Description
Multiple New Deal agencies performed work in and around Natrona County High School in Casper, Wyoming, notably constructing athletic facilities.
The Civil Works Administration (C.W.A.) began construction of “a stadium for the athletic field at Natrona County High School in Casper,” work that was completed under the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (F.E.R.A.).
Casper Star-Tribune: “CONSTRUCTION of Casper’s new $48,000 stadium under the CWA end later the ERA during 1934 rounded out the athletic facilities of Natrona County High school to the most complete and finest of any school from colleges on down in the Rocky Mountain states, and further boosted Carper’s eminence as Wyoming’s “Convention City.” With its 25-yard tiled swimming pool, its 12,000-foot floor space gymnasium, and now the new stadium, Natrona County High school ranks with any high school in the country in athletic equipment.”
“Begun as a CWA project, the stadium was completed in 1934 under the ERA. The CWA expenditure totaled $31,222, the ERA, $11,693 …”
Cassity: “There was always in Wyoming a fine line between schools and community and the facilities for one often served the other. And sometimes the school would receive an addition that was intended for the whole community. In Casper the CWA launched a project to construct a new stadium for the high school, remarking, “There is at present no Stadium in Natrona County.” And the stadium that they quickly developed plans for and proceeded to build was as notable as the school itself. CWA workers had to clear away the old grandstand, fences, and other remnants and start with solid, underground footings, then install columns, and then the stadium itself which had to be constructed in three sections. The stadium, not just a grandstand, had nighttime lighting, bathrooms, dressing rooms, concrete ticket sales booths, and used 30,000 bricks in its construction. It was the pride of Casper and Natrona County.”
Wikipedia: “Natrona County High School was originally known as Casper High School in its early days. The current building was constructed between 1924 and 1941 in Collegiate Gothic style. It was partially built under the authority of the Works Progress Administration; the crest of the WPA visible in the sidewalks on the front campus. In exchange for the federal assistance, male student participation in the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps was mandatory until a few years after Kelly Walsh High School opened in 1965. The JROTC at NCHS is the second oldest unit in the nation and will be celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2014.
The school’s swimming pool was the first indoor pool in the state.”
Source notes
"Places of Learning: Historical Context of Schools in Wyoming," prepared for the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office Planning and Historic Context Development Program, Wyoming State Parks & Cultural Resources.
https://wyoshpo.state.wy.us/pdf/WyomingSchoolsContext.pdf (pg. 120, .pdf pg. 122)"FINE STADIUM ROUNDS OUT H. S. ATHLETIC FACILITIES CONSTRUCTION," Casper Star-Tribune, March 3, 1935 (pg. 30): https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/348227578/
"CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITIES COSTING $700,000 PROVE COMMUNITY ASSET IN 1934," Casper Star-Tribune, March 3, 1935 (pg. 27): https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/348227545/
Building Up Wyoming: Depression-Era Federal Projects in Wyoming, 1929–1943. Michael Cassity. Prepared for the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office ... (pg. 101).
https://www.michaelcassity.org/uploads/1/2/7/7/12777320/wyodepressionerafedprojects_mpdf.pdf
Project originally submitted by Evan Kalish on September 14, 2014.
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