Federal & Military Operations Sites

The historic federal building in Waco, Texas was constructed during the Great Depression with Treasury Department funds. The building, which houses New Deal artwork, was constructed as the U.S. Post Office and Courthouse; the facility no longer houses any postal operations.

Like other public buildings from the 1930s, the design and construction of the Austin U.S. Courthouse were part of the federal construction programs enacted to reduce unemployment during the Great Depression. Most notable among the programs was the Public Works Administration that provided thousands of jobs and funding for public service projects; one of the recipients was the Austin U.S. Courthouse. In June 1934, U.S. Congressman J. P. Buchanan requested an appropriation of $415,000 for the construction of a U.S. courthouse in Austin. Groundbreaking took place on September 16, 1935. The building was formally dedicated and opened to the public on...

Now known as the Gene Snyder U.S. Courthouse and Custom House, the historic United States Post Office, Court House and Custom House in Louisville, Kentucky was constructed in 1931-2, before the advent of the New Deal. However, in "1936, with a growing need for more offices and courtrooms, the PWA also funded the addition of the sixth floor."

"Built in 1938 of limestone and granite, the three-story, 118,000-square-foot Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Peoria, Ill., was designed in the Art Moderne style, a streamlined look popular from the late 1920s through the mid 1940s. Public areas feature terrazzo floors, marble clad walls, and decoratively painted ceilings. The U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois is the major tenant. In 2012, the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places." (GSA)

This New Deal Post Office in Beckley was built with Treasury Department funds in 1933.

Now an apartment building, the old Art Modern United States Courthouse and Post Office in Kansas City housed the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri until 1998. The GSA lists significant events in the building's development: 1935: Congress appropriates $3,300,000 for the construction of the new U.S. Post Office and Courthouse building. 1938: The ceremonial cornerstone is laid and construction begins under the supervision of local architects Wight & Wight. 1939: The building opens for business.

Baltimore's third custom house was designed by the firm Hornblower and Marshall and completed 1907. The building was improved several times during the New Deal era, with notable projects including the addition of new passenger and freight elevators. The GSA notes other improvements.

This US Custom House in Portland, Maine was completed in 1872. In 1934, plumbing improvements were made by federal architect Louis A. Simon and federal engineer, George O. Von Nerta.

The historic U.S. Post Office and Courthouse in Ada, Oklahoma was constructed between 1933 and 1934 with federal Treasury Department funds. The building is still in use today.

The historic U.S. Post Office & Courthouse in Enid, Oklahoma was constructed with federal Treasury Department funds. The building was completed in 1941 and is still in use today.

This three-story example of Classical Revival architecture was designed by Edgar Love; Miller, Martin & Lewis. The building, which was constructed and completed in 1936 and which no longer houses a post office, became listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981. It is still in use by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.

The historic former post office and federal courthouse building in Florence, South Carolina was constructed during the early 20th century and received a large addition constructed during the 1930s with federal Treasury Department funds. The extension and remodeling work was completed in 1938. The building is now privately owned.

New Deal funds enabled an addition to the U.S. Post Office and Courthouse in Muskogee. "The U.S. Post Office and Courthouse is an excellent example of the Classical Revival style. Containing five floors plus a basement, the building gives the appearance of only four stories. In 1937-1938, an addition was constructed on the back of the building, and the former storage space on the fifth floor was converted to office space. The upper four floors are organized around a lightwell with corridors ringing the lightwell on the north, east, and south sides. Office space is off the corridor away from the...

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the U.S. Post Office and Courthouse in San Juan was built in 1914 with a New Deal-era addition constructed in 1938-1940. Now known as Jose V. Toledo Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse, the building still houses judicial functions, though postal operations have long since moved out. "The U.S. Post Office and Courthouse in San Juan, Puerto Rico is a three-story, monumental, concrete office structure occupying an entire square block on the southern fringe of the Old San Juan Historic Zone. Built in 1914 ... the original structure was built above the foundations of...

