Okmulgee Stock Pavillion – Okmulgee OK

Description

“This building is one of nine livestock exposition-type buildings in Oklahoma, built by the WPA.

The WPA completed this one-story native stone building in April 1942. It served as a livestock exposition building and was first used at the Okmulgee County Free Fair on September 23-26, 1942. This area was used as the local fairgrounds until the 1970s. An average of 84 men worked two years completing the building. Its native stone blocks are laid unevenly which speaks of the unskilled WPA labor used to construct it. The building was the first in a series of fairgrounds buildings planned, one to be built each year. However, due to the coming of World War II, the dissolution of the WPA in 1943-1945, as well as the lack of city funds, the project was never completed.

The park area to the north is now occupied as the Okmulgee Public Works. Signs posted at this building show Wastewater Treatment Plant, and it appears that the building is used in some manner by the Public Works Department. In 1999, it was used as storage for the city’s street department equipment.

The building is one-story, although the double rank of windows makes it appear two-story. It is a plain, unadorned building with a dome roof which rises up from all sides and is covered with roll roofing…

This building is referred to as Liberty Gymnasium in the book “Leaning on a Legacy – The WPA in Oklahoma (Page 37), and was used by the NYA. The building was placed on the National Register in 1999 (#98001590).”   (https://www.waymarking.com)