Education and Health Sites

The National Youth Administration built a shelter next to the former Vernon High School, now a community building. It was probably a shelter for a water pump (now removed) at the Vernon School playground.  

The Public Works Administration (PWA) announced a number of projects in May 1937 which were designed to improve or eliminate conditions in schools that might be regarded as hazardous to students’ lives. Shelton was given a grant of $30,900.00 to build an addition to the school that would provide more room for students and alleviate an overcrowding hazard. Work on Shelton’s new $32,000 school addition began on May 2, 1938. The project included an auditorium/gymnasium wing measuring 60 by 100 feet in size, and a Smith Hughes vocational and shop wing, 30 by 80 feet. J. P. Helleberg of Kearney served...

"As time progressed and the city grew, Shenandoah's population increased creating a need for a new, state of the art building. By 1940, land was purchased on 19th Street and 19th Avenue, construction workers were hired with the help of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), and the construction began. Students were then moved in as soon as it was completed. Shenandoah became of the most modern and well-equipped schools in the South. Meanwhile, the "old" building became Shenandoah Elementary. On December 11, 1942, the beautiful new building was formally dedicated with great fanfare. Since then, the school has been slightly modified...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) conducted substantial work at Shenipsit State Forest in northern Connecticut. Work was undertaken by Camp Conner, housing Company #1192, which operated from Sept. 5, 1935 to May 23, 1941. Projects, which include those given separate pages on this website, included "miles of hiking trails" and "clean-up after the Flood of 1936 and the Hurricane of 1938 in East Hartford, Stafford Springs, and South Windsor."

Sheridan Street Elementary School, which opened in 1890, 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...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built additions and repaired facilities for Sherwood School in Sherwood, Doddridge County. The work completed by the WPA consisted of building four classrooms, an auditorium, two kitchens, two restrooms, new water works, and new walkways. The exterior of the building was renovated and repainted. The exact location and status of this facility are unknown to the Living New Deal.

Then known as Shippensburg State Teachers College, Shippensburg University benefited during the Great Depression from a large construction project enabled by the federal Public Works Administration (PWA). The PWA provided a $208,000 grant for the project, whose final cost was $635,363. Construction occurred between September 1937 and October 1938. (PWA Docket No. 1803.) Five buildings were constructed on the campus: Henderson Gymnasium, Reed Operations Center, Rowland and Shearer Halls, and a power plant (since demolished).

Built by the PWA.

According to The WPA in West St. Paul: The Works Progress Administration (WPA) "constructed Sibley Junior High School at the corner of Bernard and Bidwell. It was the second of three schools named for Henry Sibley that would serve West St. Paul. The WPA work at Sibley happened between 1936 and 1941 (there are some conflicting dates). A decade later the building was expanded to the south and became the high school. In 1960, Frances Grass Junior High School was added to the school complex. In the late 1990s it was all torn down, except the gym and swimming pool, and replaced...

"The New Mexico Veterans' Center (formerly Carrie Tingley Hospital) was partially funded with WPA funds in 1937. The buildings were left vacant in 1981 when the Hospital moved to Albuquerque. In 1983 the Veterans' Administration and the New Mexico Legislature provided funds for renovation of the buildings and the establishment of the New Mexico Veterans' Center. The Sierra County Court House and the Community Center are two other WPA buildings in T or C. " -Phyllis Eileen Banks

Sierra Union Elementary School received $17,800 in federal funds.

Designed by Clarence N. Aldrich, Signal Hill Elementary School was built in 1934 with New Deal funding. The style is WPA/PWA Moderne. “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 materials were salvaged from damaged buildings, some schools were rehabilitated, and new schools were constructed with basic amenities without cafeterias, libraries, auditoriums, swimming pools, or gymnasiums. Four...

The Works Progress Administration built Sijan Field in Milwaukee WI in 1937. Today, the facility serves as the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) Recreation Division Playfield. It is used for baseball and soccer.

The old Siloam School near Eastland, South Carolina was constructed with assistance from the federal Works Progress Administration ca. 1936. It served as a segregated school for African-American children until 1956.

