Education and Health Sites

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the Decatur High School and Gymnasium/Auditorium between 1938 and 1940. Three WPA plaques were found on this complex of buildings. One plaque found on entrance near the flag pole where it now says Decatur ISD Administration. One plaque found near tower entrance on the north side of the building. One plaque on the separate gymnasium/auditorium.

Montana's Big Timber Pioneer reported in September 1934 that one of the first PWA-sponsored projects to be completed in the state was a new $55,000 high school building in the town of St. Regis. The building, located at 90 Tiger St., continues to serve as part of an expanded K-12 school complex.

The WPA photo pictured here shows an athletic field constructed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) for West Rutland High School. The photo is dated to 1937. The Living New Deal does not know the current status of the athletic field.  

The Works Progress Administration built a high school athletic field and grandstand in Worland, Washakie County. The exact location and condition of this facility are unknown to the Living New Deal.

More than 100 National Youth Administration (NYA) workers operated over three shifts to renovate the athletic fields (including football and baseball fields) at Camden High School in 1936.

The city of Greenville sponsored the Works Progress Administration project to improve the high school athletic field. The field was graded and bleachers added with a capacity to seat 2,000. The cost of the project was $2,122 and employed fifteen men. The field is not extant.

A 1936 paper reported: "The WPA installed toilets in the high school garage, which is used as a comfort station for tennis players during the summer. At the present time WPA workers are working on the $25,000 plan to renovate the high school athletic field and the $6,000 tennis courts have been completed….” (Nov. 12, 1936) A 1937 update “MADISON – The $25,000 WPA project of renovating the Madison High School athletic field has been temporarily stopped for lack of funds… A secondary factor in stopping the work is the fact that the available lists of WPA workers eligible for the...

"This is a two-story brick high school auditorium which faces north on W. Main Street. There is no WPA signage here that we could find. A reference to it was found in the book "Leaning on a Legacy" which refers to a school on Main Street in Marlow as being a WPA project. It is also listed in the Oklahoma Landmarks Inventory as WPA. It was constructed in 1938 with an appropriation of $52,436. The building has embellishments, using stone window sills and small squares at the upper corners of the windows. Bricks are laid in a variety of patterns,...

The Oklahoma Historical Society database shows this campus, which included several buildings, as having been built by the Federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1938. The main high school was a one-story brick building with a concrete foundation. Today there is only one partial wall, and an empty foundation area.

The Federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) completed construction of the Fletcher High School Gym in 1938. The Waymarking site for this building says that, although the gym is still in use at Fletcher High School, it is now surrounded by newer buildings that block its view from the street. The Waymarking site goes to explain that: "At the corner of East Drive and Hornady Street is the Fletcher High School campus. At the center of the campus, behind newer buildings, this red brick WPA school gym and auditorium stands firm, anchoring the complex. It was built in 1938 with an appropriation of $27,270."

The former high school gymnasium building in Cokeville, Wyoming was constructed as part of a federal Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) project during the Great Depression. Construction was completed in 1938. The building, which Living New Deal believes to have been located along Pine Street, has since been demolished and replaced with a newer educational campus. PWA Docket No. WY 1057-DS

Located behind the current high school in Gorman, Texas is a blond brick two story gymnasium that bears a Works Progress Administration plaque, dates 1935-1937.

This gymnasium, built by the PWA in 1937, is on the south side of the Hallsville High school campus. It has a light red brick façade with windows on the south side for offices.

The Public Works Administration (PWA) funded new construction or improvement work for a gymnasium at the high school in Lihue, Kauai. The PWA grant amounted to $26,280. The work was carried out in 1938. The project, listed as Docket No. TH-1064-F, was part of the PWA’s non-federal projects expenditures for the Territory of Hawaii for 1938-1939.

The Works Progress Administration built a high school gymnasium in Manville, Niobrara County. The exact location and condition of this facility are unknown to the Living New Deal.

This WPA gymnasium was constructed in 1938-1942. It is a stand alone high school gymnasium constructed of adobe. It is approximately 6,000 sq. ft. Perimeter walls are 30 ft. high and are 20 inches thick. The building contains a reinforced cast in place concrete grandstand that seats approximately 270 adults. Showers and dressing/locker rooms are below the grandstands. The style of architecture is reminiscent of Art Moderne. In 1983 operable steel sash windows were removed and filled in with cement masonry units. A metal hip roof was added on top of the existing roof in 1984. The building was given Texas Historic...

