Schools Sites

A plaque on the former Tuleta Grade School indicates the Works Progress Administration constructed the building between 1938 and 1940. No other details on the original construction have been found. The building burned around 2002. It is now privately owned and has been partially restored.

Located on the east side of S 670 Rd., 0.3 north of E 240 Rd., the 23' x 30' "bus barn" at the former site of the Turkey Ford Elementary School was constructed by the Works Progress Administration ca. 1936. A building fitting the description given in the linked historical survey can be found using satellite imagery. Additional information is requested to confirm the identity of the building.

WPA projects in Jefferson County, Florida included "five two-room frame school buildings for Negroes at Turkey Scratch, Bunker Hill, Lightsey, and Lamont." The locations and status of this building are unknown to Living New Deal.

This art deco style building was constructed by the PWA in 1938-1940. It was originally occupied by Stowe Teachers College, a college for black educators. It was named after Charles Turner, an educator and scientist.

The former Turner school in Clinchco, Dickenson County, Virginia, was constructed as a New Deal project. Satellite and Google Street View imagery suggest the building is still extant, if largely abandoned. In 1940, W.E. French, who directed the Federal work programs in Dickenson County, reported that from December 1, 1933 to January 27, 1940, that $129,167.00 were spent on school projects in Dickenson County. Of this amount, the Federal government spent $162,968.00 and the county put up $56,699.00 of 25.8% of the cost. Among the jobs done were: ... new buildings at ... Turner.

Tweedy Elementary School, which opened in 1931, 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...

Twentieth Street Elementary School, which opened in 1902, was rebuilt with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) between 1934 and 1935. It does not appear that any PWA buildings survived another round of reconstruction in the 1980s. 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...

Twenty-Fourth Street Elementary School, which opened in 1904, was rebuilt with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) between 1934 and 1935. The school appears to have been rebuilt yet again in the 1950s or 60s, although the PWA auditorium may remain—confirmation is needed. 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...

Dayton's U.S. Grant School was constructed as a New Deal project, with the aid of Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) funds. The P.W.A. provided a $29,925 grant for the project, whose total cost was $71,603. PWA Docket No. OH 1355-R

San Francisco State University (then, the Normal School) moved here from its original location at Powell and Clay Streets after the 1906 earthquake. In 1936, the Woods Hall Annex science building was completed in the Northwest corner of the campus at the corner of Haight and Buchanan. It had been started under SERA but was completed with WPA funds. The work included the completion of the building from the first floor. The project was submitted under WPA Serial No. 0702-14 for completion of footings to and including the first floor slab. (Mooser) San Francisco State moved its Lake Merced campus in...

The WPA contracted an Italian mosaic setter for this project to teach Albro and other involved artists how to work with marble mosaics. The mosaic was built over the main entrance to Woods Hall. Unfortunately the mosaic appears to have since been removed or covered over, though confirmation is needed.

The Annex contains a 1937 WPA fresco, "A Dissertation on Alchemy", by Reuben Kadish and Urban Neininger. The fresco is 9' x 11' and is located in the stairwell in the northeast corner of the Woods Hall Annex.

The WPA improved the campus grounds in the 1930s.

The Unalakleet School was built in 1933 by the Bureau of Indian Affairs with the help of a PWA grant. "The BIA constructed the building in 1933 for a day school in the community. A staff architect most likely designed the building. A similar design was used at several other BIA schools built at the time around Alaska. The Unalakleet school has Georgian Revival elements including classical balanced designs for the interior and exterior, pediments above the entrances, a cupola, and palladian windows. The BIA added shed dormers in 1937, and an addition to the west end of the building in 1954. The building...

The Union City High School was erected in Union City, Tennessee during the Great Depression with the assistance of the Public Works Administration (PWA). The PWA Moderne, one-story brick school included an auditorium and football field and replaced a three story brick school demolished as part of the construction of the Central Elementary School project. The school grounds were quickly used as the grounds for a federal Office of Education pilot program, "Home and Family Life," which expanded upon an earlier Works Progress Administration (WPA) adult education program. The PWA high school is currently used as Union City Middle School.

