Jordan High School – Los Angeles CA

City:: Los Angeles, CA
Site Type:: Schools, Education and Health
New Deal Agencies:: Public Works Administration (PWA), Public Works Funding
Started:: 1934
Completed:: 1935
Designers:: Alfred S. Nibecker Jr., Sumner P. Hunt
Contractor:: George M. Easton
Quality of Information:: Very Good
Marked:: Unknown
Site Survival:: Extant

Description

Jordan High School (formerly David Starr Jordan High School), established in 1925, was rebuilt with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA). The work was completed in 1935.

The PWA allocated $9,380,000 to the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) in January 1934 for the rehabilitation of schools damaged in the severe 1933 Long Beach earthquake. One hundred and thirty schools would benefit from the system-wide loan and grant, with 2,500 men to be employed in rehabilitation work over 21 months.

Jordan High School’s five original buildings, the Los Angeles Conservancy writes, were retrofitted and renovated “with a unifying PWA Moderne style. Prominent Los Angeles architect Sumner P. Hunt designed the remodeling and retrofitting effort with builder George M. Easton and under the supervision of the district architect Alfred S. Nibecker, Jr. A loggia connecting the Administration Building to the North Annex also was constructed in 1935 […]. Three additional buildings on campus date from the same period of construction: the PWA Moderne-style girl’s gymnasium (1937), and two shop buildings from the 1920s that were also seismically upgraded in 1935.”

In 1994, the loggia was determined eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.

In 2012, LAUSD proposed the demolition of two of Jordan High School’s five original structures: the Domestic Science Building and the North Annex. The Los Angeles Conservancy urged the District “to set an example for its students of responsible historic and cultural stewardship by adopting a preservation alternative as the preferred project. […] In October 2012,” the Conservancy reported, “a successful resolution […] approved a revised development project that avoided demolition of an additional historic classroom building [the Domestic Science Building], preserving the core of this historic school campus. […] By LAUSD reusing and reinvesting in its existing buildings at Jordan, it set an example for many other historic schools that can be modernized to provide high-performing educational facilities while respecting its rich history.”