The Public Works Administration provided funding for the high school gymnasium in Martindale, Texas in 1939. The docket number was X2350. The gym's walls and roof trusses are still standing but the roof is gone. The gym and the 1921 schoolhouse next to it are now privately owned. An advertisement shows the school is available to rent as a bed and breakfast and indicates the gym may be remodeled into an event center.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built a high school gymnasium in Rule TX in 1935. "Word has been received by Supt. U. U. Clark of the Rule high school that the WPA project of a new gymnasium has been approved at Washington and the money allocated. Work Is scheduled to begin In the next days. Mr. Sheppard, engineer of the government, has been appointed to supervise this work. The application for this project was put through the district office at Wichita Falls."

The newspaper Big Timber Pioneer reported in 1936 that an "old warehouse" was being remodeled as a "first class high school gymnasium and civic center for Virginia City ," under the auspices of the WPA. The building was termed "highly substantial," with the original construction being a "combination of native granite and and the flawless construction efforts of Mormon artisans." The WPA allotted 37 man-months of labor for the project, which included "rebuilding of the roof and part of the sidewalls, installation of new double doors, placing of windows and other small repairs." The exact location of the structure and its...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built an adobe gymnasium for the former Casa Grande High School.  That gym was torn down in the 1990s when the high school was repurposed as the current City Hall and a new high school was built at a different site. The WPA also built a city hall for Casa Grande, now demolished.  It is possible that the gym was paid for by the Public Works Administration (PWA), not the WPA; but we do not have definitive evidence of that.

On January 28, 1936, consideration was given to building a gym as a WPA project at Newcastle.  On February 2, 1936, the school board committed a matching $3, 800 to build the gym.  Local WPA employee A. C. Duckett was assigned as the project superintendent. The gym was demolished in 1993.  Alumni erected a pavilion in its location, and a monument to the gym, although they incorrectly list the construction date as 1931.  Rocks from the old gym building were preserved in the sidewalk leading to the pavilion.  The 1936 date is consistent with Mr. Wooldridge’s account of the construction, also...

The Bartlett Tribune and News reported in 1935 that Taylor, Texas's new $35,000 high school gymnasium was financed in part by a PWA grant and loan. The old high school and gymnasium are now part of the Taylor Resource Center, which serves seniors and other community needs.

In 1936, Works Progress Administration workers tore down Fulton's 1885 school building and erected a gymnasium/auditorium with reclaimed rocks.

Yazoo City's 1917 high school was renovated and a new annex built in 1938-1939 with funding from PWA. A grant of $46,227 was provided toward a total cost of $159,427. At 84% completion, the cost was $89,831. The project was approved as PWA x1322 9/7/1938 and construction began 12/9/1938. It was completed 11/20/1939. The annex addition added a gymnasium, dressing rooms, 600 spectator seats, ten new classrooms including a band room, industrial arts workshop, and home economics department. Renovations to the old building included converting the gymnasium into an auditorium with the addition of a stage and sloping floor, converting...

The Works Progess Administration (WPA) renovated the old Magnolia High School (built in 1908) in 1938. This followed a lively debate over whether to upgrade or replace the old high school. A new high school had been approved in 1936 following condemnation of the old building by the Mississippi State Department of Education and the Public Works Administration (PWA) offered to fund a new school (as PWA project W1264). Community controversy broke out, however, over whether a new building should be erected or the old one repaired. As a result, a bond measure for the local matching funds for a new...

A Mechanical Arts building was added to the former Park City High School in 1935-36, with funding from the federal Public Works Administration (PWA).  The old high school was built in 1928 in brick Collegiate Gothic-style and is now the Park City Library and Education Center.  The former Mechanical Arts building was done in a stripped-down, Moderne version of the high school and is now privately owned. The former high school, including the Mechanical Arts building, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.   The NRHP nomination quotes a Park City newspaper report on the inauguration of the Mechanical Arts building, giving the...

What is now the High School of Fashion Industries began in the 1920s as a vocational program in a garment center loft on West 31 Street. It was intended to train a work force for New York's large garment industry, and most early students were first or second generation immigrants. In 1938, the WPA helped build a new campus for the what was then called the Central High School of Needle Trades. The school was completed in 1941. The school's current website explains that "It’s curriculum was almost entirely vocational, stressing sewing, machine work, and fashion design. It had many ties...

"The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics constructed this 8-foot high-speed wind tunnel for test purposes. It is the largest structure of this kind in the world and is built of reinforced concrete throughout except that the air passages are lined with steel plates. Large-scale airplane models and full-sized airplane parts are investigated for the effects of air velocities varying from 85 miles per hour up to the speed of sound. The tunnel is equipped with an 8,000-horsepower motor which drives a 18-blade propeller 16 feet in diameter. The working space in the dome is at a...

