• Adams Field Hangar - Little Rock AR
    Adams Field, also since known as Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport, was first constructed during the early 20th century. The federal Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) assisted with the airport's development. The W.P.A.'s Division of Operations wrote: This project is unusually interesting because of its history. The hangar was originally constructed by TWA in Waynoka, Okla. This stopping point was done away with by TWA. The City of Little Rock negotiated for its purchase, dismantled it and shipped the material to Little Rock where the Works Progress Administration constructed it. Prior to this the airport had no hangar and sometimes, during...
  • Arch Street Overpass (former) - Little Rock AR
    The 1,121-foot Arch Street Overpass was constructed in 1940. Careful analysis of the bridge plate (plaque) as per historic Google Street View imagery suggests that this project was funded by the Public Roads Administration of the Federal Works Agency; the superstructure appears to have been replaced as of 2018.
  • Arkansas Arts Center - Little Rock AR
    "In 1937, the Museum of Fine Arts opened in MacArthur Park. Franklin Delano Roosevelt approved $25,000 from the WPA for construction of the 10,140 square foot building. FDR wrote a letter of congratulations to the citizens of Little Rock to be read at the opening." The original Museum of Fine Arts Museum entrance is now an interior wall of the expanded and since-renamed Arkansas Arts Center. "Located in historic MacArthur Park; contains an international collection of art and special exhibitions; live theatre performances for family audiences; lectures, films, poetry slams and family festivals; Museum Shop features works by notable artisans; lunch at Best Impressions...
  • Arkansas School for the Blind - Little Rock AR
    This large school was built by the WPA in 1939 and is still in us. "Arkansas's WPA program began in July 1935 under state administrator William R. Dyess and provided money for numerous social services and infrastructure improvement projects.  Social programs in the state included the School Lunch Program, the Commodity Distribution Program, and the Adult Education Program.  While these programs fed, clothed, and educated many Arkansans, the WPA is perhaps better remembered for the roads, bridges, and buildings it constructed.  Pulaski County used the $13.4 million it received from the federal government--more than any other Arkansas county--for projects like the...
  • Arkansas Territorial Restoration - Little Rock AR
    The federal Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) furnished the labor for the restoration of the last territorial capitol grounds of Arkansas, during the latter years of the Great Depression. The site now houses the Historic Arkansas Museum. The institution states on its website: " Loughborough began a one-woman campaign to save the block, lobbying the Arkansas Legislature for funding to restore the buildings and have them preserved as the Arkansas Territorial Restoration. The museum formally opened in July 1941." In 1940 the WPA wrote: "This project, located in the downtown business district, has restored the grounds and buildings of the last territorial capitol...
  • Boyle Park - Little Rock AR
    The park remained largely unimproved until the mid-1930s, when the Civilian Conservation Corps boys arrived (though there seems to be some uncertainty about exactly when the actual construction work began, two different contemporaneous sources reveal that as of the spring of 1935 work had not yet begun, but that by the spring of 1937 work was complete and the unit involved in finishing the work within the park—the 3777th company, originally from West Fork, where they were supposed to be involved in the ongoing construction at Devil's Den State Park—were wondering where they would be shipped next) . The CCC...
  • Knoop Park - Little Rock AR
    From the Arkansas Times: “Originally developed in the 1930s as a Works Progress Administration project, Knoop Park offers visitors hiking trails and picnic tables. The park is known for its striking vistas.”
  • Lamar Porter Field - Little Rock AR
    Lamar Porter Field, a ballpark, was built by the WPA in 1937 and has been hosting amateur baseball ever since. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
  • Little Rock Zoo - Little Rock AR
    The Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) had a great impact on War Memorial Park, including constructing "the original zoo buildings" at Little Rock Zoo.
  • MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History - Little Rock AR
    Constructed in 1840, the Tower Building, "the only surviving remnant of the Little Rock Arsenal," was traded by the federal government to the City of Little Rock for 1,000 acres and the "condition that the grounds be 'forever exclusively devoted to the uses and purposes of a public park.'" The building remained vacant until the late 1930s when workers, sponsored by a grant from the Works Progress Administration (WPA) renovated the structure, leading to its opening in 1942 as the Museum of Natural History and Antiquities. (www.littlerock.org.) Workers. Workers installed new plumbing, lighting, and other improvements. (National Archives.)
  • War Memorial Golf Course Clubhouse - Little Rock AR
    The Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) had a great impact on War Memorial Park, including constructing the "golf clubhouse".
  • War Memorial Park - Little Rock AR
    The Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) had a great impact on War Memorial Park. "During the 1930s the original zoo buildings, the golf clubhouse, the bathhouse and the swimming pool were constructed by WPA workers." The W.P.A. likely undertook other construction projects at the project as well, such as stone walls and the 1940 bridge carrying "Club House Drive" over Coleman Creek.
  • Water Treatment Plant - Little Rock AR
    "This project consisted of the construction of an impounding reservoir on the Saline River, 40 miles from Little Rock, a 40-mile transmission line, and the filter plant illustrated on this page. The plant, constructed at an approximate cost of $225,000, has a capacity of 15,000,000 gallons per day. The filter building is a fireproof structure faced with brick laid in a diamond pattern and trimmed with stone. The entire project was completed in February 1938 at a construction cost of $3,120,760 and a project cost of $3,477,788."
  • William H. Bowen School of Law, University of Arkansas - Little Rock AR
    The federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funded the construction of what was then the University of Arkansas-Little Rock's medical school; construction occurred from 1933 to 1935. The building now houses the William H. Bowen School of Law.