Education and Health Sites

The single story Colonial Revival Administration building for the school was constructed in 1936 by the WPA.

"A number of other APS buildings were built, remodeled, or had additions built as the result of this source of this source of funding. Likewise adjacent school playgrounds, ball fields, etc. were also created. The schools include Armijo, Coronado, Duranes, Five Points School, La Mesa, Lincoln, Los Candelarias, Pajarito, San Jose, Santa Barbara, and Stronghurst. For specific information on each of these refer to the Albuquerque Museum Monograph written by Charles Biebel." -Treasures on New Mexico Trails

"Artesia is home to several WPA construction projects including the Municipal Hospital, the Old City Hall, the gym on the Artesia Schools campus and the wall around Morris Field. The Hospital is in private hands. The Old City Hall is also a private office, but looks much the same as when it was built. The gym is still the gym and Morris Field is still in use, also on the school campus. Much of the construction uses beautiful local stone, which can be seen throughout Artesia, including the once private residence that is now the Artesia Historical Museum & Art...

"Originally called Artesia Memorial Hospital when built in 1939 by WPA/PWA funds, it is still in use today. Additions were made in the early 1940's and the most recent renovations and additions finalized in the mid 1960's." -Treasures on New Mexico Trails

The PWA built an addition of several classrooms onto the rear of the original 1920s building. The building is in an abstracted Colonial Revival style. The addition was designed by Traficante & Niebuhr of East Providence. After being retired from school use, in housed administration offices, but is now vacant.

"Located in the historic downtown area of Raton, New Mexico, Arthur Johnson Memorial Library building was originally built" as the community's post office in 1917, well prior to the advent of the New Deal. "Remodeling in the late 1990's opened the second floor for use, and included the addition of an elevator." The facility's significance from a New Deal standpoint stems from the "large collection of paintings representative of New Mexico artists of the New Deal period," which hang "throughout the library. A painting by the late Chiricahua Apache artist, Allan Houser, done prior to his moving into 3 dimensional art,...

The Brooklyn school J.H.S. 234, presently Arthur W. Cunningham Junior High School, was constructed with the assistance of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds.

In 1936, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed an auditorium for Central School in Baldwin Park, CA. With over 600 seats, the auditorium was used for both school and civic activities. The Moderne (Art Deco) structure is simple and unadorned, its concrete facade suggestive of early Brutalism. The auditorium served as an auxiliary meeting space after Central School was converted into Baldwin Park's first city hall in 1958, and as a storage facility after city hall was relocated in 1978. Since 2007, the renovated auditorium structure has served as Baldwin Park's Arts and Recreation Center (ARC). In addition to a dance studio, arts...

The Ashland Elementary School in Ashland KS is an elementary school built in 1937 with Public Works Administration funding. This is a two story red brick building with a flat roof and parapet. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and it is still in use.

"The Ashwood School Gymnasium and Auditorium is situated south of Bishopville, South Carolina just off U.S. Highway 15 on Ashwood School Road near Ashwood Lake, all namesakes and products of the rural New Deal resettlement community of 'Ashwood Plantation.' The gymnasium/auditorium was completed in December of 1938 for a total cost of $63,888.81 by the Goode Company of Charlotte, North Carolina, contracted by the Farm Security Administration." (NRHP Registration Form)

The city Health Center, meant to serve Long Island City and Astoria, at the southwest corner of 31st Ave. and 14th St., was built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). "This center and eight others are being built as WPA projects," The New York Times reported in 1936.

Multiple school buildings in southeastern Vermont were improved with federal Civil Works Administration (C.W.A.) funds and labor. Athens/Jamaica town report, 1933-4: At present there are four different jobs under the C. W. A. either going on or finished. At South Wardsboro the school house has been shingled and a new chimney built. At West Wardsboro one side of the school building has been shingled. At Athens running water is being piped to the school. In South Newfane the school building has been moved farther back from the road and is being completely remodeled. The labor for all these projects is provided...

Kearney State Teachers College was granted almost $10,000.00 in a WPA grant to improve its athletic facilities. The project was planned to be very “inclusive.” It included improving the current football and athletic field at the college, and leveling and grading the area to the north of the gridiron and practice field, formerly part of the “college farm.” Preliminary surveys called for the moving of much earth, and additional parking space would be among the improvements. Tennis courts and other recreational facilities would also be provided. If costs proved reasonable, the track and bleachers were possible additions to the project. In...

