- City:
- Beckley, WV
- Site Type:
- Civic Facilities, Courthouses (State & Local)
- New Deal Agencies:
- Public Works Funding, Public Works Administration (PWA)
- Started:
- 1936
- Completed:
- 1937
- Quality of Information:
- Good
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
The historic Raleigh County Courthouse in Beckley, West Virginia was constructed between March 1936 and November 1937. Construction was enabled by a federal Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) grant; the P.W.A. supplied $114,545 for the project, whose total cost was $268,953.
The Raleigh County Courthouse is in downtown Beckley on a 240′ x 240’square lot. It is an Art Deco style building using steel joist construction and concrete floors. The exterior is pink and neutral color Indiana sandstone with terra cotta. The building is a three story I plan with full basement.
The front façade has three divisions with 12 bays with the main entrance in the center section. The windows are recessed with aluminum spandrels between the first and second story. Roman authority symbols are with recessions, appropriate for a courthouse. The entrance lists the name, date and elevation of the courthouse.
Newspaper accounts how the building as a PBX exchange on the first floor and the “entire building as telephone connections to all offices.” The main courtrooms finished iwht walnut wainscotting.
The “jail addition” for 150 prisoners, juveniles detntion rooms, andjailer quarters was added to the project. It was also designed by Bengston. Bids for the construction were opened in January 1937with completition contracted otu to be started by 11 February 1937 and complted by 11 January 1938.
The new courthouse opened on 9 November 1937.
P.W.A. Docket No. WV 1043-R
Source notes
National Archives: Record Group 135: Public Works Administration; Projects Control Division; Entry 52: Indices to Non-Federal Projects; Report No. 5: Status of All Completed Non-Federal Allotted Projects, page 78.
https://services.wvgis.wvu.edu/SHPOdocs/PDFs/NationalRegister/94000722.pdf
Warmuth, Debra and Richard, West Virginia's Living Monuments: The Courthouses, Cincinnati Ohio: Black Ties Press, 2013, p. 143-145
"Architect Describes New Courthouse," The Raleigh Register (Beckley, WV), 4 November 1937, p.1.
"Bids for Jail Asked February 5: Contract for Addtion May Be Let Soon" The Raleigh Register (Beckley, WV), 31 Janaury 1937, p 16.
"Plant Builders Did Good Job," The Raleigh Register (Beckley, WV), 29 December 1936, p. 12.
"Beckley Will Vote Soon," The Raleigh Register (Beckley, WV), 29 September 1935, p. 8.
Site originally submitted by Evan Kalish and Ernest Everett Blevins on June 2, 2015.
Additional contributions by Brent McKee, February 15, 2018.
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