Schools Sites

The Classical Revival (Art Moderne and Neoclassical Revival influences) two-story school was constructed over a period of 4 years. The project began with $250,000 from CWA in 1933-34, shifted to TERA in 1935, and was completed by WPA workers in 1935-36 (Van West, 2001). When the new high school was constructed, the building was converted to use as Collierville Middle School. The proposal is to utilize the building for future use as administrative offices for the school district. The building is designated with National Register of Historic Places status.

Collinsville school was Public Works Administration project w1106. Constructed with a $10,000 loan and $8,181 grant, the project was approved 10/24/1936. Construction began 1/11/1937 and was completed 6/12/1937. In a 1999 interview with Collinsville resident Malcolm Moore, Moore reported "CCC boys built the brick school building that stands today" (Harrison, p. 152). The building is in use today as a private industry following further consolidation and close of the school in the 1960s.

"In 1941 after the Collinsville Academy burned down, a two-winged, twenty room school was built by a government program (WPA) designed to provide jobs to people and help end the Depression. This building with an extension is still in use as our elementary school." (Collinsville ISD website)

The PWA allocated $74,250 in funding for construction of a new junior high school in Colorado City, TX.

Columbia elementary received additions via the Works Progress Administration shortly after its construction 1937. This Italianate-style building appears in very good condition. The facility was built in the current location in 1936 replacing the one-room school that served during the towns existence as a major gold mining area in the mid to late 19th century, most likely in line with the New Deal sponsored archaeological research that resulted in the town being changed into a state park in 1946. In 2007, major additions were added to the campus and the 1937 building has become just an additional classroom or administration...

PWA project 1212 in Mississippi, the two-story, reinforced concrete building "...may be the best early example of the International style in the state and attracted national attention when it opened" (Mississippi Department of Archives and History). It was featured in both Architectural Forum and The New Yorker magazine when it opened (Preziosi, 2008). It is alternatively described as Art Moderne (MDAH).

The Atlas of Historic New Mexico Maps, produced with assistance from the New Mexico Humanities Council and the New Mexico Chapter of the National New Deal Preservation Association, lists a number of New Deal schools in Raton Kearny Elementary, Longfellow Elementary, Columbian School, and Raton Junior-Senior High School are all listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1938 the WPA allocated funds for the construction of a new school building in Columbus, Montana. The location and current status of the structure in question is unknown to Living New Deal.

"Deming has an impressive list of WPA projects: Deming Public Library, Country Club, Junior High, Morgan Hall, Columbus School, Sunshine School, Hospital addition, Park, street paving, sewer work, curbs and trees plus a National Guard building." -Phyllis Eileen Banks

Built the playing field consisting of running track, 2 high jumps, pole vault, shot put, broad jump, pit and runway, equipment house; remodeled training quarters; surfaced basketball court and painted grandstands--Healy, p.72. This facility operated as the High School of Commerce Athletic Field until 1952. By 1980, it had been razed to make room for the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall. A plaque on the corner of the building at Hayes and Van Ness now commemorates the dynamic history of this city block.

Originally built as the community's high school, one of the facilities that makes up what is now Commerce Middle School campus was constructed as a New Deal project. The 136' x 103' structure, which features a gymnasium, was "initiated by the Oklahoma Emergency Relief Administration and finished by WPA labor." It is located along S Cherry St., as opposed to Commerce St.

This one-story red brick building was completed in 1939 by the Federal Works Progress Administration (WPA). The school has long been gone. The building which is located on Douglas Avenue in the northwest part of Clearview, is currently being used as the Community Center. A porch has been added to the front, and remodeling has been done on the interior, including adding dropped ceilings, a dining area and kitchen facilities. Portions of a rock wall can still be seen which surrounded the entire school campus. A concrete cornerstone on the southeast corner has raised letters on the south side reading "WPA". The...

This is a one-story native sandstone building with a gabled roof, built by the Federal Works Progress Administration in 1937.  On both sides of the walls flanking the entrance, a concrete panel shows the stamped WPA shield. The concrete lintel for these doors is engraved "OAK LAWN DIST. 273". This area may have contained more buildings in the past, but this classroom building is all that remains. This building is still in use as the local Community Center.

Buff brick building. Main section is two stories, with one story wings on each side. There is a plaque on the main/center section " Works Progress Administration 1935-1937" The Desdemona School (grades 1-12) was built in 1922 and expanded as a WPA project completed in 1937. It finally closed in 1969. The building is now the Desdemona Community Center.

