Missouri Sites

CCC crews built this small recreational lake on Mill Creek in Mark Twain National Forest in 1940. It is at least partially spring-fed and tends to be clear. The dam has a simple concrete spillway. In addition to the lake, the project consisted of a trail around the lake, a campground, and picnic ground.

This school was constructed in part with funds provided by the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works in 1937, and bears the name of an important early town denizen. A well-constructed building, it has since been repurposed and, until recently, served as the Cape Girardeau City Hall and Municipal Court.  

This large post office was constructed with U.S. Treasury Department funding between 1935 and 1937. Note the extensive use of inlaid depictions of postal service, state of the art at the time. Inside, the grillwork is lush as are the center islands where patrons were able to fill out forms, etc.

The post office contains nine stunning murals by artists Edward Millman and Mitchell Siporin. Depicting the "cycle on history of the region," this massive project was the largest single project awarded for a Post Office by the Treasury Section. The award shared by the 2 was $29,000. The labels following each mural describe the contents quite well, but as Park and Markowitz noted, the works were not depicting the usual classical conquest, but instead showed Indians and Black slaves working the lead mines well before statehood, the Dred Scott Decision, and the struggles during and after the Civil War. The...

This large stone building was completed by the WPA in 1938 along with a swimming pool. The pool has since been replaced by a modern pool, but the large bathhouse and attached buildings have been repurposed as the Maplewood Public Library. When it was built, the pool was segregated with this being a white only pool.

This school is also known locally as “the little school” and although the façade is predominately native rock, the entry has a more “modern” appearance with concrete and the rock work is rather spare as compared with the more elaborate rock work at the Scopus school. The entry goes into the school between the 2 floors with the whole school below the level of the street. It is one of many stone schoolhouses in Bollinger County and the largest along with the Lutesville school.

CCC crews built Marcoot Fire Lookout tower in what would become Mark Twain National Forest in 1936. The tower is on Route 72 and consists of the tower and outbuildings, some of which appear to be from the original project.  It currently is not in use. Interestingly, this tower is located on the original route of the Trail of Tears, the forced expulsion of the Cherokees from their native home in the east to what became Oklahoma.

Completed in 1942, this Work Projects Administration building features native Missouri stone and concrete. The building was designed by architect Mason C. Abbitt from Jefferson City, MO. Construction occurred in two stages and the facility includes a county jail.

The former Mark Twain Memorial Bridge, spanning the Mississippi River between Hannibal, Missouri and Illinois, was constructed as a Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) project. The P.W.A. supplied a $357,000 loan and $169,507 grant for the project, whose total cost was $721,505. Construction occurred between Oct. 1934 and Jul. 1936. A preserved portion of the old Mark Twain Memorial Bridge remains on the west bank of the Mississippi River in the Cardiff Hill Overlook Park, A plaque exists in some concrete railing preserved in place and notes its Federal Emergency funding and was Project No. 3624. The bridge was formally dedicated by...

This is the second lighthouse at this site, the first was the WPA built lighthouse, but unfortunately it blew down in a windstorm in 1960.  It was rebuilt in 1963 with the same exterior appearance as the original.

The Mark Twain Museum and rock wall to the north of the original Mark Twain Home were constructed in 1937 to serve as a museum and to serve as protection from fire for the home.  The rock has the same appearance as that used for the Admiral Coontz Armory and Clemens Field.

CCC work created the Mark Twain National Forest. From Wikipedia: Mark Twain National Forest (MTNF) is a U.S. National Forest located in the southern half of Missouri. MTNF was established on September 11, 1939. It is named for author Mark Twain, a Missouri native. The MTNF covers 1,491,840 acres (600,000 ha), 78,000 acres (320 km²) of which are Wilderness, and National Scenic River area... In the 1870s, citizens of southern Missouri began an era of extensive logging of the state's native oak, hickory, and pine forests. Lumber mills were commonplace, but by the 1920s they had disappeared, along with much of the state's...

This stately brick school was constructed by the PWA in 1934. Classic elementary school that has undergone renovation for handicap accessibility, though there are still some issues.  The school has been added onto extensively.  The original rock walls surrounding the school and playground are still present.

Company 1743 of the CCC was an all-black company that came to Mark Twain State Park from Washington State Park in De Soto.  There was initial resistance to having an all-black company in the area, but the quality of their work dispelled any doubts about them.  They were called the Thunderbirds.  The most obvious structures they constructed were the entrance to the buzzard’s roost picnic area and the shelter in the area as well as walls and the roads in the area.  There were more extensive plans that were scrapped with the onset of WWII.

