- City:
- Fort Worth, TX
- Site Type:
- Education and Health, Schools
- New Deal Agencies:
- Public Works Funding, Work Relief Programs, Public Works Administration (PWA), Works Progress Administration (WPA)
- Designer:
- Preston M. Geren
Description
“This structure is one unit of a large rehabilitation and building program begun by the Fort Worth Independent School District in 1934. The addition provides six classrooms, a library, a kindergarten, a cafeteria, and an auditorium seating 400. The construction is reinforced concrete with wood roof framing. Exterior walls are faced with buff brick and trimmed with artificial stone of a similar color. With the addition, the school will accommodate 480 pupils. It was completed in February 1938 at a construction cost of $110,313 and a project cost of $115,644.” (Short and Stanley-Brown)
The school grounds were landscaped by the WPA.
Source notes
C.W. Short and R. Stanley-Brown. "Public Buildings: A Survey of Architecture of Projects Constructed by Federal and Other Governmental Bodies Between the Years 1933 and 1939 with the Assistance of the Public Works Administration." (1939). Fort Worth Historic Schools Survey Report (https://fortworthtexas.gov/planninganddevelopment/design.aspx?id=21358)Site originally submitted by Susan Kline on January 19, 2012.
Site Details
Total Cost |
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$115,644.00 |
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A great example of early 1900’s concrete construction techniques
concrete contractor Austin TX
Lily B. Clayton was designed by my grandfather, Fort Worth Architect Wiley G Clarkson
For clarification, Wiley G. Clarkson designed the 1921-22 and 1924-25 portions of the school. The PWA addition was started in 1934 and completed in 1935. It was designed by Preston M. Geren. The Short and Brown book had the info wrong.
It would be nice to see photos of the building before the addition. Also there is an odd door that faces west and has no stairs yet it is on the second floor. What is/was the purpose of that door?
Does anyone know or have photos?
Gabriel: I have historic photos of the original school (but it is not New Deal) and after the additional. Please tell me how to submit them.
You may submit them through emaol to [email protected]. Thanks!
Lily B. Clayton was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on January 17, 2017.
@Shelly Parks I went to this school as a kid and remember that door very well, there are lots of fascinating out of place things about that building. If I recall correctly, the other side of those doors (which I’ve never seen open) was backstage of the auditorium at stage level. You can kind of see the doors in this picture https://www.fortwortharchitecture.com/south/lilybclayton.jpg
As a kid the best I could come up with is that it used to be a fire escape or something, but in retrospect that is a horrible fire escape design. My current best theory is that it may have been some kind of freight access to bring in equipment too large for the regular doors?
If anyone has a better idea I’m very interested….