Virginia Tech: Armory - Blacksburg VA

City:: Blacksburg, VA
Site Type:: Colleges and Universities, Education and Health, Military and Public Safety, Gymnasiums, Armories
New Deal Agencies:: Public Works Administration (PWA), Public Works Funding
Started:: 1936
Completed:: 1936
Quality of Information:: Very Good
Site Survival:: Extant

Description

The Armory, now part of the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, was originally constructed as a federal Public Works Administration (PWA) project in 1936. The PWA supplied an $18,000 grant for the then-National Guard armory, whose total cost was $42,544. Primary construction began in January and was completed in December 1936. The project is sometimes mis-attributed to the Works Progress Administration (WPA), including on a historic information board outside the building’s entrance. Once it had fulfilled its original purpose the facility served as an auditorium for what was then the nearby Blacksburg High School. Per VT.edu, the Armory was also “a former community gymnasium.” The structure presently houses the School of Visual Arts.

PWA Docket No. VA 1128

Source notes

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 120.

https://www.vt.edu/about/locations/buildings/armory.html (accessed Mar. 30, 2023)

Site originally submitted by Evan Kalish on July 13, 2022.