Prospect, Connecticut's Community School was originally constructed as a federal Public Works Administration (P.W.A.)-sponsored project. The P.W.A. supplied a $19,675 grant for the project, whose total cost was $43,951. Construction occurred between Dec. 1935 and Oct. 1936. The facility has since been expanded. P.W.A. Docket No. CT 1032

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) completed a series of improvements and construction projects at Compton High School in Compton, CA. WPA laborers constructed the school auditorium; the women's gymnasium; and a 50' x 100' pool and bath house with showers, toilets, dressing rooms, etc. Compton High School was demolished in 2021 to allow for the construction of a modern campus, scheduled to open in 2025.

In 1942, the Washington Post reported the allocation of $7,953 to the Federal Works Agency (FWA) for new construction and/or improvements to the Congress Heights Recreation Center (now Recreation Area).  As part of the District's new PlayDC initiative, the playground was renovated in 2013-14.  It is unclear what FWA work may still be visible at the site.

'The elementary classes of the Conley School District of Taft, California, occupied a two-story brick building which was declared unsafe because of earthquake and fire hazard... The remodeling program called for removal of the second floor, which was an auditorium, strengthening of brick walls and modernizing the remaining one-story structure so that its architecture would be consistent with a new one-story auditorium and class room building to be erected on adjoining space.' - 'The Architect and Engineer,' July 1937, pp. 20 - 21

Architect Edgar Lucian Malvaney designed the Holly Bluff school building, constructed in 1939 as PWA project 1271. It was approved 7/27/1938 and construction began 10/17/1938. It was completed10/12/1939 for a total cost of $57,305 with PWA funding a grant of $25,515. Bonds were issued in the amount of $25,000 for the remainder. Perry Construction Company built the new school, Paine Heating and Tile Company provided heating and plumbing, and Fatheree Electric Company completed the wiring. The building was dedicated and opened to the public October 7, 1939 and final inspection was made later that month by the architect, school supervisors,...

In 1939, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) erected a school in Coolidge. However, all the remains is the plaque which is at the Coolidge City Hall/Museum. While other Limestone county schools were opening either last Monday or planned to open next Monday, the opening of the Coolidge school was being delayed awaiting the completion of the new school building. The building is expected to be completed by Oct. 1, and the school will likely open on Oct. 2. Last year after the old building had been razed and construction was underway on the new structure, classes were conducted in the abandoned C.C.C. camp...

The Civil Works Administration (C.W.A.) conducted improvement work at Maynard's former Coolidge School, including the installation of smoke partitions as well as painting of the school inside and out. The Work Projects Administration (W.P.A.) conducted further work in 1941. All school buildings in the town "on the exterior have been completely renovated by having the windows weather stripped, puttied and painted. The interior... are now being repaired with W.P.A. labor by installing new celotex ceilings where needed, replacing plaster ceilings that were beyond repairs, having the hallways, classrooms washed and painted. These repairs have added consiterabl to the appearance of our...

Coolidge Senior High School in northwest Washington DC was built in 1938-40 with federal aid to the District of Columbia Education Department.   An appropriation of $350,000 was made by Congress in 1937 to the District Commissioners (the municipal government).  Since the full cost of the school building was $1,500,000, additional funds must have come from Congress, the District or the Public Works Administration (PWA).  More information is needed on this. Coolidge High School was built to relieve crowding at Theodore Roosevelt High School, on property that the District of Columbia had purchased five years before.  Some local citizens associations wanted to name the...

In 1942, the Washington Post reported the allocation of $27,600 to the Federal Works Agency (FWA) for new construction and/or improvements to the Coolidge Recreation Center adjacent to the new Coolidge Senior High School in the city's northwest quadrant. It is probable that the baseball field traces its origins back to the New Deal era and there are traces of former tennis courts, another common recreational elements of New Deal work. Coolidge Senior High, built 1938-40, was also New Deal project.

The Public Works Administration (PWA) helped fund the former Coolidge Union High School, now the school district administration building. Ground was broken on April 4, 1936 and the school opened in 1939.  The project cost of $150,000 was divided between a PWA grant and local bonds. This large and handsome building is a melange of Neoclassical and Southwest Pueblo styles.  It is still probably the largest and the most elegant building in the city of Coolidge.  Ironically, the town, founded in 1925, was named after President Calvin Coolidge; it was not incorporated until 1945. The plaque by the front entrance indicates that...