Extensive work by the CCC is seen in this park close to the city of St. Louis.  It includes shelters, a stone pump house, stone observation tower,  entrance stone work, and assorted bridges, steps, and walls.  Adjacent to the park are the remains of the CCC company 2728 camp.  The camp and work lasted from 1933-1935. An on-site sign describes CCC work in the park as follows: "In 1933, Meramec State Park was among the first parks in Missouri to benefit from President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, a government program created in response to the Great Depression. As part of that...

The PWA constructed a large gymnasium, auditorium, and additional classroom space with entry hall at Knob Noster Middle School in 1939, at a cost of $40,296.

Millar Park was landscaped by the WPA in 1937.

The Missouri State Fairgrounds have been located at this site since the start of the 20th century. The WPA did extensive work on the site in the 1930s. There were many buildings built by the WPA. The entry gates on the north side, the Donnell building, the infield stands in the track, and the Speed Horse Barn remain.  The WPA also improved the roads and walkways throughout the park. Main gate: "Built in 1939 this Art Deco/Art Moderne rendering in steel and concrete consist of three individual ticket booths spanned by steel arch work containing the Missouri State Seal and the...

The Moberly Airport was a WPA project with a total expenditure of $500,000. The city provided $25,000.  It was named after famous son, General Omar Bradley in 1943.

This is an excellent example of the clean, rounded lines of art deco architecture used in a large municipal auditorium that was recently restored and brought back to its original appearance.  Ludwig Abt also designed the school in nearby Renick. The total cost of the project was $160,000 with a Federal portion of $92,000.  At the dedication, the Governor gave the keynote address and the music was provided by Ozzie Nelson and his band. The auditorium also served as the local national guard armory.

This elementary school was a segregated elementary school for white students when it was constructed in response to a fire which destroyed the previous school.  The submission to the federal government by Monroe City officials included a new building for black students in the city.  It was also designed by Bonsack & Pearce.

"Montauk State Park is located on 633 acres of land in the southern portion of Dent County, twenty-one miles southwest of Salem, Missouri. The outstanding natural feature of the park is a spring that forms an excellent trout stream near the head of the Current River. An old mill, rehabilitated by CCC enrollees, is an important historical feature of the park. In addition to working on the old mill, Veterans Company 1770 constructed a dam and bridge, tourist cabins, and other park buildings. Fire, heavy use, and modernization have taken their toll at Montauk, leaving few of the original CCC...

The PWA provided funds for the construction of a 2-story gymnasium/auditorium for the Morehouse School, featuring a brick facade with banks of classrooms flanking the gymnasium.  The total cost for the project was $62,000 (docket #1488). The school closed in 2013, relocating to nearby Sikeston, and the building is now home to a for-profit youth rehabilitation center called Proverb Academy, Inc.

VA.gov: "The Soldiers' Lot occupies Lots 262 and 263 of Woodland Cemetery, covering less than 0.2 acres." NPS.gov: "In 1940, laborers of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a depression-era work relief program, erected an enclosing stone wall and post-and-chain fence around the perimeter of the soldiers' lot."

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) refurbished an old factory and turned it into a neighborhood center, primarily serving impoverished children. The idle Muchenberger Center resides at what had been the corner of 5th Street and Sycamore Street before highway development in the area. News Express Now: "Between 1936 and 1938 Works Progress Administration workers worked with a local architect to modify the building and grounds to turn it from a factory into a recreational center." Today, the building is barely noticeable, tucked at the end of a long driveway north of Hickory Street between a highway interchange cloverleaf and the train tracks.

The Kansas City Municipal Auditorium was built by the PWA in 1934-35. "Municipal Auditorium is a large, multi-purpose facility in Kansas City, Missouri with three halls: The Arena, Music Hall, and Little Theatre. It opened in 1936 and features Streamline Moderne and Art Deco architecture and architectural details... The streamline moderne architecture was designed by the lead architectural firm of Gentry, Voskamp & Neville to appeal to new visitors with cool and confident restraint. True to its name, the style promised to envelop the visitor in modernity, assuring him/her that Kansas City was a rising star in the country, a place to...

