Schools Sites

Chatsworth Park Elementary School Urban Planning/Community Development Magnet, which opened in 1915, 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...

Built by the WPA in 1939.

As indicated by the Newberg Area Historical Society marker on site, a $15,000 Public Works Administration (PWA) grant allowed the Newberg School District to secure a $35,000 bond to build this brick building, occupied currently by the Chehalem Cultural Center. The New Deal era Central School (1935) replaced a wooden school building at the same location that dated from 1889. As early as 1933, the structure was declared a fire hazard. Newberg voters approved raising funds for the new school in 1934 with the necessary bond secured by the PWA grant. H. J. Settergren, a Portland area contractor, built the new Central...

Rex Brandt was commissioned by the PWAP to paint five murals for Chemawa Junior High School in Riverside, CA. At the time, Brandt was a student at Riverside Community College. When the school was remodeled in 1973, the murals were presumed lost. However, four of the five have happily since been found. Two now hang in the refurbished school, and two are in storage at the Riverside Art Museum. The Riverside Unified School District is still hoping to find the fifth. An attempt to have the murals restored is also currently underway. "The panels in storage are 48 inches by 60 inches...

A small brick school building, built to replace a wooden school on the same site. It was designed by Albert Harkness of Providence, who also designed the Harmony School at the same time. The school replaced five one-room schools in the town. It is today the Glocester Town Hall.

Just south of I-44 in the northeast corner of Oklahoma lies a historic 1936 school building built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). "This one-room, rectangular (23' x 45') structure is made of uncut native stone." The building is now privately owned. Remarkably, Google Street View imagery from I-44 shows the building to be extant as of 2017, even given that there is no exit to S 680 Rd., on which the structure resides, from the interstate.

The Cherryville, MO school project is on the east side of route 19, just north of route 49. The school and gymnasium were more recently built, with funds and labor provided by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The school is no longer in service.

Contracts for the construction of two high schools in Cecil County (Cecilton and Chesapeake City) were awarded to to Lang Brothers of Baltimore by the PWA in December 1938.  The $134,800 contract for the Chesapeake City high school called for "a two-story and part basement , designed to take care of 490 pupils." According to The Cecil Democrat, the contract called for "modern heating, plumbing, and electrical work." The facilities were as follows: Basement: A cafeteria, kitchen, boiler room, fuel storage and engineer's room, and industrial arts rooms. First floor: Six classrooms, a teacher room, doctor's office, an auditorium with stage and dressing...

The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (F.E.R.A.) and Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) funded the labor for and materials for improvements to the former Chestnut City School building in Millville, Massachusetts. Improvements included painting, for which the federal government also paid for the project's materials; and filling, grading, and drainage work to the grounds. Living New Deal believes this to be what was known as Millville's Little Red Schoolhouse, a building on Chestnut Hill Road that is now a private residence. Its exact location is unknown to Living New Deal.

"The Chevalier Theatre was built in 1939 by the Works Progress Administration as part of the Medford High School complex."

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) conducted improvement and repair work at the former Cheyenne River School building in Niobrara County, Wyoming in 1933/4: "t also needs to be remembered that the schools were not just schools. At the Cheyenne River School (and elsewhere too), the justification was plain: “this school house, in addition to being an institution of learning is used as a meeting hall by all people of that part of the county. It is badly in need of the outlined repairs.”" Sources suggest that the former school building is still extant, about 23 miles south of Newcastle, Wyoming, at...

"The Chickasha Junior High School building currently houses the Middle School. The gymnasium/auditorium so closely matches the architecture of the main school building that it appears to be a single construction project, however, research has only found reference to the gym/auditorium as being a WPA project. The aerial photo in the gallery shows the auditorium at the bottom, and the gymnasium above it, in the center of this block-square school campus. The auditorium is constructed of tan brick and has a curved entrance with the word "AUDITORIUM" cast in stone at the top. A set of four 8-pane windows are on...

Construction of the Childress High School Gymnasium building was enabled by Public Works Administration (PWA) funds in 1939. The building is a two-story rectangular plan, front-gabled Italian Renaissance style building with two flat-roofed wings. Additional architectural details can be found at the NRHP reference below.

