Mississippi Sites

PWA Project 1343 for street improvement in Shelby was approved 9/16/1938 for a grant of $20,454. Contracts were awarded 11/30/1938 and construction began 12/5/1938. Work was completed 3/22/1939 for a total cost of $47,638. Mississippi House Bill 23 authorized the town of Shelby to borrow funds to contribute to the PWA funds.

The city of Biloxi embarked on a city-wide street improvement program to surface streets and provide storm drains, funded by the Works Progress Administration between 1935 and 1937. WP-53, 2000 and 3483 for three street paving projects were completed. WP-53 and 2,000 expenditure was $72,753.50 federal and $18,938 sponsor contribution. WP-3843 was for $105,505 federal and sponsor $27,625. Work included grading and shelling, asphalt pavement, and concrete storm sewer installation .

Public Works Administration project x1377 was approved for a grant of $33,750 on 9/17/1938. The total cost of improvements was approximately $75,000 and were reported to be "one of the most complete street paving system of any town its size in the state" (Street Paving, 1939, p. 3). The Trinidad Asphalt Corporation was the contractor. Construction began Dec. 8, 1938 and was completed Aug. 19, 1939.

A Depression-era street pavement project in Waveland, Mississippi was undertaken with a grant by the Public Works Administration (PWA). Opening bids were advertised for the $49,000 street paving project in Waveland following the approval of the PWA project 4408. The allotment was approved 2/1/1934 for a loan of $35,500 and grant for $14,375. The contract for 23,800 square yards of paving was awarded to Higgison for a bid of $45,823.75. Construction began 6/12/1934 and was completed 8/9/1934 for paving of Waveland avenue from Front street to Railroad avenue, Railroad avenue from Waveland to Coleman avenue, and Coleman avenue from Bourgeois street...

Amory initiated a street paving program in 1938, using $100,000 in municipal bonds, a Public Works Administration (PWA) grant of $81,818, and a Works Progress Administration (WPA) contribution of $20,000. PWA project x1284 was approved 9/7/1938. Construction began November 23, and was completed 11/15/1939.

The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) provided $150,000 to establish the experimental sweet potato starch plant, erected under supervision of Dr. F. H. Thurber, who designed the machinery. The experimental plant was leased to the Sweet Potato Growers co-op for the purpose of manufacturing sweet potatoes into starch, in cooperation with ERA, Mississippi Agricultural Experiment Station, and the U. S. Department of Agriculture. The plant was constructed in the former Wausau Southern Lumber Company sawmill at the end of South 4th Avenue. It operated from 1934-1945 and while produced significant amounts of starch, the demand was more than the output,...

The swimming pool was Mississippi project 6871 approved on June 20, 1934. A $4,000 loan and a $1, 783 grant was provided by the Public Works Administration toward the estimated total cost of $6,500. The bids were advertised on August 19, the contract was awarded on September 27, and construction started on October 1. The pool was completed on December 13, 1934 for a total cost of $6,995. According to the Enterprise-Tocsin ("Park renovation starts Saturday"), the swimming pool was located at the park on Brookside Avenue.

A new swimming pool and municipal park were built in 1934 using Civil Works Administration funds. The school playground was furnished, athletic field improved with grading and concrete seats, teacher's home renovated, and repairs made to the high school. Dedication ceremonies were held May 4, 1934.

The superintendent's house for the Hurricane School complex was constructed 1938 by the National Youth Administration as project W. P. 5206, Application 921. The stone veneer house used stone from the NYA quarry in Pontotoc County and shingles from the NYA sawmill. Superintendent of construction was B. McGraw. The house is no longer extant.

The National Youth Administration (NYA) constructed a teacher's home in Minter City between 1937-1939 as W. P. 5857 application #1102. The construction is documented photographically in the Series 2018 NYA scrapbook. Location of the building was determined from the map in the MDAH Historic Records Inventory.

One of two teacherages constructed for the Hickory Flat school district, this building is no longer extant. It was probably demolished to allow the construction of the new gymnasium, as its former location was where the gymnasium parking lot is currently located.

This teacherage (meant to house teachers for the town school) was one of two constructed by the National Youth Administration in 1939 for the Hickory Flat school. It remains in use by the school.

The National Youth Administration completed a teacherage at the Purvis school as W. P. 4487, Application #82 Purvis Teachers Home No. 1. The house foundation was "...placed at old site on school grounds. Faulty construction and other reasons necessitated moving 50 yards across road. The use of sheathing and subfloor is unusual for this section of State" (Series 2018).

The teachers house at Clara Consolidated School was constructed 1938 by the National Youth Administration. It is extant on the school grounds, but current use is unknown.

