Hospitals and Clinics Sites

The Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) supplied funds to enable additions to what was then the Allegheny County Home and Hospital, later Woodville State Hospital.

"The construction of this hospital plant was begun in 1929 but work was discontinued in 1931 due to financial difficulties. It was resumed in 1935 with the aid of the P.W.A. and when completed covered most of a site of 4 1/2 acres and included a 20-story hospital building, a 9-story nurses' home, and a power-house supplying the entire institution. The hospital building contains 1,200 rooms of which 162 are for private patients, and it increases the total bed capacity of the institution by more than 50 percent. In the plan, all of the departments which are related in service permit...

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed a garage for what was then known as Allentown Hospital (now Geraldine L. Thompson Care Center) in 1936. The status of the old garage is unknown to Living New Deal.

During the Great Depression the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) and Work Projects Administration (WPA) helped to develop and complete the old Watauga County Hospital, whose construction had begun at the beginning of the 1930s. The building was later known at Appalachian State University's Founders Hall, and was dedicated as Watson-Brumit Hall on Sept. 18, 2021.

The Works Progress Administration built additions for the Arizona State Hospital (also known as the Arizona State Hospital for the Insane) in Phoenix. The present condition of the structures in unknown to the Living New Deal.

"Originally called Artesia Memorial Hospital when built in 1939 by WPA/PWA funds, it is still in use today. Additions were made in the early 1940's and the most recent renovations and additions finalized in the mid 1960's." -Treasures on New Mexico Trails

The city Health Center, meant to serve Long Island City and Astoria, at the southwest corner of 31st Ave. and 14th St., was built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). "This center and eight others are being built as WPA projects," The New York Times reported in 1936.

This nurses home was built in 1936 by the PWA on the Audrain Medical Campus to house nurses who worked in the hospital, and probably also nursing students. It is on the south side of the Medical Center.

From the PWA docket no.TEX-2070-F: On October 6, 1938, the Austin City Council adopted a resolution accepting financing from the Public Works Administration for a tuberculosis sanatorium including necessary equipment. The grant would pay for 45% of the cost of the project, not to exceed $24,750. The city located the project on sixteen acres of land in far East Austin. On December 1, 1938, the city council accepted a bid of $44,600 from contractor Will O'Connell of San Angelo for construction on the sanatorium building. On February 2, 1940, the city council declared the contracts with O'Connell and most of the...

The old B.S. Pollak Hospital, part of the old Jersey City Medical Center, was constructed with federal funds during the Great Depression. The building is now privately owned. "The Pollak Hospital facility was formerly the site of a three-story building constructed in 1918 for the Jersey City School for Crippled Children. It was taken over as the Infectious Disease Hospital and in 1934 received a loan of $2,996,000 by the Reconstruction Finance Corporation for a new county tuberculosis hospital. The 250-bed facility was eventually named for Dr. B.S. Pollak and became noted for the treatment of chest diseases. When completed in...

The Bald Eagle Hill Children’s Health Camp was built in 1936-1937 by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) for children suffering from tuberculosis. The camp’s address was 4900 Nichols Avenue SE, which is now Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue.  The camp was located at the southern end of the avenue, near its intersection with Joliet Street, which is the site of today’s Bald Eagle Recreation Center. This WPA-built camp replaced a smaller tuberculosis facility in Northwest DC and cost between $79,000 and $110,000 to construct. In 1939, the Sunday Star described the camp: “Scattered over nearly five acres of grassy hilltop land overlooking...

The Public Works Administration funded the construction of the Bath V.A. Hospital in Bath NY. Created as the hospital for Bath V.A., replacing the 1870s facility at what had been the New York State Soldiers' and Sailors' Home. The oldest resident Civil War veteran broke the ground in 1936. The hospital was dedicated May 12, 1938 with 409 beds and two operating rooms. This is still the hospital for what is now the Bath VA Medical Center.

Originally the United States Marine Hospital, what is now Richmond University Medical Center's Bayley Seton Hospital was a PWA project. It is described by the Federal Writers' Project: "United States Marine Hospital, Bay Street and Vanderbilt Avenue, a Federal hospital operated by the United States Public Health Service, is open to personnel of the Merchant Marine and Coast Guard, and to certain classes of Government employees. Constructed in 1933-6 by the PWA at a cost of two million dollars, the tawny-colored brick buildings with a silver tower cover an area of eighteen acres. Louis A. Simon was the supervising architect. This...

The approximately $5 million Bellevue Hospital was constructed with federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds during the 1930s. The present status of the New Deal structures within hospital complex, which has been extensively renovated, is unknown to Living New Deal.

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) provided labor for the improvement of Bergen Pines, the Bergen County Hospital, in Paramus, N.J. The CWA converted swampland into a "fifteen-acre recreation haven" for the grounds.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) completed rehabilitation work at the Berkeley Springs Sanitarium. The work was done following the 1936 spring floods that had damaged the facilities. The high water left behind mold and debris in the Sanitarium building. The work done by WPA crews also included repairing and cleaning the pool, which used water from the therapeutic Berkeley Springs.

