Education and Health Sites

Albany did not have a public high school until 1936; students traveled to Berkeley, Richmond or Oakland. The WPA and PWA contributed to the building of Albany High between, roughly, 1936-1941. According to the Albany Times from that period, five building units were constructed, including administrative offices, classrooms, laboratories, a cafeteria, nurse's offices, print shop, library, theater, gym, and music room. Regarding cost, also according to the Albany Times, the WPA contributed $20,000 of the $60,000 it cost to build the first unit, and at least $26,602 to building the third unit. A PWA grant of $28,350 went to the fourth...

"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...

PWA approved project X1373 for a college dormitory for the HBCU Alcorn State University 9/16/1938. Construction began 12/18/1938 and was completed 8/19/1939. The Colonial Revival brick building is extant and remains in use. Architects Carl L. Olschner and Edgar Lucian Malvaney designed the dormitory and Flint-Jordan Construction Company erected the hall. The cost was $63,636.

The Oakland Chapel Greek Revival style building constructed 1840-1851 was completely renovated through support from the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) and state legislated funds that made repairs and improvements to 20 state institutions 1934-1935. Then known as Alcorn A & M College, the chapel was only one of the projects on the campus. Additional work included repair to the men's dormitory, extension of sewer lines, laying of sidewalks, and installment of concrete floors in the blacksmith and machine shops. A total of $8,728.66 of the over $400,000 spent in the other institutions was expended on Alcorn campus. The Mississippi legislature...

The Public Works Administration (PWA) contributed approximately $5,400 toward the construction of the Aleknagik Schoolhouse Inn in 1938. Built as a territorial school in 1933, the facility initially consisted of a log cabin. In 1938, the PWA built a two-story structure. The facility included a teacher's apartment, which is still in use today and serves as an inn. The structure is located on the south shore of Lake Aleknagik, near the Wood-Tikchik State Park.  A contemporary description of the structure states that "this historic two-story territorial schoolhouse overlooks the south shore of Lake Aleknagik and the Wood River. The Inn has three guest...

"The Alex Public School (pronounced Elic), is a red brick one-story T-shaped building, with its main entrance in the north intersection of the T. This entrance has new aluminum and glass double doors with two concrete steps. The doors are slightly recessed under a triangular pediment, and flanked by two round columns. "Many of the windows have been filled in with concrete block or covered with wood. This main building has numerous outbuildings in this school complex and contains all grades in this small town of approximately 550 residents. The school complex is located at F Street and 2nd Street. "The year...

From On September 17, 1935, the Bernalillo Board of Education prepared a WPA project proposal for an addition to an existing elementary school in the village of Algodones, a rural farming north of Albuquerque. The project would not only include the addition, but also “leveling and straightining of the school grounds” (WPA OP 65-85-492: 7158). The Board estimated that the work would cost $2,768,00, with the WPA contributing $3,168.00. The school addition and improvements was the only WPA project funded in the small community. The WPA played an important role in developing school infrastructure in New Mexico during the Great Depression. Prior to...

On October 14, 1938, the Daily Pacific Builder reported that a PWA contract of $63,840 had been awarded for the construction of a boys' gym at Alhambra City High School. The plans had been prepared by architect John Walker Smart, and Steed Bros. won the construction contract.

The science building at Alhambra High School was renovated in 1935 with New Deal funding, including from the Los Angeles County Relief Administration. Twenty-five laborers and 12 skilled tradesmen were employed on the project.

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) conducted improvement work at the old Alhambra School in Phoenix, Arizona during the 1930s. A gymnasium was also constructed in 1938. Living New Deal believes the old facility to be demolished.

"Alice E. Carlson Elementary was named in honor of the first woman who served on the school board. It originally opened as a 4-room school in 1926. The 1-story polychrome brown brick building was designed by Wiley G. Clarkson and constructed by A. J. Howard in a Mission Revival-influenced style. The rapid growth of the surrounding TCU neighborhood called for the enlargement of the school in 1935 under the PWA program. This addition, designed by Joseph R. Pelich and erected by Harry B. Friedman, tripled the size of the school and included an auditorium wing. The front entrance was altered slightly...

