Missouri Sites

"Kansas City has a well-studied plan for its civic center and the city hall block in area and consists of a rectangular base six stories high from which a tower rises to a height of 429 feet above the basement floor. The building is planned not only to meet the space requirements of the present city government but to meet increased future requirements based on the expected normal growth of the city. The construction is fireproof throughout and consists of steel framing adequately wind-braced and encased in concrete. The exterior walls are carried on spandrel beams and are faced with limestone. The...

Sullivan's municipal building was completed by the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works in 1937 and served as City Hall, police department, and jail as well as the town's auditorium. While the police department has moved, this New Deal building continues to serve as Sullivan's City Hall as well as a jail and public auditorium and gymnasium. The gymnasium/ auditorium is located on the south side of the building; the jail is on the west side in the basement.  

WPA crews built the wood frame Vanduser City Hall in 1936, with a federal contribution of $9,664.

The city hall auditorium in Salem was constructed in 1940 as a PWA project, designed by architect Ernest Friton. This 3-story building includes office space and a city auditorium, and is presently in use.

A 1990 St. Louis City Hall History Brochure contains the following description: "The murals inside the Market and Tucker Blvd entrances were painted in 1934 by Carl Bonfig, who was described as a decorator. He was paid $1.37 an hour under a federal works program. He was commissioned to copy existing paintings to create the six murals. Three were completed -- 'The Spirit of St. Louis,' a picture of Charles Lindberg's plane; a painting of the Forest Park statue of King Louis IX on his horse and 'Front Street in 1840,' a copy of a lithograph by Joseph Casper Wild that...

Artist Carl Paul Jennewein created a series of fountains flanking the walkway to the PWA city hall entrance, descending to the south away from the city hall with a winged horse followed by shells and fantastical creatures. C. Paul Jennewein, Ulric Ellerhusen, and Walker Hancock also carved a series of 16 bas relief friezes surrounding the Kansas City Hall depicting the history and people of Kansas City Paul Jennewein was born In Stuttgart and immigrated to the United States in 1907, apprenticed with Buhler and Lauter, studying at the Art Students League of New York at night. Although he worked as a...

This covered market was completed with WPA assistance in 1940. An on-scene information sign describes the market's history: "January 1940 saw a totally new City Market. As compensation for teh deterioration this area had suffered since the First World War, the Ten Year Plan of 1931 provided $500,000 for improvements in the City Market. Lake any good plan, the city's bond money was merely seed capital to encourage additional investment. The federal Works Progress Administration of the New Deal made a contribution, private investors added more, and railroad companies spent at least a million dollars building a perishable foods terminal that brought...

Originally constructed as the Neosho Auditorium and City Hall, this is now known as "The Civic." It was built by the WPA in 1938. Like the nearby Newton County Courthouse, the civic center was constructed out of Carthage Stone in an Art Deco style. It was extensively renovated in 2008, but the Art Deco elements were preserved.

"The site of the Clay County Courthouse is bounded by four important city streets allowing a wide main entrance approach, an entrance to the first floor from the rear, and an entrance to the ground floor on one side. The building is rectangular in plan and three stories in height. On the ground floor are offices for the superintendent of schools, the welfare department, the coroner, the county engineer, the supervisor, the county agricultural agent, an assembly room with a platform, a women's lounge, and the necessary utility rooms. The first floor is occupied by the probate and county court rooms,...

Clemens Field was constructed after the previous park was destroyed in 1935 and has recently been renovated. It is currently home to the Hannibal Cavemen baseball team.  It has been a minor league park for several teams and has seen the St. Louis Cardinals play there in the past.  During WW II, it was a German prisoner of war camp.  Rock for the walls that surround the field were obtained locally from the same quarry as the adjacent Admiral Coontz Armory.

The Clinton-Peabody public housing complex was a 2 and 3-story Apartment complex on the near south side of St. Louis which at the time was a predominately white neighborhood. It was the white public housing complex that was built at the same time as Carr Square Village. It is more wide open than either the Carr Square village and Neighborhood Gardens. All 3 remain in use, surrounded to varying degrees by urban desolation.

