Completion Year: 1938

The Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works (Public Works Administration) funded the construction of the Ames High school. Today, the building serves as the Ames City Hall.

In 1937, 250 WPA enrollees went to work on a recreation center on the site of the defunct Brightwood Reservoir in Rock Creek Park.  The Washington Post (1937) reported: "Dynamite yesterday blasted a hole through the obsolete Sixteenth Street Reservoir so that steam shovels could begin razing the plant for an athletic field and playground to be erected there.... The recreation center will incorporate 16 new tennis courts, a field house, baseball diamond, a football and soccer field and areas where football, softball and lacrosse may be played.  Tennis courts now on the land will remain for the time being." Today, the...

Constructed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the interior of the Oregon State Forester’s Office demonstrates a high level of craftsmanship. Its interior was decorated by a wood carver employed in the Federal Arts Program of the WPA with finishes to window frames and wood floors provided by workers supported by the National Youth Administration (NYA). Making every room in the office building distinctive, different Oregon native woods were selected to panel each room – and each ceiling received a special treatment as well. Eighteen native woods are used in the interior. Eugene based artist Arthur Clough carved the stairway railing...

The Oregon State Forester’s Office was designed by a US Forest Service architect and constructed by Works Progress Administration (WPA) workers after preparation of the site by Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) workers. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, this structure is considered one of Oregon’s best examples of a building in the National Parks style. Timberline Lodge heads the list in this category but the Oregon State Forester’s Office, although significantly smaller, shows a remarkably high quality of workmanship as well. Linn A. Forrest, the US Forest Service Architect associated with Timberline Lodge’s floor plan and elevations, produced the...

A new annex was constructed for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in 1936-38. The building was authorized by Congress in 1935 for $6.3 million, but the funds flowed through the Public Works Administration (PWA).   The Treasury Department's Procurement Division handled the design through its architecture office, put out the contract and supervised construction, which was carried out by the John McShain Co. (Evening Star, 1936). In its 1936 fiscal year report, the U.S. Treasury noted: “On August 12, 1935, Congress authorized the construction of a new annex to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to be located on a site...

Erwin Springweiler designed the sculptures of elephants and mammoths above the interior doors in the Elephant House at National Zoo. The actual carving was done by Lombard & Ludwig, architectural sculptors, during construction of the Elephant House in 1936-37. These works were paid for by the Treasury Relief Arts Project (TRAP).    

Annex 1 was added to the Belzoni school for African American students in 1938. It was constructed by the National Youth Administration. It is currently in use as part of the O. M. McNair Elementary School in Belzoni.

The camp for Harrison Experimental Forest research was constructed between 1935-1938 in Harrison County. The forestry research complex contained Rustic Style dwellings and offices, including laboratories, two residences--one of which was designed by New Orleans architect Gerhardt Kramer in 1938, cone shed, two garages, equipment shop, machine shop, and warehouse. The cone shed was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, but the remaining buildings are extant and in use. There were two Civilian Conservation Corps camps in the Saucier vicinity. Camps F-10 and F-12 provided the labor for construction, building of roads and bridges to the research complex, and participated...

The U.S. Government Publishing Office (USGPO) is a four building complex, which was called the Government Printing Office until the name was changed to the Government Publishing Office in 2014.  The USGPO warehouse, also known as Building #4 of the complex, was constructed in 1936-38 by the Charles H. Tomkins Co. under a $1,042,930 contract with the Procurement Division of the U.S. Treasury.   The Treasury had long been responsible for all government (non-military) buildings and a new Procurement Division was created in 1933 by the incoming Franklin Roosevelt Administration to coordinate all such activities.  The design of the building was done under...

The General Services Administration's former Regional National Capital Office in Washington DC is graced by a magnificent set of murals by Harold Weston commissioned under the New Deal. The building was originally the headquarters of the Treasury Department’s Procurement Division. In 1936, Harold Weston was employed by the Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP) to paint 22 murals inside the main lobby area at the 7th street entrance.  The murals depict construction-related activities carried out by the Procurement Division and the private construction firms it contracted with.  The 1942 WPA Guide to Washington DC says:  "In the main lobby, 7th Street entrance, murals illustrate...