Jonesboro Sites

This Arkansas State University building was constructed by the PWA in 1936. It started as a Teacher Training School, before it became the current Sciences and Math building where many science classes are taught. It is still in great shape today.

Constructed in 1939, the Science Building of Arkansas State College (now the Business Building of Arkansas State University), was one of multiple New Deal projects on the college campus. In 1936, Arkansas State College added a Reserve Officers Training Corps. With this new addition, the program needed a building to have classes. Talk for the new building began in the summer of 1937 when the Board of Trustees began planning how the funds should be budgeted for the project. The building was built as part of the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works project as part of the New Deal...

H. Louis Freund painted this 13' x 4'8" oil on canvas mural "Early Days and First Post Office in Pocahontas" in 1939 for the Treasury Section of Fine Arts for the post office in Pocahontas. After years of damage, it was restored and transported to ASU. "The mural depicts several early scenes of Pocahontas and the surrounding areas. In the lower right is the community of Davidsonville, where the state's first post office was established in 1817. On the left is the old dam and mill as it existed around 1835 in the community of Birdell on the Eleven Point River....

Constructed in 1936, the 558-foot, Art Deco-style viaduct on Bridge Street in Jonesboro, Arkansas was an important New Deal-era project in that city. This was part of a larger Works Progress Administration (WPA)-sponsored improvement of the region’s infrastructure. The Arkansas State Highway Commission, with funds provided by the WPA through the Bureau of Public Roads, constructed the $150,000 viaduct that passes over the BNSF Railway, St. Louis Southwestern Railway, and the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway. Fred Luttjohann, a Topeka, Kansas bridge contractor received the contract to construct the steel stringer design bridge. At first, local leaders feared there would not be...

The Craighead County Courthouse, an Art Deco style building located in Jonesboro, Arkansas, was constructed in 1934-1935 with the aid of funds provided by the federal Public Works Administration (PWA). The Arkansas General Assembly established Craighead County and established Jonesboro as the seat in 1859. For nearly thirty years, three different buildings served as the county courthouse. In 1885, a two-story brick building with a four-story clock tower was constructed after a fire. By 1933, the building was razed and the stage was set for the new courthouse to be constructed. Elmer Stuck, a prominent local architect, designed the Depression-era...

This utilitarian yellow brick structure with subtle Art-Deco touches was a Public Works Administration project. Completed in 1939, the jail replaced the old Jonesboro jail located at Madison and Monroe streets. This building remained in use as Craighead County's jail until a new state of the art detention facility was built on the western outskirts of Jonesboro in 1989. Afterward, the old jail became a part of the Craighead County Courthouse Annex, and is now used for storage of county records and as office space for an appraisal company that works with the county assessors office.

The history of Craighead Forest Park portraits a close collaboration between the local community and federal government during the Great Depression “to stave off the ravages of poverty, misery and human degradation.” (1) It dates to 1937 when the Young Men’s Civic Club of Jonesboro (YMCC) started working on the project of a community recreational park for locals to enjoy. Through the help of Mr. H.E Remsburg, the areas supervisor for the WPA program, and US Senator Hattie W. Caraway, a $100,000 park development program was granted through the WPA. (2) The Civilian Conservation Corps also worked with the Forestry...

Constructed in 1935-1936, the Community Center #1 (later renamed the Earl Bell Community Center) was a civil building in Jonesboro. Jonesboro architect, Elmer A. Stuck, designed the building that cost $100,000 (of which $45,000 came from the Public Works Administration, and $55,000 from a bond issue). The Community Center #1 is a single story building with buff brick walls on a continuous concrete foundation. It has a gable roof located in the center, with flat roofs on the east and west sides. With several changes through the years, it still features the art deco architecture. It has numerous Art Deco...

The “Nursing and Health Professions Building” is among the four remnant buildings, out of nine, that had been built on A-State Campus during the depth of the depression. In September 1933, the ASU Board of Trustee considered plan for four new structures including “Education Building,” “Power Plant Building,” “Armory-Gymnasium,” and “Common Building.” The Common Building was later named “State Hall” in the mid of the 20th Century, then recently called “College of Nursing and Health Professions.” Interestingly, uniquely and funnily, the Common Building was built in 1935 from the top down. It was built as six-story building, on the site...