• Andrew Jackson Courts - Nashville TN
    The Andrew Jackson Courts public housing complex was undertaken in Nashville, Tennessee  following the passage of the Housing Act of 1937 and establishment of the United States Housing Authority (USHA). The USHA worked in conjunction with the Public Works Administration (PWA) in providing funds for local housing development projects, two of which were the segregated communities of Cheatham Place and Andrew Jackson Courts. The rowhouse appearance, clustered two-story houses were constructed for African American residents. The 398 unit buildings cost $1,890,000. They remain in use today.
  • Bailey Junior High School Additions - Nashville TN
    The Public Works Administration (PWA) funded additions to three existing schools in Nashville 1938-1940. Supervising architects for the projects were Hart, Freeland, and Roberts of Nashville, although the design architects for projects varied. The Nashville firm of Dougherty, Clemmons and Seale designed the elementary wing and gymnasium addition to Bailey. Original cost was planned at $72,000, but at completion was $82,000. A two-story elementary wing accommodating 300 children, and a basement were added to the southeast corner of the building. A gymnasium at the rear of the original building (partially destroyed by the 1933 tornado) was also constructed next to...
  • Ben West Municipal Building (former City Market) - Nashville TN
    The old Nashville City Market was constructed in 1936-1937 with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA).  The chief contractor for the project was Foster & Creighton Construction Company. Project cost was "almost a half a million dollars" (Van West, 2000, p. 81). The building's design by Henry Hibbs is "Adamesque Revival Style" with a classical temple entrance and a dome just behind.  The walls are brick over reinforced concrete. The window frames and sashes are steel and the roof is copper.  The original interior had five-foot wainscoting of glazed tile and terrazzo flooring.  It included stalls, restaurants, and rest rooms.  The market's construction...
  • Cameron High School - Nashville TN
    The Public Works Administration (PWA) provide funding for the construction of Cameron Middle School in South Nashville, an historically African American school in what was then a fully segregated city.  It was one of many PWA grants for Black schools and colleges around the country, including Pearl High School and Tennessee A & I College in Nashville.  Cameron later became a high school. "Located at 1034 First Avenue South, the school was constructed with PWA funding support in 1939-40 and is important for its local significance in African-American social history. Cameron played a central community role for South Nashville’s African-American population....
  • Centennial Park Art Center - Nashville TN
    One-story, brick, H-shaped building with tile roof. This building was originally constructed by the Works Progress Administration as the swimming pool and bathhouse for Nashville's Centennial Park. The swimming pool and bathhouse were closed during the Civil Rights movement as many Southern communities simply closed pools rather than de-segregating them. In 1972, the bathhouse was converted to the Centennial Art Center, and the pool converted to a sunken sculpture garden.
  • Centennial Park Bandstand (demolished) - Nashville TN
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed a bandshell ca. 1939 at Centennial Park in Nashville, Tennessee, "to the right of the present structure." That structure, which Living New Deal believes served between 1937 and 1963, has since been demolished and replaced.
  • Cheatham Place - Nashville TN
    The Cheatham Place public housing complex was undertaken in Nashville, Tennessee  following the passage of the Housing Act of 1937 and establishment of the United States Housing Authority (USHA). The USHA worked in conjunction with the Public Works Administration (PWA) in providing funds for local housing development projects, two of which were the segregated communities of Cheatham Place and Andrew Jackson Court. The Cheatham Place project was a Colonial Revival Style Community Building centered the 352 apartments of 2, 3, and 4 room units, located on 21 acres. The complex was constructed for white families, at a total cost of $2,000,000....
  • Cockrill School - Nashville TN
    With federal funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) the Cockrill School was constructed in 1939 and opened in late January 1940. Cockrill School replaced an older school, and provided space for 700 students in 17 classrooms. Cockrill School was part of a citywide PWA school building project that included Lockeland and Caldwell Schools for white students and Carter-Lawrence and Pearl Schools for African Americans. According to an article in the Nashville Tennessean (1940), the schools were "equipped with a sound system and radio, modern, new furniture, a projector for visual instruction, a library and teacher workroom, health clinic, modern cafeteria and...
  • Davidson County Courthouse Mural - Nashville TN
    The four-panel mural "Industry, Agriculture, Statesmanship, Commerce" was commissioned by the New Deal Federal Art Project. The mural, installed in the entry lobby of the historic Davidson County Courthouse, is still visible today.  
  • Davidson County Public Building and Courthouse - Nashville TN
    The Davidson County Public Building and Courthouse on the Public Square in Nashville was constructed in 1936 to 1938 with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA).  This enormous, 8-story building covers an entire city block and was built to house county and municipal offices, plus several courtrooms.  The county jail was originally on the 7th floor.  Short & Stanley-Brown (1939) put the cost of the project at $2,167,000 but no not give the share provided by the PWA.  Paine (1984) says the project cost $1,595,000 and that the city raised $400,000 for it in a public bond issue.  We have...
