Abilene Sites

The Butterfield School was constructed in 1935 as a red brick building, with no kitchen or indoor toilets. In fall of 1938, improvements were begun through a National Youth Administration Project. The project included construction of rock walls for landscaping, a rock retainer wall for the front of school grounds, two tennis courts, two underground cisterns for water storage, and graveling of sidewalks. The total cost was $1,525 and the NYA provide $1,000 in labor. The building is still extant and is currently in use as the Daybreak Community following the closing of the school in 2006.

The first public school for African Americans in Abilene was established in 1890. Located in the 200 block of Plum Street, the one-room school was named the Abilene Colored School. Its first class consisted of 22 students and one teacher. In 1902 the school moved to a one-room structure built at N. 7th and Magnolia, and had two teachers serving 84 students. The Colored School held its first graduation in 1923 at the Macedonia Baptist Church for one student. A five-room school was constructed at 541 N. 8th Street in 1929. That year the student body consisted of 217 pupils. The building...

The National Youth Administration (NYA) completed landscaping work in Cobb Park Landscaping - Abilene TX. NYA Park Project To Begin Thursday: A National Youth Administration park Improvement project for the city of Abilene will begin Thursday, it was learned here yesterday. Ben Jackson, district NYA supervisor, has instructed local Works Progress administration officials to assign 40 youths to the project. It will consist of building two tennis courts and planting of shrubs md other greenery. Most of It Is to be in Cobb park.

Abilene's historic Federal Building was constructed as the U.S. Post Office and Court House during the Great Depression. It was constructed with Treasury Department funds between 1935 and 1936. The building is still used by various federal agencies.

New Deal funds aided in the construction a dam north of Abilene on Elm Creek, resulting in the creation of Lake Fort Phantom Hill. The lake continues to be "the city’s main water source." Sources do not indicate exactly which New Deal program(s) provided the funding and/or labor for this project.

The Abilene Reporter-News discusses a WPA project undertaken in 1936, one which helped to unify downtown Abilene: "One of the most practical projects, still affecting thousands of Abilenians each day, was the raising of the railroad tracks in downtown Abilene in 1936 and the building of underpasses. The underpasses allowed motorists and pedestrians access between the city’s north and south sides without waiting for trains to pass."

North Junior High School, renamed Franklin Middle School during the 1980s, was a WPA project constructed during 1942. The building was demolished at the end of 2010 (or very early 2011) and the Mary P. Martinez Elementary School was built in its place. The Abilene Reporter-News reports that "two marble plaques from Franklin had been collected and will be placed on the walls in the new elementary school..."

Abilene's South Junior High School, renamed Jefferson Middle School during the 1980s, was a 1942 WPA project. No longer a middle school, the building has "been used while other Abilene Independent School District campuses renovated."

The Works Progress Administration built the Taylor County Agriculture Building in Abilene, Texas between 1938 and 1939. The building then became the Taylor County Welfare Office for a number of years. The building's current use is unknown. Anecdotes tell that the stone in the building came from Abilene's 1895 jail. The jail was demolished as another WPA project.