The Great Falls Post Office and Courthouse was built in 1912. It was designed by James Knox Taylor and reflects Late 19th and 20th Century Revivals architecture and Second Renaissance Revival architecture. A New Deal extension was completed in 1938 with James Knox Taylor as the supervising architect. The building has historically served -- and still does -- as a courthouse and as a post office. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

Designed by Henry O. Whitfield in 1915, the U.S. Post Office and Office Building underwent a large expansion during the New Deal. "In 1936 the Treasury Department designed two 3-story wing additions for the main (south) side of the building. These were constructed in 1937-38 forming a "U"-shaped peristyle court. These wings have three floors used for office space and contain open circulation balconies on the first and third floors. The exterior walls facing the court contain 2-story columns with doric capitals which support a lanai above. All the roofs are tiled, with ornamental downspouts used in the court. The courtyard,...

Two major improvements were made to the U.S. Treasury Department building in 1933-34, using funds provided by the Public Works Administration (PWA) and under the supervision of the newly created Procurement Division of the Treasury Department.  The first major improvement was the remodeling of the fourth floor, originally attic space, “into good office space, and air conditioned so as to be a liveable place to work in hot weather of the Summer” (Evening Star, 1933).  The exact cost of this project is unknown, but it was between $140,000 and $200,000 of the PWA funds. The second major improvement to the Treasury building...

The Department of the Interior was the first federal building in Washington, D.C. fully authorized, designed, and built under the Franklin Roosevelt Administration. It was the brainchild of Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes, probably the most powerful member of FDR's cabinet, and later renamed for former Secretary of Interior, Stewart Lee Udall, in 2010. The Department had outgrown the old Interior Building (now the General Services Administration Building) and its agencies were scattered at 15 different sites in the District of Columbia. Funds were allotted by the Public Works Administration (PWA) in 1934, construction began in April 1935 and was...

The historic former U.S. Border Inspection Station at since-demolished Union Bridge in Calais, Maine was constructed with federal Treasury Department funds. The facility, located by the river on Todd Street, was completed in January 1939. The facility, since altered, was sold in 1962. Living New Deal is unsure of the building's present status, though satellite imagery suggests that the building still stands, heavily altered.

This large office building in the Suitland Federal Center –also known as Federal Office Buildings #3 – was constructed by the Public Building Administration (a branch of the Federal Works Agency) in 1941-1942 to be the headquarters of the U.S. Census Bureau, which remained in the building until 2007. Unfortunately, due to deterioration, the building was demolished a few years after that. 

The United States Post Office in Sheridan, Indiana was constructed in 1939 with federal Treasury Department funds.

Anchoring downtown Zeeland, the new one-story 60 by 70 foot post office was built for $68,000. Construction was completed in just seven months, tapping into a pool of unemployed workers available during the New Deal Era. Although the population of Zeeland at that time did not justify such a large post office, Zeeland was then home to 60 hatcheries, shipping up to 13 million live chicks and turkey poults to farmers per year, by rail and through the postal service. The post office opened on December 2, 1935.

Cleveland's historic University Center Station post office was constructed with federal funds in 1935-6. Designed by R. Stanley-Brown, the building houses examples of New Deal artwork.

St. Louis's historic University Station post office was constructed with federal Treasury Department funds during the Great Depression. The building was completed in 1938 and is still in use today. A New Deal mural, "The Louisiana Purchase Exposition," hangs inside.

Seattle's historic University Station post office was constructed ca. 1937 with federal Treasury Department funds. The building, which houses New Deal murals, is still in use today.

The historic Uptown Station post office in Chicago, Illinois was constructed in 1939 with federal Treasury Department funds. The building is still in service and houses an example of New Deal artwork.

