Penal Facilities Sites

Sometimes misattributed to the Works Progress Administration (WPA), Bethany, Missouri's Harrison County Courthouse and jail was enabled by the provision of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. The stately Art Deco project was authorized in an election in 1938 as a bond issue in conjunction with PWA grant. The cornerstone for the building was laid on Aug. 14, 1939; it was placed on the south façade of the building, at the southeast corner. The building was completed and opened in 1940. A humorous story from the courthouse's construction comes from the St. Joseph News-Press: QUESTION OF SPELLING IS ISSUE AT BETHANY BETHANY, Mo., Jan...

The Art Moderne jail was constructed in 1936 as Public Works Administration (PWA) project #1019 (Baughn). The estimated cost was $24,528, $10,000 of which was funded by the PWA (New correctional facility). The building no longer serves as the county jail after a new facility was erected in 1999-2000.

Thermopolis, Wyoming's Hot Springs County Courthouse (and jail) was constructed in 1937 with federal Public Works Administration funds (PWA Docket No. WY 1014 DS). The building received an addition in 1982 and it is still in use today.

The Iron County Jail in Crystal Falls, Michigan, built adjacent to the county courthouse, was constructed as Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) project. The P.W.A. supplied a $17,015 grant for the project, whose total cost was $59,798. Construction occurred in 1936. PWA Docket No. MI 1142

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) constructed a jail in Dubois, Wyoming. The location and status of the project is unknown to Living New Deal.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) approved an allotment of $18,317 for a new jail and office building for Prentiss and Jefferson Davis County December 1938. The WPA project employed 25-30 men. The new jail adjoined the courthouse and was a two-story concrete and steel building 32 by 53 feet. The first floor included five offices, vault, juvenile cell, and rest rooms. The second floor was for the jury dormitory, cells, and a “death cell.” Bids for materials for construction of the new jail building were advertised in August 1939. By January, the jail was in process of rebuilding. The jail...

The Mississippi state legislature approved Sb231 authorizing Jefferson County to issue $20,000 bonds for the construction of a new jail. President Roosevelt signed approval for Works Progress Administration project No. 50,036 September 26, 1940 for $23,775 to construction the jail. It is extant but not in use.

"When passing through the Village of Quemado in southwestern New Mexico, don't miss the New Deal rock jail built in 1934 by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). These letters are chiseled over the entry area and the building is located at #5 First Street in the center of town."

The Works Progress Administration built a new jail in Carbon Hill, circa 1937. The exact location and condition of the structure is unknown to the Living New Deal.

The Jasper County Jail in Jasper, Texas was built by the Works Progress Administration under project number 65-66-3047. The building is currently the Jasper County Historical Commission Office and Library.

"The Works Progress Administration (WPA) funded the 1940 changes to the" former Jefferson County "jail, including the Woman's and Children's building."

The Johnson County jail in Cleburne, Texas, was constructed in 1938 through the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works by the architectural firm W. G. Clarkson & Company.  

The Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Office was built in 1937 in Kalamazoo, MI with New Deal funds. 

Kingfisher is the seat of Kingfisher County. This building, constructed in 1936 as a jail, is currently occupied by the Kingfisher County Sheriff's Department as their county jail. It stands south of the courthouse at 119 S. Main Street. It was built with a WPA appropriation of $5,802. The building is constructed of large, tan-colored brick. The west and south sides have a metal security facade, however, construction can be viewed on the east (rear) side. This is a two-story building with an exposed basement. The windows are single units. A photo from the 1980's shows the openings once held 42-pane...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the Kiowa County Jail in Hobart, OK. Contributor note: "he Kiowa County Jail is still in operation as a jail, and also houses the Kiowa County Sheriff's Office. It was built in 1905 and is a two story brick building, with an exposed basement. The windows are multi-paned casement units, with the windows at the rear having arches. The building is a Contributing Building to the Hobart Historic Business District (Property No. 13). In 1936, a $15,506 appropriation was made for refurbishing of the jail. The building was renovated and enlarged. Originally the building was styled as...