"Coral Way School, built as Coral Way Elementary School in 1936, is a K-8 school located in Miami, Florida, USA... The school building was designed by August Geiger, a noted South Florida architect who worked for the Dade County School Board. The architecture is in a Mediterranean Revival style with arcaded walkways around interior courtyards resplendent with lush foliage. It was constructed under the auspices of the Works Projects Administration and completed in 1936."   (wikipedia) The school also received numerous WPA artworks, including several mosaics of local animals and Art Deco mosaics of figures picking oranges.

Corcoran Union High School was constructed in 1939 through the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works. The facility has since been expanded with numerous additions into a larger educational campus.

'Build new addition to Cornell school building and install playground benches.' - 'Classification by County of California Works Projects,' California WPA, 1935

Corona Avenue Elementary School, which opened in 1926, was rebuilt with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) between 1934 and 1935. Architect Richard Nuetra helped transform Corona into an “experimental” school by designing huge sliding glass patio walls. Corona Avenue Elementary has since become an historical landmark. 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...

This may have been the Waugh School, which benefited from several WPA projects. The WPA installed a new foundation, strengthened and reinforced the framing of the building, added a new stucco exterior, and reroofed and repainted it.

This school, located at the northeast corner of Duboise Ave. and Pinon Street in Corona, New Mexico, was constructed ca. 1939 by the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA). WPA Official Project # 665-85-2-196.

"For years, a territorial-style two-story building has stood as an unofficial sentry into the Barelas neighborhood at Fourth Street coming from Downtown. Until 1975, it was an elementary school that had been built by the Public Works Administration as part of the New Deal that eventually was too small for the hordes of neighborhood children. And until recently, it housed Albuquerque Public Schools administrators and records, as transients patrolled the nearby streets searching for local soup kitchens. Come August, the freshly scrubbed and modernized Coronado Elementary at 601 Fourth SW will again house students to accommodate an increased demand for...

This Works Progress Administration (WPA) building is also the site of the "Legend of California" relief panels, sculpted in 1939 by Donald Hord for the WPA Federal Art Project.

These seven 6' x 9' relief panels are carved from Indiana limestone and were intended for the school library. "The Legend of California is a set of seven incised relief panels carved from Indiana limestone for the Library of the Coronado High School. Dedicated in February of 1941, the central panel depicts the mythical Amazonian Queen Calafia, after whom California was named. The side panels depict the various ethnic groups that have made up the population of the state. The Legend of California was executed under the sponsorship of the Federal Government Works Progress Administration." (https://content.cdlib.org)

The Works Progress Administration built a vocational building for the Cotaco School. Correspondence with David Burleson, local source: "The last 8 pictures are of the Cotaco High School vocational building referred to in the 1938 work order At that time Cotaco was an elementary school and high school; grades 1 thru 12. In the late 1960’s or early 1970’s Cotaco and three or four other schools consolidated the high school grades into a new school in central Morgan County. That left Cotaco as an elementary school and middle school. Sometime in the 1990’s the vocational building was remodeled into the...

Constructed by the WPA in 1936-1938, the high school building was destroyed by fire in 1977.

The Cotton auditorium stands adjacent to the Fort Bragg Middle School (formerly Fort Bragg High School).  It was completed in 1938 with Public Works Administration (PWA) funding and named after Principal Joel Cotton in 1939. It was restored in 2006. The style of Cotton Auditorium, which is rather unusual for New Deal era civic structures, is typical of lumber towns like Fort Bragg in the redwood country of California's North Coast.  

The Works Progress Administration built a one-room country school in Worland, Washakie County. The location and status of the facility are presently unknown to Living New Deal.

The Works Progress Administration completed improvements for county schools in Parkersburg, Wood County. The exact location of these facilities is unknown to the Living New Deal.

"President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal programs put people to work. Young men in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built flood control projects at Elephant Butte Dam. Works Progress Administration (WPA) workers built three schools in Las Cruces, including Court Junior High. They also built numerous tourist and recreation facilities in the area. Picacho Avenue earned the nickname 'Little Oklahoma' when it became a thoroughfare for refugees bound for California. Stranded and destitute, travelers sold their belongings for gas money. This roadside trade was the precursor of Picacho Avenue's antique and second-hand stores." -Las Cruces: Crossroads of History

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed the stately and historic Cove Creek High School building in Sugar Grove, North Carolina. It was one of many educational facilities constructed by the WPA in Watauga County. The building features three WPA plaques (one at each entrance). Wikipedia: "It was built by the Works Progress Administration in 1940–1941, and is a two-story, Collegiate Gothic style stone building. It is seven bays wide and features slightly projecting square stair towers and a crenellated roof parapet. It was designed by Clarence R. Coffey, an apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright, and constructed by local artisans and laborers...