Golf Courses Sites

Anacostia Park is one of Washington DC's two largest parks and recreation areas, along with Rock Creek Park.  It covers over 1200 acres along the Anacostia River from South Capitol Street SE to the Maryland boundary in NE.  The New Deal improved the park in major ways, after the Capital Parks system was put under the control of the National Park Service (NPS) by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1933. New Deal public works agencies developed such key features of the park as Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens, Langston Golf Course and Anacostia Pool (see linked pages). Besides those major elements, improvements included,...

The Langston Golf Course in Anacostia Park was opened as a 9-hole course in 1939 (and expanded to 18 holes in the 1950s). It was constructed with the help of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Works Project Administration (WPA). The course is named for John Mercer Langston, an African American who was the first dean of the Howard University School of Law, first president of Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute (now Virginia State University), and first African American elected to the United States Congress from Virginia.  The black golfing community formed the Royal Golf Club in 1933 to agitate for a...

There is a record in the National Archives of the Public Works Administration (PWA) funding the construction of a golf course at the Arizona State Teachers College in Tempe (now the Arizona State University).  It is unclear what kind of golf course is meant and where it was located, and the picture shows students putting behind a campus building – not a golf course at all.  There was a true golf course built northeast of the ASU campus, but apparently much later.  Further information is needed to verify the history of this golf course.

This beautiful park is nestled in the "Lost Pines" area of Texas. The park was built as a CCC project and opened to the public in 1937. In September 2011 96% of the park was burned by a devastating wildfire; some of the burn damage is still visible, but the park is regenerating. The fire spared the refectory and the cabins built by the CCC. A CCC pavilion at the overlook suffered damage to the wood roof, but today has been rebuilt. "The architect of Bastrop State Park, Arthur Fehr, followed National Park Service design principles that suggested harmony with the...

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) worked to improve the public golf course at Battle Island State Park.

Bethpage State Park is a 1,476-acre New York state park on the border of Nassau County and Suffolk County on Long Island. It is best known for its five golf courses, including the Bethpage Black Course. "The park’s clubhouse and four of its five courses, including the legendary Black course, were either built or improved with federal relief funds and labor."   (https://www.nytimes.com) "In the early 1930s, the Bethpage Park Authority purchased the Lenox Hills Country Club and other adjacent properties to build what we now know as Bethpage State Park. * All of the work on these four courses (Black, Red, Blue and...

The WPA helped build Bowden Golf Course in 1940. From the Bowden Golf Course website: "The 18-hole Bowden Golf Course in Macon, Georgia is a public golf course that opened in 1940. Designed by W.P.A., Bowden Golf Course measures 6570 yards from the longest tees and has a slope rating of 119 and a 69.7 USGA rating. The course features 3 sets of tees for different skill levels." According to Georgia Public Broadcasting, only the benches and pump house are original to the WPA construction. The course was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.  

The Works Progress Administration built the Brewton Alabama Country Club and facilities for an adjacent airport on Highway 31 in Brewton. Next to the country club, the WPA built a nine-hole golf course, a landing field, 5000 linear feet of runway, and an adjacent airport hangar.

A former municipal golf course in Brunswick Georgia built by Donald Ross and the WPA. It was purchased in the 1950's as a private club and has recently been rehabilitated.

The Works Progress Administration built the club house for the Buffalo Golf Course in Buffalo, Johnson County.

The WPA constructed the 9-hole Cameron Course at what is now Buffalo Hill Golf Club. From the Buffalo Hill Golf Club website: "In the early 1930’s, land was purchased where part of the Cameron 9 holes now resides. The Cameron Course is named after Dave Cameron, who donated land to the city for golf course development. The original 9 hole course operated until the late 1930’s when the Works Progress Administration (WPA) built a nine hole, irrigated, green grass course; some holes are still in service today while others have been modified during subsequent expansions.”

Camp Long is a 68-acre park in West Seattle. The park was constructed with WPA help starting n 1937. It was dedicated in 1941. WPA work in the park includes extensive rock work, the construction of a golf course, cabins and lodges and the first climbing wall in the world (see separate page on Schurman Rock).

The Capital City County Club Golf Course was originally a 9-hole golf course developed by George Perkins. In 1924, the newly-incorporated Tallahassee Country Club purchased the golf course from Perkins. In 1935, the Tallahassee Country Club donated the land to the City of Tallahassee. That same year the city received a $35,000 Works Progress Administration grant to expand the golf course to 18 holes. The city engaged noted golf course architect Albert W. Tillinghast to inspect and comment on the plans, which also included renovating the existing 9 holes. Construction began in 1936 and was completed in 1938. In 1956,...

