Municipal Auditorium - Barre VT

City:: Barre, VT
Site Type:: Civic Facilities, Auditoriums and Arenas
New Deal Agencies:: Public Works Administration (PWA), Public Works Funding, Work Relief Programs, Works Progress Administration (WPA)
Started:: 1938
Completed:: 1939
Designer:: Freeman French Freeman

Description

Barre Auditorium was constructed in 1938-9 as a federal Public Works Administration (PWA) project. The PWA provided a $105,882 grant toward the $239,668 total cost of the project. (PWA Docket No. VT [X]1122.) The facility is still in use today for athletic events and community gatherings.

The architecture firm Freeman French Freeman, Burlington, VT, designed the building (FFF Project #150). The firm began operation in 1937 and continues to this day.

One of the founders, Ruth Freeman, was the first female architect in the state and was known for her significant contributions to the modernist style of architecture. Upon graduating from Cornell University, she and her husband, Bill Freeman, started the firm with John French, creating the first architectural firm in the state.

The Work Projects Administration (W.P.A.) conducted landscaping work around the auditorium in 1940-1.

Source notes

National Archives: Record Group 135: Public Works Administration; Projects Control Division; Entry 52: Indices to Non-Federal Projects; Report No. 5: Status of All Completed Non-Federal Allotted Projects, page 42.

https://www.barrecity.org/

Freeman French Freeman, Inc. Records, University of Vermont, Bailey/Howe Library, Special Collections

Annual Report of the City of Barre, 1940 (pp. 14).

Site originally submitted by Devin Colman on May 13, 2015.
Additional contributions by Evan Kalish.