| Address: | 3rd and Cincinnati, Fort Towson, Oklahoma | County: | Choctaw |
| Started: | 1938 | Completed: | 1939 |
| Agencies: | WPA | NRHP: | No |
Current Usage:
School Property
Description:
A building of more than ten classrooms, the Fort Towson high school and gymnasium is a single story, rectangualar (122′ x 141′) structure with an offset constructed of untooled and uncoursed native stone, primarily grey in color. With the exception of the gym where it is arched, the roof is flat with parapets. Window openings reach to the level of interior ceilings, lintels are of pre-formed concrete, and windows are arranged by twos and threes. On the west front of the gym has been placed a concrete block addition; it does not impair the structural integrity of the building, although it is visually distracting.
The school building is significant because it enhanced the cause of learning in a region generally deficient in educational interest, providing for the first time a “real” high school. The gymnasium encouraged competitive sports and provided a focus for community activity. For unskilled and unemployed laborers in the rural Fort Towson community construction of the facility meant job opportunities and economic security. As a rural WPA school, the structure is unique because of its grey color (limestone) and its size (scale). To the community it is architecturally unique in its faint art deco style, materials, and workmanship.
VERBAL BOUNDARY DESCRIPTION: Lots 1, 2, 5 and 6, Block 20, Fort Towson original
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