In 1972 the U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service approved the nomination of the Cole County Jail-Sheriff’s House to the National Register of Historic Places. The areas of significance were identified as architecture, political and jurisprudence. The nomination form described the Jail-Sheriff’s house as compatible in style and stonework pattern with the courthouse. The square-plan building is three bays wide on each façade, with the front entrance centered on the northwest façade in a projected, gabled bay. The rectangular-plan, three-story jail is joined to the sheriff’s house along the southeast façade of the sheriff’s house. The jail is...

The Columbia Municipal Airport was located on route 40, now Business Loop 70 West, when Highway 40 was one of the major east-west roads in the country. This hangar is now being used by the city of Columbia as a storage and repair facility for the Parks and Recreation Department. The original signage designating it as the Columbia Municipal Airport remains. The area to the north was the site of the airport and was improved as a PWA project. Currently the airport is part of the city parks department and includes a golf course, trails, picnic grounds and shelters, and...

From Missouri Armories: "This armory was built as a WPA project and incorporates many aspects of the WPA modern style inside and out, but the stylistic features are somewhat extreme and could not be considered typical of the are deco style. This is illustrated in the two pillars flanking the main entrance and the lack of geometric interpretation." Occupied 1939-ca. 2000.

The Works Progress Administration built the Company F, 140th Infantry Armory in Poplar Bluff MO. From "Missouri Armories": "By July 1940, forty-two men were employed on the armory project, building 6000 large blocks for the outside walls on the front lawn of the building site." Currently owned by the Poplar Bluff school district and used as a maintenance building.

CCC crews built this fire lookout tower at Coot Mountain. The tower overlooks the Current River and the National Scenic Riverways to the north and east. It is at the end of a gravel road though relatively easily accessible. Outbuildings were for the rangers who occupied the tower in this remote location.

Crowder Hall is another of the “White Campus” projects and was and is the home to the University ROTC program. It was named after Enoch Crowder, Professor of Military Science at MU.

The CCC did extensive work on the lake and surroundings. The Stone bridge pictured is on the National historical registry site. The dam and lake were constructed by CCC labor. The superintendent’s house pictured was started by CCC and completed after WW2.

Crystal City High School was a PWA project, completed in 1939. It consists of a colonial-style two story building with a brick façade, the main entry facing to the south, centered on the long access of that part of the building. It is still in active use.

Established as the Cuivre River Recreation Demonstration Area in 1934 by the National Park Service. Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Company 3771 built roads and structures throughout the park. The park was turned over to the state of Missouri in 1946 to become Cuivre River State Park. The park features many CCC structures still in use such as a one-lane stone bridge, a stone picnic shelter, and group camps. The structures are included in 2 National Historic Districts.

The only New Deal project undertaken in or near Freistatt, Missouri was a culvert constructed by the Civil Works Administration (CWA) "between Freistatt and the highway." The location and status of the project is unknown to Living New Deal.

Constructed by the PWA in 1939. Curtis Hall is on the main campus of the University of Missouri in Columbia. It was named after Winterton Curtis, Professor of Zoology who was one of the expert witnesses called to the Scopes “monkey” trial of 1925. The building was initially named the New Chemistry, then the BioChem building, and is now primarily used for genetics work.

The Public Works Administration funded the construction of the Dade County Courthouse in Greenfield. The courthouse was designed in Classical Revival Style by the architectural firm of Fred C. Bonsack and Harvey J. Pearce, from St. Louis. The contractor was C F Rinehart Construction Company of St. Louis. "The Public Works Administration (PWA) provided a $32,108 grant for construction of the Date County courthouse in Greenfield, Missouri. Total cost of the project was $117,960. Construction occurred between 1934 and 1936. PWA Docket No. MO 4610"  

The construction of the westbound span of this bridge taking Highway 40 (Interstate 64) over the Missouri River was funded by the Public Works Administration in 1935. The Kansas City Bridge Company was the contractor of record. The eastbound span was built in 1989. The original Depression-era span was demolished in the 2016 and replaced.

The Davisville School was completed with funds and labor provided by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). It is a single or two-room school wi th a facade made of local rock. Presently, it is the site of the Davisville American Legion post.

