- City:
- Loma, CO
- Site Type:
- Community Centers, Civic Facilities
- New Deal Agencies:
- Work Relief Programs, Works Progress Administration (WPA)
- Started:
- 1938
- Completed:
- 1940
- Quality of Information:
- Very Good
- Marked:
- Yes
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built a community hall, 1938-40, for use by farm families relocated from the Dust Bowl to a Resettlement Community in Fruita and Loma, Colorado.
It is a tall, single-story, wood frame building, with plank siding painted white. The high-ceiling interior is fitted out with hardwood floors, a basketball court, a stage and riser seating. Two ticket windows flank the entrance. The basement has a full kitchen, which was used by WPA service workers to make hot lunches for the nearby elementary school.
We have no corroborating evidence that the elementary school was built by the WPA, despite a claim by History Colorado; but school lunch programs were a common WPA service in poor communities.
The Loma Community Hall was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. It is still in use and essentially unchanged since 1938. A modern fire station has been plunked down in front of the Community Hall, partially blocking the view of it from Road 13.
Source notes
https://www.historycolorado.org/location/loma-community-hall
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loma,_Colorado
https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NRHP/95001338_text
Site originally submitted by Shaina Potts on May 1, 2013.
Additional contributions by Evan Kalish, Richard Walker.
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