The Atlanta Miller Grade School was a Works Progress Administration project taking 120 days to complete. Hardy Brothers of Texarkana began construction of the one-story, six-room building in 1936. Text from the state historical marker at the site reads: Atlanta-Miller Grade School. Public education in Atlanta dates to 1874. Prior to the civil rights era of the mid-20th century, separate schools served Anglo and African American students. The school at this site, known initially as Atlanta Grade School, was built for white students in 1936 with federal funding through the Works Progress Administration. Due to high enrollment, building additions were completed over...

This WPA project was described in the National Register of Historic Places Feature for African American History Month in 2012: "A combined elementary, junior high and high school, Attucks School was one of seven such schools that served African Americans in Vinita, Craig County, Oklahoma,  and was the only one that had a secondary school until after racial desegregation in the mid-1950s. Established in 1915-1916, Attucks School is also important for its association with the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a New Deal agency created in the 1930s to stimulate local, state and national economies during the Great Depression. In 1939 the...

Auburn, Nebraska's central school offices was constructed as high school as part of a federal Public Works Administration (PWA) project. The PWA provided a grant of $59,413 for the project, whose total cost was $132,306. Construction occurred between Dec. 1937 and Dec. 1938. PWA Docket No. Neb. 1301

WPA projects in Jefferson County, Florida included "a vocational school at Aucilla." The location and status of this building are unknown to Living New Deal.

An auditorium/gym construction project in Farwell, Texas was undertaken in 1935 with Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) funds. The P.W.A. provided a $15,000 loan and $7,800 grant for the project, whose total cost was $27,737. The exact location and status of the facility is presently unknown to Living New Deal. P.W.A. Docket No. TX 9428

An auditorium/gym construction project in Ulysses, Kansas was undertaken with Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) funds. The P.W.A. provided a $22,725 grant for the project, whose total cost was $52,847. The exact location and status of the facility is presently unknown to Living New Deal. P.W.A. Docket No. Kansas 1023

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed a community building in Farmersburg, Indiana. Here and in Shelburn "combined gymnasiums and auditoriums are being erected as additions to school buildings to provide both educational and recreational facilities." Work was completed by 1936. The location and status of the structure is unknown to Living New Deal.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed a community building in Shelburn, Indiana. Here and in Farmersburg "combined gymnasiums and auditoriums are being erected as additions to school buildings to provide both educational and recreational facilities." Work was completed by 1936. The location and status of the structure is unknown to Living New Deal.

At least one source states that this historic combination auditorium / gymnasium building on 1st Street in Rulo, Nebraska was constructed as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project in 1939. Per The Nebraska State Journal: With a $19,000 WPA grant, Rulo will turn its attention to a new gymnasium and community building. It is to be built of native stone, concrete, and steel and will be 102 feet long and 52 feet wide. The structure will have a basketball floor, 50 by 76 feet in size, a floor which will double for other purposes; stage and projection booth; and locker rooms. It...

A combination auditorium/gymnasium was constructed at Saint Jo, Texas by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1939. When finished, the building was to be 72 x 100 feet. The auditorium was to be 72 x 85 feet. It had a seating capacity of 1500 with 500 additional in bleachers. A 100 square foot stage was at the north end. Showers were installed at either end of the stage and dressing rooms and lockers were in the basement beneath the stage. The 13 1/2 inch walls were of concrete block with a four inch brick veneer to match the existing school....

Penn Jeffries Krouse was the architect for the 1936 one-story school building constructed as Public Works Administration project 1153. A loan of $17,000 and grant of $13,909 was approved 9/25/1935 to construct and equip the school building. Construction began 4/6/1936, and was completed 10/24/1936 for a total of $30,926.

This nurses home was built in 1936 by the PWA on the Audrain Medical Campus to house nurses who worked in the hospital, and probably also nursing students. It is on the south side of the Medical Center.

In 1939, the federal Work Progress Administration (WPA) worked to develop Austin Cary Forest, a UCF facility used for "the purposes of academic teaching, research, extension education, and demonstration". The WPA "built roads, buildings, and water draining ditches. And 100,000 board feet of pine and 80,000 cypress shingles were logged from the forest and processed at the School's sawmill."

Texas Woman University's original Austin Hall was constructed with federal Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) funds. "Named after Texas hero Stephen F. Austin, the hall was constructed in 1936-37 on the site of the original "dorm row."" The building is since demolished; a building in the newer Lowry Woods Apartments complex on campus has also been given the name Austin Hall.

The Stephen F. Austin Senior High School in southeast Houston, Texas was constructed as a New Deal project with the aid f Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. The three-story building, featuring "44 classrooms, a large auditorium, a cafeteria, a gymnasium, a swimming pool, a library, sewing, cooking and home economics rooms and administrative offices," opened in 1937.

