Description

During the late 1930s, with funds from various New Deal programs, the Seattle Park Department made significant improvements to Laurelhurst Playfield. The largest of these improvement projects was the construction of a field house near the southern end of the playfield. Workers with the CWA began constructing the field house in January 1934. Work had not yet been completed when the federal government shut down the CWA program at the end of March 1934. The remaining work on the structure was completed in 1935 with assistance from the Washington (State) Emergency Relief Administration. Designed by Seattle architect Lloyd J. Lovegren, the upper floor of the two-story field house contained a large social room, a kitchen, instructors’ offices, and a storage room while the lower level housed clubrooms, a caretaker’s office, and restrooms. A circular driveway connected the main entrance on the east side of the structure to Northeast 41st Street. The completed field house was formally dedicated on April 26, 1935.