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The East Bay Regional Parks District (EBRPD) was formed in 1934 and acquired land for parks from the East Bay Municipal Water District.  The first parks were Tilden, Sibley, Temescal and Redwood in the East Bay Hills behind Berkeley and Oakland CA.   Even before the parks were acquired, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) set up camps in the hills and operated in the parks for the entire New Deal decade, 1933-42. The first camp was in Wildcat Canyon at the present site of the Nature Center. The first road built by CCC work crews was the Loop Road at the center...

The East Bay Regional Parks District (EBRPD) was formed in 1934 and acquired land for parks from the East Bay Municipal Water District in 1936.  The first parks were Tilden, Sibley, Temescal and Redwood in the East Bay Hills behind Berkeley and Oakland CA.  The New Deal provided extensive aid towards improving the new parks (except for Sibley) for public recreation, working with the Parks District's first general manager, Elbert Vail. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) set up five camps in the East Bay hills and operated in the parks for the entire New Deal decade, 1933-42.   The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was...

The Civilian Conservation Corps built the picnic area on Henry Hudson Drive near the Hudson River in the Palisades Interstate Park in New Jersey.    

New Deal work relief and conservation crews cleared hundreds of acres of trees and brush and planted hundreds of thousands of trees and shrubs in three of the original units of the East Bay Regional Parks District (EBRPD):  Tilden, Temescal, and Redwood Regional Parks.   This work was part of a major New Deal effort to aid the newly-created Parks District (1934) in improving  its parks for public recreation, direct by the Parks District's first general manager, Elbert Vail.  The natural landscape of the Oakland-Berkeley hills was mostly grassland, with some oak-chaparral woodlands, riparian vegetation and patches of redwood (all of which had...

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...

CCC Co. 117 (S53) out of Tamworth NH was involved in road construction on Mt. Willard, Crawford Notch.

After the Public Works Administration (PWA) financed the construction of Lake Anza  in Tilden Park by damming Wildcat Creek, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed the Bath House and ancillary buildings, c 1940.   This work was part of a major New Deal effort to aid the East Bay Regional Parks District (EBRPD) in improving its four original parks and making them available for public recreation in the 1930s.  The Bath House has been demolished and replaced by a newer and larger structure.     

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the modern Wildcat Canyon Road, c 1939-42.  Wildcat Canyon Road runs along the west side of Tilden Park, then crosses the park and continues over the East Bay hills down to Orinda. The WPA relief workers upgraded and paved an old dirt road, building retaining walls, adding culverts and constructing the bridge over Wildcat Creek at the junction with South Park Drive. Wildcat Canyon Road is intersected by Shasta Road at the point where it turns east,  by South Park Drive at the Botanical Gardens, and by Inspiration Point Road at the east ridge line. 

The Alley Dwelling Authority (ADA) and the United States Housing Authority (USHA) funded the construction of the Parkside Dwellings in Washington, DC, between 1941 and 1943. This housing project was described being at Kenilworth Avenue and Barnes Lane, N.E., and “near the old Benning race track” (Evening Star, 1942). Today, that location is in the vicinity of Parkside Playground, Thomas Elementary School, Cesar Chavez Public Charter School, and Mayfair Mansions Apartments (the latter sits on the site of the old Benning race track). Barnes Lane is now called Barnes “Street.” It is unknown to the Living New Deal if Parkside Dwellings still...

The Alley Dwelling Authority (ADA) funded the construction of the V Street Houses in Washington DC between 1936 and 1938. It appears that the V Street Houses no longer exist. They were described as being constructed “in the square directly west of that containing the Williston Apartments” (National Capital Housing Authority report, 1945). Today, however, that area contains houses and apartments that are part of the larger Kelly Miller housing complex. (Note: It is possible that some of the V Street Houses still exist, in modified form, as part of the Kelly Miller townhomes . More research, and a possible on-site evaluation, would probably...