Former Will Rogers Library Listed On National Register Of Historic Places

The former Will Rogers Library in Claremore is now on the National Register of Historic Places.

This listing shows that the library-turned-museum is important to the state of Oklahoma. 

It's one of just 1,400 Oklahoma properties listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

The listing includes the building itself and even the wall that surrounds it.

The building is one of the handful of Works Progress Administration buildings left in Claremore.

It now houses the Claremore Museum of History and the designation should help the museum get more grants.

The building's connection to the WPA, a New Deal Relief Program, had a big influence on getting it listed.

"The building would not have been constructed without federal assistance during the great depression, from the New Deal Relief Programs, the variety of the programs that the federal government offered at the time," said Matthew Pearce, Oklahoma Historical Society National Register Coordinator.

Work had been done in the past to try to get this building listed in the national registry.

However, the Oklahoma Historical Society and Claremore Museum of History pushed it across the finish line over the last year.