| Address: | Vicinity of Muskogee, Oklahoma | County | Muskogee |
| Started: | Completed | 1939 | |
| Agencies: | WPA | NRHP: | No |
Current Usage
Description:
The Elm Grove School is a two-room, single story rectangular (42′ x 27′) structure constructed of uncut huge rocks laid randomly but with some interest in an ad hoc design. The mortar is beaded. The roof is hipped with an intersecting center gable that extends beyond the front entrance and is supported by six wood shafts on rock piers. The single door front entry has a pre-formed concrete lintel; an identical side door is covered with a gabled awning and, like the front door, reached by a concrete stoop. Wood sash windows on the west front are singly placed, while window openings on the rear have concrete sills and reach to the eaves. The rear window openings have been reduced in size with cinder blocks and smaller, more energy efficient sash windows installed. This alteration impeaches the architectural integrity of the structure.
This one room school is significant because it inaugurated an era of modern education in an isolated and rural community and because construction of it significantly blunted the impact of the national depression of the 1930s in the region. Wages for some 13,000 man hours of labor enabled previously destitute and unemployed men to provide for their families, and those same wages when spent helped save local commercial establishments from financial ruin. Moreover, the building is significant because of its vernacular architecture, especially the remarkably large building stone.
VERBAL BOUNDARY DESCRIPTION: Go ten miles south on U.S. 64 and five miles east on paved county road from Muskogee to the northwest acre (208 square feet) in Sec. 14, T 13 N, R 19 E.
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