Depression Era Project in Wise County

The tumultuous years of the Great Depression were much the same in Decatur as in other small towns throughout the United States. Massive unemployment, bank closures, school closures and loss of farms and homes prompted President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal to boost local economies. Scrap metal collection sites, sewing rooms to produce affordable clothing, soil conservation, library projects and street improvements provided much-needed jobs for the citizens of Wise County. Work completed by Wise County residents through the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and Works Progress Administration (WPA) created a more reliable road system throughout the county. With better roads, schools consolidated and transportation became easier. In July 1938, a new U.S. Post Office opened as the county’s first federally funded building. Ray Stanford Strong’s oil on canvas painting, Texas Plains, commissioned through the Public Works of Art Project, was installed in 1939 on the north wall. The basement housed the offices of the Farm Security Administration, County Agent and Home Demonstration offices. After serving the community for 64 years, the Post Office was replaced in 2002 with new construction. Between 1937 and 1940, $300,000 Federal Dollars from Roosevelt’s New Deal, provided Decatur citizens with a Post Office, the WPA high school, gymnasium and tennis courts, and extensive roadwork along South Trinity Street. These buildings and improvements are symbols of the spirit and resiliency of the residents of Wise County who weathered the most difficult financial decade of the 20th century.