Civil Works Administration (CWA) Sites

The federal Civil Works Administration (C.W.A.) conducted "much needed repairs" to Dover Massachusetts's Town Hall in 1933. Next year the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (F.E.R.A.) regraded the town hall grounds, and also painted the building.

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) painted Chapman, Nebraska's town hall.

The federal Civil Works Administration (C.W.A.) and Federal Emergency Relief Administration (F.E.R.A.) furnished the cost of labor for the painting—interior and exterior—Hatfield, Massachusetts Town Hall. The project employed two painters between March 1 and July 15, 1934. The C.W.A. paid $203.40 for the labor for the month of March, and F.E.R.A. contributed $586.20. The Town of Hatfield supplied only $169.45, the cost of materials for the project.

The Civil Works Administration funded municipal improvements in Acton ME between 1933 and 1940.  Acton is a rural town (1930 population 449) in York County situated next to the New Hampshire border.   

In 1934 The Foxboro Reporter wrote that Civil Works Administration labor was used to improve and redecorate the town offices of Foxboro, Massachusetts.

Multiple New Deal agencies: the Civil Works Administration, Federal Emergency Relief Administration, and Works Progress Administration, helped to develop Canonsburg, Pennsylvania's Town Park in 1934—1936. In addition to constructing its pool and Park Drive, work relief workers—according to a local the submitter met during a visit in 2017—constructed paths and staircases, stone pillars at park entrances, walls, and picnic facilities. It is unclear exactly to what extent the original Depression-era structures have been preserved. The Works Progress Administration (WPA), "approved an appropriation of more than $10,000 to complete the bath house. Another $20,000 was approved for general improvement of the park...

The 1934 town report under town appropriations says that $1500.00 was spent on "Wharf C.W.A. Fed. project" It is located behind the hardware store and is used by the the town fire department according to a recent selectmen report. A playground and small beach for residents are at the location also.

Cairo, Illinois's old (and since-demolished) Marine Hospital was located between 10th and 12th St., Cedar St. and Jefferson Ave.  As part of Federal Project F-26: Improving Facilities for Sheltering Transients, the federal Civil Works Administration (CWA) rehabilitated the hospital in 1933-4 "as a shelter for whites and a two-story structure was put in shape to care for colored transients. The work involved the installation of heating and toilet facilities, painting, plastering, glazing, and general repair."

Multiple New Deal agencies: the CWA, FERA, and WPA, worked to restore the historic Trent House in Trenton, New Jersey between 1934 and 1936. "The WPA work consisted of cleaning and pointing the brick on the Trent House and caretaker's home, painting work, building a wall surrounding the property, laying walks on the grounds, installing shutters inside the Trent House, and grading the grounds. WPA funds for the work were $9,081.89. The late J. Osborn Hunt was the architect of the work until his death, and he was succeeded by Samuel Mountford.

"Triangle Park, the three sided “square” in Kemmerer, got a heavy dose of fertilizer and horticultural attention," as the Civil Works Administration (CWA) worked to improve the park.

National Archives records report that in 1933-34 the Civil Works Administration (CWA) did work on a tuberculosis sanitarium at 14th and Upshur in Washington D.C. There is no longer a sanitarium at this location, and it appears to have been demolished and replaced by the apartment building at 4120 14th St.

"More than 4000 artifacts and hundreds of Indian burials were excavated at the site of the Yokut Indian village near Taft, California in 1933-34. Dr. William Duncan Strong, of the Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE), headed the Tulamniu C.W.A. Project SLF-73 with Winslow Walker, also of the BAE, as assistant director. The excavations were one of a number of archaeological projects organized and financed by the Civil Works Administration as a means of reducing unemployment. Artifacts and skeletal materials were shipped to the United States National Museum for study after completion of the field work. This collection of material was...

The Tumacácori National Monument was set aside by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1908 to protect the ruins of the Mission of San Jose de Tumacacori.  In 1918, it came under the administration of the National Park Service and its regional 'custodian', Frank Pinkley.  Congress created the Tumacácori National Historic Park in 1990, adding the ruins of two nearby missions, Los Santos Angeles de Guevavi and San Cayetano de Calabazas. Under the park service's guidance, Tumacácori mission church and its dependencies were stabilized in 1920-21, but intentionally not fully restored.  Only with the aid of the New Deal did the park come...

The concrete, one-story building was constructed in 1934 at a then-cost of $11,000, of which the county furnished $4,000 and the federal Civil Works Administration (CWA) furnished the remainder. The structure was designed by A. H. Town and N. W. Overstreet. The building features typical Art Deco massing and vertical architectural ornamentation. It was designated a Mississippi landmark status in 2004.

