The WPA Builds: Cayce High School, Fulton County, Kentucky

Deconstruction of historic buildings – taking them down carefully in order that the materials may be reused, instead of ending up in a landfill – was described as a “relatively new concept” in the United States in the 1990s. Practiced mainly on the west coast, the “construction in reverse” process has gradually drifted eastward, with old-growth lumber, bricks, stones, and historic windows carefully removed from a building and prepped for new life.

But deconstruction has ancient roots (in addition to being common sense) and in 1936, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) oversaw the deconstruction of an earlier frame school building and the incorporation of those materials into a new modern building. That new modern building was a brick high school in Cayce, Kentucky.

The old Cayce High School in Fulton County, Kentucky.

Cayce is located in far southwestern Kentucky, in the eastern portion Fulton County. First known as Cayce Station, the community was located on the Mobile-Ohio Railroad. The unincorporated community is listed in the 1884 Kentucky State Gazetteer and Business Directory as having a population of 60 residents, a public school, daily mail delivery, and exports including produce, corn, livestock, and poultry.

Cayce is shown at the intersection of Routes 94 and 239 in this 1939 15-minute topographic map.

John Luther Jones, better known as “Casey” Jones, grew up in this crossroads community, and started work on the railroad that ran through his little town in 1878.

An image of the newly finished school in 1936. From the Goodman-Paxton Collection at the University of Kentucky.

It appears the schools at Rush Creek, Mud Creek, and Cayce (all visible on the 1939 map) were consolidated in 1916, and this merger led to the construction of the building that the WPA school replaced. (Sadly, I failed to find any images of the predecessor to the WPA school.)

WPA plaque on front of the school.

The day I stopped to wander alongside the abandoned school, I’d been across the Mississippi River on the Dorena-Hickman Ferry, and had explored the towns of Hickman and Clinton, as well as other numerous roadside stops.

The Cayce School under construction, 1936. Image from the Goodman-Paxton Collection at the University of Kentucky.

The brick veneer school sits on a hill above Route 94, facing south, and I executed a neat U-turn to return after passing it. A fellow getting into his car near the school warned me about snakes in the tall grass around the building, but otherwise, all was quiet, and still.

The building has suffered from neglect and the weather over the years.

Two large arched entryways are located at either end of the facade of the school, with four of the large windows still uncovered. (The original windows had 9/9 sash; these windows appear to be replacements.)

One of the central window openings has been filled in with a sign reading “Cayce Junction Jamboree,” but with a portion of the southeast corner of the school missing, I don’t think the building has hosted many jamborees recently.

One of the entry doors on the facade. Originally the doors were topped with a fanlight.

Like many school buildings of the period, the plan made good use of space – the “one-story” building rests on a raised basement, so that the new school encompassed 11 rooms, an auditorium, gymnasium, stage, and dressing rooms.

Plaque commemorating the Board of Education and the architect of the school.

Additional consolidation in Fulton County led to the closure of the Cayce High School – sometime in the 1950s. I couldn’t find much on the use of the building since students started attending high school in the county seat town of Hickman. In recent years, it served as a multi-purpose community center, and in 2017, was purchased by a father-son duo from Florida for $50,000.

According to the news story, the pair planned to convert the historic school into a bed and breakfast and RV park. There was no sign of either when I passed through, unless the snakes count as patrons. Historic schools have been sucessfully converted to other uses all across Kentucky – and there is no reason that the same couldn’t hold true for the former Cayce High School.

But I can’t help thinking about the earlier school that became part of the WPA project – and I hope that if the decay I noticed continues to stand, that this building also undergoes a deconstruction, so that at least its parts and pieces can find new life.