• Downtown Post Office Mural - Burbank CA
    In 1940, Barse Miller painted a two-panel mural at the Downtown Post Office in Burbank, CA. The project was funded by the Section of Fine Arts (SFA) under the newly-created Public Buildings Administration. "This postal branch is graced by a two-panel mural saluting the city's most famous industries--filmmaking and aeronautics. Titled 'People of Burbank,' the 1940 work by Barse Miller fits in with the building's tile and wrought-iron Spanish mission motif" (Rasmussen, 1993). Barse Miller was a teacher at The ArtCenter School in Los Angeles. His other New Deal–funded works in the region include a set of four frescoes (1936) at George...
  • Ford House Office Building - Washington DC
    The Gerald R. Ford House Office Building was constructed during the New Deal as the Federal General Office Building No. 1 (GOB #1).  It was built just behind the new Social Security and Railroad Retirement Board buildings, which were underway at the time. Its original purpose was to house 7000 employees of the U.S. Census Bureau for the census of 1940. Congress appropriated $3.5 million for the building in 1938 and it was constructed in record time in 1939-40 (FWA 1940). It provided one-half million square feet of office space. President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal drove an unprecedented increase in federal employees...
  • Government Publishing Office: Building No. 3 - Washington DC
    The U.S. Government Publishing Office (USGPO) is a four building complex, which was called the Government Printing Office until the name was changed to the Government Publishing Office in 2014.  Building No. 3 was constructed in 1939-40 by the Treasury Department and the Federal Works Agency.  The funding for Building No. 3 was approved by Congress, c. 1935, along with two other federal building projects in the District (an annex for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and remodeling of a building for the General Accounting Office).  In 1938 a group of buildings at H and North Capitol streets NW was torn down to...
  • Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center - Berkeley CA
    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 was built between 1938 and 194o, hence started by the Procurement Division of the Treasury Department (which handled federal buildings at the time) and completed by the Public Buildings Administration in the reorganized Federal Works Administration (most of the same staff transferred over to the new administration in the 1939 federal reorganization). The six-story Moderne-style building was designed by noted Berkeley architect,...
  • Post Office - Culver City CA
    The post office in Culver City, CA, was constructed in 1940 under the Federal Works Administration (FWA). The building design is late Moderne style. It has a central recessed entrance with large windows and four pillars without capitals. There are no decorative elements on the exterior other than two large brass lamps and a flagpole holder. The interior is intact, with original tile floors, woodwork and post boxes. There is a mural at one end of the lobby (see linked project). After the federal reorganization of 1939, the agency responsible for the construction and maintenance of federal buildings—the Procurement Division, renamed the...
  • Post Office - Gardena CA
    The post office in Gardena, CA, was constructed in 1939 under the Federal Works Administration (FWA). After the federal reorganization of 1939, the agency responsible for the construction and maintenance of federal buildings—the Procurement Division, renamed the Public Buildings Administration—passed from the Treasury Department to the newly-formed FWA. The cornerstone lists John M. Carmody as Federal Works Administrator and W. Englebert Reynolds as Commissioner of Public Buildings. Still in use today, the post office houses a relief by Rudolph Parducci.
  • Post Office - Norway ME
    The historic post office in Norway, Maine was constructed in 1940 with federal Treasury Department funds. The building bears a 1940 cornerstone and houses an example of New Deal artwork.
  • Post Office (former) - Spearfish SD
    In 1940 this post office opened for the use of the citizens of Spearfish. It was built in an architectural style that was used in many small towns. There were also offices in the basement to house federal programs such as the Extension Service. From 1930 to to 1942 the federal government greatly expanded its public building programs. The style of the Spearfish post office was described as Class C, for a "second class city," which was defined by the volume of postal receipts. The Class C post offices were brick buildings with wood doors and windows and very simple...
  • Post Office Mural - Canoga Park CA
    The post office in Canoga Park, CA, is graced by a large oil-on-canvas mural by the artist Maynard Dixon, painted in 1941. The mural was commissioned by the Section of Fine Arts of the Federal Works Agency (which had previously been part of the Treasury Department). Titled "Palomino Ponies," the mural depicts several galloping horses and a rider.  Dixon was one of the most well-known painters of the American West. "Palomino Ponies"—Dixon's last public mural project—is registered as a National Landmark by the National Historical Society. Note: Established in 1939, the Section of Fine Arts succeeded the Treasury Section of Painting and...
  • Post Office Relief - Gardena CA
    The post office in Gardena, CA, is home to a carved mahogany relief by Rudolph Parducci. Titled "Rural Life," the relief depicts a farm scene with a family, chickens, and horses. The project was funded by the Section of Fine Arts (SFA) under the newly-created Public Buildings Administration. Established in 1939, the Section of Fine Arts succeeded the Treasury Section of Painting and Sculpture (1934-1938) and the Treasury Section of Fine Arts (1938-1939) in overseeing artworks created to enhance public buildings, notably post offices.
  • Truman Federal Building (State Department) - Washington DC
    The present Harry S. Truman Federal Building consists of two monumental halves. The first was built under the New Deal for the War Department in 1940-41 (and is still commonly referred to as the War Department building).  When the War Department (now Department of Defense) moved across the Potomac to the Pentagon in 1943, the State Department moved in and has remained ever since. The State Department building was renamed the Harry S. Truman Building in 2000. Consolidating the War Department had become a priority in the lead-up to the Second World War.  A second building was envisioned, but not built until...
  • Truman Federal Building (State Department): Sculptures - Washington DC
    The State Department was originally built for the War Department in 1940-41 and has been known since 2000 as the Harry S. Truman Federal Building.  It is home to three sculptures commissioned for the original War Department building. •An eagle over the building entrance by Harry Kreis (1942) •A lime casein on plaster work entitled "Defense of the Four Freedoms" by Kindred McLeary (1941) •"War and Peace" by Earl N. Thorp (1941) Another work by Harry Kreis (1942), entitled "Soldier Groups," was originally in the lobby of the War Department but has apparently disappeared (see comment below) A fifth commissioned work, a bas-relief called "Peaceful Pursuits...
  • United States Census Bureau Headquarters (former) - Suitland MD
    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.