Antlers School Campus (Three Bldgs) – Antlers

Address:	A and 3rd Streets, Antlers, Oklahoma	County:	Pushmataha
Started:	1937	Completed:	1940
Agencies:	WPA	NRHP:

Current Usage:

School Property

Description:

Also called Brantley Elementary School

The report of the Accomplishments for the Works Progress Administration July 1, 1935 to March 1, 1937 states “Thirty-odd years ago Dr. Erskine Brantley, a Presbyterian minister, established his home in Antlers, Pushmataha county. He built a church and he built a modest school. Antlers always has been proud of both. For many years the community has needed a new school building. The WPA produced it, ten class rooms and a spacious auditorium. It was dedicated January 9, 1937. Stone for this new building was quarried five miles east of Antlers. Sand and gravel were obtained from the bed of Kiamichi River. White oaks were felled in the near-by forest and from them were rived 85,000 shingles for the roof. The massive beams which span the ceiling of the auditorium were hewn from pines of this self-same forest.”

The Antlers school campus includes three WPA structures: Rodman Hall Auditorium, a Home Economics building and Brantley Elementary School. The auditorium is a single story, rectangular (130′ x 73′) structure constructed of un-tooled and uncoursed native sandstone. The roof, covered with composition shingles, is pent in type; the main doors are recessed behind arches. Wood inserts enclose the original window openings and a concrete block extension has been added to the south rear. The alterations, however, do not impeach the architectural integrity of the structure.
The Home Economics building is situated directly west of the auditorium. A single story, rectangular (88′ x 45′) structure with offsets, it was constructed of beautiful dark red, un-tooled and un-coursed sandstone. With a composition shingle covering, the roof is gabled, with intersecting gables on either end on the front and on one end on the back. The front porch roof is supported with small columns; windows are wood sash and rest on concrete sills. An exterior chimney is located on the rear.

Taken form the Oklahoma Landmarks Inventory Database Form:
The Brantley Elementary School occupies an area just south of the home economics building. It is a single story, inverted U-shaped (207’x 54′ horizontally, with two 36′ x 34′ vertical wings) structure constructed of cut blocks and roughly coursed native sandstone. Masonry is generally crude. The roof is gabled with parapets, while the windows are now metal encased. The front entry porch between the wings is covered by a flat roof supported by an open arcade; entry on the north wing is through a porch under a gable roof and parapets. The tower-like character of the parapets give the building a Gothic Revival flavor.
SIGNIFICANCE: 1937-1940; builder/architect: unknown
As urban WPA school structures, the Brantley building is notable for its unique architectural style, while it and the home economics building demonstrate the improvement of workmanship over time (1937-1940). Within the Antlers community, the school structures are unique architecturally because of their type, style (gothic as opposed to vernacular), scale and workmanship. Moreover, they became the prototype of subsequent and widespread use of native stone as construction material. The three buildings are significant because construction of them provided work opportunities for unskilled and unemployed laborers in the Antlers community which had been hard hit by the impact of the depression on the timber industry. The importance of the structures to the educational life of the town is reflected by that fact that they are still in use as places of learning.

VERBAL BOUNDARY DESCRIPTION: Lot 3, Block 7 and West one-half of Block 8, Locke Addition, Antlers city

Sources:

1. Oklahoma Landmarks Inventory Database
2. The Living New Deal
3. Marjorie Barton, _Leaning on a Legacy: The WPA in Oklahoma_, Oklahoma Heritage Association, 2008. Pg. 25.
4. Accomplishments for the Works Progress Administration July 1, 1935 to March 1, 1937, pg. 28.

Supported Documents:

1. WPA Properties Pushmataha County – Antlers School Campus

Photos: