Education and Health Sites

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) and Temporary Emergency Relief Administration (TERA) constructed the historic Potsdam civic center. NRHP nomination form: "The Potsdam Civic Center shares salient associations with Depression-era New Deal programs and politics, particularly as manifested in the process that led to its construction. It is representative of local community planning efforts by those who endeavored to build it, and remains an important social history document given its use for a wide range of social gatherings since its completion in the mid-1930s. The building is additionally significant as an example of Neoclassical-style civic design, and one which incorporated an existing...

"Civic Stadium is an outdoor athletic stadium in Eugene, Oregon, owned by the Eugene School District. Civic Stadium, the vacant stadium located near East 20th Avenue and Willamette Street, adjacent to South Eugene High School, has a seating capacity of 6,800. The stadium was built in 1938 through a public-private partnership between the Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce, Eugene School District 4J and the federal Works Progress Administration; it has been owned by the Eugene School District since its construction."   (wikipedia)

The Civilian Conservation Corps completed groundwork and remade the battlefield area into an outdoors recreation area. The museum is located in a former cabin and not built as a museum. In the 1970s it was broken into and many of the original items stolen—including some artifacts that were present at the battle. Photographed is the exterior of the house and a modern interior shot featuring now retired Park Superintendent Mike Smith. "At Droop Mountain Battlefield State Park, the Civil War museum is housed in a former rental cabin built ca. 1935 by the CCC."

Built in 1912, the two-story, native stone Clairette School building survives as a community center and polling place. In 1939, Works Progress Administration (WPA) built a separate gymnasium building and a star shaped fountain in front of the 1912 building. The rock work on the flagpole, the water tank, and the retaining wall appear to be the same vintage as the fountain, but there is no reference to them being WPA projects.

The Clarence T. Jones Observatory was designed by its namesake, who was both and architect and amateur astronomer. Jones presented city officials with plans for an observatory and a telescope, which would be constructed almost exclusively through volunteer labor. Built on donated land, construction was mostly funded by $17,000, divided about equally between a United States Public Works Administration (PWA) grant and the City of Chattanooga. The building was completed in 1936 while the telescope was still being assembled. The observatory was officially dedicated in 1938. The 20.5-inch telescope was the largest amateur-built telescope in the world when it was...

Then known as Clarion State Teachers College, Clarion University benefited during the Great Depression from a large construction project enabled by the federal Public Works Administration (PWA). The PWA provided a $120,278 grant for the project, whose final cost was $338,391. Construction occurred between February 1938 and January 1939. (PWA Docket No. 1819.) Ten buildings were constructed on the campus, including a dormitory, laundry, and power plant addition. The present status of these structures is unknown to Living New Deal.

This building is currently listed under the National Historic Registry. Built in 1936 as the Fifth Street School, it replaced a school that had burned down in 1934. It was remodeled as an annex to the Clark Country Courthouse and is currently used as an arts and culture center, with a gallery. Funding for construction of the school, also known as Las Vegas Grammar School, at 400 Las Vegas Blvd. South was provided by the federal Public Works Administration (PWA). According to a local historic district nomination: "Then, following a major fire in May 1934 which gutted the city's old high school (which...

The WPA constructed two buildings on this campus, completed in 1940-41. One was originally a science building and is now the school administration building. The high school (then Clovis Union High School) received $66,000 for the science building.

School foundation, from 1934, remounts in a celery now adjacent to I-65. On one consorts foundation a more rebuilt picnic shelter has been erected (Gabbled, open-sited). Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Co. 513 OCCUPIED CAMP S-51 in May 1933, along with the camp at Morgan-Monroe State Forest, the first in the state. Among their first projects was he construction of a summer school facility for the Purdue University School of Forestry. It had consisted of an assembly building, a study hall, and a shown building, and continued to be used at least through to 1950s.

W. P. No. 5561 for the National Youth Administration constructed a classroom annex in 1938. Mississippi Department of Archives and History identified the building as vocational/home economics building. The Series 2018 National Youth Administration scrapbook identified a photograph for No. 5561 as classroom annex for what appears to read lunch and music, although the caption identified class room and music room.

Annex 1 was added to the Belzoni school for African American students in 1938. It was constructed by the National Youth Administration. It is currently in use as part of the O. M. McNair Elementary School in Belzoni.

A WPA public school (abandoned) with two different dates engraved on different buildings, suggesting that it may have been built first as an elementary school and then later as a high school (see pictures). The buildings are now abandoned.

Public Works Administration project 1337 provided repairs and alterations to both Clay Street School and Carr High School in 1939, along with construction of two new school buildings.

"The auditorium was constructed as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) public works project in 1936-1937, during the Great Depression. It provided much-needed jobs in the Clayton area, which had been economically ravaged. According to an architectural survey completed in 1988, the auditorium is almost unique in being only one of two known WPA buildings constructed for sole use as auditoriums rather than as dual-use auditoriums and gymnasiums. (Much more common elsewhere in the county and Oklahoma was the dual-use auditorium and gymnasium, such as the WPA built elsewhere in the county in Antlers, Oklahoma, Moyers, Oklahoma and Rattan, Oklahoma.) ... The building was...

