Completion Year: 1938

The Public Works Administration (PWA) lent Grand County $33,750 to help build a new county courthouse in Hot Sulphur Springs, Colorado, in 1937-38—now the Grant County Administration Building. The project's total cost was $75,733. (PWA Docket No. CO 1060-R.) The Grand County Courthouse, designed by Robert Fuller, is a good example of the Classical Moderne style popular at the time. The exterior of the two-story structure is clad in yellow brick. The central section is slightly elevated and projected forward, with suggestions of flanking columns, and the two wings have four rows of windows. An annex was added to the courthouse in...

In 1909, an abundance of dinosaur fossils were discovered  by a team of paleontologists collecting for the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, near Jensen, Utah. It was one of the most important dinosaur excavation sites in the United States at the time. In 1915, President Woodrow Wilson set aside 80 acres around the fossil discovery site as a National Monument. President Franklin Roosevelt expanded the monument to its present size of nearly 200,000 acres in 1938. About 3/4th of the enlarged monument lies in Colorado, making this one of the few bi-state national parks or monuments.  It is administered by the...

The stately Ransom County Courthouse in Lisbon, North Dakota was constructed as a federal Public Works Administration (PWA) project (though it is sometimes mis-attributed to the WPA). The PWA supplied a $49,090 grant for the project, whose total cost was $109,220. Primary construction occurred between Dec. 1937 and Nov. 1938. This "project, along with a construction boom helped lift the county out of depression." PWA Docket No. N.D. 1050-R

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built football and baseball fields for the former Bingham High School in Copperton, Utah.   Over the last 150 years, there have been five successive Bingham High Schools in the Bingham Canyon Area, part of the present  Jordan School District, including the current one in the town of West Jordan. The WPA athletic fields were built for  the fourth version of the high school, located in the town of Copperton. The High School transitioned to a Junior High School in 1996 and the fields were still in use then. The football stadium was demolished in 2002. Remnants...

The Public Works Administration (PWA) provided financial support for the revamping of the "power plant and heating systems" of what was then known as Appalachian State Teachers College in Boone, North Carolina. The PWA provided a grant of $14,178 for the project, whose total cost was $33,860. Work occurred between Dec. 1937 and Jun. 1938. Per The Charlotte Observer, the contract for the work was awarded to Bagwell Plumbing and Heating of Durham. Living New Deal believes the (most likely-demolished) facility to be located at the south end of campus, on University Drive, by what is now the site of the...

From 1936 to 1938, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) did renovations and upgrades to Fort Baker, an Army base on the north side of the Golden Gate dating from the early 1900s. One project included renewal of the storm water drainage system, repair of the electric and water distribution system, and three new fire hydrants. It also included installation of a steam heating system in Barracks No. 1 (structure no. 602), which had been heated by fireplaces. (Thompson, p. 59) Most of the buildings got a new coat of paint, inside and out. Latrines, kitchens, and mess halls received two coats of paint.  Later,...

In 1938, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed a barn at Warder Nursery in Cincinnati OH. The project was one of several undertaken by the WPA in the city. “Three WPA projects for park improvements at Cincinnati, Ohio, have been given approval by the council finance committee of the city,” a contemporary journalist remarked at the time. “One project provides for the erection of a service and storage building at the Warder Nursery on North Ben Road, one for the construction of roads and walks in the various parks, and the other for landscape development in some of the parks.” The WPA...

From 1933 to 1938, the Civil Works Administration (CWA), Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) and Works Progress Administration (WPA) – in short, the work relief agencies of the New Deal – built over a thousand “sanitary privies”, or outhouses, around Arizona under the Community Sanitation Program directed by the Arizona Board of Health.  The program canvassed private property owners to see if they needed new privies and the government provided the labor if the owner paid for the materials. Over one hundred such outhouses were built in the Verde Valley of Yavapai County.  In all likelihood, every last one has disappeared...

The Jefferson nickel, an essential coin in Americans' pockets for over fifty years, was designed and first minted during the New Deal. On March 6, 1938, The Sunday Star newspaper (Washington, DC) reported that, “The Section of Painting and Sculpture, Procurement Division, Treasury Department, announces a competition for a design for a new 5-cent coin, to be known as the ‘Jefferson Nickel.’” The award was $1,000 (about $20,000 in 2021 dollars). The judges of the competition were: Nellie Tayloe Ross, director of the U.S. Mint; Sidney Waugh, creator of several New Deal artworks; Albert Stewart, whose sculptures adorn the San Francisco Mint;...

In 1938, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed improvements at, and helped beautify, De Mores Memorial Park in downtown Medora ND. The city park improvement project was one of several beautification initiatives around Medora that depended on WPA work crews. “WPA labor is being used with Ben Lantz acting as landscape architect,” a journalistic commentator remarked at the time. “Scoria walks are being built through the park. A fountain will be constructed and the whole area nclosed with a stone wall fence, surmounted by iron grill work.” The park remains an attraction and site of leisure and recreation for town residents.