Civil Works Administration (CWA) Sites

Nashua Airport at Boire Field is a public use airport located northwest of Nashua. Municipal reports from the 1930s detail New Deal assistance building the airport. A 1934 report explained that local authorities had been authorized to buy land, which was "acquired to be developed as a C. W. A. Project, and to be used as an Airport." Work on the project by the CWA and FERA began that year. The 1935 report stated that with FERA support a "modern brick hangar and administration building" were erected. More of the landing field was prepared. In 1936, the WPA began helping with...

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) conducted an improvement project at Nashville National Cemetery, providing work for about 35 laborers.

The 445-mile parkway follows the general path of the old Natchez Trace, originally a footpath for Native American Choctaw and Chickasaw (Littman). The parkway runs from Natchez, Mississippi, across the northeast corner of Alabama, and into Tennessee. The Northern Terminus (Tupelo-Nashville) ends just out of Nashville after passing by Franklin, Tennessee. The final leg of the parkway was completed in 1996 (Littman). Representative Thomas J. Busby of Mississippi introduced the first of the bills into Contgress to construct a paved road along the route of the old Trace. Work began under the Public Works Administration, and included the Works Project...

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) – an emergency job-creation arm of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) – reconstructed the bathhouse for two  recreational swimming pools near the Washington Monument in the National Mall during the winter of 1933-34. The work consisted of the following (in the terse format of an annual report of the DC government):  “Graded, fenced, wrecked 45 percent of existing locker-house, remodeled remainder with check-rooms, increased toilet facilities.”  The swimming pools and the bathhouse were soon removed, however, during a complete reconstruction of the Washington Monument grounds, and the area was graded and landscaped. (Daily News 1936).  The...

The New Deal years 1933 to 1941 were arguably the best years in the history of the National Zoo, thanks to the many projects undertaken by the Roosevelt Administration.  Labor was provided by work-relief programs — the Civil Works Administration (CWA), Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), and Works Progress Administration (WPA) — and construction was funded by the Public Works Administration (PWA) and, later, the Federal Works Agency (FWA). New Deal agencies built or improved virtually every aspect of the zoo.  The PWA paid for a new elephant house and small mammal house and an addition to the bird house.  It funded...

The south wing of the Bird House at National Zoo – which had been left off the original building in 1927-28 – was constructed in 1936 with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA). It completed the the imposing, Romanesque style Bird House, adding space for more cages/exhibits and housing the Bird Resource Center. The PWA contributed around $1 million to several zoo improvement projects in the 1930s, including new elephant house, a small mammal house and an addition to the bird house.  The separate cost of the Bird House addition is undetermined.  The original building had been design by Albert Harris and the...

From 1933 to 1941, New Deal relief workers added a number of new animal exhibit areas to the National Zoo, as well as improving existing enclosures.  The following are sketches of the significant work performed at a dozen areas, taken from the Zoo’s annual reports, with the relevant relief agency and years in parentheses.  Many of these exhibit improvements appear to still exist today, as shown in the photographs below.  Further verification is needed, but much of the stone and concrete work is typical of the New Deal era. Antelope and wild sheep exhibit “Replacing old and unsatisfactory frame structure by a series...

Multiple New Deal agencies performed work in and around Natrona County High School in Casper, Wyoming, notably constructing athletic facilities. The Civil Works Administration (C.W.A.) began construction of "a stadium for the athletic field at Natrona County High School in Casper," work that was completed under the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (F.E.R.A.). Casper Star-Tribune: "CONSTRUCTION of Casper's new $48,000 stadium under the CWA end later the ERA during 1934 rounded out the athletic facilities of Natrona County High school to the most complete and finest of any school from colleges on down in the Rocky Mountain states, and further boosted Carper's eminence...

The Navy-Merchant Marine Memorial, located in Lady Bird Johnson Park on Columbia Island, is a statue honoring sailors of the United States Navy and the United States Merchant Marine who died at sea during World War I. It was designed in 1922 by Harvey Wiley Corbett and sculpted by Ernesto Begni del Piatta. The monument was not erected until 1934, when it was installed with New Deal support as part of a larger Capital Parks improvement program. It is likely that the first installation was done with the help of Civil Works Administration (CWA) relief labor. Nevertheless, lack of funds meant that...

Per the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, the Civil Works Administration (CWA) supplied labor toward constructing a large trail from Nenana, Alaska in 1934: the unemployed men of Nenana had cut eighteen and a half miles of winter trail from Nenana to Totatlanika Canyon, as part of the first project allotted by the CWA for this community. In detail, the report shows that the total man hours worked was 1920, and the amount of money expended $1,584.63. One and a half miles of old trail was used and about seventeen miles of new trail. Thirteen miles of the new trail is 10...

