WPA Rustic architecture is an architectural style from the era of the U.S.
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Con ...
Works Project Administration
The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...
. The WPA provided funding for architects to create a variety of buildings, including amphitheaters and lodges. WPA architecture is akin to
National Park Service rustic
National Park Service rustic – sometimes colloquially called Parkitecture – is a style of architecture that developed in the early and middle 20th century in the United States National Park Service (NPS) through its efforts to create building ...
architecture.
WPA Rustic, as opposed to National Park Service Rustic as utilized in most national parks, involves more demarcation between the building and the landscape.
The term has been used by the National Park Service's
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artist ...
program to describe many buildings and structures, including
American Legion meeting halls and other buildings built by the WPA in the 1930s.
Examples
Examples include the following:
Arkansas
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American Legion Hut-Des Arc
The American Legion Hut-Des Arc is a historic fraternal meeting hall at 206 Erwin Street in Des Arc, Arkansas. It is a single story rectangular structure, built of saddle-notched round logs, with a side-gable roof and a foundation of brick piers. ...
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American Legion Post No. 121
The American Legion Post No. 121 is a historic social hall on Legion Hut Road in southern Paris, Arkansas. It is a single-story L-shaped structure, built out of notched logs on a stone foundation. The logs are painted brown, and are mortared wit ...
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Riggs-Hamilton American Legion Post No. 20
The Riggs-Hamilton American Legion Post No. 20 is a historic social meeting hall at 215 North Denver Avenue in Russellville, Arkansas. It is a -story stone structure, with a gable roof and stone foundation. Its eaves and gable ends show exposed ra ...
North Dakota
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Grand Forks County Fairgrounds WPA Structures, Grand Forks, North Dakota
Oklahoma
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American Legion Hut (Edmond, Oklahoma)
The American Legion Hut in Edmond, Oklahoma was built in 1937. It has been deemed significant as an example of Works Progress Administration economic activity in Edmond, as it provided employment for 12 workers for six months during the Depressio ...
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American Legion Hut (Tahlequah, Oklahoma)
The American Legion Hut in Tehlequah City Park, jct. of E Shawnee St. and N. Brookside Ave., in Tahlequah, Oklahoma was built in 1937 and was listed on the National Register in 2006. It reflects WPA Standardized Style and is also known as Rhodes ...
See also
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PWA Moderne
The Art Deco style, which originated in France just before World War I, had an important impact on architecture and design in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s. The most famous examples are the skyscrapers of New York City including the Em ...
References
External links
{{Commons category-inline, Buildings by the Works Progress Administration
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American architectural styles
1930s architecture in the United States
Architecture
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...