NYSParks.com: "Located in Chenango Valley State Park in scenic Broome County, the original 9-hole course, known as Riverside Golf Course, was designed by engineer James Evans and landscape architect Laurie Cox and constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. In 1967 the course was redesigned by Hal Purdy and expanded to 18 holes."

The golf course was built in 1940, and is one of only two golf courses built by the Federal Works Progress Administration in Oklahoma. This a 160-acre, 18-hole course sits on the southeast edge of town and is currently leased to the Idabel Country Club.    

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) began work on the development of a city park, swimming pool, and golf course in January 1939. Bath houses, seats, wading pool, bandstand, rock veneer golf house with showers, and picnic tables of rock veneer and concrete were also constructed. The WPA provided a grant of approximately $45,000 and the city voted $12,000 in bonds to construct the swimming pool and municipal park. Engineer Cecil Hauk drew plans for the project. Frank H. Spicer of the WPA was in charge. The project was estimated to take ten months and initially employed 54 men. The park...

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) constructed a clubhouse at a golf course in Riverton, Wyoming. The location and status of this facility are unknown to Living New Deal.

In 1938, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) converted Ross Field, a World War balloon training school for more than 3,500 military personnel located in Arcadia, CA, into a public park. They constructed a golf course, swimming pool, and tennis courts. "Before opening day Oct. 12, 1938, the WPA crew christened each golf hole: The fifth is 'Railroad' because it paralleled the Pacific Electric tracks; the 11th is 'Wind' because the prevailing wind blows in players' faces, and the 16th is 'Clubhouse Turn' because it was the first turn on pioneer Lucky Baldwin's original racetrack site. A plaque paying tribute to the...

"South of town, the WPA built a rustic club building for the 9-hole golf course at a new country club; the building, however, was heavily altered and later burned." The building "served as a city-owned recreation center until its conversion to the Rock Hill Country Club in 1954." (sc.gov)

Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) workers expanded D.W. Field Golf Course in Brockton, Mass. WPA Bulletin: Brockton WPA added ten acres to the original 30 acres of fairways, built bunkers to tax the skill of players, widened fairways and did extensive grading and reseeding work at the D. W. Field public golf course.

"Golf was played on land leased and eventually purchased from the City of Deming. The original course (nine holes) started with sand greens, but since sand tended to blow out in strong winds magnetite was used to replace the sand. In 1932, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) was created to provide jobs and stimulate the economy. The building which was to become the Clubhouse was built by the WPA in 1935. The building was completed in 1936 and served as administration headquarters for just over a year. In the spring of 1938, New Mexico WPA Administration approved the use...

The Works Progress Administration built the Municipal Golf Course and club house in Douglas, Converse County, Wyoming. The facility is still in service today and operates under the name Douglas Community Club.

The Dyker Beach Golf Course first opened in 1897. It was redesigned by Jon Van Kleek in 1935-1936. On May 7, 1936, the Department of Parks announced that the Dyker Beach Golf Course had been “thoroughly reconstructed with new tees and greens throughout…with relief funds provided by the C.W.A., T.E.R.A. and W.P.A.” The renovation project was part of a larger city wide renovation of public golf courses that was funded by New Deal programs. David Owen, staff writer at The New Yorker, remarks that "Dyker is where Tiger Woods’s father, Earl, learned to play golf, in the early nineteen-seventies. (He was...

East Potomac Park rests on an artificial peninsula created with dredge spoils from the Potomac River by the Corps of Engineers.  The park opened to the public in 1912 and was largely developed in the 1920s. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) both made improvements in East Potomac Park.  CCC work at the park featured the construction of twelve tennis courts surrounded by a 10-foot chain link fence. A HABS report provides the details: "The CCC constructed the tennis courts, and by extension the chain link fence, between 1938 and 1942.  Fieldwork conducted in 2004 found an extant, though...

Works Progress Administration (WPA) workers provided landscaping improvements to the Eastmoreland Golf Course, the City of Portland’s oldest municipal course, during 1937. The $26,348 project budget was made up almost entirely of labor costs. As a Parks Bureau report notes, Parks Superintendent Charles P. Keyser took care in the use of relief funds to expand the City’s budget since “they could be expended only for parks improvements or expansions, not maintenance of existing facilities” (p. 31). The exact nature and location of the improvements are unknown to us.

