Long Creek High School Gymnasium – Huntersville NC

Description

The federal Civil Works Administration (CWA) constructed the Long Creek High School Gymnasium and the school’s attendant recreational grandstand in Huntersville, North Carolina. “The Long Creek High School Gymnasium and Grandstand are the only surviving structures from the initial phase of Federally-assisted school construction in Mecklenburg County.” The structures “are tangible reminders of how the New Deal relief programs changed rural life in Mecklenburg County.” (cmhpf.org)

“Long Creek High School opened in 1923 as part of a program of comprehensive school consolidation in Mecklenburg County.  The Long Creek High School Gymnasium and Grandstand were constructed in 1934 initially under arrangements approved by the Mecklenburg County Board of Education on January 1, 1934. ” . . . actual work on the various gymnasiums will be started as soon as the material is placed on the grounds,” reported the Charlotte Observer.  The Civil Works Administration, a Federal agency established in 1933 to create temporary construction jobs for the unemployed, provided the wages for the project; and the local community donated the building supplies.  “The Board enthusiastically approved the proposition,” stated the Board minutes, “commending the fine spirit and initiative of the local communities in providing the necessary material to complete the work on these gymnasiums.”  The Long Creek High School Gymnasium was one of eight facilities of its general type constructed in Mecklenburg County under the arrangements outlined above, the others being at the high schools then in the local school districts of Huntersville, Paw Creek, Pineville, Sharon, Oakhurst, Berryhill, and Bain.   Only the Long Creek Gymnasium survives from this initial round of construction.” (cmhpf.org)