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Co. 2580 began construction on the commissary. The CCC Camp was abandoned in March 1942 and the commissary was only seventy percent complete. The commissary was eventually completed by park personnel and opened to the public later that year. The commissary is now used as a nature center.

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) built a clubhouse and completed improvements at the Warren District Country Club, located between Bisbee and Naco. The CWA began the project and the WPA finished it. The University of Arizona Libraries Digital Collections describe the work done by the WPA: "The first nine holes at the Turquoise Valley Golf Course were constructed with funds from the Works Progress Administration. They remain largely unchanged -- still challenging -- since their completion in 1936. The Turquoise Valley Golf Course is the oldest continuously operated course in Arizona. The Clubhouse, constructed from...

Tuzigoot is an ancient hilltop settlement of the Sinagua people, c 1100-1400 A.D.  It is one of the largest of scores of such settlements throughout the Verde River valley of Northern Arizona.  By the 20th century, the buildings on the site, made of stone and adobe, had fallen completely to ruin. The New Deal aided in the archeological reconstruction of the site in the early 1930s.  The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) began providing funds in October 1933 and this was continued under the Civil Works Administration (CWA) from November 1933 to June 1934.  This allowed for the hiring of two archeologists and...

The field house at Twin Oaks Playground was constructed by the Civil Works Administration (CWA) relief crews in 1933-34. The playground itself dates to 1920.  Originally a "white" playground in Washington’s segregated playground system, Twin Oaks was officially opened to all children in 1953. The 1-½ story field house follows the Colonial Revival design developed by municipal architect Albert L. Harris after the vernacular Hall-and-Parlor houses of the Tidewater region, a regionally appropriate style that was informal and good for recreation areas. In 1936, the Washington Post reported that Works Progress Administration (WPA) crews had also done work on the Twin Oaks Playground,...

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 a dual carriageway that is now U.S. 13, through Smyrna, down to Bishops Corner, a place name for a community that lay just northeast of Cheswold, and through to Dover. The CWA also developed a road from Smyrna to White House, Delaware, and the construction continued north from Smyrna; the exact location and name of the road in question is unknown to Living New Deal. An average...

The federal Civil Works Administration constructed is now U.S. 17 in the vicinity of Murrells Inlet, South Carolina. "Near Murrell's Inlet, Route #49, C.W.A. Project #97, Georgetown County, South Carolina". The Civil Works Administration operated from November 1933-March 1934 and helped to employ nearly four million men during the Great Depression. The men worked to build and improve bridges, roads and public oriented buildings. SC Route 49 became a part of US 17 in 1935." (Georgetown County Digital Library) A photo of the work is available at the source links below.

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 on (including the grading and paving of) what is now U.S. 40, between the Maryland border and Glasgow, Delaware, and east to Bear. The highway was then a state route. 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 Soldiers' Home was established in 1851, as an "asylum for old and disabled veterans." Four of the original buildings still stand and are listed as national historic landmarks.  The U.S. Soldiers' and Airmen's Home remains a thriving community of military retirees and veterans in the heart of Washington DC. In 1934, the Civil Works Administration (CWA) reconstructed and repaired buildings and machinery at the site, did general landscaping and painting, built two storehouses, tiled the milk house and built roads, according to records at the National Archives In 1938-39, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) did extensive work at the facility. WPA records...

In 1933-34, the Civil Works Administration (CWA) worked at the United States Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home National Cemetery repairing the grounds and cleaning tombstones.  It is one of the country’s oldest national cemeteries, the final resting place for more than 14,000 veterans, mostly from the Civil War

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) or Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), possibly both, completed the dam and Lake Kunkal in 1939. The 25 acre lake is impounded by an earthen dam. There are also concrete steps on dam's south face.

The concept of a library in Ulysses was started by the Womans Club in 1914, when Mrs. Beatty suggested the idea. A committee formed to find a location to house the collection of books, and another to form rules and regulations. It formally opened in 1916 in Mr. Hardin’s Drug Store, and was open on Tuesdays and Saturdays. It moved around to various businesses a great deal, and books had to be locked up by necessity. In 1919, the library applied to the township for an appropriation to help defray costs of the operation of the library, and received a...

Improvements were made to the Millbury, Massachusetts's old Union School (high school) building and grounds with the assistance of federal New Deal funds. The old high school is now the Mary Elizabeth McGrath Educational Center. The Civil Works Administration provided labor for a grounds grading project begun in 1933. At the same time Federal Emergency Relief Act funds enabled a retaining wall repair project and other building improvements, including the painting of the "outside woodwork." The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) redecorated the interior of the building in 1937 and continued retaining wall reconstruction. The National Youth Administration conducted miscellaneous improvements...

