Education and Health Sites

The former Foxboro State Hospital was greatly expanded by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, with the aid of Federal funds, during the New Deal era. One Federal Public Works Administration-assisted project saw the construction of four buildings on the State Hospital campus, including the since-demolished Tuberculosis, or "T", Building. The "T" Building was located about 900 feet north of Chestnut Street between North Street and Payson Road, northwest of an assembly hall built at the same time with additional federal assistance. Construction details: "masonry exterior bearing, concrete and steel interior framing, wood flat roof framing." The Foxboro Reporter wrote that the building, "two...

The former Foxboro State Hospital was greatly expanded by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, with the aid of Federal funds, during the New Deal era. One Federal Public Works Administration-assisted project saw the construction of four buildings on the State Hospital campus, including the 'day space building.' This building is probably what was also known as Walnut Lodge. Construction details: "masonry exterior bearing, steel and steel joist and concrete framing, wood pitched wood deck." The Foxboro Reporter wrote that the building, "two stories and basement, 85 feet long and 28 feet wide, brick construction, with piazzas 53 feet long and 14 feet...

The Works Progress Administration built the Frances School Gymnasium in 1938. The gym is a 102' x 60' balloon frame building sitting on a poured concrete foundation. It has steel beams supporting the roof and the exterior is clad in wood weatherboard. The building is still used by the school system and community and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 1, 1993.

This PWA-built school has 12 classrooms.

Rehabilitated an abandoned building, for use by W.P.A. workers on white collared projects.--Healy, p. 65.

350 seats, concrete.

Concrete, 2-story addition, 2 rooms.

The Franklin Academy Elementary School was constructed on the site of the state's oldest public school, Franklin Academy. PWA project x1306 approved a grant of $117,000 9/26/1938. Construction began 12/1/1938 and was completed 12/1/1939 for a total cost of $260,154. Architect R. W. Naef designed the 2 1/2 story brick Colonial Revival building constructed by Daniel Construction Company. The building featured a "two-story pedimented portico supported on continuious Tuscan columns, rusticated brick quoins, and square central tower with octagonal cupola" (P'Pool, 1979, p. 17). The building remains in use as a school.

Designed by architect George D. Riddle in PWA Moderne style, buildings 100 and 300 at Franklin Classical Middle School in Long Beach, CA, were completed in 1934. The 1933 Long Beach Earthquake destroyed the school originally designed by J.C. Austin and W. Horace Austin in 1922 at 6th and Orange; the school is now located at 6th and Cerritos. “On August 29, 1933, Long Beach citizens approved a $4,930,000 bond measure for the rebuilding of schools . Applications for approximately thirty-five schools were filed with the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Public Works Administration (PWA); federal grants up to thirty...

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) spent nearly eighteen hundred dollars building and remodeling privies at white and African American schools throughout the county in the 1930s. The local government contributed a portion of the nineteen hundred dollars it cost when the CWA and Emergency Relief Administration (ERA) added a room to Mitchell School in 1938. The CWA also funded a malaria control project at Edward Best School. During the period 1933 to 1939, the PWA carried out two school-building projects: construction of the Justice School and an addition to the Bunn School, at a total cost of $65,000.

According to the National Archives, the PWA helped build this elementary school in 1937. By inference, it appears to have been Roosevelt Elementary, which was demolished in 1996.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) renovated Franklin Elementary School in Santa Monica, CA, after it was damaged in the 1933 Long Beach earthquake. Improvements included the construction of two Streamline Moderne–style buildings for $63,072 in WPA funds as well as tennis courts.

The Franklin Hall dormitory building at OPSU was improved with W.P.A. funds and labor. "By the 1920’s, the dormitory housed only male students, usually forty of them, and was called The Boys’ Dormitory. In 1935, the state legislature and WPA funds allowed funds for some badly needed remodeling. One year later, remodeling provided additional bathroom facilities in the building." Sometimes known as "the white building," the building still stands at the eastern corner of Sewell St. and College Ave.

Franklin K. Lane High School, located in the Cypress Hills neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, was constructed with the assistance of federal Public Works Administration funds during the 1930s (PWA Docket No. NY 8884-R). Short and Stanley-Brown write: "This is one of the largest and most modern schools in New York City and has been highly rated by the Municipal Art Commission. It is in a residential district. It contains the usual administrative offices, service rooms, 84 classrooms, library, commercial museum, 4 gymnasiums, rooms for social activity, homemaking, artcraft, 8 drawing rooms, a swimming pool, and an auditorium. The student capacity is...