“Muskogee’s Alice Robertson School, now a 7th and 8th grade center, and the adjacent stadium, Indian Bowl, used WPA labor. The plaque in the school lobby indicates Federal Works Agency is credited with the job, as the project was completed after the reorganization requiring that label. Many communities wanted to avoid using the letters WPA, because of the stigma of using ‘relief’ labor. That did not appear to be true in Muskogee, which had many WPA projects. Federal Works Agency was a proper term, but many schools finished during that time used the common shield with the date and WPA,...

The Works Progress Administration built the Alice Savage Elementary in Red Oak. Contributor note: "The Alice Savage Elementary School, located on North Main is a one-story coursed native sandstone building, with a flat roof on the classroom section and a barrel roof over the gymnasium which is connected perpendicularly to the rear of the school. The school contains 10 or more classrooms, and was built in 1939-1940. The front of the school has two double-door entrances recessed beneath arched openings. Between the two entrances are two projected stone pilasters with decorative projections. The windows are set in triples. The top one-third of...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) added a Kindergarten to the Aliso Elementary School in Carpinteria CA.  It is unknown to us which part of the present school this is. 

The Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) supplied funds to enable additions to what was then the Allegheny County Home and Hospital, later Woodville State Hospital.

"The construction of this hospital plant was begun in 1929 but work was discontinued in 1931 due to financial difficulties. It was resumed in 1935 with the aid of the P.W.A. and when completed covered most of a site of 4 1/2 acres and included a 20-story hospital building, a 9-story nurses' home, and a power-house supplying the entire institution. The hospital building contains 1,200 rooms of which 162 are for private patients, and it increases the total bed capacity of the institution by more than 50 percent. In the plan, all of the departments which are related in service permit...

The Allen Jay School Rock Gymnasium opened on November 21, 1939, on the school campus then outside High Point, North Carolina. Besides a gymnasium, the building had locker rooms, a library, and two classrooms. The project was completed using funds from the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Since the county school board could not fund school construction in 1937, the small community decided to build the gymnasium themselves with locally-donated materials and funding from the WPA. In the final plans, the gym needed to be masonry construction, which had not been figured into the initial project. The WPA had experience building...

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed a garage for what was then known as Allentown Hospital (now Geraldine L. Thompson Care Center) in 1936. The status of the old garage is unknown to Living New Deal.

1883 - 1937 : Dona Ana County Court House 1941 - 1984 : Las Cruces Junior High School or Court Jr. High School 1993 - present : Mesilla Valley Youth Foundation Court Youth Center 2004 - present : Alma d'arte Charter High School 1883 - 1937 : The Dona Ana County Court House on Court Avenue served as the site of all legal matters in the County, including hangings. The building was razed in 1937 when the County received Works Progress Administration funds to build a new court house and a new junior high school.

Alta Loma 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...

Built by the WPA in 1940. The library flooded during Katrina, but has since reopened.

The school was originally established in 1923.

Amagansett, New York's then-new school building was constructed in 1936 with the aid of a $76,000 PWA grant. The building opened Jan. 1937 and it is still in use today.

Ordway Hall at Amarillo College was constructed as a New Deal project. Sometimes mis-attributed to the Works Progress Administration (WPA), it was the Public Works Administration (PWA) that provided a $73,116 grant for the project, whose total cost was $162,547. Construction occurred between 1936 and 1937. P.W.A. Docket No. Tex. 1499 "Architect Guy Carlander designed this administration building for Amarillo College. It was built in 1936-37 and later named for George Ordway, who with James Guleke obtained legislative authority to establish the school; Ordway later became the first president. The L-plan building consists of an auditorium and a two-story classroom and office wing with 19...

