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The Works Progress Administration (WPA) helped construct Salem-Winston’s Reynolds Park and Recreation Center between 1939 and 1940. “A $300,000 proposed municipal park and recreation center at Winston-Salem, N.C., has received final approval in Washington,” a journalist for Park & Recreation magazine reported. “The development, to be known as Reynolds Park, will be located two miles east of the courthouse square…Within the area will be an 18-hole golf course, a large swimming pool, tennis courts, an athletic field and wooded area for walking and picnicking.” The fruits of this WPA-funded project can still be enjoyed today.

In 1939 the Works Progress Administration (WPA) helped build the Pebble Lake Golf Course in Fergus Falls, Minnesota. “Through the assistance of a grant by WPA of $61,587,” a writer for Parks & Recreation reported in January of 1939, “construction of a municipal golf course will soon be under way at Pebble Lake, Fergus Falls, Minn.” City boosters and businessmen led the charge to locate a new golf course within the municipality of Fergus Falls. After much legal and political wrangling, WPA laborers eventually began constructing the course. “The 20 WPA workers” assigned to the project, historian Randy LaFoy documents, “used stones...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) contributed to the improvement of Oklahoma City’s McMechan Park in 1940. “McMechan Park at Oklahoma City, Okla., will be expanded to a 17-acre development,” a reporter noted in January 1940, “according to plans disclosed by Donald Gordon, superintendent of parks. A $12,000 WPA project which will include landscaping, tree planting, grading, and establishment of play areas on the site will be submitted.” According to the Parks and Recreation Department, the WPA expanded the park to include land on both sides of McMechan Parkway. The park still serves as a recreation site for Oklahoma City residents today.

The National Youth Administration (NYA) pursued improvements at South Bend’s Kennedy Park in 1939. The park was known as Bendix Park during the New Deal. “Plans for beautifying Bendix Park are being completed by the board of park commissioners of South Bend, Ind.,” a reporter noted in April 1939. “The board hopes to transform the bare land into one of the City’s beauty spots by next summer. The park will be landscaped around the NYA building, which is being financed jointly by the NYA and the park department as a city recreation center. Plans for landscaping include an experimental garden in...

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...

In 1936, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) pursued a variety of improvements at Chicago’s historic Jackson Park.   “The WPA to town in the park,” the Jackson Park Advisory Council opines. WPA work crews built “comfort stations at the golf driving range,” a “children’s playground,” and “a maintenance building and an overpass at 63rd Street.” The WPA “shortened lagoon shoreline and did other rehabilitation work on Wooded Island and at the Japanese Garden. The 1888 ladies comfort station was rehabilitated.” Moreover, golf course “inlet bridges and the Perennial Garden” were installed. “As part of the WPA work, E.V. Buchsman design...

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees began development of the 537-acre Cape Sebastian State Park as early as October 1934. The promontory, covered by spruce forest, offers striking views of the Pacific below. CCC workers developed the roads and trails necessary for the public's access to those views. Parking areas, defined by low rock walls, in the northern and southern parts of the park complete access to the cape's perspective. As summarized by Portland's newspaper, the Oregonian, in 1940: "A lofty promontory, which juts out into the Pacific Ocean; one of the most striking coastal features along the Coast Highway. Good roads here, trails...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) helped construct the Cooper River Park in Pennsauken Township NJ in 1940. “A WPA project to give Pennsauken, N.J., its first public park and recreation facilities costing $350,000 has been approved,” a reporter for Parks & Recreation noted in March 1940. “Included in the plans are provisions for a swimming pool, wading pool, tennis, basketball, volleyball, handball, quoit and shuffleboard courts, picnic grounds, baseball diamonds and playground equipment for children. The Camden Park Commission is sponsoring the project.” According to the Cultural Landscape Foundation, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) work crews as well as the WPA “provided design...

There was a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) on Steamboat Creek,  ~1.5 miles up Steamboat Road from Highway 138, along this tributary of the North Umpqua River.   We were not able to locate a likely site for the camp on our visit to the area in 2022. According to a plaque put up by the National Association of CCC Alumni, Region 4, at Mott Bridge just east of the river and road junction, Steamboat Camp was occupied by CCC Companies 927, 703 and 3450 from 1933 to 1941 (not 1944 as stated on the informational panel nearby, because the CCC was...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built a swimming pool in Greenville’s Cleveland Park between 1939 and 1940. The city officially dedicated the pool on June 26, 1940. The total cost of the project amounted to $63,000. Children paid a dime to swim. The pool was but one of several WPA-sponsored projects in Greenville during the Depression, including park improvement and landscaping proposals. In 1961, the NAACP filed a lawsuit targeting segregated recreational facilities, including the Cleveland Park Pool. The following year, courts ruled that segregated park facilities were indeed unconstitutional, and the pool shut down for good in 1963. The city council...