Four Nebraska Buildings Constructed As Part Of The New Deal Added To National Register Of Historic Places

From Nebraska Examiner:

By Paul Hammel

April 22, 2023

LINCOLN — Four structures built as part of the Depression-era New Deal are among those added recently to the National Register of Historic Places.

History Nebraska, which reviews applications, said six properties were recently approved for the Register by the National Park Service.

WPA projects

Included were four projects built via the Works Progress Administration, which employed thousands of people on construction projects during the Depression and through the early years of World War II.

Those were:

• The art deco York Auditorium in York, built in 1940. The concrete structure remains an auditorium and sports venue today and also houses a local museum.
• The Agricultural Society Building in Weeping Water, which hosted the Cass County Fair until 1967. The two-story Streamline Moderne style building sits in Weeping Water’s business district.
• The Inavale Community Center in Inavale, in rural Webster County. Builders used salvaged concrete blocks from a building in neighboring Red Cloud in 1942. The building was a roller rink until 1979 but is now vacant.
• The Bohning Memorial Auditorium in Ravenna, a brick structure built in 1934. It remains in use for community events.

Other structures added to the Register were:

• The Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church in Beatrice, built in 1930. The structure represents Late English Gothic Revival church architecture with its tall, turret-topped tower, buttresses, arched art glass windows and arcaded arches.
• The Iowa-Nebraska Light and Power Company Plant in Lincoln, an Art Deco structure built in 1930. Now known as the K Street Power Plant, it is scheduled for rehabilitation.

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