• Booker T. Washington State Park - Chattanooga TN
    Constructed with funds and labor from the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Booker T. Washington State Park was established in 1938 as a segregated recreational facility for African Americans, the second such facility in the state of Tennessee (the other being T. O. Fuller State Park near Memphis). The park is situated on Lake Chickamauga, which was created with the construction of the Chickamauga Dam by the Tennessee Valley Authority. The nearby Harrison Bay State Park was built at the same time for white Tennesseans. Tennessee parks were formally desegregated in 1964 with the passage of...
  • Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport - Chattanooga TN
    Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport was developed in part by the Works Progress Administration, a New Deal program. Tennessee Encyclopedia: "Some of Tennessee's largest WPA projects reflected the arrival of the age of flight. WPA workers ... built major airports in Memphis, Chattanooga, Knoxville, Nashville, and at the Tri-Cities."
  • Chickamauga Dam - Chattanooga TN
    Chickamauga Dam is located on the Tennessee River in south-central Tennessee just east of downtown Chattanooga. Construction began in 1936 as a part of Tennessee Valley Authority’s area improvements and was completed in 1940. Before the dam’s construction, the city of Chattanooga often experienced major flooding. The dam provides hydroelectric power to the area and creates Chickamauga Lake, which is used for recreation and a wildlife reserve. Two segregated recreation areas- Booker T. Washington State Park and Harrison Bay State Park- were also created with the construction of the dam and lake. "When the Tennessee Valley Authority was formed in the...
  • Clarence T. Jones Observatory - Chattanooga TN
    The Clarence T. Jones Observatory was designed by its namesake, who was both and architect and amateur astronomer. Jones presented city officials with plans for an observatory and a telescope, which would be constructed almost exclusively through volunteer labor. Built on donated land, construction was mostly funded by $17,000, divided about equally between a United States Public Works Administration (PWA) grant and the City of Chattanooga. The building was completed in 1936 while the telescope was still being assembled. The observatory was officially dedicated in 1938. The 20.5-inch telescope was the largest amateur-built telescope in the world when it was...
  • College Hill Courts - Chattanooga TN
    The College Hill Courts public housing complex was undertaken during the Great Depression in Chattanooga, Tennessee with the assistance of funds provided by the United States Housing Authority (USHA). College Hill Courts (black only), 497 units on 20 acres, was constructed in the "restrained Colonial Revival style" (Van West, p. 138) at the same time as nearby East Lake Courts (white only). Combined cost for both projects was $3.8 million. College Hill Courts remained in use until at least September 2014 when the housing authority announced plans to demolish or close the project.
  • East Lake Courts - Chattanooga TN
    The East Lake Courts public housing complex was undertaken during the Great Depression in Chattanooga, Tennessee with the assistance of funds provided by the United States Housing Authority (USHA). East Lake Courts was constructed in a "restrained Colonial Revival Style" (Van West, p. 138) containing 437 units on 35 acres. The total cost for East Lake (White only) and nearby College Hill Courts (Black only) was $3.8 million. The facility was renovated during the 1990s and remained in use as of September 2014, when plans to demolish or sell were announced.
  • Joel W. Solomon Post Office and Courthouse Mural - Chattanooga TN
    "A mural called "Allegory in Chattanooga" curves behind the judge's bench. Installed in 1937, it was painted by Hilton Leech under the auspices of the Treasury Department's Section of Painting and Sculpture. The mural illustrates the history of the city through the New Deal era and includes a transmission tower symbolizing the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), headquartered in Chattanooga from its inception in 1935."   (https://www.gsa.gov)
  • Joel W. Solomon Post Office and Courthouse Sculpture - Chattanooga TN
    In addition to a New Deal mural by Hilton Leech, the building contains a cast-aluminum sculpture "The Mail Carrier" by Leopold Scholz. It was installed in 1938 under the auspices of the Treasury Section of Fine Arts.
  • Street Paving and Improvements - Chattanooga TN
    Multiple street paving and improvement projects in Chattanooga, Tennessee were undertaken with the aid of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. In one paving project, the PWA supplied a $25,261 grant toward the $58,846 eventual total cost of the project. Work occurred between March and June 1936. The PWA supplied a $98,994 grant for similar work undertaken soon after. (PWA Docket No. TN 1159, 1160)