Completion Year: 1938

In 1938, WPA labor constructed a stone retaining wall outlining the east and north edges of the Auburn Veterans Memorial Hall property. The approximately 380’-long wall is made of pieces of uncut native stone laid in random courses. The wall sweeps up at the entry, framing concrete steps leading to the hall. It continues along the sides of property, meeting another stone wall of unknown origin. The ends of the wall terminate with tapered posts. The post at the south end includes a scratched inscription in concrete identifying structure as a WPA project. Unlike other walls constructed by the WPA in Auburn,...

The Robert LaFleur Airport is a small general aviation airport in Waterville. It was originally opened in 1931. A 2011 history of the airport explains the federal involvement in its development. In a 1933 town report, Mayor Thayer explains that: "In order to secure improvement for the airport— a very desirable improvement for the community—the City has entered into an agreement of lease, with option to purchase, with the owners of the airport, this condition being precedent to any activity by the Civil Works Administration. This contract will not involve any expense to the City of Waterville but will result in...

A 1938 report from the Los Angeles Department of Playground and Recreation describes the WPA's role in creating the Rancho Cienega recreation area: "Forerunner of the great regional recreation centers of the future, the Rancho Cienega Playground was the outstanding addition to the Los Angeles recreation system in 1938. The area comprises thirty acres in the southwest section of the city, along Exposition Boulevard near La Brea Avenue. It is the largest municipal playground devoted exclusively to sports and recreation within the city. The site was donated by Mrs. Anita M. Baldwin in response to a request made by the Los...

The Deweyville Swing Bridge is built over the Sabine River where Texas State Highway 12 and Louisiana Highway 12 meet. The bridge is a deck plate girder swing design. The 160 foot main span pivots on top of a central pillar. Congress passed the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act on April 8, 1935. This act gave states grant money for road and bridge construction. The bridge opened on March 10, 1938. The bridge is opened manually by workers using a massive T-wrench inserted in a hole in the middle of the bridge and turned. Regular openings of the bridge ceased in the 1960s...

Constructed by the WPA under projects 3635, 6994, 7706 and 9392 in 1938. When constructed it was called the Verdugo Municipal Recreation Center and was sponsored by the city of Glendale. "This project, costing a total of $736,422 of which $650,731 was supplied by the Federal Government, consisted of the construction of an auditorium containing 560,000 cubic feet with facilities for plays, concerts, conventions, dances and other public gatherings. A 50 meter swimming pool of the modern cloverleaf design, and conforming to intercollegiate and international specifications, was built together with a reinforced concrete grandstand. A connecting bathhouse containing 160,00 cubic feet...

In 1935 when a baseball park was constructed near McArthur Court, plans got under way to create formal gates and entrances. The park was named Howe Field for Herbert Crombie Howe, an English professor and athletics supporter. Early on, Fred Cuthbert, UO's landscape architect, and Orion B. Dawson, blacksmith, were involved in the designs. Dawson was concurrently working on iron projects at Timberline Lodge. Funding for the project came from the Works Projects Administration, several UO classes, the Soldiers' Memorial Fund, and the Associated Students of the University of Oregon. The gates, sometimes known as the Soldiers' Memorial Gates, also...

P.J. Jacobs High School (now a junior high school) was built by Works Progress Administration (WPA) workers with Public Works Administration (PWA) money between 1936-1938. Until the 1970’s it was the city’s only Public Coed 4 year (grades 9 – 10 – 11 & 12) Senior High School. A large, handsome sandstone building constructed in late Art Deco style, the school boasts stained glass windows depicting famous literary and scientific figures over several of the doorways, wide halls, exquisite golden oak wood paneling, marble window ledges, ceramic tiles representing the technology of the times, terrazzo stairs, and chandeliers that hang...

The Colonial Revival elementary school was designed by James Manly Spain as Proj. No. Miss. 1233-DS, funded by the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works. Construction began 12/30/1937 and was completed 9/23/1938. The Public Works provided a grant of $42,924 toward the total estimated cost of $95,454 . The "I" shaped brick featured a 1-story front and a 2-story rear portion, which contains the auditorium. Tuscan columns support the recessed front entrance, which features an arched fanlight above the wood double-leaf wood doors. It was converted to a community center in 2012 and is part of the Carthage Historic District.

As of 2009, this 1938 WPA mural by William Palmer entitled "The Development of Medicine" is located in the Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens. It may have originally been installed in the Queens General Hospital (now the Queens Hospital Center). According to a 1964 interview with the artist: "It was stated in a recent book on the WPA - that the panel Controlled Medicine was in effect a plea for and propaganda for socialized medicine. This statement is without any basis of fact, and the author never contacted me for my analysis panel. To put the record straight - the mural Development...

"In 1936, under the Works Progress Administration, the artist Abram Champanier created a series of murals for the children's ward . Champanier had done large commercial murals in the 20's for the Roxy Theater in New York and the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, among other works. For the hospital, he painted 16 panels on the theme of "Alice in Wonderland in New York." The oil-on-canvas murals are all seven feet high, but of varying widths. After the first panel, "Alice Steps Out of a Book," they cover subjects like "Alice Flies Over the East River Bridges" and "Alice and Her...