- City:
- Mt. Vernon, IL
- Site Type:
- Education and Health, Schools
- New Deal Agencies:
- Public Works Funding, Public Works Administration (PWA)
- Started:
- 1935
- Completed:
- 1936
- Designer:
- William McCoy
- Contractor:
- Baugher & Palmer
- Quality of Information:
- Good
- Marked:
- No
- Site Survival:
- No Longer Extant
Description
Mt. Vernon Township high school was expanded during the 1930s with the assistance of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. The school’s original building B was supplemented by three new structures Buildings A, D, and E (a classroom building, an auditorium, and a gymnasium). Credit for the structures is sometimes mis-attributed to the Works Progress Administration (WPA) (e.g., on Wikipedia, below).
In the 2010s, a new school was built 5 miles away on the SW edge of town and the old school was torn down in 2017-18, according to the Jefferson County Historical Society. Apparently, the loss of the venerable Changnon Gymnasium was bemoaned by many in the community.
For an article on the demolition in the Mt. Vernon (IL) Register-News (itself closed down 2018!), see:
https://mvths.socs.net/pages/History/Articles/2008_ChangnonGymnasium.pdf
For reminiscences of the old gym, see:
https://hiddengyms.blogspot.com/2011/04/restraining-mt-vernon.html
and from 2016, final game at the gym:
https://gregghampton.wordpress.com/2016/02/19/goodbye-changnon-gym/
Source notes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mt._Vernon_Township_High_School_%28Illinois%29
https://mvths.socs.net/pages/History/Articles/2008_ChangnonGymnasium.pdf
Site originally submitted by Evan Kalish on March 15, 2015.
Additional contributions by Kate Harps & Dale Roberts.
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