Eddy County Courthouse Expansion – Carlsbad NM

City:
Carlsbad, NM

Site Type:
Civic Facilities, Military and Public Safety, Courthouses (State & Local), Penal Facilities

New Deal Agencies:
Public Works Administration (PWA), Public Works Funding

Started:
1938

Completed:
1939

Site Survival:
Extant

Description

Sometimes mis-attributed to the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the Public Works Administration provided funding for the expansion of the Eddy County Courthouse and jail in 1939.

Treasures on New Mexico Trails: “Eddy County Courthouse was begun in 1891, with additions in 1914 and 1939. The 1939 addition was done by the WPA [sic] for $185,000.”

Eddy County History:

“Eddy County was named for Charles B. Eddy, a rancher in southeastern New Mexico during the last decades of the 19th century. … The original courthouse built a few years after the creation of the county was a Victorian structure built for $21,000 with a steeple and dark colored brick made locally and additions are similar. When New Deal funds ($185,000) became available in 1939, the architecture of the building was drastically changed to an early Spanish style as it appears today.”

PWA documentation states that the PWA provided a grant of $112,500 for the project, whose total cost was $251,416. Construction occurred between Oct. 1938 and Nov. 1939. PWA Docket No. NM [X]1097.

Source notes

Record Group 135: Public Works Administration; Projects Control Division; Entry 52: Indices to Non-Federal Projects; Report No. 5: Status of All Completed Non-Federal Allotted Projects, page 174.

"Eddy County History," Southeastern New Mexico Economic Development District Council of Governments: https://www.snmedd.org/countyprofiles_EDDY_history.htm

Flynn, Kathryn A., editor. Treasures on New Mexico Trails: discovery of New Deal art and architecture. New Mexico State Historic Preservation Division, 1995. Pg. 38.

Site originally submitted by Evan Kalish on March 22, 2022.

Location Info


102 N Canal St.
Carlsbad, NM 88220

Coordinates: 32.420957, -104.228407

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