The October 3, 1938 Daily Pacific Builder reported that PWA funds $47,562 has been allotted for the construction of addition to what was then the Franklin Middle School.

The Public Works Administration (PWA) funded the construction of what appears to have been an addition to the Franklin School in Provo UT. The original school building dated to the turn of the century, judging from the Utah Valley University archives. The above photograph appears to show an addition built by the PWA. A photograph of the original school at the FamilySearch.org link (below) seems to corroborate this interpretation, but more information is needed to be certain. The entire Franklin School site appears to have been cleared for a new school sometime prior to 1993, judging from Google Earth.

The Public Works Administration (PWA) funded the construction of the Franklin Senior High School in Franklin IN. The architects of record were McGuire and Shook. Currently the Alva Neal Community Office Building, served as the high school until 1960.

The University of Mississippi made application to the Public Works Administration September 7, 1935 for grants to help construct five fraternity houses and two sorority houses. Funds in the amount of $2,000 for each structure were requested from PWA, and the university would fund the remaining $3,000 per building.The university requested $45,454 for fraternity and sorority houses according to a separate Clarion-Ledger article.Architects began drawing up plans for the first of ten sorority and fraternity houses, and the establishment of “fraternity row” after being notified funds had been obtained reported architect E. L. Malvaney. Work was ordered to begin on...

Pennsylvania State University's Frear North Laboratory was one of a dozen buildings constructed on the campus during the Great Depression as part of a massive construction project enabled by the federal Public Works Administration (PWA). The building is still in use today.

The original part of this building dates to 1916, with the two sections flanking the central building being built in 1935.  Small, recent additions are at the north and south of the building.  This was a traditionally black school until integration of the Columbia Public Schools.  It is adjacent to the swimming pool in Douglass Park, a WPA project completed in about 1937.

Frederick's Municipal Swimming Pool building was reportedly built by the WPA in 1935. “The Frederick WPA-built school," writes Marjorie Barton, "is an example of how proper maintenance can preserve WPA buildings.”

Fredericksburg received a WPA grant of $4,954 in 1939 to improve the campus and athletic field at the Fredericksburg Public School (now Fredericksburg Middle School). The school agreed to a dollar-for-dollar match and the seniors of 1938 donated $200 from their yearbook fund to help complete the project. The native flagstone wall in front of the school (Travis Street) would be dedicated to them. Other improvements were an arch built over the east entrance and re-paving of the driveway. The athletic field would have drainage enhancements and new sod, a fifty-inch-high fence built along College Street, a cinder tract around the...

The Works Progress Administration built new bathroom facilities at the Frederiksted Grammar School. Before becoming a public school, the building had served as a hospital and the Danish School. The site of the school is today occupied by the Arthur Abel Complex, which serves as the Governor’s Frederiksted Offices.

The Works Progress Administration built new bathroom facilities for the Frederiksted High School School (renamed Arthur A. Richards Junior High School) on St. Croix.

The Works Progress Administration built a new cistern and carried out the repairs and extension of the water and sewer systems, at Frederiksted Hospital. The plaque placed in 2004 by the St. Croix Historic Preservation Commission at the site of the former hospital reads: "Frederiksted Hospital - Erected as a 2-story town house in 1803 by the DaCosta family, this sturdy building has been greatly modified over the years. Major alterations occurred in the 1930's, when the residence was converted into Frederiksted's main hospital."

In 1934, the CWA performed repairs and improvements to the Frederiksted Public Grammar School.

In 1938, the Washington Post reported that the Public Works Administration (PWA) had funds to build a new tuberculosis unit with 150 additional beds at the Freedman's Hospital site. The same year, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) also did repairs at the former Freedman's Hospital in Washington DC.  WPA project cards in the National Archives state that the work to be done was to, "Clean and renovate Freedmen's Hospital buildings, including cleaning windows, washing walls, floors, woodwork, furnishings and small equipment". Freedmen's Hospital was established in 1862 to serve the thousands of African Americans who came to Washington during the Civil War, seeking their...

"Port Deposit is an interesting town that sits alongside the Susquehanna River, not far from the Conowingo Dam. There is an abundance of stonework in the town, and the former African American school shown below is no exception. This was one of 19 new schools that the WPA built in Maryland (they repaired or improved 389 other schools). The building is now called 'Freeman Hall.' ...The building seems to be in fairly good shape, but it has suffered from some degree of neglect and vandalism. Fortunately, a restoration project has been started, and on December 14, 2011 it was reported that...