The main building of the old Austin High School was erected in 1916 and was originally the John Allan Junior High School. The existing Austin High School campus, built in 1900, became overcrowded, and in 1924, the decision was made to swap the students in Austin High with Allan Junior High. This happened after the Thanksgiving holiday in 1925. In 1939, the school district added an annex of twenty-four classrooms to the Austin High School building using partial funding from the Public Works Administration. The two-story addition was separated from the main building by a courtyard and connected with a covered...

From the PWA docket no.TEX-2070-F: On October 6, 1938, the Austin City Council adopted a resolution accepting financing from the Public Works Administration for a tuberculosis sanatorium including necessary equipment. The grant would pay for 45% of the cost of the project, not to exceed $24,750. The city located the project on sixteen acres of land in far East Austin. On December 1, 1938, the city council accepted a bid of $44,600 from contractor Will O'Connell of San Angelo for construction on the sanatorium building. On February 2, 1940, the city council declared the contracts with O'Connell and most of the...

Automotive High School in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, facing McCarren Park, was built during the 1930s with funds from the federal Public Works Administration (PWA).  The school was created to train students to be skilled auto repair technicians, to which have been added offerings in Software Engineering and Art and Media. The building has a striking inscription over the main entrance: "Manhood Service Labor Citizenship". Not surprisingly, it has few female students.  The exterior and interior appear to be little changed over the years.    

We often think of New Projects as going smoothly, but Avalon School is an exception. The educational situation in the Ouray Valley had stuggled: schools and boarding schools had been built beginning in 1885 for the Uncompahgre Ute people but they were consistently consolidated, closed, and reopened. In 1905 homesteading was allowed in the valley. By 1928 Avalon had been settled and only a few years later (1934) the school board was entertaining a FERA-funded school. Construction began with brick being formed and burned near the property, and men going via sleigh 'to the mountains' to get lumber. In Feb 1935...

The 1933 Long Beach Earthquake destroyed hundreds of schools throughout Southern California. Originally built in 1924, Avalon School on Catalina Island—a part of the Long Beach Unified School District—was rehabilitated by Harold C. Wildman in 1935/36 with New Deal funding. Classes were held in tents while construction was underway. “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 of labor and material costs were obtained. To minimize costs, building...

The Avenue E School was built in the 1900s and the Works Progress Administration remodeled/built additions to it. There is a place on the building where a marker has been removed. A marker on the next door Gymnasium rock building reads: Copperas Cover Independent School District J.C. Culwell, Supt Trustees Louis Behrens, Pres. M.I. Walker, Sec'y R.C. Adams Leo M. Frase H.J. Leonhard M.Y. Stacy O.E. Urbantke W.P.A. Project No. 15511 1940

The Public Works Administration provided a $99,000 grant to construct a new K-12 public school in 1937-1939. Much expanded and renovated, the school remains in use today.

The old Avondale Elementary School building facing the street at 295 Western Ave., which is now an administrative building for the Avondale Elementary School District was built by the WPA, as is the school's current gymnasium. These are most likely two of the buildings referred to in a publication by the Three Rivers Historical Society stating that: "In 1937, with a school bond issue of $12,500 and $77,315 in W.P.A. labor, Avondale School added more classrooms." Several sidewalks around the school also bear circular stamps saying "USA WPA."

The city hall in Aztec, New Mexico was built by the WPA in 1936. The building now houses the Aztec Museum.

B. N. Duke Auditorium at North Carolina Central University, a historically black college, was constructed as part of a federal Public Works Administration (PWA) project during the Great Depression. The building is located on the east side of Fayetteville Road just south of E. Lawson St. The building has since been expanded. It retrains its perfectly preserved art deco interior. A National Register of Historic Places nomination form states: "Completed 1937 as part of the Public Works Administration building campaign. The focal point of the flat-roofed building with English bond brick elevations is the two-story frame portico supported by stream-lined Corinthian columns that shelters...

The old B.S. Pollak Hospital, part of the old Jersey City Medical Center, was constructed with federal funds during the Great Depression. The building is now privately owned. "The Pollak Hospital facility was formerly the site of a three-story building constructed in 1918 for the Jersey City School for Crippled Children. It was taken over as the Infectious Disease Hospital and in 1934 received a loan of $2,996,000 by the Reconstruction Finance Corporation for a new county tuberculosis hospital. The 250-bed facility was eventually named for Dr. B.S. Pollak and became noted for the treatment of chest diseases. When completed in...

A large allocation of WPA funds for school construction and improvement projects was issued for the state of Montana in late 1938. Among the construction provided for was a new school building in Babb, Montana. The location and status of this structure is unknown to Living New Deal, though it is known that the current school in Babb is not housed in it. The allocation for the structure appears on Montana WPA Roll 25 under project number 665-91-2-52.