Poverty Bar, and Sand Hill brought its population to a peak of 1,500. The town was inundated by the construction of the Camanche Dam by the East Bay Municipal Utility District EBMUD in 1963.

Cambria Union Grammar School was funded by the Public Works Administration and built between 1936 and 1937. The structure presently houses a public art gallery space, but is owned by the local district. There are no plaques regarding this construction project. The style is Mission Revival.

The Public Works Administration (PWA) provide funding for the construction of Cameron Middle School in South Nashville, an historically African American school in what was then a fully segregated city.  It was one of many PWA grants for Black schools and colleges around the country, including Pearl High School and Tennessee A & I College in Nashville.  Cameron later became a high school. "Located at 1034 First Avenue South, the school was constructed with PWA funding support in 1939-40 and is important for its local significance in African-American social history. Cameron played a central community role for South Nashville’s African-American population....

Camp Colorado was a United States Army outpost in Coleman County, Texas. From 1857 to 1861 Camp Colorado was the center of Coleman County's settlements. The camp's buildings were made of adobe with shingled roofs and pine floors. U.S. troops abandoned the fort during the Civil War and did not re-garrison it after the war was over. The land was sold and the new owner dismantled the buildings. Citizens of the City of Coleman and Coleman County desired to participate in the Texas Centennial in 1936. The idea was proposed to erect a replica of the administration building of old Camp...

"Between 1935 and 1940, Massachusetts and the federal government, primarily using Works Project Administration funds, constructed 63 buildings (all but Buildings 102 and the old Williams Hospital have since been demolished) and two, 500-foot (150 m) wide turf runways at Otis Field. The project was the largest WPA project in state history, employing over 600 workmen. In 1938, Governor Charles F. Hurley dedicated Camp Edwards, named after the former commander of the 26th Infantry Division, Major General Clarence Edwards." (Wikipedia) WPA Bulletin: The Bourne WPA Notional Guard Camp Project is the largest undertaking of this kind in the country. It is twenty-three square...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) funded the construction of Camp Fairchance in Low Gap, Boone County. The buildings were constructed by FERA and later occupied by the WPA. The camp hired unemployed teachers through the WPA, and housed underprivileged children and children without legal guardians.

The WPA was involved in constructing facilities and improving the grounds at Camp McQuaide after it moved south from its former Capitola location. "In 1926, the 63rd coastal artillery regiment moved from Santa Cruz, California, to an area just east of the town of Capitola. Its camp was named for Major Joseph P. McQuaide, who was born in 1867 and graduated from Santa Clara University. He served as Chaplain of the California National Guard in the Spanish American War and World War I, and died March 29, 1924. By 1938, noise from target practice annoyed Capitola residents, so a more remote...

Works Progress Administration Project 41,187 was approved for improvements to campus streets and the athletic field at Pearl River Junior College. The allotment was $31,335 and the sponsor’s fund was $14,582. The Coast Engineering Co., prepared plans for the project, which included paving all driveways, building curbs for sidewalks, grounds beautification, grading, seeding, sodding, tree and shrub planting. The athletic field was enlarged and concrete bleachers were erected.

Canadian Middle School was built in 1939 with funds from the Public Works Administration (PWA).The P.W.A. provided a $79,546 grant for the project, whose total cost was $153,323. It was designed by Voelcker and Dixon in a Spanish Gothic style and first served as the junior and senior high school from 1940 - 1976. PWA Docket No. TX 1153.

Canoga Park Elementary School, which opened in 1915, was rebuilt with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) between 1934 and 1935. In January 1934, the PWA allocated $9,380,000 to the Los Angeles Unified School District for the rehabilitation of schools damaged in the severe 1933 Long Beach earthquake.  One hundred and thirty schools would benefit from the system-wide loan and grant, with 2,500 men to be employed in rehabilitation work over 21 months. Upon receiving news of the PWA allocation, Board of Education member Arthur Eckman told the Los Angeles Times, “I am sure that every member of the board agrees with...

The Assembly Hall at Canoga Park High School in Canoga Park, CA, was built with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA)—also known as the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works. The Assembly Hall was completed in 1939 and is named in honor of Canoga High's former principal, G. Walter Monroe.  The design is a combination of Mission and Renaissance Revival, common in architecture of the interwar period in Southern California.

Canoga Park High School, which opened in 1914, was renovated with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) between 1934 and 1935. In January 1934, the PWA allocated $9,380,000 to the Los Angeles Unified School District for the rehabilitation of schools damaged in the severe 1933 Long Beach earthquake.  One hundred and thirty schools would benefit from the system-wide loan and grant, with 2,500 men to be employed in rehabilitation work over 21 months. Upon receiving news of the PWA allocation, Board of Education member Arthur Eckman told the Los Angeles Times, “I am sure that every member of the board agrees with...

Built as Canton's high school, what is now Canton Intermediate School was constructed as a New Deal project with federal Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) funds. The P.W.A. supplied a $26,860 grant for the project, whose total cost was $98,402. Construction occurred between Sept. 1934 and Apr. 1935. P.W.A. Docket No. CT 4422

Originally Van Buren Elementary School, this school was constructed by the WPA. It was completed in 1941.

"The native sandstone wall around the football field is a WPA project. Capitol Hill High School is located at 500 S.W. 36th Street. Built in 1928, it is still in use today. On the west side of the school, the C.B. Speegle Stadium is home to the Capitol Hill Redskins. Surrounding the field is an approximately 8 ft. high wall made of the traditional Oklahoma sandstone seen in the greatest number of WPA projects in the State. At the east end of the football field, the sandstone wall attaches to a 10 ft. high white stone ticket booth area. This wall has a...