"This school is for crippled children and for children who are deficient in sight or hearing or who are cardiac cases. A partial basement provides a manual training department, a playroom, and three unfinished rooms. The first floor has four divisions: (a) Administration, library, and assembly rooms; (b) five classrooms and kindergarten; (c) home economics, restrooms, and lunchroom; (d) hydrotherapy, physiotherapy, and occupational therapy. The construction is fireproof. No stairs are used, ramps taking their place. The building will accommodate 125 children. The estimated construction cost was $324,775 and the project cost was approximately $362,396."

Constructed by the PWA in 1939.

The Works Progress Administration built the Delbert J Haff Circle Fountain in Kansas City MO, in 1940.

The large gymnasium is standing by itself in a residential part of town, built on donated land that at the time was outside of the town proper. It has been in use since it was built and has been used for athletic events as well as for entertainment events by the community. Photographs were taken in a torrential downpour.

The zoo was established in 1922, but was only developed with the help of the WPA for both labor and funds in the 1930s.  The walkways, stone bridges, stone walls, and stone buildings date from the WPA development.

The WPA constructed this two story brick-faced courthouse in 1939. It features rock accents and columns on the front façade, and multi-colored abstract decorative tiles adorn the entryways and windows. From the University of Missouri Extension Department of Community Development: In 1937 the courthouse was reported in dangerous condition. The dome had sunk several inches; ceiling joists were pulled completely out of the walls, and the Circuit Court room was in danger of collapsing. The Dunklin Democrat claimed it was the worst courthouse in southeast Missouri. The building was razed in 1937. Louis Miller's drawing was found in the cornerstone. For the...

This school was constructed by the PWA at the same time as West Elementary school in Jefferson City. It includes some of the West school Modern Deco elements, but has a red brick façade with decorative brick and concrete elements.  It is currently being used by the Jefferson City, but is in the process of extensive remodeling that includes the initial construction information.    

The El Dorado Springs "old" Gymnasium and a series of classrooms were completed in 1939 as a project of the Federal Works Agency of the Public Works Administration in 1939. The gym and attached classroom building is a red brick structure designed to harmonize with the old high school (destroyed by fire). The gym features a full stage complete with a second story property room and "crow's nest", as well as downstairs locker rooms. The lower walls of the gym and hallways are covered with pumpkin-colored oblong tiles, with plaster to the ceiling. Following several decades of few to no substantive...

PWA funds contributed to the construction of this waterworks, designed by engineering firm W.A. Fuller, in 1940. It is a one-story rock building with a native rock façade and a garage opening, and was the city water works from 1940. It is presently privately owned, but they have retained the bronze plaques on the front of the structure.

Constructed by the PWA in 1938-40. The need for a hospital dedicated to diagnosing and treating cancer was envisioned in the early ‘30s and with the political support of Lloyd Stark and the work of Dr. Ellis Fischel of St. Louis, the plan was made to locate the state cancer in the center of the state on the main thoroughfare through the state at the time, US highway 40. Unfortunately, after all of the planning and before construction started, Dr. Fischel died in a car accident on business for the new hospital. The building is in the process of being repurposed...

The Ellis library was built in 1915. The PWA added this addition in 1935. The addition to the existing Ellis Library “provide urgently needed, usable, fire-proof, stack space for books, reading, seminar rooms, and other library facilities.” It is still heavily used including a large auditorium on the first floor.

With the help of New Deal funds, the school was built by by Epple Construction from Columbia, MO. The company built many of the schools in central Missouri at this time.

Architectural firm Bonsack and Pearce designed this building which was completed in 1934 by the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works. The building originally served as the Eureka High School. At present, it continues to serve the community as headquarters of the Rockwood School District.  

The WPA built an elementary school with agricultural buildings in Fair Grove circa 1935-1937. The site appears to now be used for all grade levels. In 2009, a windstorm with sustained winds of over 100 miles per hour tore off the roof; subsequent repairs in 2013 may have significantly altered the building's original structure.  

The pool was refurbished as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project in the mid 1930’s. The previous pool was a circular pool that measured 420 feet in diameter and was one of the largest outdoor pools in the world. It could hold between 10 and 25,000 swimmers. At the time of the WPA project, it was a segregated, white’s only pool. Interestingly, Fairground Park in which it is located is a large park on the north side of St. Louis that has an interesting history itself, one facet being that it was the landing spot for the first air mail...