Photo of Standard Temporary Central School, Batangas Town [1926 BPW Annual Report]

Because making public school education available to the general population was among the priorities of the American colonial government, it goes without saying that the administration also tasked the Bureau of Public Works with job orders for the construction of school buildings all over the country. These construction projects were then compiled in an annual report¹ of the bureau, from which the pictures in the collection are digitally extracted.

The bureau apparently had standard architectural designs for a variety of public works projects such as local government buildings, hospitals and schools, among others.

Below was one constructed in the then town of Batangas, capital of the province, a standard temporary central school.

¹ “Bureau of Public Works Annual Report,” published 1926 in Manila by the Bureau of Public Works.