Federal Works Agency (FWA) Sites

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,...

The Alley Dwelling Authority (ADA) and the Federal Works Agency (FWA) funded the construction of the Meade and Grant Street Houses in Washington, DC in 1943. This development of 107 living units was built for African American national defense workers (Washington, DC was highly segregated at the time). It is unknown to the Living New Deal if any of the structures still exist, but it is not likely since these homes were classified as “demountable,” i.e., intended to be taken down and salvaged sometime after the war. The ADA’s 10-year report (see source list below) indicates that the Meade and Grant Street Houses...

The Federal Works Agency built defense housing units in Fairfield CT. Pictured is a model unit with asbestos shingle and brick veneer construction. The Federal Works Agency planned to build more than 5,000 units across Connecticut.

Merritt Middle School was built in 1942-43 with funding by Public Works Adminstration (PWA) (part of the Federal Works Agency) to the DC Commissioners for the Board of Education.  It is unknown if the district government paid a portion from its own funds. The school closed in 2009 and the site has been retrofitted as a district police headquarters.   The look of the present building – 1960s brutalism – suggests that the school had been rebuilt since the New Deal.

The Alley Dwelling Authority (ADA) and the Federal Works Agency (FWA) funded the construction of the Monroe Street Houses in Washington, DC in 1943. This development of 90 living units was built for white national defense workers (Washington, DC was highly segregated at the time). It is unknown to the Living New Deal if any of the structures still exist, but it is not likely since these homes were classified as “demountable,” i.e., intended to be taken down and salvaged sometime after the war. The ADA was one of the earliest New Deal initiatives to provide better housing for low-income Americans. It replaced...

The New Deal carried out a major renovation of the National Mall, the green centerpiece of Washington DC.  Funding was provided by the Public Works Administration (PWA) and labor power by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). As of 1939, the PWA had expended $1,050,000  on redeveloping the Mall. Work began in 1934 under the direction of the Superintendent of the National Capital Parks, which had become a branch of the National Park Service when the park system was taken over by the Interior Department under Harold Ickes in August 1933.  One element of the reconstruction of the National Mall was to move and...

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 Alley Dwelling Authority (ADA) and the Federal Works Agency (FWA) funded the construction of the Nichols Avenue Houses in Washington, DC, in 1943. These houses were called “Standard Temporary Dwellings Units,” or “TDU’s.” They were built for African American national defense workers, and were intended to be taken down after the war. It is unlikely that any part of the Nichols Avenue Houses still remains. The ADA was one of the earliest New Deal initiatives to provide better housing for low-income Americans. It replaced unsafe alley dwellings in Washington, DC with more modern and affordable houses and apartments. The ADA existed from...

The Alley Dwelling Authority (ADA) funded the construction of the O’Brien Court Parking Lot in Washington, DC, ca. 1935-1938. The lot was located in the block bounded by E, F, 20th and 21st streets NW, on the E Street frontage. Then, in 1943, the ADA and the Federal Works Agency (FWA) created the O’Brien Court Houses on the same site. These houses were called “Standard Temporary Dwellings Units,” or “TDU’s.” They were built for African American national defense workers, and were intended to be taken down after the war. It does not appear that any remnant of the homes or parking lot...

A 1943 article in the Washington Post reported paving and sewer work underway by on Oklahoma Avenue along Anacostia Park in Northeast DC, between Benning Road and C Street.  The work was being done by the Federal Works Agency (FWA).

In 1942, the Lanham Act allocated 7 acres and funding for the Federal Works Agency (FWA) to construct sports facilities at Oxon Run at Mississippi Avenue between 4th and 6th Streets, SE.   It is unknown is the Oxon Run pool dates from this period and if any remnants of the New Deal work remain at the site. The playground preceded what is now Oxon Run Park, a 300 acre area created in 1971 and still a major recreation area today, with bicycle paths, jogging paths, and a baseball diamond.

The post office in Berwyn was constructed in 1940 with funds and labor provided by the Federal Works Agency (FWA). It was constructed under the supervision of architect Louis A. Simon and engineer Neal A. Melick.

The Post Office in Brockport, New York was built in 1940 as the village's post office. It is still in use. The cornerstone indicates that it was a project of the Federal Works Agency. Historic photographs of the building include the name of the contractor.

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...

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.

Colonial Revival style; 1 story, red-brick building with cupola. Funded by the Public Building Administration of the Federal Works Agency.

The post office's "blend of modernist elements with an overall symmetrical shape reminiscent of the state's other Colonial Revival post offices" (Van West, 2001, p. 69) is "considered one of the best examples of this design still extant in Tennessee (Davis et al., 2003, p. 2). It was one of some 200 post offices constructed by the Federal Works Agency in smaller communities across the nation during 1940.

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.

A cornerstone on the Oakland, Maryland Post Office shows it to be a project of the Federal Works Administration from 1940.

The post office is a typical depression era building with Colonial Revival details. It rests side gabled along the street with a four sided lantern topped with a weathervane centered on the roof. Built of brick with four bays and a central door. The windows large wooded are 12 over 12 double hung. The entrance is a double glass door. The building cost $85,000. It was dedicated on July 4, 1941 by Brig General Lewis B. Hersey, acting national director of the selective service, speakers also included Smith W. Purdum, assistant postmaster general. The cornerstone reads: "James A. Farley -- Postmaster...

