- City:
- McFarland, CA
- Site Type:
- Civic Facilities, Community Centers
- New Deal Agencies:
- Works Progress Administration (WPA), Work Relief Programs
- Quality of Information:
- Moderate
- Marked:
- Unknown
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built a community hall for the town of McFarland in the 1930s. The hall was constructed of adobe brick covered in stucco with a tile roof, in the Mission Revival style popular in California at the time.
A concrete block addition was added in 1951 and another new wing was recently built to provide for a city council meeting room. The whole building is still in use by the city.
The original WPA community hall is the structure visible on the left in the photographs. The new wing, which replicates the Mission Revival style of the original, extends to the right (west). The mid-20th century addition is in the middle and has been renovated to blend with the rest of the complex.
The former main entrance facing north with a canopy is now the service entrance and the new main entrance is the angled canopy in the middle of the photos. The short wing directly to the right of the entrance is the 1951 concrete-block, flat-roofed structure, which was renovated to correspond to the original. The wing on the far right is the new city council meeting chambers. The original building had a terra cotta tile roof, but all the roofs are now covered in a lighter-weight tile.
Source notes
City of Bakersfield Historical Preservation Commission
Site originally submitted by Stephen Montgomery on July 6, 2014.
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