"A careful study by the school officials of the inadequate school facilities of Kenton County resulted in the construction of two identical high-school buildings, one of which is considered on this page. The Independence High School is 2 stories and a basement in height and includes 15 classrooms, a gymnasium, an auditorium, a cafeteria, study hall, library, and the necessary administrative offices. The building has a frontage of 243 feet and is of fireproof construction. The exterior walls are brick with limestone trim. The project was completed in December 1937 at a construction cost...

Sims College, a dormitory building on the University of South Carolina campus in Columbia, SC, was constructed in 1939, "part of the extensive building program launched on the campus in the late 1930s as part of the New Deal. Forty-five percent of the cost was paid by a Public Works Administration grant." (USC) The building is located a couple hundred feet south of Greene St. between Bull St. and Pickens St.

The Department of Health medical center at 8658 16th Ave. in Brooklyn was constructed with Works Progress Administration (WPA) labor. This was one of three infant health stations in Brooklyn dedicated by Mayor La Guardia on May 10, 1939. The buildings cost about $50,000 each, with the WPA paying 60% and the city paying 40% of the costs. Google Street View imagery of the site suggests that the building is presently vacant.

Sixth Avenue Elementary School, which opened in 1895, was rebuilt with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) between 1934 and 1935. Both the main building and auditorium survive. 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...

Sixty-First Street Elementary School, which opened in 1912, 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...

Sixty-Sixth Street Elementary School, which opened in 1909, 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...

The city of Skagway's website describes its now-destroyed Depression-era school: " Women’s Club raises $25,000 from Territory and $24,500 from federal Works Progress Administration to build a new school. It ... behind the old one at State and 11th." Short and Stanley-Brown write: "This building was constructed for grade and high school pupils from the neighboring community. In the basement are boys' and girls' dressing rooms, showers, and the boiler room. On the first floor are three classrooms, teachers' room, manual training room, and a gymnasium 43 1/2 by 70 1/2 feet without a stage. On the second floor are three classrooms,...

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) developed a school skating pond in Superior, Wyoming in 1933/4. Cassity: "School life appears to have been significantly upgraded by the CWA workers at schools in the towns and countryside alike. ... Superior’s students got a skating pond courtesy of CWA workers."

Also known as Warren County High School, Front Royal's Skyline Middle School was constructed as a federal Public Works Administration (PWA) project ca. 1940. The building has since been extended. LivingPlaces: "This impressively sited, Classical Revival-style, brick school building stands atop a hill on the east side of Luray Avenue at the south end of the historic district. The Roanoke, Virginia-based architecture firm of Eubank and Caldwell designed it. When it was completed, the building served the white high school population of Warren County. No high school was available for Warren County African-American citizens. It was the only high school in...

Constructed by the PWA in 1939.

An attractive, two-story Colonial Revival schoolhouse. Built by the PWA in 1936, it was designed by Walter F. Fontaine & Sons of Woonsocket. No longer used as a school, it now houses the administration offices of the school department.

Sligo Creek Elementary School in Silver Spring MD – the former Montgomery Blair High School – was built in 1935 with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA). A 1939 report by the PWA provide details: "The building contains 13 classrooms, a special English classroom with a stage, administrative offices, a conference room, laboratories for science and biology, a library, rooms for music and domestic science, and a cafeteria for the students. The school was named for the Postmaster General of President Lincoln's Cabinet. The construction is steel frame with reinforced-concrete floor slabs, exterior walls of red brick trimmed with limestone and wood,...

Then known as the State Teachers College, Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania benefited during the Great Depression from a large construction project enabled by the federal Public Works Administration (PWA). The PWA provided a $372,222 grant for the project, whose final cost was $1,123,981. Construction occurred between December 1937 and July 1939. (PWA Docket No. 1828.) Six buildings were constructed on the campus, including a science library. The present status of these structures is unknown to Living New Deal. The buildings were constructed as part of a multi-million dollar program to improve Pennsylvania’s teachers colleges. The General State Authority approved $842,000 in funding...

