Missouri Sites

This WPA swimming pool in Fayette City Park was built in 1936. This above ground pool is one of the few remaining Bintz Pools built during the 1930’s.  It has an oval shaped design with the entrance on the north side, flanked by dressing rooms, the roofs of which form the walkways around the pool.  It has an art deco design, one of only such buildings in Fayette, though the school in New Franklin also has an art deco design.

Columbia College's Federal Hall was originally constructed as a New Deal post office building. When the post office moved to Walnut St, the building was converted into the Federal Building, then became the Youzeum, and now is the office for the nursing program at Columbia College. There were 2 murals for the post office that were moved from the post office to other locations over the time that the building was renovated to be the Federal Building. “Pony Express” was eventually moved to the City Council chambers. “Indians Watching Stagecoach in the Distance” was initially retrieved by the demolition team and...

"With 400 students that transferred from John M. Vogt HIgh School, Ferguson High School opened in 1939. It was built by the Ferguson Public School District on the (rumored to be haunted) January Estate; which had also been used as the city dump and was known as Blizzard Hill. Located at 701 January Avenue, the school was constructed with WPA, Works Progress Administration, financial assistance. In the basement of the school was a firing range for target practice by students belonging to the school's NRA Club. 1952 saw the merger of the Ferguson Public School District and the Florissant School...

This fire lookout tower outside Briar was a New Deal project completed in 1936. It was almost surely built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) under the direction of the US Forest Service, but that needs to be confirmed. The tower design is typical of the era. The Briar Lookout is intact, including a stairway extending to the ground. Access is restricted by a surrounding high chain link fence topped with barbed wire for safety reasons. It is one of the southernmost lookout towers in Missouri.  

This classic fire lookout tower has the stairway extending to the ground with encircling wire for safety. There are extensive forest service buildings immediately adjacent to the tower. It was completed in 1942 with funds and labor provided by the federal government.

Originally constructed as Fire Station #3, this single door fire station in University City, Missouri was completed in 1939 with funds provided by the Public Works Administration (PWA). The brick façade has a blond color. The door is framed with cut stone. Crew quarters are on the second floor. Since being renovated in 2005, it is now called Fire Station #2.

The WPA did extensive landscaping in the park in 1936, including redoing the tennis courts and surrounding retaining walls.

Forest Park is one of the largest municipal parks in the nation, just larger than Central Park in NYC. It was the site of the 1904 Worlds Fair and the WPA projects in the park transformed it and brought it up to date, including much clearing of brush in places where it had become overgrown. In places, it truly was and still is a forest. Projects included: roads through-out the park, handball courts, tennis courts (now the Davis Tennis Center), draining lakes that had been constructed for the World's Fair and which had filled in and had debris-filled to an...

This WPA project included the headquarters building and multiple hatchery ponds. The hatchery became one of the largest producers of fish for the state's waterways.

"This structure houses rare and beautiful plants, trees, and flowers, and is an important unit of the general park improvement program for St. Louis. The steel frame of the building supports structural glass panels on its vertical surfaces which are reasonably hailproof, and the horizontal roofs are metal covered. Great care was taken with the lighting, which was carefully studied with a model of the building before installation. The interest of the public in the displays is so great that more than 1,000,000 people have visited the 'jewel box' since its opening. It was completed in May 1937 at a construction...

Extensive rock work was done from locally quarried limestone, building the Grand Staircase, fireplaces, patios, lily ponds, fencing, and other landscaping items. The site is that of Fort Belle Fontaine, a historic fort initially established on a bluff on the south side of the Missouri River by the French, but important in the War of 1812. The last night of the Lewis and Clark expedition was spent just below the bluff, west of the Changing Rooms. Eleanor Roosevelt visited in 1939. The development was done in part to encourage youths to the Missouri Hills Home for boys.