Montpelier's Union Elementary School was constructed as a New Deal project, with primary construction in 1938-9. The city's 1940 annual report: "The past year has marked the completion of the Recreation Field and the new Elementary School Building. Both projects were made possible by a PWA Grant of 45% of the total cost." The city's 1939 annual report described the building, in progress: In the basement are located the boiler room, costume room, vault and janitor's room, fuel storage and general storage. Although the basement of the northwest wing is excavated, it will not be finished but may be, if use...

The federal Public Works Administration (PWA) provided funding for some construction at what was then Oceanside High School in 1935-6 (PWA Docket No. NY 3302). The structure has seen numerous large additions since the original 1934 construction. The New Deal project was likely an addition. "When this building on Castleton Ct. first opened in 1936, it became the home of Oceanside High School until September 1955, when it became Oceanside Jr. High School." (1960sailors.net)

Public Works Administration (PWA) funded the construction of the Union High School in Junction City OR. Excerpt from "A History of Junction City High School": "In 1934 because the Federal Government was offering Public Works Administration (PWA) grants for consolidation of school districts, the timing was good to merge. In Junction City’s circumstance, the PWA grant would pay for 45% of the $50,000 needed for a new high school. The board organized a bond election on August 10, 1936 to raise funds for the remaining money needed to build and equip the high school. In the fall of 1937, Junction City...

"Constructed in 1929, the two-story, blond brick Union High School served as the first high school for the Westminster community. It functioned in that capacity from 1929 until 1949. In 1939, the school district constructed the gymnasium and classroom addition by taking advantage of Public Works Administration funding. The building is now used as an alternative education center."   (www.historycolorado.org) The Union High School building is currently part of a larger educational complex known as the Alternative Center of Education.

Improvements were made to the Millbury, Massachusetts's old Union School (high school) building and grounds with the assistance of federal New Deal funds. The old high school is now the Mary Elizabeth McGrath Educational Center. The Civil Works Administration provided labor for a grounds grading project begun in 1933. At the same time Federal Emergency Relief Act funds enabled a retaining wall repair project and other building improvements, including the painting of the "outside woodwork." The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) redecorated the interior of the building in 1937 and continued retaining wall reconstruction. The National Youth Administration conducted miscellaneous improvements...

Union Township School #2 was constructed in 1936 as a New Deal project, with funds from the Public Works Administration (PWA). The PWA provided a $17,976 grant for the project, whose total cost was $39,948. The building was destroyed by fire in 1988. PWA Docket No. OH 1219

University High School Charter, which opened in 1922, was renovated with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) between 1934 and 1935. The school's architectural style is distinctive, recalling Spain's Alhambra or the Romanesque of Northern Italy. 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...

Hardaway Hall is located on the University of Alabama campus on 7th Ave. It is the engineering building. "The new structure is T-shaped in plan, the front portion being 2 stories in height and the rear wing 1 story. On the first floor are hydraulic, fuel, and aviation laboratories together with instrument and storage rooms. On the second floor are 10 classrooms, offices, and an auditorium. The building is fireproof throughout. The exterior walls are faced with red brick and trimmed with limestone. The pitched roofs are covered with asbestos shingles and the flat roofs with composition. The project was completed...

Bureau of Mines is building 116 on the campus map. "Of the 11 experimental stations of the Bureau of Mines, 9 are located at State universities where they have the advantage of educational facilities and cooperation with the State agencies. This one, at Tuscaloosa, was built on a site of 2 1/2 acres donated by the university. The building is three stories in height and 50 by 159 feet in plan and provides offices, conference rooms, assembly rooms, a library, a machine shop, assay rooms, and several laboratories for many different purposes. These laboratories are so arranged that they may be expanded...

