Jet School Vocational Building – Jet

Address:	3rd & Chesnut, Jet, Oklahoma 73749	County	Alfalfa
Started		Completed	1941
Agencies:	WPA	NRHP:	No

Current Usage

Unknown

Description:

The Jet School Vocational Building is a rectangular (74′ x 41′) structure constructed of red painted bricks with a bowed/rainbow roof. Pilasters at all four corners add decorative relief. A garage door with a concrete lintel on the west side is flanked by pilasters with concrete moldings. The entrance on the south side also is flanked by pilasters and has a concrete lintel. Beneath the concrete lintel, metal casement windows with brick sills stand singly spaced. Two windows on the west side have been boarded over, and a small metal addition has been added to the north side. Despite these alterations, the building retains its architectural integrity.
The Jet Vocational Education building is an exceptional resource in that it has materially affected the quality of life within the community. Specifically it has enabled the school district for almost 50 years to offer a curriculum tailored for non-college-bound students, a curriculum that equips students with practical skills suitable for physical labor and employment. By providing a place for such training, the building, therefore, has enhanced the job marketability of school graduates and contributed to a higher standard of living. But the structure has impacted the quality of life in Jet from its inception. Construction infused wages of some 14,000 man-hours of labor into the local economy during the worst of the depression, enabling previously destitute workers to provide for their families and regain a measure of self-worth. Had there been no vocational building the quality of life in Jet, in the 1930s and since, would have lessened. Architecturally the building is also something of a treasure in that WPA structures seldom had arched roofs.[1]