• Barrier Canyon Mural, Natural History Museum of Utah - Salt Lake City UT
    The largest portion of Lynn Fausett's WPA-funded Barrier Canyon mural hangs at the back of the entry hall of the University of Utah Museum of Natural History at the eastern flank of the University of Utah campus (a smaller portion hangs in the Natural History Museum in Price, Utah). The canvas mural measures 12 x 60 feet and depicts ancient native pictographs/petroglyphs that Fausett had observed at the Great Gallery in Canyonlands National Monument (now a National Park), in what is known as the "Barrier Canyon Rock Art" style.   The mural was originally painted to be hung at the Museum of Modern...
  • Capitol Murals (State Capitol Rotunda) - Salt Lake City UT
    In early 1934,  the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) sponsored ten local artists to decorate the Utah State Capitol, led by Lee Greene Richards. The others included Ranch Kimball, Henri Moser, Gordon Cope, Florence Ware, J.T. Harwood, Walter Midgley and Millard Mallin. Two large half-circle murals grace the ends of the huge central hall of the capitol building. The cupola of the rotunda has a circular mural, about six feet high, and there are four large murals at each corner atop the pillars.  They all depict romanticized scenes from Utah's past: trappers, native people, pioneers, covered wagons, the transcontinental railroad, and so forth. Millard...
  • City and County Building Repairs - Salt Lake City UT
    It is likely that the PWA conducted repairs on the 1894 City and County Building in Salt Lake following an earthquake in 1934, considering that the building appears in the PWA archives. More information is needed to confirm. From the National Register of Historic Places: "There are four entrances, the west side being the main one. In design it corresponds to the east entrance, as the south and north approaches correspond to each other in a simpler design. Above each of them there used to be a statue; the east and west were crowned by a statue of Commerce, on the...
  • Dog Pound (demolished) - Salt Lake City UT
    This fireproof structure replaced makeshift quarters previously occupied and that had been subjected to much criticism. Here the impounded animals could be kept in comfort until humanly destroyed or claimed (from Jessen). The local Civil Works Administration contributed $2206.10 against a total project estimate of $4627.30. The building has since been demolished.
  • Fairmont Park - Salt Lake City UT
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) helped create the old Forest Dale city park in the Sugarhouse section of southern Salt Lake City UT in 1935-37. The name was later changed to Fairmont Park (the adjoining Forest Dale golf course kept the old name). The park has been renovated and altered in recent years, especially the addition of a pond create on the little creek that runs through it (a branch of Parlays Creek), new pickleball courts, a skate park and a modern aquatic center.  But elements of the WPA-built park remain, including, no doubt, many of the old trees. At the northeast...
  • Forest Dale Golf Course Clubhouse - Salt Lake City UT
    Salt Lake City acquired the Forest Dale golf course, formerly the Salt Lake City Country Club, in 1935. The inclusion of the above photograph in the National Archives WPA records suggests that the WPA conducted work on the clubhouse depicted in the photo, but more information is needed.
  • Fort Douglas - Salt Lake City UT
    Fort Douglas was expanded during the New Deal, including several buildings and improvements to the water and street systems.  The CCC took over a warehouse (building 101) and added stables and quarters along both sides.  The PWA funded the construction of large new barracks (building 100). The WPA added several homes for senior officers (buildings 621-625 on the central parade grounds, along De Trobriand Street) and non-commissioned officers (buildings 658, 600, 664, 665, 666 on Connor Road), along with entrance columns.  The WPA also built a recreation building and swimming pool (no longer extant), bath house and a gas station (modified from...
  • Fort Douglas: Barracks - Salt Lake City UT
    Fort Douglas was expanded during the New Deal, including several buildings and improvements to the water and street systems.   The PWA funded the construction of large new barracks (building 100).   The CCC also took over a warehouse (building 101) and added stables and quarters along both sides. The WPA added several homes for senior officers (buildings 621-625 on the central parade grounds, along De Trobriand Street) and non-commissioned officers (buildings 658, 600, 664, 665, 666 on Connor Road), along with entrance columns, and other improvements. More photos of WPA work during the 1930s are in the archives of the library at the University of...
  • Fort Douglas: Bath House & other improvements - Salt Lake City UT
    Fort Douglas was expanded during the New Deal by the PWA, CCC and WPA.  The WPA added several homes for senior officers (buildings 621-625 on the central parade grounds, along De Trobriand Street) and non-commissioned officers (buildings 658, 600, 664, 665, 666 on Connor Road), along with entrance columns.  These are all still in use. There are several other WPA works at Fort Douglas that are harder to document or have disappeared:  a recreation hall (gone), bath house (still standing), swimming pool (filled in?), gas station (modified from an earlier stone building that still stands), and improvements to the water and street systems (invisible). The only...
  • Fort Douglas: CCC Warehouse & Stables - Salt Lake City UT
    Fort Douglas was expanded during the New Deal, including several buildings and improvements to the water and street systems.  The CCC took over a warehouse (building 101) and added stables and quarters along both sides.   In addition, the PWA funded the construction of large new barracks (building 100) and the WPA added several homes for senior officers (buildings 621-625 on the central parade grounds, along De Trobriand Street) and non-commissioned officers (buildings 658, 600, 664, 665, 666 on Connor Road), along with other improvements. More photos taken by the WPA during the 1930s are in the archives of the library at the University of...
  • Fort Douglas: NCO Quarters - Salt Lake City UT
    Fort Douglas was expanded during the New Deal by the PWA, CCC and WPA.   The WPA added several houses for non-commissioned officers (buildings 658, 600, 664, 665, 666 on Connor Road), as well as for senior officers.  These are all still in use. There are several other WPA works at Fort Douglas that are harder to document or have disappeared.  The only site marked as New Deal on the base is the bathhouse.   More photos taken by the WPA during the 1930s are in the archives of the library at the University of Utah, but have not yet been examined.  
  • Fort Douglas: Officer Quarters - Salt Lake City UT
    Fort Douglas was expanded during the New Deal by the PWA, CCC and WPA.  The WPA added several houses for senior officers (buildings 621-625 on the central parade grounds, along De Trobriand Street) and non-commissioned officers (buildings 658, 600, 664, 665, 666 on Connor Road), along with entrance columns.  These are all still in use. There are several other WPA works at Fort Douglas that are harder to document or have disappeared.  The only site marked as New Deal on the base is the bathhouse.   More photos taken by the WPA during the 1930s are in the archives of the library at the University of...
  • Fort Douglas: Recreation Hall & Pool - Salt Lake City UT
    Fort Douglas was expanded during the New Deal by the PWA, CCC and WPA.  The WPA added several homes for senior officers (buildings 621-625 on the central parade grounds, along De Trobriand Street) and non-commissioned officers (buildings 658, 600, 664, 665, 666 on Connor Road), along with entrance columns.  These are all still in use. There are several other WPA works at Fort Douglas that are harder to document or have disappeared:  a recreation building (pictured), swimming pool (filled in?), a gas station (modified from an earlier stone building that still stands), and improvements to the water and street systems (invisible). The only site marked...
  • Memory Grove Park - Salt Lake City UT
    The WPA conducted extensive work on Memory Grove Park, or Memory Park, including landscaping, building rock walls, cutting paths, and so on.
  • Miller Park - Salt Lake City UT
    The WPA (and possibly CCC) conducted extensive work to create Miller Park from 1935 to 1936. From the Intermountain Antiquities Computer System (IMACS) report: Site 42SL000711 is Miller Park, a historic public park, with seven built features, in Salt Lake City, Utah. The features consist of a stone double staircase (F-01 ), a stone platform wall and culvert (F-02), a stone bridge (F-03), two stone benches and stairs (F-04, a stone bench and raised platform F-05), a metal bridge (F-06), and stone retaining walls (F-07). Two maintained walking trails run along the east and west sides of the park. The park...
  • Salt Lake City Cemetery - Salt Lake City UT
    The Works Progress Administration built the wall around the Salt Lake City Cemetery. Construction in the area was authorized in 1938 and the project was completed in 1941. Two plaques at the cemetery entrance mark the work of the WPA.  
  • Salt Lake City International Airport - Salt Lake City UT
    WPA crews contributed to expanding Salt Lake City Municipal Airport, now Salt Lake City International. From the Salt Lake City International Airport history site: "At a cost of $52,000, Salt Lake City built an airport administration building that housed a passenger waiting room, mail room, airport manager's office, lunch room, weather observatory, radio control room and leased office space to airlines. A third runway was also added." It is unclear if the administration building survives today, but judging from the Salt Lake Tribune's 2015 photo retrospective, it appears to have been replaced with today's modern structure.