The historic El Monte Clubhouse in Ogden, Utah was constructed as part of a New Deal project by Civil Works Administration (CWA) and Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). These agencies precede the Works Progress Administration (WPA), to which the building is sometimes attributed. "The project was started under the civil works administration and which is being finished by the ERA. The CWA and ERA organizations have appropriated $17,000 for the building against $5550 from the city." (Ogden Standard-Examiner)

FERA started and the WPA completed the construction of these two 18-hole golf courses between 1933 and 1940.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the Flatirons Golf Course for the city of Boulder, from 1936 to 1938.  It was then called the Boulder Municipal Sports Center. Flatirons Golf Course began as the Boulder Country Club, located at 28th and Iris.  In 1933, course architect William H. Tucker was commissioned to design a new course, and the club and city turned to the WPA to build the new design as a municipal course at the current location at 57th and Arapahoe Streets. 

The Florida Caverns Golf Course is located on the grounds of the Florida Caverns State Park near the city of Marianna in Jackson County. In February 1938, State Forester and Park Executive Harry Lee Baker brought in golf course architect Robert Trent Jones Sr. who, upon inspection, indicated he was pleased with the location in the state park.In August of 1938, $50,000 was approved by President Franklin D. Roosevelt for the construction of an 18-hole golf course on property adjoining the newly constructed Florida Caverns State Park. The State provided an additional $48,700 bring the project to Marianna, at no...

Salt Lake City acquired the Forest Dale golf course, formerly the Salt Lake City Country Club, in 1935. The inclusion of the above photograph in the National Archives WPA records suggests that the WPA conducted work on the clubhouse depicted in the photo, but more information is needed.

Forest Park is one of the largest municipal parks in the nation, just larger than Central Park in NYC. It was the site of the 1904 Worlds Fair and the WPA projects in the park transformed it and brought it up to date, including much clearing of brush in places where it had become overgrown. In places, it truly was and still is a forest. Projects included: roads through-out the park, handball courts, tennis courts (now the Davis Tennis Center), draining lakes that had been constructed for the World's Fair and which had filled in and had debris-filled to an...

In 1936, WPA crews expanded the Forest Park Golf Course from 9 holes to 18 holes.

On July 16, 1935, the Department of Parks announced that the Forest Park Golf Course in Queens had been "entirely rebuilt with new greens and tees in line with the most modern golf architecture." A later press release confirmed that this, and work on other golf courses, had been done with "relief funds provided by the C.W.A., T.E.R.A. and W.P.A." The course is still popular and has been named the "best New York City golf course" by Golf Guides USA.

The FDR Park Golf Course was constructed as a WPA project in 1936.

Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) workers conducted the following work in Cambridge, Massachusetts. From a W.P.A. Bulletin: WPA beautification of the Cambridge Fresh Pond Parkway golf course includes the filling of unsightly water filled pools, messed with an accumulation of assorted junk and discarded automobiles.

The George Wright Clubhouse is a facility part of a municipal golf course located in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Boston, MA. The course was designed by Donald Ross and named for George Wright, one of the original members of the Cincinnati Red Stockings professional baseball team. The clubhouse was built by the Works Progress Administration. This Norman style clubhouse cost $200,000 in 1930s' dollars, the overall golf course's construction, including the clubhouse, is estimated to have been $1,000,000, in 1930s' dollars. The course opened in 1938 and remains open to this day owned and run by the City of Boston....

"George Wright Golf Course is a Donald Ross designed, public golf course in Hyde Park, Massachusetts that was opened in 1938 after receiving President Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration (WPA) funding to complete the construction."

In 1936 the WPA helped construct this golf course in Blackduck.  

From Marguerite Cline in the Cherokee Tribune: "Construction of the current Canton Golf Course was a part of President Franklin Roosevelt's 1930s New Deal. It was built by the WPA - Works Progress Administration program. Critics joked about the program and said that WPA meant 'We Piddle Around.' But that was not the case when the Canton golf course was built."

From the Elizabethton Golf Course website: "In late 1935 a group of Elizabethton business men made plans to buy and develop some local property into a golf course. They retained Raymond Campbell, Attorney and charter member of the group, to obtain the necessary land for the project. Mr. Campbell was successful in purchasing 70 acres of land, up for foreclosure, for $5,000, from the Hamilton National Bank of Johnson City. The original group of men, numbering 20, invested $250 each to purchase the land. In 1936 the same tract of land was deeded to the first Trustees of the organization - R.C....