"Construction of an Elementary School Bldg. consisting of four units of wood frame on concrete foundations. Exterior walls stucco and all interior walls and ceilings plastered to replace school now being demolished; the old school building was very dangerous and the State Department of Architecture recommended the erection of a new earthquake resisting structure. This new building consists of a one story four room frame and stucco structure which will accommodate about 200 children. The work was done under the supervision of John LaClaire, Foreman for the Chino School District and employed on an average of ten men. San Bernardino,...

"Construction of Chino High School Bldg. This project consisted of the erection of three units one story stucco High School Building. Unit #1 is 191' x 25'5", consisting of one sewing room, girls' rest rook, waiting room, fitting room and two offices. Unit #2 is 140'3" x 28' and consists of drafting room and two offices, typing room, bookkeeping room, work room and supply room. This building replaces the old condemned High School Building which was unsafe for school purposes. The new Bldg. is earthquake resisting and will make the residents who have children in High School rest easier than...

A plaque on the ruins of a wall in the community of Choate, near the city of Kenedy, Texas, indicate the Works Progress Administration constructed the building between 1938 and 1939. Another plaque listing board members and the superintendent and principal indicate the building was a school. Written tradition confirms the building was a school that closed in the mid-1960s. The property is now owned by the Choate Baptist Church. The church had the interior of the building burned and cleared out circa 2000. The ruins are used as a fellowship center.

The Works Progress Administration built new bathroom facilities at the Christiansted Grammar School. The site of the school is today occupied by the Florence Williams Public Library.

The Federal Emergency Relief Administration and the Civil Works Administration carried out “repairs and renewals” work at the Christiansted Junior High School (renamed Elena Christian Junior High School) on St. Croix.

The Church Street School is an "ultra-modern" design that has been described as "...one of the best examples of the Moderne style of architecture in Mississippi" (Enzweiler, 1991). The building is constructed of concrete, as were other Moderne schools designed by Overstreet and Town during the mid to late 1930s that were funded by the PWA. The interior features terrazzo floors, round windows, and other Art Moderne influences. The school cost $225,000.

Cienega Elementary School, which opened in 1917, 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 me...

"Circleville School is a historic school building located at Circleville, Pendleton County, West Virginia. It was built in 1937-1938, as a project of the federal Works Progress Administration. It is a two-story masonry building in the Georgian Revival style. It was built on the foundation of a previous school destroyed by fire. The front facade features a two-story pedimented projecting pavilion emphasized by large Doric order pilasters. It is constructed of hollow tile block with a red brick veneer. The truncated hipped roof is topped by a wooden cupola. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995."  ...

Citizen Genet School in East Greenbush, New York was constructed as a Public Works Administration (PWA) project from 1939-40. The building bears a 1939 cornerstone. Originally a K-12 school, the facility now houses an elementary school and central offices. Striking reliefs along the front of the building (five on each side of the main entrance) depict the attributes of society the students should strive to attain. The ten reliefs depict, respectively: Parent - Interest Kindergarten Academic Studies Social Life Manual Arts Athletics Citizenship Graduation Manhood Womanhood According to the East Greenbush Central School District, "As the United States of America was...

The Romanesque Revival style Citrus Elementary School was built in 1936 in a residential area north of downtown Chico. It was financed through a bond issue and a Public Works Administration grant which provided 45% of the total cost.  The building remains in good condition with little modification, but the school yard is now gated and the windows shaded, no doubt out of security concerns. There is a name plate with the date of construction, but nothing indicating the role of the New Deal. "This 1936 project is an L-shaped stuccoed school building. It is a single story structure with a continuous...

The present Moab City Center, effectively the City Hall, was originally built to house the Moab elementary school and the Grand County high school.  It was built with a federal grant and cost $135,000.  It was first proposed in May 1933, according to local newspaper reports, and dedicated in December 1934. Firmage (1996, p. 275) claims that it was built with Works Progress Administration (WPA) funds, but this appears to be a classic confusion between the Public Works Administration (PWA) and the WPA – which did not yet exist in 1933-34. PWA funded the neighboring Carbon County Courthouse, so it is likely that...

The former Marsac School in Park City, Utah was constructed in 1935-36 with funding from the federal Public Works Administration (PWA). The large structure was built to consolidate schools from around the town.  It now serves as the t0wn's city hall. The building was bought 1983  by the city from the school district, which had built a new school complex outside the old town.  It was renovated once, then completely redone again c. 2008, according to the plaques on the south front. Only the state historical plaque mentions the New Deal contribution. The architects were Carl Scott and George Welch of Salt Lake City, and the building is...

