The Astronomers Monument at Griffith Observatory is one of L. Archibald Garner’s well-known public works. It was completed in 1934 with Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) support. The Monument pays homage to six great astronomers: Hipparchus, Nicolas Copernicus, Galileo… read more
The Half Dome cables, originally installed in 1920 by the Sierra Club, were replaced and strengthened by Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees in 1934. These cables allow thousands of people each year to hike to the top of this famous… read more
The Public Works Administration (PWA) paid for the reconstruction of Washington Middle School in Long Beach, CA, after the school was heavily damaged in the 1933 Long Beach earthquake. The school reopened in 1935. According to the school’s website, Washington… read more
The Prairie Creek Fish Hatchery near Orick was one of the first local hatcheries developed in California to improve sport and commercial fishing. It was constructed in 1936 by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) on the 62-acre site of a… read more
Carmel’s Forest Theater was established in 1910, when Carmel-by-the-Sea was founded as an artists’ colony (and real estate speculation). Since then, it has been a fixture of the Carmel scene and the life of the city. The was deeded… read more
The large Eureka Municipal Auditorium was built with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) in 1935-36. While it retains the old name, etched in bas-relief above the entrance, the building now appears to be used as a gymnasium for… read more
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Civic Center Building was originally constructed for the federal Farm Credit Administration, an agency created by the early New Deal to provide credit to farmers in difficulty and to stimulate investment in the farm sector. It… read more
“San Franciscos Hetch Hetchy water system, completed in 1934, is a 167-mile, gravity-driven network of dams, reservoirs, tunnels, pump stations, aqueducts and pipelines that collects Tuolumne River runoff on federal land near the Yosemite Valley and transports it to the… read more
This mural “Lumbering, Agriculture and Mining” was moved from the original location to the new Sonora High School Library in 1976: “Acclaimed watercolor artist George Post was hired by the [Works Progress Administration] in 1936. His first assignment was a… read more
The U.S. Treasury Department built the Santa Clara post office in 1935. The building style is Mission Revival, which was popular for houses and civic buildings during the interwar period. It is also the site of Michael von Meyer’s 1937… read more