"The Jordan School District Administration Building was built in 1935 as a Public Works Administration (PWA) project. It was part of a $75,000 PWA project that also included rebuilding the fire-razed Highland Boy Elementary School at Bingham which included an auditorium." The current status of the historic building is presently unknown to Living New Deal.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed a central clinic building in the Highland Hospital in Oakland in 1935 or 1936.  The exact location and design of that building are unknown. There is no evidence that the WPA clinic building is still standing; it was undoubtedly demolished during recent construction of a large new hospital building behind the original hospital of 1927. The photo here shows the entrance to the 1920s hospital, which was built in florid Spanish Revival style.

The auditorium annex to the Highland School, originally constructed in 1907, was completed by the WPA in 1936. It was destroyed in 1986.

The Works Progress Administration built an annex for the Hillman Hospital in Birmingham. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built an annex for the Hillman Hospital in Birmingham. Adjacent to the hospital stands a new clinic, also built by the WPA.  

The Hillsborough High School was built in 1927 but soon thereafter the Great Depression caused a halt to construction of the gymnasium and the track. These were eventually built in 1936 by the Works Progress Administration under the supervision of Mr. E.H. Foxworth. This structure has come to be known by the students as the Barn due its architectural style.

The WPA built this building as the Lander Gym, then part of the Hilmar Union High School. It now serves as the Hilmar Unified School District office. "During the construction of the high school gym, students could skip school to help with the building, Grant said, which made some students happy. In April of 1936, the high school received a $6,626.86 check from the federal government, the first of several payments for the new gym, according to the Hilmar-Irwin Enterprise. L. Ubels, the gym's contractor, was eventually paid $24,488 for the work." - https://www.mercedsunstar.com/2010/05/01/1406511/wpa-elim-elementary.html

The Hinckley High School Gymnasium was built in 1935-36 with funding from the federal Public Works Administration (PWA).   It was part of a larger project for the Millard County School District that included a mechanical arts building at Delta High School and a gymnasium at Millard High School in Fillmore.  Total cost for the three buildings was $130,000. Lyman and Newell (1999) suggest that the Hinckley Gym was "fully constructed under the P.W.A. program." The architects of all three were Carl W. Scott and George W. Welch. The contractors were Talboe and Litchfield.  The Hinckley gym is an example of stylized...

PWA project W1183 constructed a boys’ dormitory and boys’ gymnasium for the Hinds County Junior College in 1938. A grant for $151,986 was approved June 22, 1938 toward the total cost of $322,153. Construction started November 14, 1938 and was completed December 4, 1939. The architect was James Manly Spain and the builder/contractor Newton & Schmoll for the Stripped Classic/Colonial Revival dormitory. The brick dormitory contained 43 rooms and an apartment for the dormitory manager. The dormitory is not extant.

Public Works Administration project W1183 constructed a boys’ dormitory and boys’ gymnasium. A grant for $151,986 was approved June 22, 1938 toward the total cost of $322,153. Construction started November 14, 1938 and was completed December 4, 1939. The Denton Gymnasium is a Stripped Classic, two-story brick designed by architect James Manly Spain and constructed by builder/contractor Newton & Schmoll. The first floor contained locker rooms, club room, supply room, visitors quarters, office, first aid, showers and dressing rooms. The gymnasium with a seating capacity for 700 people was located on the second floor. It remains in use.

In 2013 the Department of Housing and Urban Development wrote: "Built in 1937 as a Works Progress Administration project, the Wilkesboro, North Carolina Elementary School, known as the Historic Wilkesboro School, was recently transformed into an affordable housing community for low-income seniors. ... restoration of the old school building a sustainable, walkable community of 41 one- and two-bedroom units for low-income seniors."

Traversehistory.org: "In 1934, Traverse City Park’s commissioner, Con Foster, had an idea. He envisioned a park along the lakeshore at the south tip of the West Grand Traverse Bay. The park would have a zoo, a beach house and a historical museum about the region. Over the next several years, Con Foster traveled over 15,000 miles throughout the Midwest buying Native American and pioneer artifacts to display in the Museum. In 1935, the Works Progress Administration built a building to house this collection and it was later named the Con Foster Museum. For the past 70 years this collection has grown to...

Thanks to the assistance of the Lakeport History Museum, a former WPA built history museum was located. The WPA constructed the museum in 1936. The history museum was moved into a historic courthouse that had operated from 1871 to 1968 and after a vote, was refurbished and became the town museum in 1976. The former museum is now utilized as a law library. WPA Project No. 65-3-3325, App. Date 12-9-35, $3,299, "Construct building for historical museum."