The Kansas City Municipal Auditorium facade is decorated with three bas relief carved medallions depicting classic themes. The medallions were created by Albert Stewart in 1934 as part of the PWA construction project. Albert Stewart was born in Kensington, England, immigrated to the United States in 1908 and was orphaned soon after arriving. He studied at the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design and the Art Students League of New York as a result of the support of Edwin Bechtel. He was an assistant to Paul Manship after WWI. He taught at Scripps College, moving to California where he lived until his...

Bathhouse number 6 was the last bathhouse built in St. Louis during the time when the need for bathing by those with no indoor plumbing was a critical problem. They were built in those areas of the city with the highest concentrations of laborers. Less than 1 in 1,000 of the 25% poorest had indoor plumbing. This bathhouse was built by the PWA in 1936-1937 for $42,763. This bathhouse has 2 doors, men's to the right, women's to the left.

The PWA built this single story colonial style municipal building in 1939. It has a brick façade with cut stone accents, and a cupola graces the center of the roof. It currently houses the Shrewsbury police department.

This deep red brick building was previously the post office for Columbia. With the construction of the new post office nearby, this building was remodeled by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and housed the public library until the library moved to West Broadway and Garth Ave. The present iteration of this building is the home for the parks and recreation administration.

Although the golf course is no longer being maintained or used, the fairways and recently constructed cart paths remain. It was part of a larger WPA project that included development of the municipal park and swimming pool construction. The park remains and is in use with shelters, playgrounds, though the swimming pool is no longer present. The site is now known as the Sikeston Recreation Complex.

Edward Buk Ulreich painted two murals for the Columbia, Missouri, post office in 1937: "Indians Watching Stagecoach in the Distance" and "Pony Express." He was paid $1,580 for his murals, commissioned by the Department of the Treasury's Section of Painting and Sculpture. After the post office moved to a new location, the murals were moved to city offices where they stayed from 1967-2004. In 2010, they were installed at the National Archives at Kansas City, located in Missouri.

The WPA did extensive work on the National Fish Hatchery in Neosho including work on the fish tanks, runs, pools, walls, and drainage ditches.  The primary materials were native stone and concrete.  The work of the WPA at this site is still largely in use.

WPA crews built this armory in 1939. It has a central barrel vaulted auditorium and surrounding single story offices, all of which has a native stone façade that is in excellent condition on the exterior.  It is on the east side of Doniphan and likely used some of the rock masons who were used on the school rock wall project.

Constructed by the WPA in 1938.

The National Guard Armory in Columbia was one of what was initially envisioned to be a large number of armories across the state, though the number actually built was limited. The building served as the home of the home of the Missouri National Guard until the last of the 20 th century. It presently houses the Ash St Sports complex for the Columbia Parks and Recreation Dept.

"The Sedalia Armory is one of the few remaining WPA projects in the city, and a good example of Art-Moderne style structures, emphasizing simplified streamlined form, smoothed-faced concrete exterior walls, rounded corners and horizontal emphasis. Work began on the Armory in December of 1940 and was completed in March of 1943. Located on a six-acre lot this concrete building consists of a two-story office wing, with and 85 x 100 foot barrel roof drill hall. Two incised artillery pieces flank each side of the main entry way, which faces south onto Ninth Street. Sold to a private owner in the...

Neighborhood Gardens is part of the first round of federally backed public housing in America. Only 7 projects were completed in this earliest phase, including Harlem River Houses in New York City and Techwood Homes in Atlanta. The program provided loans to limited dividend corporations to clear slums and build low-rent housing projects. The program proved slow and unwieldy, and was replaced by the PWA's direct-subsidy program in 1935, out of which 52 projects were completed. These programs were discontinued with the passage of the 1937 Housing Act that established the US Housing Authority. However, most historians agree that the...

Built by the WPA in 1938-1942. The school is an interesting art deco design in a small rural community with curved facades at the entrance to the school.  It is still in use and has been expanded on, though the main school is the original building.

"Newton County chose St. Louis architect Neal C. Davis to design the fifth courthouse, funded by the Work Projects Administration. Other plans came from firms in Kansas City and Joplin, but the committee favored Davis, who originally came from Newton County. The court approved his plan in October 1935. The courthouse contract was let for $162,687, and the jail contract for $11,150. The jail was on top of the building. Construction began in April 1936. A memorial tablet replaced the traditional cornerstone, which was no longer a construction component, and ceremonies took place July 30, 1936. U.S. Senator Harry Truman, Grand...