  • Salt Lake County Street Signs - Salt Lake County UT
    Richard R. Lyman was a civil engineer and the vice-chairman of the Utah State Road Commission from 1908-1919. During the 1930s he was a member of an American Society of Civil Engineers commission that developed a grid system for street numbering to make it possible for any traveler to find an address in any city without the help of a map. In June 1936, Salt Lake County adopted the "Lyman System" of designating street names. Instead of the then-current system of designating a street with a name such as "Thirty-third South," the new signs bore the inscription "3300 S". The work...
  • Sugarhouse Station Post Office (former) - Salt Lake City UT
    The historic former Sugar House Station post office was constructed in 1939-1940 with federal Treasury Department funds. The building is now privately owned. NHRP Nomination form: The May 7, 1936 edition of the Sugar House Bulletin reported a "rousing talk" by local Postmaster Smoot that was a 'call to arms' to members of the newly-formed Sugar House Rotary. Mr. Smoot stated that a new federal building was seriously needed to handle the sixteen percent increase in mail during just the preceding twenty months. ... On March 19, 1938, the Salt Lake Tribune announced that the House Appropriations Committee had approved $150,000 for a...
  • University of Utah - Salt Lake City UT
    Multiple building construction projects were undertaken at the University of Utah during the Great Depression. The old library (now Crocker Science Center) and Einar Nielsen Fieldhouse are both Public Works Administration (PWA) projects that are still in use. Carlson Hall, another PWA construction, has since been demolished. The present status of a fourth building, the Seismograph Building, is presently unknown to Living New Deal. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was involved with the creation of artwork at the old library. From a 2013 retrospective on Carlson Hall, the women's dormitory: "After bequest to the U, the University administration approached the...
  • University of Utah: Bureau of Mines Building (demolished) - Salt Lake City UT
    The Public Works Administration paid for the construction of the United States Bureau of Mines building on the University of Utah campus in 1939-40.  It was designed by Cannon and Mullen architects.  The building was demolished recently to make way for the new Frederick Albert Sutton building of the College of Mines & Earth Sciences – or, more specifically, the parking garage for the Sutton complex. In 1938, the land had been deeded to the U. S. Government by the University of Utah, so a federal facility could be built on the campus.  In 1981, the Bureau of Mines property was deeded back to the university, along...
  • University of Utah: Carlson Hall (demolished) - Salt Lake City UT
    Carlson Hall, formerly located at the southwest corner of the University of Utah campus, served multiple roles over the years. Originally constructed as a women’s dorm, the building later housed a dining room, classrooms, and offices. The building was funded by the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works (see photo on plaque). It was demolished ca. 2013. The Quinney School of Law is located here now. The have a wonderful tribute to Carlson Hall inside the first floor front door (in a nook accross from the First Floor information desk). This includes the New Deal funding information, an original brick, a...
  • University of Utah: Einar Nielsen Fieldhouse - Salt Lake City UT
    The old fieldhouse, built in 1939, was home to the University of Utah basketball team for thirty years. It was built with a combination of bonded debt by the university and Public Works Administration (PWA) funds.   It appears to be used for intermural athletics today.  
  • University of Utah: Seismograph Building (demolished) - Salt Lake City UT
    The Public Works Administration paid for a seismograph building on the campus of the University of Utah.  It sat next to the old Bureau of Mines building.  Both were demolished to make way for the Frederick Albert Sutton building for the College of Mines and Earth Sciences, opened in 2009.  (They were located behind the present Sutton Building where the parking garage now stands).
  • University of Utah: Thomas Library (Crocker Science Center) - Salt Lake City UT
    The building was designed by the firm of Ashton & Evans and constructed as a PWA project in 1935. In 1969, a new library was built on campus and the Thomas Building was converted into the Utah Museum of Natural History, which recently moved to a new home on the eastern flank of the university. The structure was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. The former George Thomas Library is being converted to the Crocker Science Center (with major additions) as of 2016-17. Of the $20,000,000 spent in Utah by the Public Works Administration (PWA) for public works projects, the "most imposing" of...
  • VA Hospital (former) Landscaping - Salt Lake City UT
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) conducted landscaping work at the now-former VA Hospital, located northeast of the Utah State Capitol in Salt Lake City. The property, now a luxury condo complex, is now privately owned. Its location has been described as 12th Avenue and E Street; the former VA Hospital building is closest to Capitol Park Ave.