Start Year: 1940

In 1940, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) received funding for a $66,000 project to build a high school athletic field and stadium for the Watertown school district. The construction was completed in 1941, and the site included a baseball field, football field, running track, and seats for up to 5000 spectators. After completion, the stadium hosted the majority of football games played by the Watertown Arrows. The site is still used today by the Watertown Arrows. The site has also been used for hosting musical concerts, and for launching fireworks for Fourth of July celebrations. In 2000, the site was registered...

Works Progress Administration Project 41,187 was approved for improvements to campus streets and the athletic field at Pearl River Junior College. The allotment was $31,335 and the sponsor’s fund was $14,582. The Coast Engineering Co., prepared plans for the project, which included paving all driveways, building curbs for sidewalks, grounds beautification, grading, seeding, sodding, tree and shrub planting. The athletic field was enlarged and concrete bleachers were erected.

The Alley Dwelling Authority (ADA) funded the construction of an administration and community building for the Frederick Douglass Dwellings and surrounding community, ca. 1940-1942. It is unknown to the Living New Deal if this building still exists. The ADA was one of the earliest New Deal initiatives to provide better housing for low-income Americans. It replaced unsafe alley dwellings in Washington, DC with more modern and affordable houses and apartments. The ADA existed from 1934-1943 as a federally controlled special authority. It then slowly evolved into today’s DC Housing Authority, an independent agency of the DC Government. The Frederick Douglass Dwellings Administration and...

Meridian voters approved a $200,000 bond issue for improving the water works in 1939. It was projected to begin July that year and provide employment for 300 men for a year. Improvements were proposed to include “new five-million-gallon reservoir on the hills south of Meridian, Gravity flow through a new 24-inch main to the downtown section. Several new 16-inch mains to major outlying districts of the city. At least one addition to the pumping station to increase capacity. Adequate pressure to decrease fire hazards” (1939, p. 9). Although they had expected to receive a federal grant of $100,000 toward the cost,...

The Mississippi state legislature approved Sb231 authorizing Jefferson County to issue $20,000 bonds for the construction of a new jail. President Roosevelt signed approval for Works Progress Administration project No. 50,036 September 26, 1940 for $23,775 to construction the jail. It is extant but not in use.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) allotted $128,138 toward construction of a new elementary school. R. W. Naef was the architect for the two-story brick 1941 International style building. W. T. Beckelheimer was the superintendent of construction. An auditorium was added to the building in 1956. District Manager for WPA office announced the building would be ready for occupancy in fall of 1941. The building remains in use.

The Nailor High School was initially known as the Cleveland Consolidated School for African American students. It was designed by architect E. L. Malvaney and approved as WPA No. 50,022 in the fall of 1940. The monolithic concrete building contained two wings of classrooms connected by an auditorium seating 400, with a proposed cost of $63,000. WPA approved $25,394 toward the cost of the new school. "Nailor's poured concrete construction and Art Moderne style is almost unique for black schools of the same period and would have made it one of the finest African American school buildings of its time"...

The approval for construction of a concrete school building in Brooksville was announced May 1940. The 1941 design was a one-story Art Moderne with glass blocks and curved entrance. The school was only 2/3 completed in 1942 when Works Progress Administration (WPA) funding was ended. According to Thomas Gentry (Hays Town Architectural Exhibit, 2018) the process of "pour-in-place" concrete construction may have contributed to the delay. Gentry references Mississippi Senator Bilbo's Brooksville School file which contained letters and telegrams related to the project.WPA Supplemental Project No. 41076-Si was filed with an additional $12,000 required from the district. A total of...

Works Project Administration project No. 50,348 was approved to construct a gymnasium for the Tutwiler school. The first news item reported $20,690, scheduled to begin May 12, 1940 and employ an average of 60 workers for six months. The announcement releasing the funds following approval showed $10, 768. The Art Moderne concrete gymnasium served 196 students when constructed. When the Tutwiler school closed, the gymnasium was bought by the Baptist Church. It was demolished in January 2018 when the church could no longer afford the upkeep.

A WPA allotment of $81,320 was approved for construction of a new high school in Baldwyn, including the installation of a septic tank and sewer lines. The project took 12 months and employed an average of 61 workers. It was completed in fall 1941. The Baldwyn community was hit by a tornado March 17, 1942 and destroyed the new school. WPA in Washington appropriate $10,000 to Mississippi for the relief work in the 12 communities that were impacted by the tornado.