Construction on Gallup’s National Guard Armory (since decommissioned and now used as a city recreation center) began in winter 1941. The project was built through the New Deal Armory Program, a joint effort of the Public Works Administration and Works Progress Administration between 1933 and 1942. It was mostly federally funded, with the New Mexico legislature appropriating an estimated 20 percent of the construction costs. A contemporary newspaper report announcing the project explains that the building “is to be built of brick in the southwestern pueblo [sic] type of architecture. It will have a drill floor . . . rooms for caretaker, offices, equipment, storage rooms, class rooms, etc. with steam heating plant . . . It is expected that the drill room will be available occasionally for public affairs at times when such use will not interfere with the national guard.” 1