This monumental building was constructed in 1939 for  offices of the Berwyn Township’s Public Health District.  It was funded in part by the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works (i.e., the PWA). It was designed by Berwyn resident Vladimir Novak and is listed on National Register of Historic Places.

Longport, New Jersey's Betty Bacharach Home for Afflicted Children was constructed in 1924, before the Great Depression. However, the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed an addition, featuring a "new physiotherapy pool and treatment unit" at the site starting in 1936. The old Betty Bacharach Home is now the Borough Hall building.

In a state-wide program to renovate and improve Mississippi institutions, the State Tuberculosis Hospital, using relief labor and ERA funding, carried out extensive painting and repairs and improvements in 1934-1935. $23,844.80 was expended on interior, exterior painting, floor refinishing, plastering, and new construction. Buildings improved included the two infirmary buildings, six smaller buildings including convalescent wards, nurses home, doctors apartments, staff residences, Preventorium, and service building. The carpenter shop, dairy barn, laying houses, and brooder were constructed. The Preventorium and some residences are still extant, but most other buildings have been demolished. The remaining buildings are used as the Boswell...

The former Camarillo State Hospital for the Insane was closed in 1997 and became the CSU-Channel Islands campus. The old hospital was begun in the early 1930s, but when the Roosevelt Administration came into office, the Public Works Administration (PWA) took over funding the project in 1934. With the aid from the PWA, the hospital was completed in 1936.  At the time, it was the largest and most advanced mental institution west of the Mississippi.  

The Callahan County Hospital was built by the WPA in 1938-1939 in an Art Deco/Art Moderne style to serve the rural population of Callahan County, Texas. The hospital operated at least through the 1960s, as late as 1966. The building is currently used by the Texas Department of Human Services.

"Between 1935 and 1940, Massachusetts and the federal government, primarily using Works Project Administration funds, constructed 63 buildings (all but Buildings 102 and the old Williams Hospital have since been demolished) and two, 500-foot (150 m) wide turf runways at Otis Field. The project was the largest WPA project in state history, employing over 600 workmen. In 1938, Governor Charles F. Hurley dedicated Camp Edwards, named after the former commander of the 26th Infantry Division, Major General Clarence Edwards." (Wikipedia) WPA Bulletin: The Bourne WPA Notional Guard Camp Project is the largest undertaking of this kind in the country. It is twenty-three square...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built an extensive Recreation Center on the grounds of the Utah State Hospital for the mentally handicapped.  The recreation center is popularly known as the "Provo Castle" or Castle Amphitheater. It includes an 800-seat stone amphitheater with attached interior rooms and a grass-covered play area on a 3-acre site.  The original intention was to build a much larger recreational facility for the hospital, but that plan was never realized. The Provo Castle is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is still used for public events.

The no-longer-extant Central Islip State Hospital "was the largest psychiatric institution ever to exist in the United States." Two WPA projects at the hospital involved the following: 1. "Painting brick walls of various buildings of institution, $23,557." 2. "Removal of old wood floors and installation of tile floors at institution, $9,755.46."

According to Town Reports, works was performed at the CMS by the New Deal. 1933 The following is a list of the various projects which have been carried on during the past three months through the use of C.W.A. Funds. No.1 Rebuilding of 2,500 feet of road from State Highway to Central Maine Sanatorium; work includes rock base with gravel top, also culverts and guard rail fence. No. 13 Excavating under the cellars of three buildings at Central Maine Sanatorium. 1934 Report of Relief Work During the past year, through the use of C.W.A. And E.R.A. Funds, the following projects have been carried on: 9. Excavating under three...

Charity Hospital was constructed between 1936 and 1940 in central New Orleans, about a mile north of the downtown by today's Interstate 10.   Charity Hospital was one of two teaching hospitals which were part of the Medical Center of Louisiana at New Orleans. For decades it served one of the country's largest populations of uninsured citizens. At the time it was built, Charity Hospital was the second-largest hospital in the United States. The cornerstone lists the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works (later called the Public Works Administration) as the building funder. The architects were Weiss, Dreyfous & Seiferth, who were also...

A $15,000 improvement project was allotted for Natchez Charity hospital, the oldest charity hospital in Mississippi, for main building and nurses’ home. The hospital was constructed 1849-1852, 3.5 stories, and was destroyed by fire in 1984. It became the Natchez Charity Hospital in 1890s.

$4,600 project was allotted for Vicksburg Charities hospital for main building and nurses’ home renovations in 1934. The building that began as the city hospital in the 1840s because a state institution around 1871, operated from a former plantation mansion. It closed in 1989 following numerous renovations/alterations. It was demolished February 2019.

