Klamath County Armory and Auditorium - Klamath Falls, OR - WPA Projects on Waymarking.com

The following verbiage is taken from the National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form to describe this former armory's significance to Klamath County (the text mentioning PWA's contributions are in bold):

The Klamath County Armory and Auditorium is eligible for the National Register under National Register Criterion A and Criterion Consideration G for its significant association with military activities and important role in providing space for recreation and entertainment in Klamath Falls and greater county. In her thesis, "History of the 1935 Klamath County Armory," Sheilah DeBlander describes how "after the dedication, the armory became the hub of [the] growing community" of Klamath Falls. It was completed in 1935 using $45,000 from city bonds, county funds of $49,000 and a grant from the Public Works Administration of $30,700. Military historian Warren W. Aney notes that "by 1935 the Klamath Falls unit had a large, new armory, constructed by joint efforts of the city and county. This was somewhat unique, since almost all of the other armories in Oregon were state-built or rented from private owners (the Portland Armory was the only other city-county built armory). Although the city of Klamath Falls and Klamath County were united in their desire to build an armory, the inability of the State of Oregon to provide any funds for the armory made the grant from the Public Works Administration the final necessary ingredient for this project to proceed. The Klamath County Armory and Auditorium was identified as Public Works Project No. 1825.

The military role of the Klamath County Armory was the primary justification for it being built. After World War I, the United States government was aware of the need for a trained body of soldiers to be on call and strongly supported the idea of the citizen-soldier: the National Guard. After the local National Guard unit, Battery D of the 249th Coast Artillery, was established in Klamath Falls 1927, they met and drilled in a frame building that was inadequate for their needs, especially for securely housing their weapons, specifically the artillery pieces. Battery D quickly established a reputation as a "crack unit," by repeatedly winning awards for marksmanship and perfect attendance. It was the opinion of the city of Klamath Falls and Klamath County that "their boys" both needed and deserved an armory. At this time, there were no National Guard armories on the east side of Oregon.

From 1935 through World War II and into the 1950s, the Klamath County Armory and Auditorium was the home of Oregon National Guard's 249th Coast Artillery. It was a community center where local children played basketball and clubs met for meeting and luncheons. It was also an auditorium for public entertainment such as big band and western dances and shows, boxing and wrestling matches, circuses, amateur and professional performances, and large public meetings, such as the drawing for local homesteads by World War II veterans. Commercial expositions and automobile and agricultural shows were held in the building, the largest venue in the city. Bench seating in the balconies on three sides of the hall and hundreds of chairs for the main floor made it possible for the Armory and Auditorium to accommodate audiences that at times numbered nearly 3,000.

When the National Guard moved to Kingsley Field in 1952, the building continued as the Klamath Auditorium, still serving as a venue for concerts, gatherings, and social other social events. As television assumed the role of mass entertainment however, the use of the building decreased, and in 1969 the building was converted to the Klamath County Museum with only a few modifications to the exterior and interior of the building. Forty years later, however, clubs still meet in the building. Classes are still taught and banquets still eaten in the Instruction Hall/Banquet Room. Concerts and lectures continue as museum activities. The Armory is not only the place that houses the history of Klamath County, it is where much of that history actually took place.

The Klamath County Armory and Auditorium is also eligible for the National Register under National Register Criterion C for its Classical Moderne styling of Art Deco architecture in Klamath Falls. It was designed by local architect, Howard R. Perrin, and constructed by former Klamath Falls contractor, Edward P. Brosterhous of Bend. Classical Moderne traits exhibited in the exterior of the Armory and Auditorium includes emphasis on the vertical with tall windows and engaged columns on an otherwise boxy, rectilinear shape. It is capped with a montage of rooflines. A quietly polychromatic exterior is accomplished by using several different colors of brick with cream-colored wooden and metal trim. Nonstructural decorative elements include a stylized fan motif in the ornamental metal spandrels and cast-stone stylized eagles above and helmeted soldier figures astride both main entrances. Stylistics characteristics in the interior include a stylized painted floral ceiling in the lobby and a cutout design in the tops of the interior lobby doors and in the walls abive the windows that mimics the top of the stylized fan motif of the spandrels.

The NRHP Nomination Form contains the best writeup of the PWA's contribution to a structure I've ever seen and goes into great detail on the history behind the New Deal plan and how PWA benefited this Armory and Auditorium and reads:

The level of support is all the more surprising [a local measure passed by a vote of 1178 to 672 in the city and 2205 to 1647 in the county in favor of an Armory] since the Stock Market Crash on Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929, had plunged the nation headlong into the Great Depression. Millions of Americans were out of work. The State of Oregon did not have the matching funds for the Armory. But when Franklin D. Roosevelt, newly elected President of the United State, took office on March 4, 1933, he immiediately implemented a series of programs to help the economy, called the "New Deal." The Public Works Administration was a New Deal agency created by the National Industrial Recovery Act of June 1933. It provided money for the construction of public works such as dams and bridges and helped to stabilize the economy. Mr. R. E. Bradbury, who was a member of the original committee of investigation for the establishment of a local National Guard unit, and was also a public works committee member, suggested the "presentation of the proposed armory plans to Narshall Dana, Northwest regional Administrator for the Public Works Programs (PWA). Two possibilities existed: 1) The PWA allotment for the State of Oregon to use for the armory, or 2) Klamath Falls might receive some portion of the PWA allotment for the State of Oregon to use for the armory. Applications were submitted in 1933 and anticipation was high. It was also necessary to submit a bill to the Oregon Legislature requesting only "a dollar from the state, thus overcoming the law requiring state involvement in funding armories. A site was selected. A local architect was hired, in harmony with PWA criteria for buildings that served their communities in a variety of ways. Hiring local engineers, inspectors, contractors, subcontractors, and laborers helped to relieve local unemployment. Using local brick helped the local economy. Klamath Falls was ready.

On January 17, 1934, the Evening Herald headline exclaimed "Klamath Armory Approved." The Klamath County Armory had managed to become one of the earliest of this new wave of armories. In the online Oregon Blue Book "Oregon History: The Great Depression," it states, "The Public Works Administration and the Public Buildings Administration worked with the WPA in other ways to transform Oregon. Projects included a city hall in Canby, a dramatic capitol and state library in Salem, an armory in Klamath Falls, a high school in Corvallis, a dormitory at the State School for the Blind, a sewage disposal plant in Medfod, and five stunning bridges spanning major estuaries on the Oregon coast." Without the grant from the Public Works Administration, there would not have been sufficient resourced to build the Klamath Falls Armory. The grant successfully fulfilled its mission: It helped reduce unemployment, improved the local economy in Klamath Falls, and made possible a building that would change the history of the city and greater Klamath County.

Project type: Government building (non-park) Date built or created: 1935 Location: Klamath County Museum City: Klamath Falls Condition: Good upkeep with a little wear and tear Website for additional information: [Web Link]

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