The National Youth Administration built a combination teacher's home and dormitory for the Lincoln County Training School for African Americans as W. P. 4306 in 1937-1938. Construction was supervised by John Quincy Martin and employed 20 boys for four months. Located on the west side of Highway 51, the building was 60 feet x 26 feet and contained 5 rooms for students, 2 apartments for instructors, and a receiving room at the entrance. The building was constructed of salvaged materials and painted brown with white trim, and white throughout the interior. Professor D. E. Magee and a committee of citizens...

"Tishomingo State Park is located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in Tishomingo County, Mississippi, north of Tupelo. Activities in the park include canoeing, rock climbing, fishing and hiking. The park pays tribute to Tishomingo County's remarkable geography of massive rock formations, found here and in the immediately surrounding areas but nowhere else in Mississippi. The steep cliffs and abundant carboniferous limestone outcrops represent the southwestern extremity of the Southern Appalachian Plateau. Archaeological excavations suggest the presence of Paleo Indians in the area of the park as early as 7000 BCE. The park is named for an early Chickasaw leader who...

Triangle Homes for African American families was constructed 1940-1941 by W. J. McGee and Son for a base bid of $325,866. Two-story row houses are still in use in the triangle formed by South Maple Street and South 4th Avenue. A grant in 2018 funds replacement units and construction has been initiated on new facilities across the street from Triangle Homes. It is unknown when the row houses will be demolished.

The concrete, one-story building was constructed in 1934 at a then-cost of $11,000, of which the county furnished $4,000 and the federal Civil Works Administration (CWA) furnished the remainder. The structure was designed by A. H. Town and N. W. Overstreet. The building features typical Art Deco massing and vertical architectural ornamentation. It was designated a Mississippi landmark status in 2004.

A 35-unit subsistence homestead community, located 5 miles north of Tupelo off the Natchez Trace consisted of modest, one-story frame houses. Twenty of the units remain, and are owned by the National Park Service since transfer in 1940, and were used to house park personnel until recently. A man-made lake and recreation area was constructed in the community, although the dam broke in the 1960s and nothing remains of that feature. First initiated by the Division of Subsistence Homesteads, the project was completed by the Resettlement Administration. The original plans called for 25 units, industrial-type homesteads, and in 1934, Tupelo Lumber...

The one-story, brick Colonial Revival style post office was constructed in 1939. It is currently in use as the Chancery Clerk's office. Details include a basement, semicircular granite steps leading to the entrance, cast iron railings, and a limestone frieze and cornice with a semicircular portico over the steps. It contains a mural by Stefan Hirsch, completed and installed in 1943.

A new county jail and improvements to the existing county courthouse were approved as PWA project 1272 July 23, 1938. E. L. Malvaney was architect for the two-story concrete Art Deco jail. Construction began 10/10/1938 and was completed 3/29/1939. PWA supplied a grant of $20,454 toward total cost of $45,577. Bonds were issued in the amount of $25,000 to contribute toward the cost of new jail construction and repair of the courthouse.

T. M. Strider and Company was in charge of construction for the four-lane steel-reinforced concrete bridge replacement for the old two-lane wooden bridge across the Hilgard Cut, connecting the University with Oxford. The original cut was hand dug by enslaved Africans in 1857 in order to enable the Illinois Central Railroad to provide service to Oxford-University, and was the deepest cut in the ICRR system. The rails were laid along the cut, which is now the Gertrude Ford Boulevard. University Avenue was scheduled for closure for six months in order to construct the new bridge with an estimated cost of...

The CWA and ERA completed repairs and improvements in state institutions across Mississippi in 1934 and 1935. At the University of Mississippi, the interior and exterior of two women's dorms were painted, music hall and campus residence were repaired and repainted, and six other buildings improved. In addition, a new warehouse was constructed, fence, walks and press booths for the athletic field added, drainage structures installed across campus, 525 feet of sidewalk laid, and a dorm destroyed by fire was razed and material salvaged. The total expenditure for the work was $24,043.23.

At the University of Mississippi, "...funds from New Deal agencies were also used for improvements in the university's athletic facilities. The baseball field was graded and enhanced and a new grandstand was added. The golf course was also enlarged and reconstructed, with new grass greens replacing the sand greens" (Sansing, 1999, p. 254).

Barnard was built in 1938 as a women's dormitory, and attached to existing dormitory Isom Hall, built in 1929. It is currently used to house ROTC at the University of Mississippi. It is defined as a "contributing building" in the historic center of the campus (Master Plan 2009, University of Mississippi).

These three dormitories were constructed in Georgian Revival style as Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works Mississippi project 1216-DS. The buildings were dedicated October 21-22, 1938, along with three other new dorms built on the campus of the University of Mississippi with New Deal funds. They are currently unoccupied, but are slated for renovation and restoration in the coming year. They will be used as office and classroom space following renovation. They are considered "contributing buildings" due to the "considerable legacy of architecturally significant buildings" in the historic center of the campus (Master Plan 2009, University of Mississippi, p. 35).