Designed by Glenn E. Miller and Hugh Gibbs, Fremont Elementary School was built in 1934 with Public Works Administration (PWA) funding. It is one of six LBUSD schools built in the aftermath of the 1933 Long Beach Earthquake that were designed in the Period Revival style instead of WPA/PWA Moderne. The 1933 earthquake destroyed hundreds of schools throughout Southern California. “On August 29, 1933, Long Beach citizens approved a $4,930,000 bond measure for the rebuilding of schools. Applications for approximately thirty-five schools were filed with the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Public Works Administration (PWA); federal grants up to thirty percent...

A $40,000 building was built at Fremont Elementary School under the WPA, the most extensive work done on any Riverside school. In the field of education, WPA relief was limited to repair and construction work. The WPA did work on seventeen Riverside area schools, with such tasks as painting Lincoln Elementary School, improving the Bryant Elementary School playgrounds, and rebuilding the Riverside City College chemistry lab. It appears from Google photos that the building constructed by the WPA is no longer extant. Newer looking buildings comprise the elementary school today.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) carried out improvements to the grounds at Fremont Elementary School in Alhambra, CA.

Oakland's Fremont High School was destroyed by arson in 1930 and rebuilt in 1931. A new gymnasium for the school was financed with a 45% Public Works Administration (PWA) grant in 1938 and completed in 1939. The total cost was $192,000. The 1939 gym was built in a rather stern Moderne style.  It had collapsable bleachers so that it could serve both for sporting events and as an auditorium.  Carl N. Swenson Company was the builder. No trace of the old gym remains, as Fremont High is undergoing a complete renovation in 2020.    

The stadium was originally built in 1926, but later improved by the WPA. The archival photo pictured details each feature the WPA worked on at and surrounding this stadium, including new adjacent handball and tennis courts. The WPA work on this stadium was most likely included the 1942 work referred to in the following quote from the stadium's website: "The stadium, originally know as Fresno State College Stadium and renamed for Fresno State's first football coach, Emory Ratcliffe, in 1941, was expanded with a high-rise grandstand on the west side in 1942, boosting the seating capacity to 13,000."   (www.fresnocitycollege.com) This may also...

This Dutch Modern Administration Building was built in 1936. It is H. P. #53 on the Fresno Local Register of Historic Resources. It was built by Charles Franklin, Ernest Kump Jr., and Alastair Simpson for Allied Architects of Fresno. "Constructed in 1936 with PWA funds, the Fresno Unified School District Administration building served as the district's main administrative offices until 1973. The building is an early example of the International style in Fresno, and the first example of the style in the Civic Center area. Kump followed his New Deal era work with an award-winning career in school and campus design,...

Built by Ernest J. Kump Jr. for Allied Architects of Fresno in 1936. Unfortunately the building was recently demolished.

Fries Avenue Elementary School, which opened in 1923, 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...

Nashville's former main post office was built in 1933-34 by the Treasury Department's Office of Construction (later the Office of Procurement).  The enormous structure, filling a city block, was constructed in a record 18 months. The design by architects Marr and Holman is a distinctive "stripped" classicism exterior design (often simply called Classical Moderne). The exterior is white Georgia marble with gray-pink Minnesota granite. The interior is done in the Art Deco Style with cast aluminum doors and grillwork, colored marble and stone on floors and walls. Interior marble included Fantasia Rose and Monte Neva from East Tennessee, Westfield marble from...

The town of Fruita, Colorado received a Public Works Administration (PWA) grant of over $70,000 that covered almost half the cost of a new Fruita High School, begun in 1935 and completed in 1936.  The building is now used as the Fruita Middle School. The school building is a lovely example of Moderne architecture. It is a long, rectangular two story structure with two rows of windows separated by vertical elements suggesting columns. There is a small, single story wing joined to the main building and a rounded entrance foyer between the two.  The cladding is a light orange/earth-tone brick. There is...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed a small museum for the town of Fruita, Colorado, in 1938-39. It is constructed in rustic style using large stones and timber gathered from the surrounding area. The building housed the Fruita Times in 1945 to 1948, then served as the Fruita Library from 1948 to 1996.  It is now home to the town's Chamber of Commerce. The Fruita Museum building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.

Variously known as the 1939 Dining Hall, the Seminole Dining Hall and now the William Johnston Building, this Collegiate Gothic style building was constructed by the PWA in 1939. A report from a former Florida State University art student describes the building as follows: “In the fall of 1938, construction of this new Dining Hall began, though it would not be but another two years before it would formally open its doors… The New Dining Hall appeared as a place of reverence that granted a sense of security and comfort at days end. One would proceed up the monumental staircase of the front...