| Address: | Arkoma and Blocker Streets, Arkoma, Oklahoma | County: | Leflore |
| Started: | Completed: | 1937 | |
| Agencies: | WPA | NRHP: | 9/8/1988 |
Current Usage:
School – addition
Description:
A four-room building still used as an educational facility, the Arkoma school is a single story, rectangular (74′ x 42′) structure constructed of cut and coursed native sandstone. The hipped roof has a gable dormer without lights above the front entry archway and recessed doors. End doors are also recessed behind archways. Window openings with concrete sills have been filled with new metal windows or wood inserts. A concrete block structure has been attached to the south end and a portion of the west front. Fortunately the integrity of the building is still intact.
Significantly, construction of the school building created jobs and some economic security for destitute coal miners and agricultural workers long on relief and short on self respect. Close to Fort Smith, Arkansas, the Arkoma area was particularly hard hit by the depression. The building also stimulated an interest in modern education and over the last 49 years has continued to nurture it. Within the community the structure is notable architecturally in terms of its allusion to Richardsonian Romanesque style, its materials, its scale and its character of workmanship.
VERBAL BOUNDARY DESCRIPTION: The nonimated property is contained within a rectangle centered on the above UTM reference point. The west line runs paralled to and 10′ from the west wall of the building; the north line runs parallel to and 10′ from the north wall of the building; the east wall runs parallel to and 10′ from the east wall of the building; and the south line runs parallel to and 10′ from the north wall of the building, all in Lots 5, 6 and 7, Block 4, Arkoma original
Sources:
Supported Documents:
- WPA Properties Leflore County – Arkoma School
- National Register of Historic Places Support Document
- National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form
Photos:
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