  • Eakin Elementary School - Nashville TN
    The school was constructed 1935-1936 with Public Works Administration (PWA) funds.  It is similar in design to the one at Union City, TN, also designed by Tisdale and Pinson and funded by the PWA.  According to Carroll Van West (2001), “Eakin was one of Nashville’s early New Deal projects.”  The PWA Modern design features a “square Doric classical colonnade and courtyard creating an impressive entrance” (p. 101).  designed and built by the Nashville firm of Tisdale and Pinson."   (https://www.nashville.gov) The Cavert Junior High School, which is directly adjacent to the Eakin School, was built ten years earlier in 1926. Both are listed as...
  • Elizabeth Park Senior Citizen Center - Nashville TN
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed a recreation building at Elizabeth Park in Nashville, Tennessee. The building now serves as a senior citizen center.
  • Fort Negley Reconstruction - Nashville TN
    The New Deal did a great deal of work restoring and improving historic battlefields around the country in the 1930s.  As part of this effort, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) restored Fort Negley in 1937-38.  This was an important Confederate fortification during the Civil War. Using the original plans, 800 relief workers of the WPA reconstructed the limestone fort at a cost of $84,000. Fort Nagley reopened to the public in 1938. It is still an historical attraction in Nashville and has a new visitor's center and informative historical markers.
  • Frist Art Museum (former Main Post Office) - Nashville TN
    Nashville's former main post office was built in 1933-34 by the Treasury Department's Office of Construction (later the Office of Procurement).  The enormous structure, filling a city block, was constructed in a record 18 months. The design by architects Marr and Holman is a distinctive "stripped" classicism exterior design (often simply called Classical Moderne). The exterior is white Georgia marble with gray-pink Minnesota granite. The interior is done in the Art Deco Style with cast aluminum doors and grillwork, colored marble and stone on floors and walls. Interior marble included Fantasia Rose and Monte Neva from East Tennessee, Westfield marble from...
  • John Sevier State Office Building - Nashville TN
    Nashville’s Tennessee State Office Building was built circa 1939-40 as part of the New Deal Public Works Administration program. It is an example of the Federal government’s efforts to provide employment during the Depression. The Streamlined Classical design of Nashville architect Emmons Woolwine is seen in the monumental scale of the pilasters and cornice and the simplified classical details of the building. Bronze screens and bas-relief sculptures by Rene Chambellan enhance the design on the exterior. Inside, the building has two large murals depicting "The Discovery of Tennessee" and "The Development of Tennessee," painted by well-respected artist Dean Cornwell. It...
  • John Sevier State Office Building Mural - Nashville TN
    This mural "The Discovery of Tennessee," painted by Dean Cornwell, was completed with New Deal funds in 1941.
  • Lockeland Elementary School - Nashville TN
    C. K. Colley and Sons designed the "graceful yet understated Tudor Revival" (Van West, 2001, p. 102) school on the site of the former Lockeland mansion with the assistance of the Public Works Administration (PWA) during the Great Depression. The school grounds were expanded during the 1940s and 1961, and the school remains in use as a "Design Center" specializing in literature and Spanish language instruction.
  • Marrowbone Lake - Nashville TN
    Marrowbone Lake, located in the northwest reaches of Nashville, was created by Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) workers.
  • Martin Luther King, Jr. Magnet School (former Pearl High School) - Nashville TN
    Presently known as Martin Luther King, Jr. Magnet High School, Nashville's historic Pearl High School was built in 1936-37 with federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. Pearl High School was built expressly to serve Nashville's African American community (which was wholly segregated at the time).  It was described at the time as the finest school for Blacks in the South, according to the University of South Carolina Museum of Education. Designed by the nation's first African American architecture firm of McKissack & McKissack, the school features a "stripped classicism highlighted by creative, abstract grillwork in an Art Deco manner above the central entrance"...
  • Municipal Public Works Garage Industrial District (former) - Nashville TN
    The former Municipal Public Works Garage Industrial District is comprised of six single-story, brick buildings built c. 1940. The garages are on the west bank of the Cumberland River, in Nashville. Buildings 1 through 4 run lengthwise northwest to southeast while Buildings 5 and 6 run northeast to southwest.  This New Deal project was funded by the Public Works Administration (PWA), which was absorbed into the Federal Works Administration (FWA) in 1939. The Works Progress (or Projects) Administration (WPA) provided labor for the project. The Municipal Public Works Garage Industrial District was constructed to house various municipal public works departments, such as...
  • Nashville International Airport - Nashville TN
    Nashville International Airport was first constructed 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." FlyNashville: "Nashville’s first airport opened in June 1937, culminating a two-year process that began with the selection of a 340-acre site located along the Dixie Highway (now Murfreesboro Road) and built as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project. Named in honor of Colonel Harry S. Berry, state administrator of the WPA, Berry Field consisted of a terminal building,...
  • Nashville National Cemetery Improvements - Nashville TN
    The Civil Works Administration (CWA) conducted an improvement project at Nashville National Cemetery, providing work for about 35 laborers.