The US Coast Guard Station Humboldt Bay at the end of the Samoa Peninsula across from Eureka, Calif0rnia was built in 1936-37 as a federal military project, with the aid of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and its relief workforce. (HABS, p. 17) The structure replaced a considerably smaller station built in 1878, known as the Humboldt Bay Life-Saving Station. This was part of a nationwide effort to upgrade Coast Guard facilities during the administration of Franklin Roosevelt (as ardent sailor and Undersecretary of the Navy in the early 1920s). (The Life-Saving Service and Revenue Cutter Service had been merged to...

The Army Corp. of Engineers was central to New Deal flood control efforts all over the country. The Verdugo Wash in Los Angeles County was one such project. "Verdugo Wash is a 9.4-mile-long (15.1 km) tributary of the Los Angeles River, in the Glendale area of Los Angeles County, California. The stream begins just south of Interstate 210 in the Crescenta Valley. It flows southeast along the eastern edge of the Verdugo Mountains, then south through a pass between those mountains and the San Rafael Hills, and finally west to ultimately join the Los Angeles River just northeast of Griffith Park....

A concrete bridge over the Verdugo Wash constructed by the Army Corp. of Engineers in 1938.

A 100 ft riveted, 5-panel Pratt through truss bridge over the Verdugo Wash.

98 ft. Vierendeel pony truss bridge over the Verdugo wash constructed by the Army Corp. of Engineers.

1 of 3 Vierendeel pony truss design bridges in the US. Built by the Army Corps. of Engineers in 1937. The bridge crosses the Verdugo Wash at Glenoaks Blvd.

A very rare Vierendeel pony truss bridge over Verdugo Wash on Kenilworth Avenue in Glendale Ca. built by the Army Corp. of Engineers.

The Verdugo Wash Bridge is the first significant bridge on US 99 north of downtown Los Angeles. It is a steel girder structure built in 1939 by the US Army Corp of Engineers. The Verdugo Wash was lined with concrete at that time and the bridge was built to accommodate the new channel.

Morton's historic former post office building was constructed in 1937 with federal Treasury Department funds. The building, which housed an example of New Deal artwork (since relocated), served as a post office until the 1970s. It now serves as the Morton Municipal Building and Village Hall.

Originally the post office, this building was constructed under Treasury Department supervision during the New Deal: "The Wappingers Falls Post Office is an architecturally and historically significant public building, deriving exceptional significance from the role that President Franklin D. Roosevelt played in its design and construction. It was among five post offices in New York State built in the regional vernacular style whose design and construction were monitored by Roosevelt. Constructed in 1939-40 in the Colonial Revival style, the post office was modeled loosely after the nearby eighteenth-century Brewer-Mesier house. Although the house was frame, Roosevelt chose fieldstone and brick as...

Red brick and beautiful stone detailing adorn this historic New Deal post office, whose construction began in 1933.

The historic Boulevard Station post office in the Bronx, New York was constructed with federal Treasury Department funds in 1941. The building, which contains a New Deal mural in the lobby, is still in use today.

The Walter Reed National Military Medical Center began life as the National Naval Medical Center under the New Deal. Congress appropriated the funds in 1937 and President Franklin D. Roosevelt selected the site in Bethesda, Maryland.   Architect Paul Cret designed a magnificent Moderne building with a tower that still delights (though much obscured by subsequent additions to the complex).  Construction began in 1939.  FDR laid the cornerstone of the famous tower on Armistice Day 1940, and the center opened soon thereafter (probably some time in 1941, not 1940 as most sources say). According to the official Center website, "The President’s vision was to...

The Washington Channel is a two-mile long body of water that sits between East Potomac Park and the Southwest Waterfront. There had been a decades-long attempt to improve and modernize the area, but little had been done before the New Deal redeveloped the entire place from 1935 to 1943. Several pieces of New Deal legislation were needed for this massive project, including the River and Harbor Act of 1935 and the War Department Civil Appropriations Act of 1939.  These granted approval and provided initial and supplemental funding for a grand modernization and beautification of the Washington Channel and Southwest Waterfront. This...