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Mount Union borough

The WPA Built This School

4. VIEW OF KISTLER ELEMENTARY LOOKING EAST-SOUTHEAST AT END OF CEDAR STREET. BUILDING CONSTRUCTED BY WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION
4. VIEW OF KISTLER ELEMENTARY LOOKING EAST-SOUTHEAST AT END OF CEDAR STREET. BUILDING CONSTRUCTED BY WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATIONLibrary of Congress, Historic American Buildings Survey / Historic American Engineering Record. No known copyright restrictions. pa2824.photos.038903p

Kistler Elementary sits at the end of Cedar Street. The federal survey records two things about it that belong together: the brick school in the company town dates to 1936, and the building was put up by the Works Progress Administration.

A company built the houses. The government built the school. The children who filled it were the children of men making brick for steel mills two hundred miles away.

Sources

  1. LOC caption pa2824.photos.038903p (HABS PA-5976)
  2. Shedd 1991, Mount Union Refractories: Company town of Kistler (brick school, 1936)

Checked 2026-09-06 · Historic Mount Union collection

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