Howard University: Cook Hall - Washington DC

State:: WASHINGTON-DC
Site Type:: Education and Health, Colleges and Universities, Dormitories
New Deal Agencies:: Public Works Administration (PWA), Public Works Funding
Started:: 1938
Completed:: 1938
Quality of Information:: Moderate
Marked:: No
Site Survival:: Extant

Description

The Public Works Administration (PWA) provided $120,000 for two wings of a men’s dormitory at Howard University, presently called George Cook Hall. The full cost of the project is unknown to us, but it appears that the two wings loom over a small central part of the complex — which may well have been built as part of the first PWA grant for four buildings on campus. This implies that the PWA funded the construction of Cook Hall.

Cook Hall was built c. 1938. The central portion is more Georgian in style, while the wings are very high modern: geometric, undecorated and utilitarian brick. The central part was most likely designed by African-American architect Albert Cassell, the architect for several buildings on campus. He might also have done the wings. Further confirmation is needed on that.

Cook Hall is still functioning as a residence hall.

Source notes

Logan, Rayford Whittingham. 1969. Howard University: the First Hundred Years, 1867-1967. New York: New York University Press.

Short, C. W. and R. Stanley-Brown, 1939. Public Buildings: A Survey of Architecture of Projects Constructed by Federal and Other Governmental Bodies Between the Years 1933 and 1939 with the Assistance of the Public Works Administration. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

https://residencelife.howard.edu/sites/residencelife.howard.edu/files/pdf/HU_CookHall_FP-Flyer_v3.pdf

Site originally submitted by Richard A Walker on November 30, 2019.