Completion Year: 1942

Personal description of the park by project submitter John Walker: "The entire park including the coquina coral atoll pool, was manmade. My grandfather, Robert "Bob" C. Long was a CCC worker, and worked on the project and helped to build the atoll pool. He and many of the other CCC workers carved their initials and names in the coral they laid around the manmade coral atoll pool deck. It is a natural salt, sea water atoll pool. A hurricane damaged the pool, and in a hasty repair of the pool, many of the stones used that bore the initials of many...

This New Deal mural entitled "Chicken Farm" was painted by William H. Calfee in 1942. It was a winner of the Section's 48-State mural competition.

This mural entitled "Scene of Town" was painted in 1942 by Thomas I. Laughlin. It was a winner of the Treasury Section's 48-State competition. It was moved to the "new" post office in 1989.

The exterior of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) building is enhanced by several works of art commissioned by the Treasury Department's Section of Fine Arts in 1938. Above the entrances are rectangular bas-relief panels that represent foreign trade, agriculture, shipping, and industry: "Construction" by Chaim Gross (1938);  "Shipping" by Robert Laurent (1938); "Agriculture" by Concetta Scaravaglione (1938); "Foreign Trade" by Carl L. Schmitz (1938). There are also two bas-relief medallions with eagles by Sidney Waugh located on the northwest corner elevation of the building (not shown here).    

The Santa Barbara Maritime Museum was constructed as a Naval Reserve Armory by the Works Project Administration (WPA) in 1940-42. In 1939, the City of Santa Barbara deeded the land to the Navy, because city leaders thought that a Naval Reserve Armory would be beneficial to the city. The Armory was almost complete when WW II broke out and construction was stopped. The building was boarded up. Then, in 1942, the City of Santa Barbara leased part of the harbor to the Navy for a wharf and the following year Naval Reservists were ordered to finish the building, which was designated a Small...

The Friant Dam is one of three major dams in the giant Central Valley Project in Northern California, along with Shasta and Folsom, built by the federal Bureau of Reclamation. Initial funding for the CVP came through the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935. Friant was aided by funds from the Public Works Administratin (PWA).  The concrete dam, which impounds the San Joaquin River, is 320 feet high and 3,500 feet long at the crest.  The reservoir, Millerton Lake, holds about one-half million acre-feet of water at capacity. The chief purpose of the dam is irrigation water supply.  Water from Millerton Reservoir is shipped...

The New Deal vastly improved Yosemite National Park in California, which has long been the showpiece of the national park system.  Several federal agencies operated in the park from 1933 to 1942, under the general supervision of the National Park Service: the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Public Works Administration (PWA), and Bureau of Public Roads (BPR), plus the short-lived Civil Works Administration (CWA)  (December 1933 to April 1934). Major works around Yosemite are detailed in the various site pages listed on the right. Nevertheless, some of the immense amount of work done during the New Deal cannot be pinpointed, so we...

In the early 1940s, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the 16 mile stretch of State Highway 162 between Longvale and Dos Rios, also known as Covelo Road.  Records indicate that there were 10 bridges on that stretch of road, but we count only 6 crossings of rivers and creeks. The road was dedicated on April 4, 1942 and the celebratory parade gives an idea of how important that road and its bridges were to isolated communities like Longvale, Farley and Dos Rios at the time. Highway 162 still looks much that same as it would have in the 1940s, a relatively narrow...

This 16' x 40', oil on canvas mural, "Modern Education/School Activities," was completed in 1942 by Frank Tolles Chamberlin after seven years of intermittent work. He received funding from the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) in 1934 and from the Federal Art Project (FAP) from 1935. The mural adorns the school library. The artist described its theme as "youth and its activities." According to Pasadena News Now, "With a typical Southern California landscape as a backdrop, forty-nine students of different backgrounds participate in a number of activities such as chemistry, sculpture, radio transmission, horseback riding and blacksmithing. The mural conveys...

In 1941, the Federal Arts Project (FAP) commissioned prominent artist, Helen Lundeberg, to paint a 3-wall mural that covers 900 sq. ft. at the Old Fullerton City Hall in Fullerton, California. In addition to working on several New Deal art projects, she helped to found the Post-Surrealist art movement.  The mural she painted in the Old Fullerton City Hall is named The History of Southern California. It depicts California's history from the landing of Juan Cabrillo in the 1500s through the development of the movie industry in the Twentieth Century. Similar to many other murals painted in this era it was...