Atlanta Grade School Friends
“ATLANTA-MILLER GRADE SCHOOL AND THE WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION (WPA)”
A CONVERSATION WITH JAMES WRIGHT STEELY
JULY 26, 2022
Find Us Online
Website: atlantagradeschoolfriends.org Sign up for email on our website and donate anytime!
Facebook: Atlanta-Grade-School-FriendsInc YouTube: Atlanta Grade School Friends
atlantagradeschoolfriends@gmail.com
GuideStar: guidestar.org/profile/46-0492043
| Gold Seal for Transparency 2022
Mission
The mission of Atlanta Grade School Friends is to restore the historic Atlanta-Miller Grade School located on Miller Street in Atlanta, Texas. From 1936 to 1974 the school provided a safe and welcoming environment for Atlanta's children and their dedicated teachers.
Atlanta Grade School Friends is a nonprofit organization that secured its IRS designation in 2003, although work began prior to that time. Atlanta Grade School Friends is allvolunteer.
Brief History
Atlanta-Miller Grade School was constructed in 1936 by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). This was 100 years after Texas became a state.
The original building was completed in 120 days and consisted of 6 large classrooms, restrooms, teacher's lounge, and administrative offices. An addition designed to add 4 classrooms was completed a few years later (commonly called the first-grade wing), and 2 more classrooms were added about 20 years later.
James Wright Steely
James Wright Steely is a 6th-generation Texan from Paris … about 98 miles west-northwest of Atlanta, Texas. He grew up working on his family’s Lamar County Echo newspaper, leading to a B.S. degree in photojournalism, along with a second-major in history, from East Texas State University.
Completing an M.S. from the University of Texas at Austin led to several mentorships among esteemed Texas preservationists and a 20-year career at the Texas Historical Commission. Steely then became a corporate consultant for 15 years, and since 2016 an independent consulting historian and architectural historian based in Denver.
Jim is the author and co-author of books on Texas history and architecture, and many reports on National Park Service history. His award-winning Parks for Texas: Enduring Landscapes of the New Deal is available from the University of Texas Press. His coauthored and award-winning 2-volume Buildings of Texas is available from the University of Virginia Press.
Jim W. Steely
Consulting Architectural Historian
WPA Poster
Library of Congress
Context
• WPA supported the construction of some 4,000 school buildings nationwide 1935 to 1943. Yet Atlanta's 1936 Grade School is a one-of-a-kind example of a school designed and built for a small school district.
• Atlanta-Miller Grade School opened the year of the Texas Centennial of Independence from Mexico. The Centennial celebration was a "New Deal Project" statewide, including monuments, county historical markers, museums, restorations, and 1,000s of miles of highways to bring visitors into Texas by automobile.
Construction
• Hardy Brothers contractors of Texarkana played a role in our WPA project.
• They may have provided the architectural drawings, but we aren’t sure yet. If the school building was instead a Public Works Administration (PWA) project, Hardy Brothers might have been the principal contractor.
Research Underway
• Further research in Atlanta, Texarkana, and other regional newspapers ca. 1936 may contain that information, as well as the names of workers on the building!
• Many fine books are available on the WPA and its greater New Deal Legacy. Also, a must-use resource is the Living New Deal website: livingnewdeal.org.
The Future Looks Bright
• Planning for the restored school's adaptive-use is underway.
• The efforts of Atlanta Grade School Friends will propel Atlanta-Miller Grade School into an exciting new era of community use!
• WPA poster featured here is courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Site Preparation
• Atlanta Grade School Friends is seeking funding for site preparation to lay the groundwork for full restoration.
• Included is a professional sprinkler system to protect construction workers and visitors from potential fire hazards.
• A fire consumed the Dr. James Lee Dickey House in Taylor, Texas just as it approached completion of its long-term restoration in 2022! We want to prevent that possibility for Atlanta-Miller Grade School.
• Other projects that will help us prepare for full restoration are restroom upgrades and an off-street parking area.
Jim’s Suggested Reading List
• "American-Made, the Enduring Legacy of the New Deal, When FDR Put the Nation to Work," by Nick Taylor, New York: Bantam Dell, 2008.
• "The New Deal, A 75th Anniversary Celebration," by Kathryn A. Flynn, Salt Lake City: Gibbs Smith, 2008.
• "Long-Range Public Investment, The Forgotten Legacy of the New Deal," by Robert D. Leighninger Jr., Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2007.
• "Wall-to-Wall America, A Cultural History of Post-Office Murals in the Great Depression," by Karal Ann Marling, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1982.
• "The Texas Post Office Murals: Art for the People," by Philip Parisi, College Station: Texas A&M Press, 2016.
• "Public Buildings, A Survey of Architecture of Projects Constructed by Federal and Other Governmental Bodies Between the Years 1933 and 1939, With the Assistance of the Public Works Administration" [whew!], by C.W. Short and R. Stanley-Brown, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1939.
• "Monuments Erected by the State of Texas to Commemorate the Centenary of Texas Independence," by Harold Schoen, Compiler, Austin: Commission of Control for Texas Centennial Celebration, 1938.
Questions? EMAIL US: ATLANTAGRADESCHOOLFRIENDS@GMAIL.COM
Join Us Online
atlantagradeschoolfriends@gmail.com
Website: atlantagradeschoolfriends.org
Sign up for email on our website and donate anytime!
Facebook: Atlanta-Grade-School-Friends-Inc
YouTube: Atlanta Grade School Friends
GuideStar: guidestar.org/profile/46-0492043 |
Gold Seal for Transparency 2022