"In 1934 University of Arizona President Homer Shantz persuaded Arizona's governor and state legislature to request funding from the Public Works Administration for a major building program on the university campus. PWA funds supported the construction of numerous buildings, seven of which still stand: the Arizona State Museum, Chemistry, Humanities (CESL), Auditorium (Centennial Hall), Administration (Nugent Hall), and two women's dormitories (Gila and Yuma Halls). The seven buildings were designed by Tucson architect Roy Place in the Spanish/Italian Romanesque style. They display large, rounded arches over windows and entryways; the masonry façades contain multiple materials of contrasting colors in decorative...

"These illustrations are of the new museum building on the campus of the University of Arizona. It is 76 by 140 feet with a museum room on the first floor 87 by 70 feet, two small rooms each 31 by 23 feet, and offices for the curator and staff. A mezzanine exhibition gallery extends around the building. Construction is semifireproof with exterior walls of brick trimmed with stone. The project was completed in March 1937. The project cost of $1,043,174 included 16 buildings for the university." The museum is located at 1013 E. University Blvd., Tucson, AZ.

"The structure illustrated on this page was erected by the Soil Conservation Service of the Department of Agriculture to provide an erosion-control nursery and laboratories for the growing and testing of soil-protecting trees, bushes, plants, and grasses, as well as facilities for seed assembling and distribution. The building is of adobe construction and contains offices, a conference room, rooms for seed storage and packing, and a dark room. The greenhouse is typical greenhouse construction. The project was completed in August 1935 and the P.W.A. allotment was $17,190." The greenhouse may have recently been demolished (https://parentseyes.arizona.edu/placesinthesun/beginnings.php).

"The University of Arizona carried out a rather extensive building program with the aid of the P.W.A. The women's building is characteristic of the architecture that was adopted for all buildings and has a somewhat north Italian medieval flavor and blends with the surroundings. The building is part one and part two stories in height. On the first floor is a women's gymnasium, 61 by 90 feet, with special exercise and locker rooms adjoining. There is also a swimming pool, 30 by 75 feet, furnished with underwater lighting and a modern sterilizing and filtering plant. On the second floor is a...

"While PWA funding was typically focused on local school districts in the public school system, seven buildings were constructed on the University of Arkansas campus using this funding. Buildings constructed with PWA funds during this period include Vol-Walker Hall (1935), the Chemistry Building (1936), Gibson Hall (1937), the Men’s Gymnasium (1937), Ozark Hall (1940), the Home Economics Building (1940), and Memorial Hall (1940). While the design oversight for these buildings was provided by Jamieson & Spearl based on the guidance of their 1925 plan, the construction documents and project administration for many of these buildings was completed by local Arkansas...

Originally the fine arts building, and now the music building. "This structure houses the various fine arts departments of the college. On the first floor are the offices, recitation and class rooms, and a small auditorium seating 185. The second floor is given up entirely to recitation and practice rooms. The building is semifireproof, the exterior walls being faced with random rock-faced stone ashlar trimmed with cut limestone. The plan permits of easy enlargement. The project was completed in May 1935. The construction cost was $94,856 and the project cost $105,897."

"Although there was already a chemistry building on campus, by 1925 it had become too small. There were plans to build a new building by the Arkansas General Assembly in 1927, and was scheduled to be built in 1931. However, the Great Depression delayed these plans. In January 1934, $1,165,000 was made available for the construction of both a new chemistry building and Vol Walker Library. These funds came from the Public Works Administration, and not the Arkansas legislature. Opened in December 1935, the building housed the chemistry, zoology, geology, philosophy, and psychology departments. Eventually, the growing University forced all of these...

"The University of Arkansas Campus Historic District is a historic district that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 23, 2009. The district covers the historic core of the University of Arkansas campus, including 25 buildings. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) on September 23, 2009 and the listing was announced as the featured listing in the National Park Service's weekly list of October 2, 2009. The historical core of campus was built in many phases, coincident with when funding was available to build. Beginning with the construction of Old Main in...

