• James Baldwin School Stained Glass Window - New York NY
    The James Baldwin School is one of several schools housed in the Bayard Rustin Educational Complex. When it was constructed in 1931, the whole campus was created as the Textile High School. Though fairly austere outside, the inside of the school was made more interesting by New Deal artists. The lobby of what is now the James Baldwin School contains two, large stained glass windows, collectively titled "Aesthetic Motive." Created by artist G. Gerard Recke in 1936 under the WPA Federal Art Project, the windows are composed of a variety of panels depicting, as one visitor puts it, "students learning grammar,...
  • Abraham Lincoln High School Murals - Brooklyn NY
    Artist Seymour Fogel painted two murals, entitled "African Music and European Music" and "Religious and Modern Music", in the Music Room (Room 327) of the Abraham Lincoln High School in 1936-37.  The New York Schools website shows only a portion of the first mural on its excellent Public Art for Public Schools pages, so it is uncertain if the latter mural is still extant.
  • High School of Fashion Industries - New York NY
    What is now the High School of Fashion Industries began in the 1920s as a vocational program in a garment center loft on West 31 Street. It was intended to train a work force for New York's large garment industry, and most early students were first or second generation immigrants. In 1938, the WPA helped build a new campus for the what was then called the Central High School of Needle Trades. The school was completed in 1941. The school's current website explains that "It’s curriculum was almost entirely vocational, stressing sewing, machine work, and fashion design. It had many ties...
  • Bayard Rustin Educational Complex Murals - New York NY
    This building was originally the Textile High School, then the Straubenmuller Textile High School, then the Charles Evans Hughes High School, before eventually assuming its current title as the Bayard Rustin Educational Complex. It is now an NYC "vertical campus" housing several smaller schools. In addition to a pair of stained glass windows by Gerard Recke, the building contains several large WPA Federal Arts Project murals created by various New Deal artists in 1934-36. In a 1965 oral history, New Deal artist Irving Block said of the high school that "there were many rooms available to us for decoration." In the same...
  • George Washington High School (former) Mural - New York NY
    Lucienne Bloch's mural, "The Evolution of Music", encircles the upper wall of the old music classroom at the former George Washington High School.  As the NY Public Schools Public Art for Public Schools website states: "Among New Deal New York City public school murals, the most outstanding example by a female artist is Lucienne Bloch’s The Evolution of Music, painted in a former high school music room. Bloch was one of the few WPA/FAP artists who had prior training painting murals, and she was well suited to her assignment at George Washington High School.  She had already successfully completed one WPA/FAP fresco...
  • Roman Nose State Park - Watonga OK
    Roman Nose State Park was created with extensive CCC work from 1935 to 1937. From Wayfinding.com: Henry Caruthers Roman Nose was a chief of the southern Cheyenne. Born in 1856, this 600 acres was his federal allotment. He lived here from 1887 until his death in 1917. This is a canyon with bluffs overlooking ancient mesas. Company 2819 of the Civilian Conservation Corps labored to make this area a beautiful sight. Work began on September 10, 1935 and the park was opened on May 16, 1937. The park is located on rolling hills, with gypsum bluffs. Throughout the park, stonework can be...
  • Jackson County Courthouse - Kansas City MO
    "On June 9, 1933, the Jackson County Court awarded a $2,073,609 contract to the Swenson Construction Company for construction of the Jackson County Courthouse.  The opulent Art Deco-style 300-foot tall building would reside alongside Kansas City's skyscrapers and provide much-needed space for the court system.  Equally important, its construction along with dozens of other projects completed as a part of Kansas City’s “Ten Year Plan” would provide jobs to hundreds of beleaguered Kansas City residents then suffering from the economic catastrophe of the Great Depression..."   (https://www.kclibrary.org) The courthouse was completed in 1934 with PWA support.  
  • Prescott Rodeo Grounds - Prescott AZ
    The Prescott Rodeo grounds at the Yavapai County Fairgrounds were constructed with the help of the New Deal in the mid-1930s. Among the improvements to what was then known as the Northern Arizona State Fairground were a large rodeo grandstand, administration buildings, an infirmary, two barracks, a bakery, a kitchen and mess hall, and two water wells.  Many of the buildings no longer exist, but the grandstand is still in use.  It is uncertain whether the stone Doc Pardee building and Danny Freeman building behind the grandstand are also New Deal in origin.  One source (World's Oldest Rodeo) is definite that they were, but...
  • Manning Crevice Bridge - Riggins ID
    This suspension bridge was built by CCC enrollees from the French Creek CCC camp (1896) in 1935. It was named to honor a CCC enrollee who was killed near the bridge. The bridge is 248’ in length and built of creosoted timber with concrete abutments.
  • Boise High School Gym - Boise ID
    The WPA built a new gymnasium for the high school in 1936. According to the school's website: "Students had saved their nickels and dimes and put them in a fund which covered some costs of the structure. The new gym replaced the cracker box located in the basement of the main building. The ceiling in the old gym was so low it interfered with the playing of the game of basketball. The WPA furnished the labor to build the gym." (https://boise.school.boiseschools.org)