The earthen works from the original Civil War fort and a replica powder house were restored by the Works Progress Administration in 1936 and 1937. During the Civil War, it was one of the forts that guarded the City of Cape Girardeau and was constructed by John Wesley Powell (the commander of the first successful trip down the Grand Canyon). It has seen many uses since then including a meeting house for the American Legion, the Girl Scouts, civil defense headquarters, private residence, senior citizens center, and the Junior Optimist Club.

The land on which St. Louis Hills was developed was owned by David Francis, former governor of Missouri and ambassador to Russia in 1916. He donated 60 acres of land for the park in 1917. It was developed as a WPA project with tennis courts, buildings, walkways, ball fields, lily pond, handball and racquetball courts, and bridges. Originally, land owned by David Francis was considered as the site for the St. Louis World’s fair of 1904, but Forest Park was the site chosen.

The original part of this building dates to 1916, with the two sections flanking the central building being built in 1935.  Small, recent additions are at the north and south of the building.  This was a traditionally black school until integration of the Columbia Public Schools.  It is adjacent to the swimming pool in Douglass Park, a WPA project completed in about 1937.

The airport was initially constructed in the 1930s, probably the late 1930s, by the WPA with three turf runways.  These are still being used, one is now concrete, one asphalt, the last is still turf.

Presently a middle school, the Fulton High School building was constructed by the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works in  1938. An addition to the building was completed at a later date with the high school moving to the newer part of the building.

The Fulton State Hospital was the first mental health facility west of the Mississippi, opening originally in 1851. During the 1930s, an extensive building program transformed the hospital.  The building projects included: An addition to the clinic building, a power plant, dining and kitchen buildings, a five story hospital building, and two buildings associated with the Missouri penal system. Interestingly, all of the buildings are interconnected by underground tunnels.

This PWA-constructed school is a combination of classrooms and an auditorium that is just south of the high school building.  It has a dark brick façade with the name and date clearly carved into the cornerstone. It is now Grundy County Middle School.

This two-story Modern Deco brick building was completed in 1938 by the Public Works Administration to serve as the community recreation center for this part of St. Louis. The center is still in operation. The community center is surrounded by a large playground.

This school addition is located immediately to the west of the previous AP Green factory.  It has a rather unique art deco style on the front and rear façades.

This well-built school was part of the same 1937 PWA project as the Jefferson School in the  adjacent Pasadena Hills. Unfortunately, this school has not been as well maintained and is currently permanently closed. Extending to the east from the school is a prominent rock wall that is either part of this project or potentially a WPA project.

This building was constructed as a schoolhouse for the rural community of Garwood by the Works Progress Administration of local materials and completed in 1940. The building also served as a community center. It is currently a private residence.  

Gentry Hall was constructed as a women’s dormitory, named after the second female graduate of the University of Missouri. This was part of the “women’s campus” on the east side of the MU campus and in contrast to how things are done now, there was a separation between the sites of the men’s and women’s dorms.

George Washington Carver school was a school for African American students in Fulton during segregation.  It underwent integration in the 1960s.  While the structure is now abandoned, there are hopes that it can be rehabilitated.  The school’s namesake was present for the dedication of the building.

This long, linear high school was constructed as a PWA project in 1937. It is still in active use and in very good condition having been well-maintained.

This one-room stone school house features an unusual entry at its front corner. As of 2014 the building was abandoned and slowly deteriorating.

In 1938, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) completed work on the Graham School, a large 2-story school with a brick façade, designed by H.D. Pampel and featuring concrete highlights and carvings. The building is now the Nodaway-Holt High School.

Constructed by the WPA in 1939. This was an elementary school in the Lindbergh School District and was sold to the Catholic Church in 1979.  It currently houses a Catholic Academy.

The school was named after James Greenwood, a noted educator  in Missouri in the 1800’s.

The historic Gwen B. Giles Station post office—also known as Wellston Station (prior to a Congressional renaming)—in St. Louis, Missouri, was constructed with federal Treasury Department funds between 1936 and 1937. The building, which houses a New Deal mural inside, is still in use today.