"The new men's dormitory at the University of Arkansas is divided into three separate units, each having its own entrances and stairway. The building is 55 by 189 feet in plan and 3 stories in height. On the first floor are 19 double rooms, a lobby, and a social room. The second and third floors each provide 21 double rooms, so that the entire building can accommodate 122 students. The structure is fireproof, with reinforced concrete floor and roof slabs and exterior walls of brick trimmed with stone. It was completed in August 1937 at a...

"After completion of the PWA-funded University Library and Chemistry Building, the University received an additional $413,000 loan and $337,909 grant from the PWA for the construction of three additional buildings on campus. The PWA funds were used to construct the Home Economics Building (now the Human Environmental Sciences Building), Student Union (now known as Memorial Hall), and the Classroom Building (now Ozark Hall). Architects for all three of these buildings were Haralson & Mott of Fort Smith with Mann & Wanger of Little Rock. The three-story Home Economics Building, constructed in 1940, is a masonry building of Indiana white limestone...

"The new building is 3 stories in height. On the ground floor are locker, storage, and utility rooms. The gymnasium and auditorium occupy the entire first floor. A small second floor, across the front of the building, contains offices. There is an additional entrance to the ground floor from the outside. The building is 115 by 169 feet. The playing floor of the gymnasium is 103 by 135 feet, sufficient for 2 practice basketball courts when the bleacher seats are folded. When these seats are open the floor space provides a standard basketball court, and 2,112 spectators may be seated....

"After completion of the PWA-funded University Library and Chemistry Building, the University received an additional $413,000 loan and $337,909 grant from the PWA for the construction of three additional buildings on campus. The PWA funds were used to construct the Home Economics Building (now the Human Environmental Sciences Building), Student Union (now known as Memorial Hall), and the Classroom Building (now Ozark Hall). Architects for all three of these buildings were Haralson & Mott of Fort Smith with Mann & Wanger of Little Rock... Ozark Hall was originally constructed in 1940 as the Classroom Building, in the Collegiate Gothic style. This...

"Before construction of this new building, the library of the University of Arkansas was housed in the nonfireproof administration building. The new structure has a capacity of 265,000 volumes and furnishes study desks for approximately 600 students. In addition, there are cubicles in the stack room where research work can be carried on. The basement has a museum across the entire front of the building, including work space, receiving, storage, and utility rooms. On the first floor are browsing and research rooms, offices, and seminar rooms. The main reading room extends the full length of the...

"Over the next two decades, the Administration Building witnessed the expansion of Arkansas State Teachers College, growing from twenty faculty members and 328 students in 1917 to forty-four faculty members and 745 students in 1939.  Despite the effects of the Great Depression, moreover, the college was able to add a 1,200 seat auditorium on the west side of the Administration Building in 1937. The auditorium addition was designed by George Hyde Wittenberg (1892-1953) and Lawson L. Delony (1890-1976) of Little Rock. This, and three other new campus buildings, was funded by economic stimulus funds supplied by the Public Works Administration...

"The president's house was one unit of a P.W.A. docket which included the construction and equipment of six separate units for the Arkansas State Teachers College. It is a two-story structure containing a two-car garage, living room, dining and breakfast rooms, library, and kitchen on the first floor; and three bedrooms, a sleeping porch, and baths on the second floor. The design is colonial and is carried out in red brick with wood trim and a slate roof. It was completed in June 1937 at a construction cost of $17,520 and a project cost of $21,498, both estimated."...

"This project, known as the 'Laboratory Building,' is 2 stories and a basement in height. The basement contains the manual-training department, recreation rooms, an infirmary, a sewing room, kitchen, cafeteria, and the heating plant. On the first floor are 8 classrooms and the administrative offices. The second floor contains 10 classrooms and offices for instructors. The construction is nonfireproof. The exterior walls are brick trimmed with limestone, and all the rest of the building is wood. The project was completed in January 1939 at a construction cost of $133,634 and a project cost of $137,178."