- 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:
- Donald Parkinson, John Parkinson
- Quality of Information:
- Moderate
- Marked:
- Unknown
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
Manual Arts High School, which opened in 1910, was rebuilt with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) between 1934 and 1935. Architects John and Donald Parkinson designed a Moderne-style campus of reinforced concrete, featuring horizontal banding, rounded corners, concrete grilles, and tiled entries.
In January 1934, the PWA allocated $9,380,000 to the Los Angeles Unified School District 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.
Upon receiving news of the PWA allocation, Board of Education member Arthur Eckman told the Los Angeles Times, “I am sure that every member of the board agrees with me in expressing our appreciation of the loan and grant. It was made necessary in that we have been unable to sell our school bonds and the government was our only home.”
The school-rebuilding program was widely praised, with a February 1934 column in the Los Angeles Times arguing, “Of all the Southern California suggestions for the Public Works allocations, the school-rebuilding program is most nearly ideal. Here is centrally located work that needs to be done; work which will furnish a large volume of employment for a considerable period and for which taxpayers will pay without too much grumbling, since they understand the necessity of it.”
Source notes
Historic Schools of the Los Angeles Unified School District
“Washington Allocation of $9,380,000 Speeds Rebuilding of Quake-Damaged Schools,” Los Angeles Times (1923-1995), January 7, 1934.
“The P.W.A. Program,” Los Angeles Times (1923-1995), February 27, 1934.
"School Project Launched," Los Angeles Times (1923-1995), Apr 10, 1934.
Site originally submitted by Shaina Potts on March 21, 2010.
Additional contributions by Natalie McDonald.
Site Details
| Total Cost |
|---|
| $400,000 |
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Jorge Perez
Cynthia Quinonez
What happened ?
Take me back, I want to see it like this, not ugly and ran down like I remember it
Agree, Jorge! What happened to the investment that built and maintained schools like this in growing Los Angeles? My dad graduated from Manual Arts in 1951, my mom from the original Westchester High (now Wright Middle) in 1953. Their generation moved out and on, never looking back, while Los Angeles abandoned the ideals that made these schools in the first place. What, current students deserve less? No, at least as much if not more.