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In 1936 Work: A Journal of Progress reported that in 1933-34 the Civil Works Administration (CWA) relief workers constructed 245 feet of seawall at the Sewer Division property yard and a cable shed at the garage. The exact site was not specified. Nevertheless, the Water and Sewer Authority (then known as the Sewer Division) owns a large waterside property at the foot of First Street on the Anacostia River that would be a likely place for such a seawall.  This is further confirmed by a later report in Work: A Journal of Progress that the Works Progress Administration (WPA) was soon...

In the early years of the New Deal, 1934-1935, Congress funded the construction of the Woodrow Wilson High School through one or more appropriations of around $1 million to the DC Commissioners. At the time, funding and control of the local government in DC was firmly under the control of the federal government. Municipal architects Albert Harris and Nathan Wyeth were in charge of the design, which is a large Federal style, multi-story, brick building around a central courtyard, with a tower above the main entrance and minimal decoration. The firm of McCloskey & Co. was hired to do construction. The project was...

The Colonial Revival style Adjutant General's house at Camp Withycombe was constructed by Works Progress Administration workers in 1938. Although a military facility since 1909 when it was developed as a rifle range, Camp Withycombe had few permanent structures before the Depression era. During World War I, the camp received inductees who were housed in tents. When it became a supply depot in the 1930s, additional structures were required. Salem based architect Lyle Bartholomew designed the Adjutant General's house using details that have been referred to as the Oregon Rustic style. These include a coursed stone chimney and stone landscaping decoration. The...

In 1940-41, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) built several stone-lined culverts for drainage on California state highway 58 – also known as Calf Canyon Road – east of the intersection with route 229, roughly 5-10 miles east of Santa Marguerita CA. These are unusually elegant drainage works, since most culverts do not have rock walls above ground and WPA stamps in the stones.  They were effectively small bridges over gullies, where previously the road dipped and could be flooded in winter. These culverts were part of a program of WPA road work all over San Luis Obispo County during the 1930s,...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the Trout Creek bridge on state highway 58, a couple miles east of Santa Marguerita, in 1941.  This was part of a program of WPA road work all over San Luis Obispo County roads during the 1930s, as indicated by WPA "project cards" in the National Archives. WPA project cards are only indicative, however; they show which projects were planned, funded by the WPA and approved by President Franklin Roosevelt; they do not guarantee that the work was actually done, since the WPA usually proposed more projects than it could carry out.  In this case, the...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) established a camp on Mount Tamalpais in October 1933 and CCC enrollees did extensive work around Mount Tamalpais in Marin County CA, north of the Golden Gate.  They carried out improvements in Muir Woods National Monument on the south flank of the mountain, Mt. Tamalpais State Park which encircles the summit and Marin Water District on the north side of the mountain.  The National Park Service says this about the camp: "October 1933: Often called the "busiest month" in the history of Muir Woods, this month saw the arrival of the Civilian Conservation Corps, or the CCC,...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) completed improvements to Poplar and Broad St. in Schenectady NY. Pictured WPA curb stamp was originally located near the intersection of Broad and Poplar Streets.

Hopkins County Hospital was built in 1937-38 with Work Progress Administration Funds and private citizen contributions. Originally, it was built to house 54 beds as a private, non-profit medical facility.

The Park Avenue Observatory was built in 1934. Park Avenue was built in 1933 by the Civilian Conservation Corps along the base of Mt. William as a scenic route into the city of Port Jervis and to provide employment to the people in Port Jervis. The observatory was built along the road the following year.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built sidewalks, curbs and gutters on Clifton Street, from Boyd to Manila Street, in the Rockridge neighborhood of Oakland, California.   There are several WPA date stamps in the gutters and driveways on this stretch of Clifton.  Stamps indicating the paving company were common practice in the first half of the 20th century. This work was part of a much larger WPA program of street and sidewalk improvements all over Oakland in those years.