El Monte Sites

In 1937, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed a community center and adjoining public library (today's Historical Museum) in El Monte, CA. The adobe-style structures were built of reinforced concrete and stucco. The community center originally housed city offices, meeting rooms for clubs and organizations, a pair of auditoriums with capacities of 250 and 600, as well as a large kitchen and several kitchenettes. Today, the community center houses administrative offices and meeting rooms available for public use. According to his daughter, JoAnn Ells Ebele, El Monte's Depression-era City Engineer Joseph C. Ells traveled to Washington, D.C., to secure the approval of...

In 1937, artist R. W. Taylor painted eleven panels depicting "Scenes of Indian Life" for the El Monte Public Library (today's El Monte Historical Museum). He received funding from the WPA Federal Art Project (FAP). Six of the paintings survive in the Historical Museum's Pioneer and Frontier Rooms.    

In 1937, Bessie Heller designed a pair of tile mosaics for wall fountains at Mountain View High School in El Monte, CA. Heller received funding from the Federal Art Project (FAP). Heller worked in the art department at MGM Studios. Her other FAP works in the region include a mural, "The Map Makers of the World" (1939), at Virgil Middle School in Los Angeles, CA.

In 1935, the Department of the Interior's newly created Department of Subsistence Homesteads (DSH) established a community of 100 "small farms" and "rurban homes" in El Monte, CA. Ross H. Gast, an editor at the Los Angeles Times' Farm and Garden Magazine and an official with the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, oversaw the project. " Weston's designs proved economical, pragmatic, and aesthetically pleasing. The Los Angeles Times celebrated the El Monte architect's dedication to form and function, noting that he had figured out how to 'shorten a room a few inches and save enough to get a better kitchen sink,...

In 1937, Frank H. Bowers and Arthur W. Prunier painted a 2,000 square foot mural at the former Ruth Home in El Monte, CA. They received funding from the Federal Art Project (FAP). The Pacific Protective Society's Ruth Home provided housing, treatment, and schooling to girls and babies infected with gonorrhea. Bowers' and Prunier's mural, which depicts a beauty salon, was located in a school and arts & crafts building on the fifteen-acre campus. It is presumed lost. Bowers and Prunier also collaborated on a pair of FAP murals at City Hall in South Gate, CA.

Between 1934 and 1935, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed a school and arts & crafts building at the former Ruth Home in El Monte, CA. According to a New Deal official's scrapbook, "the work consisted of the construction of a frame and stucco school building, all of which is complete except for the installation of plumbing and lighting fixtures, tile roof, miscellaneous painting and other interior finishing. While there was still some $1600.00 for labor remaining unexpended, the Applicant ran out of money for materials. The project was officially closed April 19th, 1935, because of the inability on the...

The Public Works Administration (PWA) constructed a sewage disposal plant in El Monte, CA. In 1935, the Department of the Interior’s newly created Department of Subsistence Homesteads (DSH) established a community of 100 “small farms” and “rurban homes” in El Monte. "As a result, so much interest was aroused in the development of subsistence farms that approximately 2,000 acres of farmland was subdivided and settled by residents of the metropolitan area of Los Angeles, who built their homes along the banks of the Rio Hondo River which was badly polluted by the existing El Monte sewage system. To overcome this condition,...

In 1935, the Public Works Administration (PWA) conducted tree surgery at the Department of Subsistence Homesteads' "rurban homes" in El Monte, CA. Four photographs depict tree surgeons at work, including with "a rather extreme effort to reclaim a tree by gouging out a large cavity, swabbing out with creosote and refilling with concrete held in with wire mesh."