A brass plaque set amidst a towering grove of ancient redwoods at Muir Woods commemorates a gathering there on May 19, 1945. On that day, seventy years ago, hundreds gathered to honor the memory of President Franklin Roosevelt, who had… read more
The Living New Deal has just published a map to New Deal sites in San Francisco. The “Art and Architecture of the New Deal” is a guide to eighteen of the more than 300 known public works projects the New… read more
Although most widely remembered for its construction and art projects, another of the WPA’s missions was putting unemployed historians and writers back to work. In Orange County, California, this materialized in the form of WPA Project #3105—an exhaustive chronicling of… read more
Five Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP) murals by Thomas Laman will return to public view after more than a decade in limbo. The murals, which depict mining, farming, railroad building, and fauna of northern California, are being restored and will… read more
The Civilian Conservation Corps was born of pure and progressive intentions: employment for young men, conservation work on public lands, and nondiscrimination. Illinois Representative Oscar DePriest, the only black member of Congress at the time, made sure that the 1933… read more
A record 1.7 million people flocked to Orchard Beach in the Bronx this past summer. That would have pleased former New York City Parks Commissioner Robert Moses, the visionary force behind its construction. With its man-made crescent shoreline, Orchard Beach… read more
To understand just why Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt enjoyed such popularity despite the enmity of the nation’s Republican press, you can read their speeches, but better far to hear their voices. NPR recently aired an audio documentary by American Radio… read more
The Living New Deal Project needs your help to keep going. Our goal is to raise $100,000 to cover our yearly expenses (data entry, website, events, newsletters, maps, etc.) and to keep expanding our activities. The project is snowballing in… read more
Author Perdita Buchan has written a lovely encomium to Louis Kahn’s modernist houses set in the New Town of Jersey Homesteads (now Roosevelt) created by the New Deal’s Resettlement Administration. Along the way she extolls Kahn’s design for the Four… read more
Read Ruth Gottstein’s scathing editorial in the SF Examiner on the need to keep Coit Tower and public parks free and open to the public. Gottstein is the 92-year-old daughter of Coit muralist Bernard Zakheim. She brilliantly connects the recent viral… read more