The historic Gwen B. Giles Station post office—also known as Wellston Station (prior to a Congressional renaming)—in St. Louis, Missouri contains a 1939 Section of Fine Arts mural by Lumen Winter entitled "Old Levee and Market at St. Louis." The mural depicts a view of the St. Louis levee to the right with a steamboat and the market to the left in the background. There are contrasting groupings in the foreground with a family hurrying to get out of the way of the stagecoach which the driver is attempting to slow despite the wildness of the black horse. By contrast, the...

Gwynn Hall is immediately to the east of the Memorial Union, a memorial to students who fought in WW1. Gwynn Hall was built in 1922, but was not completed, in fact was a shell. It was completed by the PWA in 1936 and housed the Home Economics dept which moved there from the Niedermeyer Building in downtown Columbia that was and still is the oldest building in Columbia. It was dedicated in the same ceremony as Walter Williams Hall, Townsend Hall(the Education building), the Engineering Lab, Stephens Hall, and the large Northwest addition to Ellis Library and at the dedication...

This large Works Progress Administration (WPA) project includes the gymnasium which has been in continual use since construction and also the space below the gym floor. Currently, it is used for storage, but it is anticipated that it could potentially be used as a community tornado shelter. The exterior is local rock.

"Various wells connected with the city water supply at Excelsior Springs were found to contain certain chemicals of medicinal and therapeutic value. This water is firs purified and then pumped to the dispensing outlets in the 'hall of waters' which was erected by the city as part of a program of the mineral-water development. The building contains a large swimming pool, hydrotherapy departments for men and women, locker and shower rooms, and rooms for cooling and packing treatment. Also included are offices for the chamber of commerce, city council, manager, and for sales, production, and distribution of water. The building...

Harley Park is historically significant as the home of 4 Hopewell Indian mounds.  It has an overlook of the Missouri River, recently having a Lewis and Clark campsite marker placed at the overlook.  Several WPA projects were completed in the 1930’s including rock walls, roads, and the shelter.

Sometimes misattributed to the Works Progress Administration (WPA), Bethany, Missouri's Harrison County Courthouse and jail was enabled by the provision of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. The stately Art Deco project was authorized in an election in 1938 as a bond issue in conjunction with PWA grant. The cornerstone for the building was laid on Aug. 14, 1939; it was placed on the south façade of the building, at the southeast corner. The building was completed and opened in 1940. A humorous story from the courthouse's construction comes from the St. Joseph News-Press: QUESTION OF SPELLING IS ISSUE AT BETHANY BETHANY, Mo., Jan...

The PWA conducted two separate projects to build Helena Elementary School. The first was for $9540, reported in the Moberly Monitor Index in 1938, and the second for the gymnasium/ auditorium $23,466 in 1939.

This building was designed by architectural firm Bonsack and Pearce and constructed by the Public Works Administration for the Jackson Grade School in 1939. Although it is not apparent from the outside, the addition that was initially built for the grade school has been seamlessly absorbed by the adjacent and expanding Jackson High School. While the building has been updated with lighting and projection capabilities, it retains many original elements. The original exterior is visible on the north side of the addition. The original features of the auditorium and the wall tile in the adjacent surrounding halls have been retained. The...

This gymnasium, built by the PWA in 1937, is on the south side of the Hallsville High school campus. It has a light red brick façade with windows on the south side for offices.

Homer G. Phillips Hospital was built from 1932-1936 and dedicated in 1937. It was a segregated black hospital in a highly segregated city at the time. The initial funding for the hospital was a bond issue in 1922 for $1,000,000 plus an additional $200,000 contributed by the City government. These funds were unused for 9 years due to indecision as to whether to build a wing onto the City Hospital or construct a new hospital. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) provided the remaining funds necessary to construct the hospital. The dedication ceremony included a speech by Harold Ickes, Secretary of the...