The Russell Gymnasium at Amarillo College in Amarillo, Texas was undertaken with the assistance of funds provided by the Public Works Administration (PWA) during the Great Depression. Text From the state historical marker reads: "The administration building and the gymnasium were the first two permanent structures built for Amarillo College. Originally known as Badger Gymnasium for the school's athletic teams, this facility was renamed to honor Dr. Natalie Russell, who fostered women's physical education at the college. Architect Guy Carlander designed the building, erected in 1937-39 with Public Works Administration funding. The steel and brick gymnasium includes a two-story central space surrounded...

The Works Progress Administration built tennis courts and completed landscaping at the American School in American Fork, Alpine School District. Docket # 2799-R (Utah).

The American Red Cross Building in San Juan was built in 1935 by PRERA (the Puerto Rico Emergency Relief Administration; as opposed to PRRA, the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration). “In accordance to Law No. 3 of June 26, 1929, the Government of Puerto Rico sold to the American Red Cross, Puerto Rico Chapter, a plot of 563.25 square meters, located in the Puerta de Tierra neighborhood of San Juan, for the sum of one dollar. Law 3 required that the Chapter build a structure within five years at the cost of no less than $15,000. Another condition was that the structure...

The Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works (Public Works Administration) funded the construction of the Ames High school. Today, the building serves as the Ames City Hall.

Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) labor painted and repaired Ames School in Dedham, Massachusetts.

Amherst Central High School was constructed by the PWA in the early 1930s.

This was one of five monumental senior high schools built in Fort Worth with the aid of New Deal programs. It was designed by Fort Worth architect Wyatt C. Hedrick in an eclectic Spanish Baroque style and features yellow brick and a clay tile roof. Funding for the building came through the Public Works Administration (PWA). The grounds of the school were landscaped by Hare & Hare of Kansas City, Missouri, with the work implemented by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The heavily-treed campus includes a band shelter with stage that was built by the WPA.  The school has been...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) funded the reconstruction of the Anaheim High School after the Long Beach Earthquake of 1933. Damage to the school was not extensive but reconstructing the entire school was projected to be less expensive than merely repairing the buildings.  In 1935, State Emergency Relief Administration (SERA) workers deconstructed the original buildings. Then construction of the new school began in the same year. The PWA contributed $111,000 while bonds raised an additional $275,000 The new art deco style main building, library and auditorium were dedicated in 1936. Then in 1937, a gym was built and financed partially by the...

Santa Rosa Junior College's Analy Hall was constructed by the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) during the Great Depression. The building is still in use today.

"The school population from Sebastopol and outlying areas gradually increased. By 1935 a new school was built as a WPA project on the same site as the original school, serving students that were bussed from all the outlying communities, the Russian River area, and as far away as Cazadero." - Sebastopol There are also several 1941 WPA stamps impressed in the sidewalk on the west side of Vaughn Lane alongside the school, approximately at these coordinates: 38.407220,-122.827004.

Andes Central School in Andes, New York was constructed with the aid of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. The PWA provided a $90,000 grant for the project, whose total cost was $209,677. Construction occurred between Nov. 1936 and Oct. 1937. PWA Docket No. NY 8577-D

Andrew Jackson Elementary School was rebuilt by the Public Works Administration in 1935. It was one of 27 schools in the Pasadena Unified School District to be either rebuilt, demolished, or reinforced by the PWA or the Works Progress Administration (WPA) following the 1933 Long Beach earthquake.  

The presently multi-campus Campus Magnet High School(s) was constructed as Andrew Jackson High School during the 1930s. The federal Public Works Administration (PWA) provided more than $1,000,000 in financial assistance to enable the project to move forward. The PWA Docket number was NY 8024-R. The exterior of the school consisted of brick and limestone. "Most of the doors and windows are wood, and the Main Entrance doors are bronze," a PWA report said. "The building has three stories and a basement. The plan is a combination H and E in shape. Its frame is built of steel with reinforced concrete arches....

Angeles Mesa Elementary School, which opened in 1917, 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...

The former (since demolished) historic Angier School building Newton, MA received an addition using federal Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) funds in 1936.

"Cooperating with the PWA which provided 45 percent of the cost ... construction work was started on additions to the Ann J. Kellogg school ...," in Battle Creek, Michigan.