Completion Year: 1939

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) improved a segment of Cathedral Avenue NW, from Idaho Avenue to New Mexico Avenue. The WPA graded this road, and also prepared it for paving with a foundation of salvaged material: “The old material is obtained from old roadways which have deteriorated due to the strain of heavy later-day traffic and were replaced by new standard type pavements.” Also, “There was a considerable amount of fill material placed on the north side of this roadway in order to widen it. After the fill had been completed a temporary curb and sidewalk was constructed.”

Piedmont High School was expanded under the New Deal with the help of Public Works Administration (PWA) funding.  A new library and classroom building were built, 1937-39. There had been three previous efforts to replace temporary buildings at schools in Piedmont in the 1920s, because about one-third of Piedmont students were being taught in temporary buildings (derisively called ‘shacks’ by the locals). All the bond issues lost (Tribune Dec. 1933).  After the school board sought and gained a promise of $83,000 in funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) in 1933, a new bond issue for $233,000 passed in December of that year....

In 1938, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) decided to diverge the Long Prairie River to address issues that were both economic and community-driven. Long Prairie and Osakis are two small, rural, farming communities in Minnesota less than 30 minutes from one another. One community, Osakis, was supported through its tourist economy, while its sister community’s lifeblood was its farmers. A lake in and around the community of Osakis, Osakis Lake, and it was suffering to the point it was “nearly useless”, according to the newspapers written at the time (cited and pictured on this page). Lake Osakis was in desperate...

The Clinton Federal Building (north) was originally the US Post Office Department headquarters, completed under the New Deal in 1934.  It contains a wealth of New Deal artworks commissioned and paid for by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts: 25 murals and 22 sculptural elements (12 bas-reliefs, 2 statues, 8 wood medallions). Alexander Brook painted two murals, "Writing the Family Letter" and "Reading the Letter".  The letter is from the family of a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) recruit to the young man in his camp and is meant to show  "the mail's role in helping to alleviate the loneliness and homesickness...

The one-story, brick Colonial Revival style post office was constructed in 1939. It is currently in use as the Chancery Clerk's office. Details include a basement, semicircular granite steps leading to the entrance, cast iron railings, and a limestone frieze and cornice with a semicircular portico over the steps. It contains a mural by Stefan Hirsch, completed and installed in 1943.

In 1938, the Public Works Administration (PWA) allotted $200,000 for the construction of a large garage for the garbage trucks of the District of Columbia’s Refuse Division. The garage was completed in September 1939.  It is a flat-roofed, single-story, brick Moderne building with bas-relief pilasters between the bays and a white fringe around the top. The DC government described the garage in its fiscal year 1939 report:  “Plans and specifications for this project were prepared by the City Refuse Division under the supervision of the Municipal Architect’s Office. The building will be capable of housing from 80-100 trucks of the division’s fleet...

Public Works Administration (PWA) funded the construction of the Municipal Building in Greenwich OH. This building has housed village government offices since its completion. The architect of record was Granville E. Scott.The contractor was Roth Bros.

In 1938, the Public Works Administration (PWA) allotted $47,870 for the Macomb Street Divorcement Sewers project. Two new sewer lines were installed in the area of Macomb Street and 38th Street NW, running southwest in the direction of Massachusetts Avenue for a length of about 5,000 linear feet (nearly one mile). These divorcement sewers separated domestic sewage from storm water run-off (two products that had previously collected in a combined sewer line), allowing the sewage to be treated at the new Blue Plains facility and reducing pollution caused by periodic overflow during rain storms. The divorcement sewer project was completed in early-to-mid...

In 1938-1939, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) installed a short Water Main on Pennsylvania Avenue, west from 26th Street, NW. The Annual Report of the DC government provides details:  “A 12-inch main in Pennsylvania Avenue NW, west from Twenty-sixth Street, to replace an old 6-inch main. This work, totaling 240 linear feet, was undertaken as a W. P. A. project and is a part of the work necessary to convert the 30-inch gravity main in M Street to the first high service.”  The main may still be in place, but it would be unknown and invisible to everyone but the staff at DC Water...

In 1938-1939, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) installed a short Water Main on Pennsylvania Avenue, between Thirty-Third Place and Carpenter Street SE The Annual Report of the DC government provides details: “A 16-inch main in Pennsylvania Avenue between Thirty-third Place and Carpenter Street SE. This main, totaling 340 linear feet, was undertaken as a W. P. A. project and was extended to serve property being developed. It will ultimately be extended to the Anacostia pumping station at Eighteenth Street and Minnesota Avenue SE to provide a second feeder line from the pumping station to Alabama and Pennsylvania Avenues to augment the Anacostia second high service...