Prowers Housing Welfare Complex – Lamar CO

Description

“The Prowers Housing Welfare Housing is a complex of five buildings located on the northern edge of Lamar. The complex is located near the railroad tracks in an area that primarily light industrial. The Fairmont Cemetery, with stone walls constructed under a WPA project, is located northeast of the housing complex, on the opposite side on Maple Street.

The complex consists of four 128’ x 28’ buildings and one 52’ x 25’ building. The buildings are arranged in an “H” pattern, with the smaller building in the middle. All buildings the buildings are constructed of sandstone. The single-story buildings are topped by side gable roofs with exposed rafter tails and covered with wood shingles…

The Prowers County Welfare Housing, constructed between 1938 and 1941 under the Works Progress Administration (WPA), is being nominated under the New Deal Resources on Colorado’s Eastern Plains Multiple Property Documentation Form (MPDF)…

Constructed by the WPA, the Prowers County Welfare Housing presents an important record of the federal relief programs administered in Colorado’s eastern plains during the Great Depression. Though the dire economic conditions of the Depression affected all of Colorado, drought and dust storms hit the agricultural-based economy of the Eastern Plains especially hard. The construction of the housing complex provided much-needed employment in Prowers County over several years. The housing complex also represents a remarkable effort by Prowers County to provide public housing for its needy. It is the only complex of the kind constructed in eastern Colorado. New Deal public housing projects were primarily limited to urban areas…

The total cost for the welfare housing complex was $58,789. The WPA contributed $47,478 while Prowers County spent $11,311…

Exact dates for the operation of the housing complex have not been located. It seems to have only been in operation into the 1940s. It eventually was converted to the Department of Social Services. In 1994, the county leased the buildings to Neoplan, a local company that placed a day care in unit #3 and converted unit #2 to temporary housing for workers. The complex is currently vacant.”