"The University of Iowa Theatre Building was completed in 1936 during the depths of the Great Depression. How did a public university in Iowa, a state hard-hit by economic collapse and unemployment, ever see fit to build a theatre at such a time? The answers are unique to the time: “New Deal” politics, a surge of pride in regional art and arts, and E.C. Mabie, “the Boss,” who had big plans and the drive to see the plans through... The Federal Theatre Project (FTP), also part of Federal One, was formally announced in Iowa City at the National Theatre Conference in...

Taylor Stadium, also known as Rollie Greeno Track and Al Cassel Field, was built in 1934-35 by the CWA: "The stadium was originally named Roosevelt Stadium, but later re-named for Frank B. Taylor, long time Dean of the College and a sports enthusiast. It was a Civilian Works Administration project of the depression years." The stadium was renovated in 1985 and again in 1999.

The main campus of the University of Puerto Rico was founded in 1903 in Río Piedras.  Part of the campus, including the athletic field, was built with the help of the PRRA. "In 1924 the Chicago firm of urbanists Bennett, Parsons and Frost were contacted to design a master plan for the future development of the University. It wasn’t until 1935, with the establishment of the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration (PRRA) and the large sum of federal funds that it invested for public works in Puerto Rico, that the partial design and construction of the so-called Plan Parson began. Under the supervision...

The University of South Carolina was the beneficiary of a large influx of New Deal funds from various agencies throughout the Great Depression. In "The Prosperity of the Depression," the university's website writes the following with regard to this era of the campus's history: "It is interesting to note that almost as many buildings were built during the Depression as during the period 1908-1930. A world economic crisis occurred in 1929, the harbinger of the Great Depression. Even before that, in 1927, state appropriations for permanent improvements had ended. On the one hand, the Great Depression meant severe financial constraints for the...

The Civil Works Administration built two bridges in 1934 to carry Shoal Creek Boulevard over Shoal Creek. The Upper Shoal Creek Bridge structure consists of a shallow concrete arch between concrete piers. The Lower Shoal Creek Bridge structure consists of flat concrete slabs between concrete piers. The two lane bridges are open to traffic and are contributing structures to the Old West Austin Historic District, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 12, 2003.

The Civil Works Administration carried out road improvement work in Arecibo. The work consisted of building retaining walls for the road to Utuado.

Danville, Illinois's Veterans' Administration Facility was improved as part of Federal Project F-55. The federal Civil Works Administration (CWA) conducted interior and exterior painting and decoration work at buildings on the grounds. The project "carried authorization of $3,100 for materials and a quota of 24 workers."

Researcher Frank da Cruz explains: "Van Cortlandt Golf Course occupies the center of Van Cortlandt Park. When it opened in 1895, it was the nation's first municipal golf course, and the first one open to the public. Worked on and ultimately heavily modified by the Parks Department using New Deal funding and relief labor, 1936-1941." The golf course was improved with funds from the CWA, TERA, and WPA.

"During the 1930s, the Civil Works Administration crews altered the plan of Vander Veer Park by removing corner entrances at Brady and Lombard, and at Harrison and Lombard."

The original Vereins-Kirche (Society Church) was the first public building in Fredericksburg. It was used for church services by the different denominations in early Fredericksburg. “The Vereins-Kirche was also used as Fredericksburg's first school, established under Leyendecker in 1847, and also as a town hall, a fortress, a sanctuary, and, in 1896, a pavilion for Fredericksburg's fiftieth anniversary celebration. In 1897, however, having fallen into disuse and disrepair and regarded as an obstruction to traffic on Main Street, the Vereins-Kirche was torn down. When the Gillespie County Historical Society was formed in 1934, its first goal was the construction of...

The federal Civil Works Administration (CWA) employed hundreds of men constructing what was known as "Veribest Road" in 1934-5. The road is likely Farm-to-Market Road 380.

Originally known simply as the playground at 99 Thompson St., this was one of fourteen new playgrounds throughout New York to open in August, 1934.  The labor and materials for all these playgrounds were provided by "Work Relief funds." Given the timing, Relief funds mentioned most likely came at least partly from the CWA. The Parks Department press release announcing the opening described this playground as containing: "Recreation building, a wading pool in the center of the play area, and usual apparatus for small children including sand tables, see-saws and slides. This is distinctly a playground for small children." At the time, the park...

Construction of Veterans Field was one of dozens of projects undertaken with federal labor at the beginning of the New Deal era during the 1930s. "In 1934, initial plans called for a skating/hockey rink, ball field, tennis court and a general playground, with the work to be performed by the Civil Works Administration (CWA) which later became the ERA, a program designed to 'give relief to needy people through direct work or work relief.' These work projects were later shifted to the Works Projects Administration (WPA). The North Avenue - Church Street project was one of 92 completed projects carried out...

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) provided labor for the improvement of the Veterans Hospital in Wappingers Falls, New York.