The Alabama Relief Administration/Civil Works Administration paved 3.7 miles of road in New Castle AL. "Probably the most important single piece of work was the paving of the above road, which is 3.7 miles in length. This road is a heavily traveled feeder road connecting with United States Highway Number 31 at Lewisburg and serves the mining community in the neighborhood of New Castle and the farming section North of New Castle, and leads up into Blount County." "This was formerly a macadam road which was graded and reworked. A limestone base was laid and then consolidated with road machine and left...

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) added a jail to the existing Newton County courthouse in Decatur, Mississippi during the Great Depression as a part of a temporary job creation program under the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). It was demolished in 1972, along with the courthouse, in order to build a new courthouse on the same site.

Elmira, New York's former Nick Street, which no longer exists, was repaved by the federal Civil Works Administration (CWA) in 1934. "Another project approved is the repaving of Nicks Street, which connects State Street and Exchange Place in the rear of stores on East Water Street. The stones will be removed and relaid on a new foundation." State Street, replaced by Route 14, no longer exists in this location; Exchange Place and Nicks Street have both been removed as well. However, old municipal maps, such as the one shown on this page, present the area in question with all relevant streets intact.

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) conducted improvement and repair work at the Niobrara County Courthouse in Lusk, Wyoming. Cassity: "In Lusk, the courthouse and library were both about a decade old, but had, during the hard times of the 1920s, fallen into disrepair, and the CWA brought to both much-needed renewal."

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) conducted improvement and repair work at the Niobrara County Library in Lusk, Wyoming. Cassity: "In Lusk, the courthouse and library were both about a decade old, but had, during the hard times of the 1920s, fallen into disrepair, and the CWA brought to both much-needed renewal."

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) supplied labor toward the construction of an a "landing field out in front of Nome," a likely reference to what is now Nome City Field Airport.

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) installed the North 10th Street trunk line sewer in Nebraska City, Nebraska in 1934.

A photograph at the U of Washington shows workers clearing land for an airstrip. E.R.A. - K.C.D., Proj. 2749, Mar. 19, 1934, Neg. 7; North Bend Airport From Google Maps, there is no trace of an airport at the location marked by topographic maps.

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) conducted a project "laying sewer pipe in the new storm sewer lines being installed on North Broadway" to preclude flooding along the street in Shawnee, Oklahoma.

Two New Deal work relief programs: the Civil Works Administration (CWA) and Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) were responsible for the construction of a dam north of Black Mountain, North Carolina, part of a massive project to improve the water supply for Asheville. Work at the site also included construction of a chlorination plant and caretaker's house for said. The status of the structures is unknown to Living New Deal. Asheville Citizen-Times: "Begun Under CWA In 1933, Resumed By FERA In 1934 With completion of the North Pork water line project by forces of the North Carolina Emergency Relief administration recently, the supply...

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) conducted a sewer project on North Street in York, Pennsylvania.

The Public Works Administration (PWA) gave the Arizona State Teachers College a grant of $105,000 and a loan of $313,000 to build housing on the campus – today's Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff.  These were North Hall, expansion of Taylor Hall and Cottage City (see links to these projects at right).  The grant and loan also provided for the  installation of a new heating system for the campus and fire escapes for all buildings.   In addition, a Civil Works Administration (CWA) project in 1933-34 allowed the campus to fence the athletic field and build bleachers, add roads and curbs, and remove an old...

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) conducted improvement work on Northern Road in Minocqua, Wisconsin: the CWA "started widening, brushing and filling to establish a grade on Northern road ..."

"The Civil Works Administration and the Federal Emergency Relief Administration funded the construction of a stadium dedicated at Northside School in September 1934." The former Northside School and the gym have since been demolished.

Delaware utilized substantial federal resources in developing and improving its road network during the Great Depression. Among the dozens of projects undertaken by the federal Civil Works Administration (C.W.A.) during 1934 was construction along Oak Hill Road in the southwest corner of the 19734 ZIP code of Townsend. An average of 1,410 were put to work each week during 1934 as a result of the CWA’s road, sidewalk, bridge, and other related infrastructure efforts in Delaware.  

The federal Civil Works Administration (CWA) constructed a gymnasium at the old high school for the Oakhurst school district in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina (now within the city limits of Charlotte). The structure, whose exact location is unknown to Living New Deal, no longer exists. "The Long Creek High School Gymnasium was one of eight facilities of its general type constructed in Mecklenburg County under the arrangements outlined above, the others being at the high schools then in the local school districts of Huntersville, Paw Creek, Pineville, Sharon, Oakhurst, Berryhill, and Bain. Only the Long Creek Gymnasium survives from this initial...

Oakwood Cemetery in Parsons, Kansas was improved by work undertaken by the Civil Works Administration (CWA). "Plans of the commissioners call for employing ... 42 on work in Oakwood cemetery, mainly building a retaining wall."

