Community Theater Dead End Wall – Salina KS

Description

In 1939, a dead-end wall was constructed in Salina, Kansas in an area that now sits behind Salina Community Theater. The wall was built by youths who were employed by the National Youth Administration (NYA). The NYA was a division of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) that focused on training, employing, and educating young people between the ages of 16 and 25.

Chris Cotten, Parks and Recreation Director of the City of Salina, Kansas tells us that “[i]n April 1939 the Salina Journal reported that 35 NYA youths, working part time and using rubble masonry, were hired to construct ‘ten dead-end walls’ on streets that terminated at the Smoky Hill River. Remnants of these walls can be seen at both ends of 2^nd and 3^rd Streets; behind the Community Theater; at the south ends of Columbia, Penn, and Kansas Avenue; and running along Kenwood Park Drive. The rock wall at the south end of 3^rd Street bears an NYA plaque.“