McClatchy High School – Sacramento CA

Description

CK McClatchy Senior High School in Sacramento CA was built in 1937 with aid from the Public Works Administration (PWA) of the New Deal.  The school was designed by the local architectural firm of Starks and Flanders, which designed other landmark buildings in downtown Sacramento, including the Elks Temple, the U.S. Post Office, and the Courthouse.

Ground was broken on May 20 and the school dedicated on September 19, 1937.  The school bears the name of C.K. McClatchy, the late editor and owner of The Sacramento Bee and a powerful figure in Sacramento and Central Valley politics during his life.

The school included a band room complete with soundproof practice rooms, dressing rooms and music rooms near the auditorium. A nurses suite with bathrooms and a sun porch were other features.

“The school is an architectural hybrid. According to the application for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, CKM shares the pared down, stylized design typical of many PWA projects. Moderne in its massing and simplicity of line, it carries stylized elements of Classical Revival perhaps more accurately, Mannerist Revival architecture.” (McClatchy HS website)

 “The school is a long, two story building with a projecting center pavilion and two projecting sections on the south end and is constructed of reinforced concrete with a stucco facade and a low-pitched hipped Spanish tile roof. The whole building is topped with a decorative frieze which matches the frieze elements under the windows and above the doors.” (Old Sac City blog)

The McClatchy HS building was placed on the National Register in the late 1990s in response to demolition of the WPA library building at Sacramento City Jr. College