UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
BULLETIN No. 825 flpffi 
j£r Contribution from the Bureau of Markets ^^sVV/Y*^ 
S3% m< *J&U GEORGE LIVINGSTON, Acting Chief Sz&fi&T 
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Washington, D. C. 
January 30, 1920 
RURAL COMMUNITY BUILDINGS IN THE UNITED 
STATES. 1 
By W. C. Nason, Assistant in Rural Organization, and C. W. Thompson, Specialist 
in Rural Organization. 
CONTENTS. 
Page. 
Growing interest in community buildings. . . 1 
Community buildings classified according to 
source of funds for their establishment ..... 2 
General character of the building 4 
Maintenance 5 
Operation and management 5 
Uses to which buildings are put 5 
Specific examples of community buildings: 6 
The commimity house, Holden, Mass 6 
The Matinecock neighborhood house, 
Locust Valley, L. I 11 
Community building, Elgin, Nebr 16 
Page. 
Specific examples of community buildings — 
Continued. 
Red River farmers' club hall, Kittson 
County, Minn 20 
Tamalpais Center building, Kentfield, 
Calif 22 
Amusement hall, Ware Shoals, S. C 25 
Dixon township building, Argonia, Kans. 28 
Rembrandt community building, Wood- 
stock, Tenn 30 
List of community buildings selected 
from those visited or studied through 
correspondence 34 
GROWING INTEREST IN COMMUNITY BUILDINGS. 
Throughout the country there is a keen and widespread interest 
in community buildings, their activities, their accomplished results, 
and their possibilities. Their development is so recent and they are 
so essentially an outgrowth of rural life and conditions that knowledge 
regarding them necessarily has been fragmentary, in most cases 
limited to impressions gained from observation of a few isolated houses. 
The construction and acquisition of special buildings to serve as 
community centers is such an important result of social organizations 
in the rural sections and smaller towns of the United States that a 
comprehensive study of a number of representative buildings was 
deemed desirable by the Department of Agriculture. Accordingly 
a study has been made of 256 such buildings. Most of them are 
relatively new, 248 having been built since 1900, 201 since 1910, and 
90 since 1915. The accompanying diagram (fig. 1), based on the date 
of construction reported for the buildings studied, shows the increase 
in the number of community buildings from 1900 to 1918. The 
1 On July 1, 1919, the study of rural social organization, including rural community buildings, was 
transferred to the Office of Farm Management, and Mr. Thompson assumed charge of the Division of 
Cooperative Marketing. 
141649°— 19— Bull. 825 1 