"Originally built in 1935 as Capitol School at 802 E. Vilas, this building is currently home to the Board of Education and other Guthrie Public Schools administrative offices. This WPA project is documented on the cornerstone where is indicates that this is WPA project 6-49. This is a one-story tan brick building which faces south. The entrance is slightly recessed with a single glass door, sidelights and transom. The entrance is within a stone surround with the words CAPITOL SCHOOL embossed in stone. Four concrete steps lead to the entrance door."   (waymarking.com)

The School was founded in 1939 as part of the New Deal program for Education. Original structure was built with labor provided through the Works Progress Administration. When new school was built in 2002, old building was razed. Original front entrance is all that remains.

The Public Works Administration funded the construction of the Carver High School in Carbon Hill. The workers built several structures, such as the main school buildings, the Home Economics Building, and the vocational agriculture for the boys. The new facilities allowed the school to enroll hundreds of additional students. The school burned down in 2002.

The WPA improved the school building and grounds.

In early 1935, PWA crews conducted renovations and improvements to the Henry R. A. Carey School, which dated to 1896. The school closed in 2010, and in 2014 was renovated again as luxury condominiums and renamed the Carey School Residences.

An addition was built by the WPA.

The Atlas of Historic New Mexico Maps, produced with assistance from the New Mexico Humanities Council and the New Mexico Chapter of the National New Deal Preservation Association, lists a number of New Deal schools in Santa Fe. Agua Fria, Carlos Gilbert, Cerrillos, Chimayo, Galisteo, Harvey Junior High, and part of Wood Gormley were all New Deal projects or constructed with the help of New Deal funds. Capshaw and Golden contain New Deal art only.

The Carlsbad Intermediate School building, also known as the P.R. Leyva School Campus—originally a high school—is identified as a project that received New Deal assistance in the form of Public Works Administration (PWA) funds in an article in the Carlsbad Current-Argus. The school also features a plaque inside the front main entrance.

The Public Works Administration (PWA) provided a grant of $49,090 for a new high school for the town of Idaho Springs, Colorado. Total cost of the school, which was constructed in 1937,  was $109,885. The school is a 2-story brick Moderne building, with two wings and distinctive horizontal window lines on the central portion of the building.  Near the entrance are glass bricks of the kind popular in the late 1930s and 1940s. The cornerstone gives no information on who built the school, just the name and date.  A cornerstone from a previous high school is laid against the wall below the...

This one-story frame school in the Kosciusko vicinity was built in 1938. Constructed with funds from the National Youth Administration, the building has a distinctive T-shape.

The New Deal helped build Carmel High School in 1940. In 1939, the city of Carmel purchased the lot and secured a bond issue for $165,000 for the school.  Groundbreaking came in early 1940 and school opened in September.   The city put in applications for funding to both the Public Works Administration (PWA) and the Works Projects Administration (WPA), so it is not entirely clear from the newspaper sources whether the project was done with the aid of both agencies or just the WPA. The five-building school complex was designed by Ernest Kump, Jr. of Fresno, who created a long, single-story modern...

This elementary school was constructed with Public Works Administration (PWA) funds in 1939. The school is still in use, although recent renovations have altered the school's original appearance. The dedication plaque at the entrance is still visible.

In the late 1930s, the historic Carnegie Library in Provo, Utah was greatly expanded with a grant and labor provided by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The Provo Library website tells us that, "On December 1, 1908 the Library moved into a new building provided by a grant of $17,500 from Andrew Carnegie. By 1924 it was noted that 'the institution is greatly in need of more room.' With $59,000 from the WPA the remodeled and expanded facility opened on July 28, 1939." The building is now privately managed.

The Carnegie Library building in Washington DC was the District's Central Library from 1902 to 1970. It was one of many libraries built with funding from the businessman and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.  From 1935 to 1938, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) refurbished the entire exterior of the building for the Library. As reported by the DC Government in 1938: "The W.P.A. project for cleaning, cutting out, and repointing mortar joints of exterior marble and granite stone on the central building was started in December 1935 and completed at a cost of $27,717.50 and closed out on March 20, 1938. The entire exterior...

The Carnegie Libraries web page summarizes the history of the structure: "A men's group, the Paso Robles Improvement Club, initiated the first library in 1901, and the ladies auxiliary persuaded the city to establish a free public library in 1903. A Carnegie grant of $10,000 was received in 1906 for the building; the park, a full city block between 11th and 12th and Spring and Pine streets, was selected as the site. William H. Weeks, California's most prolific Carnegie architect, designed the building and R.O. Summers was the contractor. A small addition to the rear was built in 1939 by the...

Public Works Administration project 1251 was for Itawamba County school construction. The project for the Carolina Consolidated School near Fulton was approved January 1, 1934 in the amount of a $4,370 loan and a $1,860 grant. Construction began June 20, 1934 and was completed September 12, 1934 for a total cost of $8,003. The former Carolina community school was destroyed in 1932. The building remains in use as the Carolina Community Center and regular activities are held in the building.

Completed in 1939, the Carolyn Beatrice Parker Elementary School (formerly known as J.J. Finley Elementary School) is the oldest operating elementary school in Alachua County. It was named for Jesse Johnson Finley (1812-1904 ), a brigadier general in the Army of the Confederacy, and later a US congressman from Florida. The school was designed by the architectural firm of Sanford W. Goin and Forrest M. Kelley. It is constructed of brick, and mixes Georgian and art deco styles. The school auditorium, part of the original construction, has seating for 300 people, a full theatrical stage, and a projection room. On August...

Carquinez Middle School was constructed as a New Deal project with Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) funds.

Frank F. Carr School in Newton, MA was constructed with federal Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) funds in 1934-5.