The Eastbridge Faculty and Staff apartments at the University of Mississippi were constructed by the PWA and consisted of eight, 2-bedroom apartments. The building has since been demolished.

Constructed primarily with Works Progress Administration funding, the University of Mississippi built 22 vernacular cottage-style houses on a new street named Faculty Row in 1939 (Walton, 2008). The three-bedroom houses ranged from 1200 to 1600 square feet, and were sided with clapboard. Each had a garage or carport (Mississippi Department of Archives and History). Only one of the houses remains on campus at this time. Others were demolished in 2007 according to MDAH. Twenty-one faculty houses were relocated to establish a development for affordable housing, however, according to the Lafayette County appraisal records, dates on those houses indicate construction in 1955...

Kennon Observatory, one of 39 buildings constructed by the PWA on the campus during the years 1936-1941, was designated a Mississippi Landmark in 2011. "Kennon Observatory was constructed in 1939, and once again, R. W. Naef was the architect.  Naef apparently held the reins to all of the New Deal construction on campus during those years."   (https://misspreservation.com/) Dr. William Lee Kennon was "instrumental in securing the funding for Lewis Hall and Kennon Observatory, and conceived the building design (University of Mississippi, Department of Physics and Astronomy history). An adaptation of classicism (J. Baughn, Mississippi Department of Archives and History), the observatory faces due...

Leavell Hall, was initially built as a men's dormitory housing 68 students. It is one of six dormitories constructed on campus with PWA funds during 1938. All six buildings remain and are in current use, or slated for renovation and resumption of use. Leavell was named for Dr. Richard Leavell, professor of philosophy and political economy from 1890-1909. "...conditions in Mississippi were worse than at any time since the Civil War (quoted in Harry Hopkins, 1936, Spending to Save: The Complete Story of Relief). With a state government in bankruptcy, Mississippi welcomed the federal funds that finally began to trickle down...

A project grant of $20,000 supported the construction of an Olympic-sized swimming pool west of the gymnasium in July 1936.

The Physics Building of the University of Mississippi campus, was built in 1939 as one of the last construction projects during the Public Works Administration. It was renamed Lewis Hall in 1977 for Dr. Arthur Lewis, a physics professor from 1939-1969. A research wing was added to the rear of the southwest corner in 1995.

"Congress granted permission for universities to use Works Progress Administration funds for fraternal housing. The Sigma Alpha Epsilon House, occupied in the fall of 1935, was the first built on Fraternity Row after the ban on fraternities and sororities was lifted. It burned in 1953" (Walton, 2008, p. 160).

Somerville was built in 1938 as a women's dormitory under Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works (which later became the PWA) Mississippi Project 1216-DS. It currently houses the English faculty and the Center for Writing and Rhetoric on the University of Mississippi campus. It is identified as a "contributing building" in the historic core of the campus.

The concrete structure football stadium was begun in 1937 with a capacity for 18,000 (Sansing) or 24,000 (Oxford Campus and University Buildings). The new stadium was proposed as a WPA project in 1936, and completed in 1941. The west side was completed in 1938 (Walton).

The Student Union Building was completed in 1939 on the campus of the University of Mississippi. It housed the bookstore, university post office, a grill, game room, barbershop, clothing store, and several meeting rooms (Sansing, 1999, p. 254). The Greek Revival style building was used as the student union building until 1973. It was renovated in 2004 and is currently used by the Computer Science Department and houses a student computer lab.

The State Teachers College in Hattiesburg received funding from ERA in 1934 and 1935 for improvements and repair to several buildings on campus. The school received $28,532.89 for repairing the hospital building, redecorating the interior of the library, renovating four campus cottages, placing flood-lights on the athletic field, refinishing floors in the president's home, and enlargements and alteration of the demonstration school gymnasium along with brick veneering of the exterior. the library was enlarged and improved. At least two of the buildings (president's home and demonstration gymnasium) are extant.

The Art Moderne school was completed in 1943 as W. P. A. Project No. 7233. Work began in 1941 but was stopped due to lack of money resulting from the war. WPA workers mixed concrete on site, and carried it in wheelbarrows to construct the poured monolithic concrete two and a half story U-plan school. The auditorium was restored in 2008-2009 for use as a community center.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) worked to develop Vicksburg National Military park during the 1930s. Among other improvements they planted hundreds of trees and other vegetation in the park to to combat erosion.

The Public Works Administration funded the construction of the Park Museum and Headquarters at the National Military Park inVicksburg MS. the building is currently vacant. "The 1934-35 PWA allotments provided for new combination administration/museum buildings in five eastern parks: Chickamauga and Chattanooga, Guilford Courthouse, Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Morristown." "Predictably, those designed by Service architects without knowledge of museum requirements proved ill-suited to their purpose. The Vicksburg building resembled so well an antebellum plantation mansion that a later superintendent converted it to his residence and packed the museum off to utilitarian frame structure elsewhere in the park."