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Constructed in 1935-37 with WPA labor, the 26,500-seat stadium came as part of a massive New Deal project to expand New Orleans’s City Park. Richard Koch, an architect on the park board and the architectural firm of Weiss, Dreyfous and Seifert, designed the stadium. The architectural firm had reached national exposure after Governor P. Huey Long selected it in 1934 to design the new Art Deco State Capitol in Baton Rouge. Built of poured reinforced concrete, the stadium’s upper seating rests on a series of stout columns arranged in an oval, allowing for curved seating. The space between the terrace seating and...

"In mid-February 1941, Congress appropriated $693,125 to the WPA to construct three 3,500-foot runways and appropriate navigational aids. With the full cooperation of the Owls Head Board of Selectmen, the principal parties signed a formal agreement in early March, and within an hour after the receipt of the Civil Aeronautics Administration certificate of navigation on April 24, 1941, construction began, with 10 men digging test pits under the direction of Rockland civil engineer Franklin H. Wood... By the summer of 1941, the WPA employed more than 100 men to clear the land and construct the runways. With the growing world crisis...

Located in the Faubourg Marigny neighborhood, downriver from the French Quarter, Lautenschlaeger Market was constructed in 1901 as a public open air market. In the late 1930s, the City of New Orleans owned 19 public markets, many of which had fallen into disrepair and were threatened by demolition. The city turned to the WPA, which financed the improvement of eight of them under the Market Rehabilitation program, spearheaded by Mayor Robert Maestri. Maestri, a New Dealer elected to office in 1936, used work relief programs, according to historian Anthony J. Stanonis, “to change the physical appearance of the cityscape as...

The Robert LaFleur Airport is a small general aviation airport in Waterville. It was originally opened in 1931. A 2011 history of the airport explains the federal involvement in its development. In a 1933 town report, Mayor Thayer explains that: "In order to secure improvement for the airport— a very desirable improvement for the community—the City has entered into an agreement of lease, with option to purchase, with the owners of the airport, this condition being precedent to any activity by the Civil Works Administration. This contract will not involve any expense to the City of Waterville but will result in...

A 1938 report from the Los Angeles Department of Playground and Recreation describes the WPA's role in creating the Rancho Cienega recreation area: "Forerunner of the great regional recreation centers of the future, the Rancho Cienega Playground was the outstanding addition to the Los Angeles recreation system in 1938. The area comprises thirty acres in the southwest section of the city, along Exposition Boulevard near La Brea Avenue. It is the largest municipal playground devoted exclusively to sports and recreation within the city. The site was donated by Mrs. Anita M. Baldwin in response to a request made by the Los...

The Pontalba Buildings flank Jackson Square in the heart of the French Quarter in New Orleans.  The Upper Pontalba Building lies on the west side of the square along St. Peter Street, the Lower Pontalba Building on the east side on St. Ann Street.  Both are block-long structures, four stories in height, built of brick and graced with the ironwork typical of buildings in the French Quarter. They were originally built in the 1840s. The two building were the gift of the Baroness de Pontalba, who wished to improve the appearance of Jackson Square – then the center of the city....

The South Llano River Bridge is a 1424 foot steel through truss bridge with a 24-foot wide roadway that carries Texas State Highway Loop 481 over the South Llano River in Junction, Texas. The bridge replaced a functionally obsolete truss bridge with a 14-foot roadway that flooding had damaged in 1935. Although repaired, the Texas Highway Department engineers felt a sense of urgency to replace the old bridge. The new bridge was built between 1936 and 1937 with federal aid funds. A bronze plaque embedded in the railing at each entrance to the bridge identifies the Texas Highway Department and...

The Burr's Ferry Bridge is built over the Sabine River where Texas State Highway 63 and Louisiana State Highway 8 meet. The bridge consists of three Parker though truss spans and 34 concrete girder spans. At the time the bridge project was under consideration, the road was an "improved dirt road," reportedly impassable much of the year with a toll ferry across the Sabine River. Congress passed the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act on April 8, 1935. This act gave Texas and Louisiana grant money for road and bridge construction. Projects funded under this act were subject to special labor provisions. Among...

The Jerome County Courthouse in Jerome, Idaho was constructed with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) in 1938-1939. Jerome County received a $39,150 dollar grant from the WPA regional office in Portland, Oregon toward an estimated cost of $87,000 for the project. The county had already passed a bond election to provide its part of the funds for construction. The modest sized courthouse features a relatively flamboyant Moderne (Art Deco) style on the facade.  The designers were Sundberg & Sundberg and the contractor was Paul Kartzke. The entrance lobby appears relatively unchanged. A new addition has been made to the east end...

Record flooding of the Salt Fork Red River occurred on June 15, 1938, damaging the bridge for then State Highway 52 (now State Highway 203). Deemed unsalvageable by Texas Highway Department Engineers, plans were made for a replacement bridge. The funds for the bridge were jointly allocated by the Texas Highway Department and the Federal Works Agency, each of which committed $80,000. The new bridge was built seventy-five yards north of the previous bridge. This new location was chosen for its stable red clay and shale bedrock which would help prevent future flood damage. When letting for the contract was concluded,...