Completion Year: 1937

Following the 1933 Long Beach earthquake, Robert E. Peary Middle School (formerly Gardena High School) in Gardena, CA was rebuilt with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA). Construction lasted 1935-37 and totaled $$133,068. In 1935, the administration and home economics building were reconstructed by Byerts and Dunn. The PWA Moderne style administration building is located at the corner of W Gardena Blvd and Normandie Ave overlooking the school parking lot. The PWA Moderne style building located at the T-intersection formed by Normandie Ave and W 163rd St may have originally been the home economics building, but confirmation is needed. A gymnasium...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) funded the reconstruction of the Anaheim High School after the Long Beach Earthquake of 1933. Damage to the school was not extensive but reconstructing the entire school was projected to be less expensive than merely repairing the buildings.  In 1935, State Emergency Relief Administration (SERA) workers deconstructed the original buildings. Then construction of the new school began in the same year. The PWA contributed $111,000 while bonds raised an additional $275,000 The new art deco style main building, library and auditorium were dedicated in 1936. Then in 1937, a gym was built and financed partially by the...

In 1936-1937, Anna Katharine Skeele painted mural titled "Home Life in Old Taos" which was commissioned by the Federal Arts Project (FAP). Skeele was a Monrovia, California based artist known for her portraits and focus on Native Americans in the Southwest. "Home in Old Taos" was her first mural painting. She made several trips to Taos, New Mexico to research and develop ideas for the painting. "Home Life in Old Taos" is 8' x 30'  and is oil on canvas. It "depicts Pueblo Indian men and women working on daily tasks, such as grinding corn and collecting water from a river near...

Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles, CA was rebuilt following the 1933 Long Beach earthquake. Architects John and Donald B. Parkinson designed a Moderne-style campus of reinforced concrete, featuring horizontal banding, rounded corners, concrete grilles, and tiled entries. Construction between 1935 and 1937 totaled approximately $372,702 and was partially funded by the Public Works Administration (PWA). PWA records include photographs of Manual Arts High School students engaged in weaving, home economics, and beauty culture classes. In 1935, general contractor Lindgren & Swinerton built two new buildings for approximately $247,000 (one contemporary source says $247,583 and another $246,483). The science building...

The Annex contains a 1937 WPA fresco, "A Dissertation on Alchemy", by Reuben Kadish and Urban Neininger. The fresco is 9' x 11' and is located in the stairwell in the northeast corner of the Woods Hall Annex. From December 1936-August 1937 Reuben Kadish painted a mural for the San Francisco State Teachers College with funding from the Federal Arts Project (FAP), assisted by Urban Neininger. Situated at the top of a grand staircase, the mural, A Dissertation on Alchemy, is a surrealist work that diverges stylistically from much of the work produced by New Deal artists. This is the only...

This series of nine oil-on-canvas murals, collectively titled "Industrial Life in San Pedro," by Federal Art Project (FAP) artist Tyrone Comfort is located in the library at San Pedro High School in San Pedro, CA. Completed in 1937, the nine murals are "Hauling the Cargo," "Fisherman in Port," "The Riveters," "Refinery Maintenance," "Opening the Valves," "The Propeller Crew," "Loading the Harvest," "Construction Workers," and "The Drillers." They were restored and preserved by the Los Angeles Unified School District Historic Schools Investment Fund in 2008. Comfort's other FAP works in the region include two murals, "Printing" and "Science and Industry" (1936), at John...

In 1937, Lucile Lloyd (assisted by Ben Messick) completed a mural, "Origin and Development of the Name of the State of California," for the State Building in Los Angeles, CA. The mural received funding from the Federal Art Project (FAP) of the WPA. Lloyd was the first woman in Southern California to receive a FAP commission. The mural's three panels "tell the history of the name of California. The two side panels portray important flags that have flown over the state. The central panel shows the history and development of the state through the Spanish, Mexican, and American eras. Realistic figures...

Henrietta Shore painted a mural, "Monterey Bay," for the Monterey Post Office in 1937, with support from the Treasury Section of Fine Arts.  Unfortunately, Shore's mural has disappeared and its whereabouts are unknown to us.

This wood relief "Horseman" by Gordon Newell and Sherry Peticolas depicts a man leading two horses. It was funded by the Treasury Relief Art Project in 1937.

The oil-on-canvas mural "History of California" is a seven-part mural spanning the large lobby of the historic Huntington Park Post Office. It was painted by Norman Chamberlain, assisted by Jean Swiggett and Ivan Bartlett, in 1937 with funding from the Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP). On the south wall the scene depicts a racially integrated workforce, which is noteworthy due to the rarity of this sort of imagery in New Deal murals.