Sometimes mis-attributed to the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the former Leavenworth County Jail in Leavenworth, Kansas was constructed as a federal Public Works Administration (PWA) project. The PWA provided an $59,400 grant for the project, whose total cost was $131,362. Construction started in Nov. 1938 and was completed in Dec. 1939. The building was located on S 3rd Street just north of the current Justice Center and jail, which replaced it in 2000. The New Deal-era jail was demolished in late 2013. PWA Docket No. Kan. 1422.

The Leon County Jail was constructed in 1937 at a cost of $100,000, replacing an older jail located immediately adjacent. The new facility was segregated by gender, proving spaces for 72 men and 26 women. The jail featured common areas on the lower level, and included its own laundry, hospital ward, and living quarters for the jailer. The jail was designed by the prominent Tampa architect, Malachi Leo Elliot, working with contractor T. A. Monk. This same team concurrently designed and built the PWA-funded Leon High School, which was completed in early 1937. Today Leon High School, as well as several other...

The Lincoln County Courthouse (is) truly a story of two buildings in one as the mid-1930s Art Deco-styled courthouse received a totally new front, in a contemporary style, in the 1970s as the town and county expanded in the wake of the federal spending in constructing Libby Dam. The rectangular blockiness, flat roof, and band of windows set within a symmetrical facade makes the courthouse one of the state’s best designs for a rural public building in the late 20th century. Sometimes misattributed to the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the project was enabled by Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. The PWA provided a...

Located on North Main Street across from the Lincoln County Courthouse in Canton, SD, the WPA assisted in the construction of the county's jail and sheriff's residence.

The former Los Prietos Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp was located in the Los Padres National Forest in the mountains behind Santa Barbara CA. Today, it serves as a juvenile correctional camp for boys.

America Builds: "Many schools for feeble-minded and epileptic children have been built ... At Mansfield the State of Connecticut maintains a school, which with the aid of a PWA grant of $2,576,700 provides living and hospitalization facilities, as well as farm and shop work adapted to the abilities of the patients."

Completed in 1942, this Work Projects Administration building features native Missouri stone and concrete. The building was designed by architect Mason C. Abbitt from Jefferson City, MO. Construction occurred in two stages and the facility includes a county jail.

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) provided labor for the improvement of what was then the Matteawan State Hospital (now Fishkill Correctional Facility) in Beacon, New York.

America Builds: "At Moose Lake in Minnesota a PWA allotment enabled the State to build a complete new $2,181,500 unit in the State asylum system. On 1,700 acres in Carlton County there have gone up a new administration building, men's receiving hospital, women's receiving hospital, auditorium, gymnasium, service building, women's dormitory, men's dormitory, nurses' home, doctors' home, male employees' dormitory, two residences, power plant, garage and shop building, freight depot, dairy barn, horse barn, chicken house, piggery, and three cottages for farmers. This project includes landscaping, roads, and equipment for buildings and for the farm. Many of the mental hospitals are...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built a county jail in Montrose, CO. The two-story structure was built of store quarried locally. The federal expenditure was $18,514. Local sponsors contributed an additional $9,348. While not still in use the building, which bears a 1936 inscription and a plaque crediting the WPA with its construction, still stands. The plaque reads: Erected through the cooperation of federal, state and local governments by Works Progress Administration Dedicated to the enrichment of human lives A record of permanent achievement

The town's municipal report for 1935 described extensive New Deal relief from the PWA and the WPA, as well as from VERA (Vermont Emergency Relief Agency). The mayor said in the report that: "These large amounts received during these past two years have undoubtedly greatly reduced our Charity costs..." In addition to extensive work on the city's sewer and street systems, the report describes two more municipal projects: "Cordwood was cut in Mendon by City residents for their own use, by the City Welfare Department and by VERA and WPA for use by the Charity Department. Reformatory, A large program of improving the grounds...

