Clayton High School Auditorium – Clayton OK

Description

“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 nominated successfully to become part of the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. Justifying its inclusion was its unusual Art Deco allusions—uncommon among WPA buildings in the region—and its purpose as a sole-use auditorium.”