- City:
- Clarksdale, MS
- Site Type:
- Civic Facilities, Auditoriums and Arenas
- New Deal Agencies:
- Work Relief Programs, Works Progress Administration (WPA)
- Completed:
- 1939
- Designer:
- Edgar Lucien Malvaney
- Contractor:
- McCandless CP
- Marked:
- Yes
Description
The Clarksdale Civic Auditorium was designed by Jackson architect E. L. Malvaney and built as a WPA project in 1939.
The auditorium is a 1500 seating capacity designed in the Art Moderne style. A rear addition for the National Guard Armory was added in 1944. The walls are “poured concrete” and the front facade includes a bas relief “above a ribbon of 2/2 horizontal awning metal windows (Wright, Baughn, & Gatline, 2009). The two front entrances (one at each end of the building) are on canted walls, have rounded corners and fluted columns typical of Art Moderne. A band of glass blocks is above each entry.
Mississippi Department of Archives and History provided $350,000 in 2011 for study of needs for the building, as well as repair of some elements in interior and exterior.
Source notes
Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Historic Resources Inventory Database. Wright, T., Baughn, J., & Gatlin, B. (2009). Nomination form for the National Register of Historic Places.Site originally submitted by Susan Allen on September 9, 2013.
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