Description
The approval for construction of a concrete school building in Brooksville was announced May 1940. The 1941 design was a one-story Art Moderne with glass blocks and curved entrance. The school was only 2/3 completed in 1942 when Works Progress Administration (WPA) funding was ended. According to Thomas Gentry (Hays Town Architectural Exhibit, 2018) the process of “pour-in-place” concrete construction may have contributed to the delay. Gentry references Mississippi Senator Bilbo’s Brooksville School file which contained letters and telegrams related to the project.WPA Supplemental Project No. 41076-Si was filed with an additional $12,000 required from the district. A total of $58,000 had been spent. Washington did not approve the request. Gentry stated the president of the Bank of Brooksville sent a letter to Senator Bilbo May 2, 1942 that the original project was begun in 1940, shut down in the fall of 1941 and efforts were made to get the building completed. A copy of a Western Union Telegram from Senator Bilbo’s office dated May 18, 1942 indicated the Brooksville School Project received presidential approval from Roosevelt that day. Although Krouse and Brasfield are attributed as architects, there is insufficient information to document that, and others consider A. Hays Town more likely to have designed the building based on his previous work in poured concrete schools. The Mississippi Department of Archives and History locates the school at 33.23551157, -88.57409215. The building is still visible on Google Maps at 14315 E. Main Street, Brooksville MS and has been abandoned for some period of time.
Source notes
School Project Okehed. (May 18, 1940). Clarion-Ledger, p. 6.A.
A. Hays Town Architectural Exhibit. (July 26, 2018). Preservation in Mississippi. Retrieved August 22, 2020 from: https://misspreservation.com/2018/07/26/a-hays-town-architectural-exhibit/
Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Historic Resources Inventory, Brooksville. Retrieved August 22, 2020 from:
https://www.apps.mdah.ms.gov/Public/rpt.aspx?rpt=publicPropSearch&Name=&StreetNo=&StreetName=&City=Brooksville&County=Any
Project originally submitted by Susan Allen on August 23, 2020.
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