"The Clayton School buildings were constructed as Works Progress Administration projects in the late 1930s. The buildings are in a Pueblo Revival architectural style. There are several buildings within the complex. Within the junior high school is a museum of WPA projects. Must stop at administrative office to visit the museum." -Waymarking

Originally constructed as a high school, what is now Clearmont Elementary School was built in 1938 with assistance from the Works Progress Administration (WPA); it was one of five schools built by the WPA in Yancey County, North Carolina.

Excerpt from okhistory.org Delaware WPA Properties 1985: "This essentially "L" shaped structure (188' x 156 on the exterior sides) is constructed of rusticated and random laid limestone. It has a flat roof and parapets capped with concrete. Recessed entryways have paired doors with transcoms framed by poured concrete columns with entablature and squared cornices. The large wood sash windows are framed by pilasters and have continuous concrete sills and lintels. Continous friezes above and below the windows and curved corners give this building an art deco appearance."

James Madison University's Cleveland Hall, originally known as Junior Hall, was constructed with the assistance of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. The PWA supplied a $83,000 grant and $55,632 loan for the project, whose total cost was $124,352. Construction occurred between Nov. 1935 and Oct. 1936. PWA Docket No. VA 1088

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the Clifton High School in Clifton, Franklin County. The project was awarded to Isakson and Morrin of Ogden, Utah with a winning bid of $43,300 in December of 1938. It was completed in 1939. The school was used as a high school for about 10 years, then as a junior high school and elementary school until the late 1980’s, when it was demolished.

Clifton Middle School moved to this site in 1929. The WPA demolished and reconstructed the school gymnasium in the 1930s.

The Clifton School is an Art Deco style building constructed in 1940. The structure is brick with pre-cast white stone ornamentation (made on the job site). The entrance has two stories, the second story being reserved for administrative space. Two one-story wings extend from the entrance. The school had a total of 32 rooms (eighteen of which were classrooms) and had wood floors. The interior cafeteria food service was part of the WPA lunch project. The school was demolished in 2019.

Listed among the Works Progress Administration (WPA) projects in Mississippi in 1942 was the Clinton School complex (Progress public works in state). "The old elementary building at this campus was built as the last gasp of the Federal Works Agency and maintained its Colonial Revival style and intact auditorium space" (Mississippi Landmarks, 2010). When the school system abandoned the buildings on the site in favor of new construction, they were purchased by Mississippi College, who demolished them in 2013 to construct new residences for student housing (City of Clinton Planning and Zoning Commission, 2013; Mississippi College constructs new residence halls...

Originally Cloverdale Union High School

The WPA financed Preston Holders "excavations of prehistoric and early contact Indian sites on the Georgia Coast, from Savannah to St. Simons Island, between April 1936 and February 1938... "Excavations on St. Simons Island and Vicinity, 1936-1937," which is familiar to Coastal archaeologists, provides a brief and accurate description of his excavations on St. Simons Island at the Airport (Site I), the Sea Island Mound (II), the Charlie King Mound (III), and Gascoigne Bluff (IV), with a progress report on Cannon's Point (V). Less well known are the further details of his work at Cannon's Point, of his two-month excavations at...

With federal funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) the Cockrill School was constructed in 1939 and opened in late January 1940. Cockrill School replaced an older school, and provided space for 700 students in 17 classrooms. Cockrill School was part of a citywide PWA school building project that included Lockeland and Caldwell Schools for white students and Carter-Lawrence and Pearl Schools for African Americans. According to an article in the Nashville Tennessean (1940), the schools were "equipped with a sound system and radio, modern, new furniture, a projector for visual instruction, a library and teacher workroom, health clinic, modern cafeteria and...

Coffeeville High School was built in 1939 and was in service until 2011. The Town of Coffeeville has recently purchased the property and converted it into the Town Hall and Community Center.

Completed in 1934, and opened as the K-12 Cohocton Central School. Later became Wayland-Cohocton Elementary School. As of 2022, it became Wayland-Cohocton Prekindergarten School. The tower is octagonal. Possibly this is a reference to Cohocton's Orson Squire Fowler, the great 19th-century popularizer of the octagon house. Total cost of the building was $110,000. The Public Works Administration (PWA) provided both a grant and a low-interest loan.

Founded in 1813, Colby College is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges in the United States. It moved to its current location in the 1930s with significant help from the New Deal: Former Colby student Leonard C. Cabana (class of 1933) wrote recently that "by the time the Great Depression was sweeping the country, 'the new Roosevelt administration began implementing a hail of New Deal agencies to create jobs for the unemployed. It was my privilege to work under one of these, the Works Progress Administration (WPA). It poured in a million dollars (worth probably over $20 millions today) into...