Numerous New Deal agencies had a tremendous impact on the development of Ocmulgee National Monument, the site of pre-Columbian southeastern settlement dating back millennia. "The largest dig ever conducted in this country occurred here at Ocmulgee and the surrounding area. Between 1933 and 1936, over 800 men in Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration (WPA), Civil Works Administration (CWA), Federal Emergency Relief Administration (ERA & FERA) and later the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) excavated under the direction of Dr. Arthur R. Kelly from the Smithsonian Institute. Kelly was the only archaeologist at the Ocmulgee camp and conducted evening training courses for the men....

Researcher Frank da Cruz reasons persuasively here that this playground beside the Jerome Park Reservoir was a New Deal project: "t Reservoir and Sedgwick Avenues to Old Fort Four Park (its proper name according to the Parks Department website), but labeled as Fort Four Playground. It was opened in late 1934, some months before Strong Street Playground at the other end of Washington's Walk. Not the press releases, nor any other material I can find, give any credit to the New Deal for this park but since it was built in the same time frame on the same street...

Believed to be what is now known as West Lake Road north of Turnersville, Pennsylvania, what was then 'old Highway 322' was re-developed by multiple New Deal agencies. The Civil Works Administration (CWA) started work on the grading and filling project in 1934, and it was completed in 1941 by the Work Projects Administration (WPA).

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) conducted road improvement work along what had been the Lincoln Highway through Rawlins, Wyoming.

In 1934, The Civil Works Administration built a latrine and wading pool on land in the Olmos Creek floodplain. The City Council of San Antonio named the area Franklin Fields in 1940, presumably in honor of President Franklin Roosevelt. The area was to be "fully developed as a natural forest area and to include various fields, all manner of recreation facilities, as well as for the purpose of conservation and the preservation of the natural beauty of this place." The park received additional federal funds for development in July 1940, when the park was designated a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp....

Orchard Beach is an artificial beach 6,000 feet long on Pelham Bay in Pelham Bay Park on the east side of The Bronx, built by WPA workers under the direction of the New York City Parks Department. It required a major reconfiguration of the shoreline and sand imported from the Atlantic coast.  It included many auxillary improvements, most notably a large bathhouse behind the beach.  Researcher Frank da Cruz sums up New Deal involvement in developing the area based on multiple Parks Department press releases from the 1930s: "Orchard Beach  created by the federal Work Projects Administration (WPA) from a plan developed in...

The Civil Works Administration conducted improvement work on Oxmoor Road in Homewood, Alabama. CWA Project No. 37-C-99. Work began Jan. 8, 1934; 60% complete as of Mar. 31, 1934.

Work: A Journal of Progress reported on Civil Works Administration (CWA) relief work at Oxon Run in the southeast District in 1933-1934, which included “lowering the stream bed in some sections, straightening out bends and clearing away debris to increase the rapidity of the run off of water.”

The Palisades Interstate Park system, a major beneficiary of New Deal public works projects, spans New York and New Jersey and stretches from The Palisades—cliffs overlooking the Hudson River in sight of Manhattan—to forested hills dotted with lakes in the western Hudson Highlands. The park system was founded in 1900 through the activism of women’s clubs that fought to protect the Palisades
from quarrying. They were aided by some of the richest men in America, among them J.P. Morgan, the Rockefellers and the Harriman family. Mixing civic idealism and the desire to preserve the beauty of their own region, they purchased or...

The Civil Works Administration built the Alpine Pavilion in Palisades Interstate Park in Alpine NJ. Built in 1934 and used as a bathhouse until 1944, the Pavilion was restored in 2016 and is used for picnics and gatherings.

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) built the Bloomer's Beach Bathhouse and Refreshment Stand in the Palisades Interstate Park in Englewood Cliffs NJ. The Palisades Interstate Park Bathhouse served swimmers in the Hudson River until swimming at the beach was terminated during World War II. Since then, the Bathhouse has fallen into ruin, but the refreshment stand remains. The CWA also built the picnic pavilion at the nearby Englewood Picnic Area. By the 1920s the Englewood Picnic Area and Boat Basin was a vigorous facility with swimming, boating basin, picnicking, and ferry service that brought visitors from upper Manhattan. New Deal workers added a snack bar...

The Henry Hudson Drive provides access to sections of the Palisades Interstate Park in New Jersey located on the banks of the Hudson River. The section of the drive from the Englewood Cliffs entrance to the Edgewater entrance were built by New Deal laborers.  (A section to the north of this portion precedes the New Deal.) Three New Deal agencies—the Civil Works Administration, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and the Works Progress Administration—were involved in the construction of the road. Further north, the Alpine Approach Road and its retaining walls in the northern section of the park were also built by New Deal...

The Civil Works Administration and the Puerto Rico Emergency Relief Administration carried out new road construction on Palomas Road in Comerio.