Municipal Jail under construction in Utuado.

Montana's Big Timber Pioneer newspaper reported in 1936: "Work on PWA projects in Polson is well under way. Construction of a new jail and fire house has started, adjacent to the new city hall which was constructed with a grant of federal funds last year. C. J. Loveland who was superintendent for the construction of the new city hall is again in charge."

The Works Progress Administration built the Municipal Pool and Bathhouse in Cordell, OK Contributor note: "The municipal pool and bathhouse is located across the street south from the WPA park, at 504 E. 2nd Street. It was constructed by the WPA in 1937. The bathhouse is a one-story rock building with protruding mortar. The building is segmented into three parts with the center section projected to the west, and slightly recessed on the east poolside. The windows are large and multi-paned. The pool to the east of the bathhouse is large and was empty and dry at the time of our visit. A sign...

The National Training School for Boys was a federal juvenile detention center for boys under seventeen, located in the Fort Lincoln area of Washington, DC. In 1935-37, Works Progress Administration (WPA) relief labor was used to make various improvements around the school.  The WPA work card on the project has these details:  "Landscape and improve grounds at National Training School for Boys; Enlarge and improve athletic fields at National Training School for Boys; Improve grounds at the National Training School for Boys, including terracing, sloping banks, cutting, filling, and grading, seeding, constructing structures for gully control, and performing appurtenant work; for erosion...

The Works Progress Administration built several agricultural buildings, which included a chicken farm and hennery, at the National Training School for Boys in Washington DC, circa 1937.

The Works Progress Administration built a road leading to the annex facilities at the National Training School for Boys in Washington DC, circa 1937.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) renovated several buildings at the National Training School for Girls in Washington DC, located at Conduit (now MacArthur Blvd) and Little Falls Road, NW.  The National Training School was a reform school administered at the time by the DC Board of Public Welfare (and not to be confused with the Nannie Burroughs National Training School for Women and Girls). In 1936-37 the WPA did extensive work at the school, including: "Painting and major repairs; improvements to buildings and grounds... Work includes flooring, painting, erecting a building for a chicken house, barn, implement shed, and quarters; installing equipment, electrical...

Improvements at the former New York City Reformatory in New Hampton, New York were undertaken as a Public Works Administration (PWA) project.

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) added a jail to the existing Newton County courthouse in Decatur, Mississippi during the Great Depression as a part of a temporary job creation program under the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). It was demolished in 1972, along with the courthouse, in order to build a new courthouse on the same site.

Built in 1935 by the Works Progress Administration. Moved from Clare Ln in Pinetop in 1988. Donations Made by First Interstate Bank, JTPA Youth, and The People of Pinetop-Lakeside to Preserve Pinetop's History. History: It appears that the jail of the past has been reconstructed to its current configuration, with major changes like cell bar locations, stone, etc.

This old jail served Somervell County for 50 years, before it was closed by the state for not meeting modern jail standards. Built in 1934, funded as a WPA government project during the Depression, as a replacement for the first county jail built in 1884, located on the same site.

This small building was constructed as a jail by the Works Progress Administration in 1939. It was restored in 2002 and is now a museum. The building bears a WPA stamp to the right of its door.

The St. Landry Parish Courthouse annex and jail project was undertaken in New Roads, Louisiana during the Great Depression with the assistance of funds provided by the Public Works Administration (PWA). The facilities were part of the largest wave of courthouse construction and improvement in Louisiana history, with eleven total courthouses erected in the period of  1936-1940. The annex and jail was added to the north side of the existing courthouse in the parish at a cost of $185,971.  

The first major federal Public Works Administration (PWA) project undertaken in Atlanta during the Great Depression was the city's police station and jail. The PWA supplied a $257,000 loan and $97,460 grant for the project, whose total cost was $355,867. Construction occurred between February 1934 and May 1935. The exact location and present status of the facility is unknown to Living New Deal. PWA Docket No. GA 2983.