November 1933

November 8, 1933
Page 1

550 Warwick Avenue
Teaneck, New Jersey
(West Englewood Post Office)
November 8th, 1933

Mr. R. W. Crawford, Acting Director of Projects Division
Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works
Washington, D.C.

Dear Sir:

In your letter of October 21st, you referred to the Teaneck High School application as "PWA Docket 1494," but in view of recent information obtained from the Newark office to the effect that the High School project in Teaneck had not even been passed upon by their engineers, I am wondering whether there has not been a confusion of this particular building with the Elementary School in Teaneck on which an application was filed.

As I told you in previous correspondence, this High School building as well as the proposed Elementary School are sorely needed. The High School is a dire necessity for they are crowding nearly eighteen hundred students in a building planned for one thousand. Furthermore, the whole thing is ready to go the instant someone with authority says so. Plans and specifications have been complete for a year or more. The bond issue was approved two years ago. The required legal opinions on validity, etc. are all on record. Certainly no project which has been offered is more nearly complete and ready to go than these schools. Teaneck voted a joint bond issue for the two buildings. They were separated, I believe, at the suggestion of a member of the New Jersey Committee.

The writer is conscious of the fact that your Organization has a prodigious task, but I trust you will excuse me when I comment on the failure of New Jersey to be included to any extent in the numerous approvals of applications that we see listed from time to time. For example, I have before me a statement that fourteen projects have just been approved for New York State including $2,500,000 for a High School in Queens, $1,150,000 for four schools in Jamestown, $825,000 for a High School in Hempstead and $254,000 for a school in Ausable Forks. The population of the latter is 1009 according to the latest Federal census. Ten years before, it was 2000.

Hempstead grew from 9952 to 12,650 in the decade, but the population of Teaneck, New Jersey, one of the fastest growing New York suburbs, jumped from 3360 to 16,513. I mention this to impress you with the extreme and pressing need of additional school facilities.

If the High School application has not reached Washington by the time this letter arrives, will you kindly suggest a line of procedure to us which you think will tend to expedite matters so that this High School will be under construction soon, thus putting a great many unemployed mechanics to work and providing badly needed school space.

Yours very truly

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November 25, 1933
Page 1

FEDERAL EMERGENCY ADMINISTRATION
OF PUBLIC WORKS
November 25, 1933

Washington, D.C.

Mr. Chris D. Sheffe,
550 Warwick Avenue,
Teaneck, New Jersey

Dear Mr. Sheffe:

This will acknowledge your letter of November 8, with reference to the Teaneck High School. We bet to apologize for our error of October 21.

The school referred to is Docket No. 1494, for Teaneck Elementary school. Careful search of our records reveal that no application has yet been received for the high school and I suggest that you contact the State Engineer and request him to expedite the dispatch of the application in question to this office.

The application for the elementary school in Teaneck was approved by the President on November 22. This represents a $215,000 loan and is a part of the ninety two and one half millions of dollars which have been allotted to New Jersey to date from Federal and non-Federal sources alone, not taking into consideration other branches of the original P.W.A. funds which are under direct control of this Administration. We respectfully point this out in connection with your statement that New Jersey has not participated in the funds to any extent.

Sincerely yours, Chas. L. Gaines, Jr.
Acting Assistant Director of
Projects Division

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