- City:
- Piedmont, CA
- Site Type:
- Education and Health, Schools
- New Deal Agencies:
- Works Progress Administration (WPA), Public Works Funding, Work Relief Programs, Public Works Administration (PWA)
- Started:
- 1937
- Completed:
- 1939
- Quality of Information:
- Very Good
- Marked:
- Unknown
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
Piedmont High School was expanded under the New Deal with the help of Public Works Administration (PWA) funding. A new library and classroom building were built, 1937-39.
There had been three previous efforts to replace temporary buildings at schools in Piedmont in the 1920s, because about one-third of Piedmont students were being taught in temporary buildings (derisively called ‘shacks’ by the locals). All the bond issues lost (Tribune Dec. 1933). After the school board sought and gained a promise of $83,000 in funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) in 1933, a new bond issue for $233,000 passed in December of that year.
The Piedmont schools rebuilding program erected classroom buildings at Havens, Wildwood and Beach Elementary Schools, as well as adding auditoriums at each one. Beach School was completely rebuilt. Work began in 1936 and was finished by 1942 (Tribune 1942).
Additions to Piedmont High School took roughly $35,000 of the original funding (Tribune, Dec. 11, 1933). Yet, it seems that the District ran short of funds and applied for help from the Works Progress Administration (WPA) c. 1936. As a result, local sources credit the WPA with the new buildings at the high school.
The New Deal additions are shown in a Sanborn Insurance map from 1951. The library (upper center) is labeled and dated 1939. The L-shaped, reinforced concrete classroom wing (far left) was built in 1937. Along with the auditorium from the 1920s, these buildings formed the old Quad.
In 1974, the original part of the school from the 1920s was declared an earthquake hazard and demolished; three new classroom buildings and a new gymnasium were built. The library, quad, and administration building were rehabilitated and enclosed to form the present library, with the upper level functioning as classrooms.
In 2020, a huge new building has gone up on the north side of the quad, but the New Deal library-classroom building has again survived. The mosaics are in this space.
Source notes
"Piedmont to vote on bonds", Oakland Tribune, October 19, 1928, p. 9.
"Banish shacks Piedmont plan," Oakland Tribune, December 2, 1933, p. 5.
"Workers plan drive to ban school shacks," Oakland Tribune, December 11, 1933, p. 14.
The Piedmonter, September 8, 1938.
The Piedmonter, August 22, 1940.
The Piedmonter, May 1, 1942.
"Piedmont's last shack school torn down after twenty years," Oakland Tribune, April 30, 1942, p. 27.
THE ATTIC TRUNK 9:4 (Summer, 2007). (Magazine of the Piedmont Historical Society)
Gail Lombardi, Chair of the Piedmont Historical Society (communications of July 20-21, 2020).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Piedmont,_California
Site originally submitted by Richard A Walker on June 5, 2020.
Additional contributions by Gail Lombardi.
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