  • Natchez Trace Parkway - Nashville TN
    "The Natchez Trace Parkway is a National Park Service unit in the southeastern United States that commemorates the historic Old Natchez Traceand preserves sections of the original trail. The Natchez Trace Parkway logo can be seen on signs and trail markings along the parkway. Its central feature is a two-lane parkway road that extends 444 miles (715 km) from Natchez, Mississippi to Nashville, Tennessee. Access to the parkway is limited, with more than 50 access points in the states of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee... Construction was begun by the federal government in the 1930s. The development of the modern roadway was one of the...
  • Old Hickory Station Post Office - Nashville TN
    This New Deal post office is a one-story brick Colonial Revival building, rectangular in shape, on raised basement. Limestone pilasters with Doric capitals surround windows and door in center of facade. Interior of the building is largely intact, including original brass post office boxes.
  • Percy Warner Park: Entrance Steps - Nashville TN
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed the entrance steps at the northeast entrance to Percy Warner Park in Nashville, Tennessee, at Belle Meade Blvd. "Sumner Trails Chapter of Tennessee Trails will lead a 3.5 mile loop hike on the Warner Woods Trail in Percy Warner Park in Nashville, rated moderate. This hike features the Luke Lea heights overlook and the recently restored iconic steps (originally built by the WPA back in the 1930's) of the beautiful original park entrance."
  • Percy Warner Park: Iroquois Steeplechase - Nashville TN
    "Now a standard Nashville tradition, Iroquois Steeplechase traces roots back to 1936, when Marcellus Frost suggested a racecourse to take over a piece of Warner Parks. Mason Houghland, master of the Hillsboro Hounds, along with foxhunter Con. Thompson Ball, and President Franklin Roosevelt confidant Harry Hopkins created the course in response, as a parks improvement project of the Works Progress Administration. The race has continued each year since, except in 1945 due to World War II."   (https://www.tennessean.com)
  • Tennessee State Capitol: Kinney Sculpture - Nashville TN
    This cast-metal portrait bust of Admiral Albert Gleaves by Belle Kinney was funded by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. It was originally installed in the old Nashville U.S. Courthouse & Post Office building, but now resides at the Tennessee State Capitol.
  • Tennessee State Capitol: Zorthian Mural - Nashville TN
    The mural entitled "Scenes from Tennessee History," made up of 11 panels, was painted by Jihayr Zorthian.  It can be found in the Governor's Reception Hall in the Tennessee State Capitol.  The Federal Art Project (FAP) commissioned the work.
  • Tennessee State University Improvements - Nashville TN
    Tennessee State University was established in 1909 as Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial State College, a land-grant college.  It is the only state-funded historically Black college or university in Tennessee. The New Deal helped a great deal to  build up the Tennessee A & I College campus in the 1930s. Early in 1935, the college announced the opening of six new buildings on campus: Practice Hall, Administration and Health, Men’s Hall (East), Hale Hall, Wilson Hall, and Science Hall (Harned). These were almost certainly funded by the New Deal's Public Works Administration (PWA).  It is hard to imagine the college having the...
  • Tennessee Supreme Court - Nashville TN
    The Public Works Administration (PWA) paid for construction of Tennessee's Supreme Court building in 1937-38.  The state's highest court had not previously had its own building, having been housed in the state capitol.  The structure also contains the....  Short and Stanley-Brown recorded in their 1939 report on PWA projects that: "Before the erection of this building the supreme court was housed in the State capitol and its offices were located in rented quarters in various parts of the city. The new structure houses the Tennessee Supreme Court, the Tennessee Court of Appeals, the legal department of the State government, the attorney general...
  • The Hermitage Restoration - Nashville TN
    The Hermitage was a plantation operated by enslaved African Americans and owned by president Andrew Jackson from 1804 until 1845. The site is now a historical site and museum. "In the 1930s, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) donated $70,000 towards repairs and restoration work at The Hermitage. This included the construction of new support buildings, such as a ticket office, a greenhouse, a home for the caretakers and a large pond to fight fires."   (https://thehermitage.com/preservation/)
  • Walter Stokes School (closed) - Nashville TN
    The Walter Stokes School in Nashville, Tennessee was undertaken with the assistance of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) during the Great Depression. The Colonial Revival building was constructed with ten classrooms and a cafeteria. It temporarily housed Julia Green Elementary School and continues to operate as Walter Stokes Middle School following rejected plans to sell the property in 2010. As of 2014: The school has been sold to the nearby Lipscomb University, a private Christian institution. For now, the building stands vacant and the grounds serve as a parking area for the college. It would not be surprising were the college...
  • Watkins Park Improvements - Nashville TN
    The Works progress Administration made improvements to Watkins Park in Nashville TN. It is located Across 17th Ave N from the Public Works Administration-funded former Pearl High School.
  • West End High School - Nashville TN
    West End Middle School in Nashville, Tennessee was originally erected as a High School with the assistance of funds provided by the Public Works Administration (PWA). West End was constructed in Colonial Revival style, with 35 classrooms, 8 of which were science labs. The "horizontal, three-story central block" and "soaring 122-foot high cupola" was described as a west Nashville landmark (Van West, 2001, p. 103). The building also contained a library, cafeteria, gymnasium, and auditorium with 63x28 foot stage. It was converted to use as a middle school in recent years.