Sloan College, a building on the University of South Carolina campus in Columbia, South Carolina, presently houses the school's Department of Art. The building was improved with New Deal funds. The school's building history page states: "In 1934 a Civil Works Administration grant paid for repairs to LeConte, Davis, Sloan, Rutledge, and DeSaussure colleges and other buildings." Sloan College is located northeast of Gibbes Green off Pickens St.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the Slossfield Community Center. Constructed between 1936 and 1939, the complex consists of several buildings that included a health and maternity clinic, an education building, and a recreation center. The Art Deco structures were designed by architect E. B. Van Keuren. The Health Center opened on July 1, 1939 and was one of many community healthcare facilities built by the WPA throughout Alabama. The center provided publicly-funded care for low-income patients who had no access to private healthcare. The Slossfield Community Center was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 29,...

Now the privately-owned Smiley Building, what had been constructed as the Smiley Junior High School was built as a New Deal project with the aid of federal Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) funds. "With a design from Colorado Springs Architect Charles Thomas and funding from a $97,000 bond and an $86,198 grant from FDR's Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works, the School District initiated work on the new building in 1935.  The contractor, Raymond C. Whitlock, completed the work the following year for a price of $191,188.  The School District declared the building surplus in 1995 when they abandoned Smiley Junior High...

Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) labor conducted repairs at what was then known as Smith's Agricultural School in Northampton, Mass. WPA Bulletin: The old slate roof of the main Administration Building, Smith Agricultural School, Northampton, which was badly in need of repair has been removed by WPA workmen and replaced with solid squares of new slate.

A 1933 Washington Post article reported $1,020 in unspecified repairs planned by the Public Works Administration (PWA) for the United States Patent Office. The old patent office, which was constructed from 1836 to 1865, is now the home of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery.

The PWA approved a grant for the reconstruction of the high school in Snyder, TX. "A federal grant of $75,445 is being prepared ... and total cost of the project will be $145,455. ... The project is to include foundation work, refinishing of interiors, braces for weakened parts of the structure, and other construction work."

Now demolished, this PWA building originally housed the school's administration offices and classrooms for industrial education. A long, low Colonial Revival building. The architect is unknown at this time.

A two-story, T-shaped Colonial Revival building, with a cross-gable roof and a cupola. Built by the PWA in 1936-38 to house an auditorium, gymnasium, and swimming pool. Like most of the Sockanosset buildings, this building has been demolished for the Chapel View "Lifestyle Center", a mixed use development. Sockanosset was the state's reform school for boys. The architect of this building was Albert Harkness of Providence.

This stone cottage was one of a few such buildings at the Sockanosset Training School, and stood until the late 2000s, when the site was redeveloped. The building appears in the FERA record group (135-SAR), but was not among those built by the PWA, as it appears in an 1895 photograph linked below. It is presumably present in the archive because of some repair work at the time of the other work at the site.

The WPA began restoration efforts on the historic octagonal Sodom Schoolhouse, along Pennsylvania 45 east of Montandon, PA.

An elementary school rebuilt by the WPA after the (probably 1933 Long Beach) earthquake.

Local African American youth in the African American community of Twin Groves built the main school building and a "shop" under the direction of local stonemason Silas Owens, Sr. The project was funded by the National Youth Administration with assistance from the Hughes-Smith Act. The "shop" was used for vocational education (primary purpose of the Smith-Hughes Act), and also for classes when needed. Owens would continue to develop his "mixed masonry" methods that would ensure his place in stone buildings in Arkansas. Many of the men living in the Twin Groves area continue to practice as brick masons using the...

In December of 1934, residents of Somers voted to centralize the schools. Before the centralization of the school district, Somers was home to several one room school houses. Somers Central School was completed in 1937 as project of the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works. Lewis E. Jallade, a resident of Somers, was the architect that designed the gold-domed cupola atop the school. In 1938, grades 1-9 began to attend the new central school. Each year following, a new grade was added to the school, until the first class of Somers Central School graduated in 1942. Since then, the school...