Completion Year: 1942

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and Works Progress Administration (WPA) built as many as twenty picnic grounds in Tilden Park over the course of the New Deal period. These areas lie along the Loop Road, Central Park Drive and South Park Drive (see map).  They are all still in use except for one replaced by a later merry-go-round. The work normally included clearing and leveling the ground, building picnic tables and fireplaces.  Reports by the park district indicate that 28 outdoor fireplaces were built, along with 350 picnic tables.  Several picnic areas have playfields, as well.   Most of the original fixtures have been...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built a number of stone comfort stations (restrooms) at picnic areas in Tilden Regional Park in 1940-42.  It is possible that some were also built earlier by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which laid out many of the picnic areas.  There are many newer wood and stone restrooms built by Tilden Park staff, but the older stonework – especially of Italian stone masons working for the WPA – is usually distinct from later stonework by the Park District.  The restrooms found at these areas are probably original WPA or CCC work: Padre, Willows, Laurel, Jewel Lake, Big...

The Alley Dwelling Authority (ADA) and the United States Housing Authority (USHA) funded the construction of the Frederick Douglass Dwellings in Washington, DC between 1940 and 1942. The Frederick Douglass Dwellings were demolished in 2000, to make way for Henson Ridge, a mixed-income community. The ADA was one of the earliest New Deal initiatives to provide better housing for low-income Americans. It replaced unsafe alley dwellings in Washington, DC with more modern and affordable houses and apartments. The ADA existed from 1934-1943 as a federally controlled special authority. It then slowly evolved into today’s DC Housing Authority, an independent agency of the DC...

The city of Columbus approved a bond issue to construct the city's portion of a Works Progress Administration (WPA) financed armory. The architect was R. T. Smith. Columbus purchased a site for the new armory and civic center in the business district. By summer of 1941, the armory was under construction. The Works Progress Administration supplied $45,000 toward the $65,000 building. The armory was a 4-story Art Deco building completed 1041-1942. It has been in use as a convention center since 1987.

The Works Projects Administration (WPA) built the first hanger, runway and road for the Navy Reserve Air Base at the Oakland Municipal Airport (now the North Field of the Oakland International Airport). Then, in 1940 the WPA authorized $237,000 for construction of a new hangar for the Naval Reserve Air Base.  The Port of Oakland only had to contribute $17,000 in materials (Tribune, 1940).  This was clearly part of the military buildup toward World War II, with Oakland airport only one of 24 in Northern California being funded by the federal government in 1941 (Tribune, April 1941). In mid-1941, a further grant...

Works Progress Administration (WPA) project No. 41,290 for construction of a school building at Redwood community was approved for $26,406. The Redwood History page reported the "final school" was constructed on a 10-acre plot. While it was being finished, it was hit by a tornado in 1941 and more than half of the classrooms were damaged. The opening of the school was delayed until 1942 when it could be completed. The building is still extant, though renovations and additions over the years have changed the appearance. It now serves elementary children.

In 1942, the Oakland Recreation Department dedicated the newly renovated Recreation House at Park Boulevard and Newton Street – now the Recreation Center at Francis Marion Smith Park – which was completely remodeled with the help of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) (under the Federal Works Administration). The brick structure contains a large, open hall in Craftsman style and a kitchen on the first floor; there are play and club rooms in the basement (Oakland Tribune 1942).  It had previously been known as the Park Boulevard Clubhouse, a popular site for weddings, meetings, lectures and entertainments.   It remains in good condition. A...

Frank C. Havens Elementary School was originally built in 1910 and expanded under the New Deal with the help of Public Works Administration (PWA) funding and Works Progress Administration (WPA) relief labor and materials.  A new five-classroom wing and an auditorium were built on the eastern edge of the school grounds. The lovely auditorium, renamed the Ellen Driscoll Community Playhouse, survives. 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 1942)....

Wildwood Elementary School in Piedmont CA was expanded under the New Deal, with the addition of new classroom buildings and an auditorium. Prior to that, about one-third of Piedmont students were being taught in temporary buildings (derisively called 'shacks' by the locals). There had been three previous efforts in the 1920s to replace temporary school buildings in Piedmont but the bond issues lost (Tribune 1942).   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.  Of the...

The National Gallery of Art on the mall is one of America's greatest art museums.  It holds thousands of New Deal artworks in its vast collections, much of it available in digital form and occasional shown in exhibits.    By far the largest New Deal collection at the National Gallery is the Federal Art Project's (FAP) Index of American Design, containing over 18,000 artistic renderings (chiefly watercolors) of historic and contemporary American arts and crafts: textiles, furniture, toys, decorative arts, industrial products, and so on. The FAP was part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) from 1935 to 1942.  This collection was part of...