Roberta School Campus (Two Bldgs) – Roberta

Address:	E70 Highway, Roberta, Oklahoma	County:	Bryan
Started:		Completed:	1936, 1937
NRHP:	Yes	NRHP Date:
Agencies:	WPA

Current Usage:

Abandoned, privately owned.

Description:

The Roberta school campus is composed of two buildings: a four-room classroom and a gymnasium/auditorium. The classroom is a single story, rectangular (66′ x 42′) structure with a wood frame and clapboard siding. The hipped roof, covered now by composition shingles, has a gable dormer without lights above the archway to recessed doors. Wood sash windows in the classrooms reach to the eaves. The south window opening on the east front has been covered with siding and a smaller window inserted. New siding also covers the north end of the building.
The gymnasium/auditorium, situated 80 feet south of the classroom building, is a single story, rectangular (74′ x 66′) structure also constructed of wood frame and clapboard siding. Covered by sheet metal, the roof is gabled; small windows placed by twos reach to the eaves; recessed front doors are entered through an archway. The south end of the structure has been opened to permit parking of farm vehicles on the wood floor. This alteration, along with the window enclosure on the classroom building mentioned above, does not impeach the architectural integrity of the two structues.
As rural WPA school buildings, the structures are notable primarily for their wood construction. Indeed, campuses totally of wood construction are rare. Within the community they are unique architecturally because of their type, style, scale and workmanship. The two buildings on the Roberta school campus are especially significant because construction of them provided work opportunities and some economic security for laborers long on relief and on the verge of starvation. They also created a new environment conducive to learning for students theretofore deprived educationally. And the gym was the focus of community pride and spirit.[1]

VERBAL BOUNDARY DESCRIPTION: Follow state highway No. 78 south of Durant to its intersection with state highway No. 70E; turn east and go four miles to the Roberta community, turning north on the unpaved county road. The property begins at a point 990 feet north of the SE corner of Sec. 24, T 7 S, R 9 E, and goes west 275 feet, north 330 feet, east 27 5 feet and south 330 feet.