- City:
- Watonga, OK
- Site Type:
- Civic Facilities, Military and Public Safety, Armories
- New Deal Agencies:
- Work Relief Programs, Works Progress Administration (WPA)
- Completed:
- 1936
- Quality of Information:
- Very Good
- Marked:
- Yes
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
The Watonga Armory was constructed between 1935 and 1937 as a WPA project. This can be documented by the bronze shield above the entrance, and the cornerstone. The armory was placed on the National Register in 1994.
This is a very typical WPA-constructed Armory in Oklahoma, although the decorative brickwork shows a high degree of masonry skill. The south end of the building has a barrel-shaped roof and was the drill area. The two-story, flat-roofed North end has rooms for offices, supplies and arms on the second floor, and a garage area on the ground floor with overhead doors.
The main facade facing north has seven bays. The center three bays are two-story and contain the pedestrian entrance flanked by overhead garage doors. The flanking two bays on either side are one-story and contain additional overhead doors. The parapet is stepped and has cast concrete block coping. The slightly projected pilasters and tall corner buttresses have stepped concrete caps. Over each window is a panel of standing brick, and over each overhead door are three rows of curved standing brick. The pedestrian door is recessed with six rows of curved brickwork. The windows are tall, steel framed with multiple panes glass.
A cornerstone at the northeast corner reads: “State Armory / Built by Works Progress Administration / 1936 / W.S. Key State Administrator.”
Source notes
Originally published on Waymarking.com National Register of Historic PlacesSite originally submitted by hamquilter on June 28, 2015.
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