The neighborhood news source "Our Town" reports that in Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia's speech at the dedication of the Chelsea Health Center on July 14, 1937, he "...insisted that he shouldn’t be praised for building the center – it was President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal...that made it possible." In 1934 the Mayor announced plans to build eight district health centers. The Chelsea clinic was the third of these Depression-era clinics to be built. The Mayor filed the plans for the Chelsea clinic in 1935. The plans were for the construction of a "... a three-story clinic on 9th Avenue and 27th Street,...

The Works Progress Administration built a new cistern and carried out the repairs and extension of the water and sewer systems, at Christiansted Hospital. Today, the facilities, known as Old Hospital, are vacant and in an advanced state of disrepair.

The Public Works Administration reconstructed the Leper Asylum on St. Croix and added new buildings that included a laboratory. The colony was originally located two miles west of Christiansted, in the Richmond district, adjacent to a penitentiary and an "insane asylum." "On St. Croix a new leper colony will be set up with $25.000 of PWA funds," writes The News-Review from Roseburg, Oregon, on June 27, 1934. As noted in National Archives records, the work included the construction of three new cottages, dormitory buildings, completion of… cisterns, drains, additional water supply, construction of sidewalks, grading and landscaping at the Leper Colony...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed the former city hall in Lordsburg, New Mexico. Operations have since been relocated. The site of the historic New Deal city hall is presently unknown to Living New Deal. "Another city with a list of projects is Lordsburg: Lordsburg City Hall, Hidalgo County Fairgrounds, Animas High School and the Sunset Canal Dam. The Lordsburg-Hidalgo Public Library is one that also originally housed the Health Department and Justice of the Peace. People often stop at the Library to revisit the place where they were married. Windows in the children's section were replaced with stained glass commemorating...

Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) labor constructed a park at what was then known as the Boston City Hospital. WPA Bulletin: This new park in the rear of the Administration Building, Boston City Hospital, was laid out and planned by WPA engineers. Convalescent patients will benefit from these beautiful surroundings.

A WPA photo (pictured) shows a bathhouse and two swimming pools built by the WPA for what was then the Buffalo City Hospital. The hospital was renamed the Edward J. Meyer Memorial Hospital in 1939, and has since been expanded into the Erie County Medical Center. Google images show that the bath house building and pools (now empty) are still standing. Their current function is unknown.

Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) conducted the following work at the former City Infirmary in Haverhill, Massachusetts. WPA Bulletin: WPA is building a modern, brick silo at the City Infirmary, Brown Street, Haverhill, to replace an old silo in need of repair and in danger of collapse. Living New Deal believes the project is no longer extant.

"This project for the State Hospital for the Insane at Pueblo included the construction of 3 dormitories, a dining hall, and an addition to the nurses' home. The dormitories are 2 stories in height and will accommodate approximately 300 patients. The dining hall (shown in the upper illustration) is T-shaped in plan with over-all dimensions of 131 by 135 feet and contains separate dining halls for men and women. The nurses' home addition provides 38 bedrooms, lounges, administrative offices, and sitting rooms. All of these buildings are fireproof with concrete floor slabs, exterior walls of brick, and roofs either of...

The Columbia Hospital for Women was established at this site in 1870. According to Works Progress Administration (WPA) records in the National Archives, the WPA did extensive improvements at the site in 1938, "working on the grounds, erecting fences, pointing up the masonry wall, lining coping on wall, and other  incidental and appurtenant work." Although the archival records only indicate that the work was approved, this project was most likely completed as described, when the WPA was very active around the District of Columbia. The extensive brick facility is now a condominium residence called "The Columbia Residences." 

In 1940, Coryell County voters passed an issue for $30,000 in bonds bearing interest at the rate of not more than three percent to build a county hospital. Those bonds were issued on July 8, 1940. Designed by architects Brooks Pierson of Waco and L. S. Secrest of Gatesville, a 34-bed hospital built primarily with Works Progress Administration (WPA) labor was constructed and equipped between 1942 and 1943 at a cost of around $60,000. The county renovated the building in 2013 for a mental health unit, and currently the building is the Gatesville Center for Central County Services, which provides treatment for...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built an addition to the County Hospital, also known as the Southside District Hospital in Mesa. The hospital was built in 1923 as a 12-bed facility with emergency and surgical services. The hospital expanded to 37 beds after the Works Progress Administration (WPA) built an addition. This was the only hospital facility in Mesa at that time. The building was designed in the Mission Revival style, with typical architectural elements such as arched openings and clay tile roof. Pictured are hospital facilities such as an x-ray room, an operating room, and the nursery. The exact location...

The WPA made numerous improvements to the rapidly growing Creedmoor Psychiatric Hospital in Jamaica, New York during the 1930s. Projects included: the installation of "underground piping for heating"; "excavation and construction of steam tunnels"; the "planting of trees and shrubs"; grading the hospital's grounds; fencing the grounds; constructing "additions to shop building" as well as to garages and to the "South wing"; and more. WPA Official Project No. 65-97-501.