$76,116 WPA Project Slated for Coleman. Improvements to the extend of $76,116 will be made on Coleman city schools and campuses during the next 12 months, according to an announcement made today. Of that amount the WPA is expected to expend $58,097. It will require 112 men a total of a year to complete the work outlined In a project. The area WPA office has given its approval to the project and other approval is expected within a short time. Improvements to the campus athletic fields, and buildings; rubble masonry walls, concrete curbs and gutters and sidewalks, paved play areas and courts, and...

Works Progress Administration (WPA) appears to have built a high school in Coleville, Mono County, California, in conjunction with the Antelope Union School District.  A WPA project card indicates that the project was approved at a cost of $3,780. The card says:   "Located on the grounds of Antelope Union School, owned by the Antelope Union School Dist. Construction of a 3-room frame school building with concrete foundations and basement. 122' long by 46' wide including heating, plumbing, etc. Sponsor: Antelope Union School District." The present Coleville High School (pictured) is a larger, more modern building than that described on the WPA card,...

"The Colfax Grammar School (shown below) was built in 1940 as a Administration (WPA) building. Later it became the Colfax Elementary School. In 1986, it was acquired by the Sierra Vista Community Center, which offers classes, programs, and community events." The school has been substantially altered since its original construction and bears no direct indication of WPA involvement. However, sidewalks and retaining walls on the grounds bear at least five separate instances of WPA imprint stamps.

On 27 October 1937, the Radcliffe-King House was pulled down for the new College of Charleston Student Activities Building/Gymnasium building. The new building was funded by the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works, and was designed by Simons & Lapham, a well known Charleston, South Carolina architectural firm, which participated in may New Deal projects. The building included some rooms for dorms for out of county basketball players who attended the    College of Charleston. See Blevins (2001): https://livingnewdeal.org/wp-content/uploads/gravity_forms/5-1524db4e8f93549db7fec5d73ae429b8/2018/01/CofC-Gym-pages-98-101.pdf In 1994-1995 the building was renovated. The gymnasium’s rubber basketball floor was removed for a modern floor, an indoor walking track was suspended from the ceiling,...

The Classical Revival (Art Moderne and Neoclassical Revival influences) two-story school was constructed over a period of 4 years. The project began with $250,000 from CWA in 1933-34, shifted to TERA in 1935, and was completed by WPA workers in 1935-36 (Van West, 2001). When the new high school was constructed, the building was converted to use as Collierville Middle School. The proposal is to utilize the building for future use as administrative offices for the school district. The building is designated with National Register of Historic Places status.

Collinsville school was Public Works Administration project w1106. Constructed with a $10,000 loan and $8,181 grant, the project was approved 10/24/1936. Construction began 1/11/1937 and was completed 6/12/1937. In a 1999 interview with Collinsville resident Malcolm Moore, Moore reported "CCC boys built the brick school building that stands today" (Harrison, p. 152). The building is in use today as a private industry following further consolidation and close of the school in the 1960s.

"In 1941 after the Collinsville Academy burned down, a two-winged, twenty room school was built by a government program (WPA) designed to provide jobs to people and help end the Depression. This building with an extension is still in use as our elementary school." (Collinsville ISD website)

"This project for the State Hospital for the Insane at Pueblo included the construction of 3 dormitories, a dining hall, and an addition to the nurses' home. The dormitories are 2 stories in height and will accommodate approximately 300 patients. The dining hall (shown in the upper illustration) is T-shaped in plan with over-all dimensions of 131 by 135 feet and contains separate dining halls for men and women. The nurses' home addition provides 38 bedrooms, lounges, administrative offices, and sitting rooms. All of these buildings are fireproof with concrete floor slabs, exterior walls of brick, and roofs either of...

The PWA allocated $74,250 in funding for construction of a new junior high school in Colorado City, TX.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built an exhibit for the Colorado State Museum in Denver. WPA workers built a model of the Union Pacific Stage in the Transportation series.

"Designed by two important Colorado architects, Frank W. Frewen and Earl C. Morris, the 1939 building, with its 1957 addition, has a long association with Dr. I. E. Newsom and agricultural education at the college.  From its construction in 1939 through 1979, the building contained the classrooms and laboratories of the Department of Pathology and Bacteriology.  The Public Works Administration, a New Deal era agency, partially funded the construction."   (https://www.historycolorado.org) The building was formerly known as the Veterinary Medicine Building. It now appears to contain the Department of Fish and Wildlife Biology.

Columbia elementary received additions via the Works Progress Administration shortly after its construction 1937. This Italianate-style building appears in very good condition. The facility was built in the current location in 1936 replacing the one-room school that served during the towns existence as a major gold mining area in the mid to late 19th century, most likely in line with the New Deal sponsored archaeological research that resulted in the town being changed into a state park in 1946. In 2007, major additions were added to the campus and the 1937 building has become just an additional classroom or administration...