Originally built as a high school during the New Deal. It now functions as the town's City Hall, as well as holding the Police and Fire Departments.

During the 1930s, the WPA did extensive work in Keokuk. In addition to grading city streets and installing sewers, stop signs and stop lights, the WPA also built a high school athletic field and made improvements to the National Cemetery and Keokuk's riverfront.

Built in 1912, the two-story, native stone Clairette School building survives as a community center and polling place. In 1939, Works Progress Administration (WPA) built a separate gymnasium building and a star shaped fountain in front of the 1912 building. The rock work on the flagpole, the water tank, and the retaining wall appear to be the same vintage as the fountain, but there is no reference to them being WPA projects.

This building is currently listed under the National Historic Registry. Built in 1936 as the Fifth Street School, it replaced a school that had burned down in 1934. It was remodeled as an annex to the Clark Country Courthouse and is currently used as an arts and culture center, with a gallery. Funding for construction of the school, also known as Las Vegas Grammar School, at 400 Las Vegas Blvd. South was provided by the federal Public Works Administration (PWA). According to a local historic district nomination: "Then, following a major fire in May 1934 which gutted the city's old high school (which...

The WPA constructed two buildings on this campus, completed in 1940-41. One was originally a science building and is now the school administration building. The high school (then Clovis Union High School) received $66,000 for the science building.

W. P. No. 5561 for the National Youth Administration constructed a classroom annex in 1938. Mississippi Department of Archives and History identified the building as vocational/home economics building. The Series 2018 National Youth Administration scrapbook identified a photograph for No. 5561 as classroom annex for what appears to read lunch and music, although the caption identified class room and music room.

Annex 1 was added to the Belzoni school for African American students in 1938. It was constructed by the National Youth Administration. It is currently in use as part of the O. M. McNair Elementary School in Belzoni.

A WPA public school (abandoned) with two different dates engraved on different buildings, suggesting that it may have been built first as an elementary school and then later as a high school (see pictures). The buildings are now abandoned.

Public Works Administration project 1337 provided repairs and alterations to both Clay Street School and Carr High School in 1939, along with construction of two new school buildings.

"The auditorium was constructed as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) public works project in 1936-1937, during the Great Depression. It provided much-needed jobs in the Clayton area, which had been economically ravaged. According to an architectural survey completed in 1988, the auditorium is almost unique in being only one of two known WPA buildings constructed for sole use as auditoriums rather than as dual-use auditoriums and gymnasiums. (Much more common elsewhere in the county and Oklahoma was the dual-use auditorium and gymnasium, such as the WPA built elsewhere in the county in Antlers, Oklahoma, Moyers, Oklahoma and Rattan, Oklahoma.) ... The building was...

"The Clayton School buildings were constructed as Works Progress Administration projects in the late 1930s. The buildings are in a Pueblo Revival architectural style. There are several buildings within the complex. Within the junior high school is a museum of WPA projects. Must stop at administrative office to visit the museum." -Waymarking

Originally constructed as a high school, what is now Clearmont Elementary School was built in 1938 with assistance from the Works Progress Administration (WPA); it was one of five schools built by the WPA in Yancey County, North Carolina.

Excerpt from okhistory.org Delaware WPA Properties 1985: "This essentially "L" shaped structure (188' x 156 on the exterior sides) is constructed of rusticated and random laid limestone. It has a flat roof and parapets capped with concrete. Recessed entryways have paired doors with transcoms framed by poured concrete columns with entablature and squared cornices. The large wood sash windows are framed by pilasters and have continuous concrete sills and lintels. Continous friezes above and below the windows and curved corners give this building an art deco appearance."

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the Clifton High School in Clifton, Franklin County. The project was awarded to Isakson and Morrin of Ogden, Utah with a winning bid of $43,300 in December of 1938. It was completed in 1939. The school was used as a high school for about 10 years, then as a junior high school and elementary school until the late 1980’s, when it was demolished.

Clifton Middle School moved to this site in 1929. The WPA demolished and reconstructed the school gymnasium in the 1930s.