Watonga Middle School – Watonga OK

Description

Watonga Middle School was originally the Watonga High School, built by the WPA in 1936-1937. From Marjorie Barton’s Leaning on a Legacy (2008): “The building was constructed of light sandstone blocks, which are uniform in size, but not squared on the facing, and is beautifully maintained. The high school in Wewoka is of another type of stone and had a large addition as a WPA project. The addition has a WPA marker, but is such a perfect match, it blends with the older portion of the building.”

From Wayfinding.com:

The High School was built in 1936-1937 as a WPA project. This can be documented by a bronze shield above the south entrance, and also a shield which is engraved into the concrete on the stairway sidewall. The school appropriation was $33,844. An auditorium addition to the east (rear) was constructed in 1938 with an appropriation of $10,000.

This is a two-story flat-roofed school building constructed of native sandstone. The main entrance facing west is located in a slightly projected bay, with double doors and a raised pediment at the roof line. At each end of the facade, windowless projected sections also have raised pediments. There is a single entrance on both the north and south sides.

The windows are set in triples on the west side, and in units of five on the north and south. Each window unit has a combination of two-over-one double hung windows and a 7-pane double hung. On the ground floor, the lower portion of the two-over-one windows has been bricked in, and the 7-pane windows are covered with louvers.

A granite cornerstone on the southwest corner shows the date 1936 and lists the Board of Education members, and the Construction Superintendent and Architect [Editor’s note: this is not the plaque shown below].