The main post office in Yuba City was built in 1939-1940 with funds provided by the Treasury Department and Federal Work Administration. The style is vaguely Modernist Spanish Revival (red roof but minimalist columns).  An annex has been added (left side, facing) and the facade appears to have been resurfaced, not to good effect. Part of the interior is intact. In the lobby is Lulu Braghetta's wood sculpture, "The Wealth of Sutter County," completed in 1942 with funds provided by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts.

According to the 1941 Hearne Democrat, the post office is located at 3rd and Magnolia Streets. The contract  was awarded to Leslie F. Crockett Construction Co. in January of 1941 for $50,877. The building was designed in Spanish Revival style. The structure is buff stucco with a corner entrance and a canopy covering the walk on both sides. The building has tiled floor and the wainscoat of tile with white oak panels to 7 ft height and buff colored plaster walls. Along the east side of the lobby are service windows, along the north are more than 800 bronze lock boxes of Greek design...

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...

This wooden sculpture  "Prayer of Thanksgiving" by K. George Katrina was completed in 1946. Katrina was one of two artists to win a Federal Works Agency competition to produce art for the post office in 1941. The statues were moved out of the original post office in 2011 before it was privatized. They may now be located in the East York post office. Confirmation is needed.

This large wooden sculpture "Singing Thanksgiving" by Carl L. Schmitz was completed in 1946. Schmitz was one of two artists to win a Federal Works Agency competition to produce art for the post office in 1941. The statues were moved out of the original post office in 2011 before it was privatized. They may now be located in the East York post office. Confirmation is needed.

The former Greenville Tennessee post office and courthouse at 101 W Summer St. was built in 1904. In 1939, William Zorach installed two wooden carved reliefs depicting "The Resources of Nature" and "Man Power." The carvings were funded by the Federal Works Agency. After the old post office and courthouse became a private bank, the reliefs were moved to the current courthouse at this location.

The "Settler Fighting Alligator in Rowboat" mural was installed at the Lake Worth Post Office Mural. According to the Palm Beach Post: "It was painted by Tampa artist Joseph D. Myers under a different program that the Federal Works Agency’s Public Buildings Administration commissioned in 1941. Artists submitted designs anonymously to an advisory panel, comprising a University of Florida architecture teacher and two Florida mural artists. The panel selected Tampa artist Joseph D. Myers, giving him a first prize of $1,000. According to materials supplied by Myers’ family, Myers and the federal bureaucrat in charge of the program squabbled for months over the...

In 1942, the Washington Post reported the allocation of $21,010 to the Federal Works Agency (FWA) for new construction and improvements to the Powell Recreation Center on 16th Street NW.

The Federal Works Agency built prefabricated defense housing at Sheffield. “Construction of 250 units was assigned to the Tennessee Valley Authority for industrial workers in the Muscle Shoals area.” The exact location and status of these buildings is presently unknown to Living New Deal.

In 1943, the Public Works Administration (PWA) (by then part of the Federal Works Administration) funded a new ferry slip and expansion of the public wharf in Martinez.  The government grant was for $77,000, but the city accepted a bid of $72,000 from the Macco Construction company for $5,000 less than that (CC Gazette, 1943).  This project would have been one of the last funded by the PWA, which ended that year. The ferry slip consists of huge timbers sunk in the river bottom (possibly fixed in concrete). The project also expanded the width of the wharf by 12 feet. It...

The old Recorder of Deeds Building is a three-story structure built 1941-1943 by the municipal government of the District of Columbia.  Funding was provided in 1940 by the Public Works Administration (PWA), which was by then part of the Federal Works Agency (FWA). The building was designed by the Office of the Municipal Architect under Nathan C. Wyeth. Its severe Classical Moderne style echoes that of the District of Columbia Municipal Center (Herman J. Daly Building), one block east.  Both were meant to be components of a large municipal complex planned for the Judiciary Square area, but never realized. A third companion building,...

A 250 unit housing project in South Portland Maine. "Under the Lanham Act of 1940, and to the chagrin of the Portland Chamber of commerce, Washington ordered in February of 1942 that the Federal Public Housing Authority of the Federal Works Agency build 550 units of permanent housing in the Portland area. The 250 unit Redbank project grew up near the municipal airport in South Portland. John Howard Stevens and John Calvin Stevens II designed Redbank with its modest, wood framed, Colonial Revival-style units as a planned New England community. In the mode of the 1890's British Garden City and WW1...

The federal government built a large new health research complex in Hamilton, Montana, during the New Deal, with construction completed in 1940.  It would have been done by the Public Buildings Division of the Federal Works Administration for the use of the Public Health Service (now the National Institutes of Health, NIH).  The laboratory had previously been housed in an empty school building. The laboratory works on insect-borne diseases.   "After its successful work with spotted fever, the Rocky Mountain Laboratory expanded its facilities and programs ... to work on other insect-borne diseases, such as yellow fever and the spirochetal relapsing...

In 1940, the Works Progress Administration (WPA), in concert with the city, developed the Municipal Park of Fortuna – now known as Rohner Park.  By 1940, the WPA was part of the reorganized Federal Works Agency (later to become the General Services Administration). The WPA project card indicates that relief workers were supposed to build baseball dugouts, restrooms, picnic tables and fireplaces, as well as a water and sewer system and hiking trails. A plaque in the park credits the WPA and city with developing the entire park.   There have been many additions and renovations since 1940. The restrooms, picnic area...

In 1942, the Washington Post reported the allocation of $20,448 to the Federal Works Agency (FWA) for new construction and/or improvements to the Rudolph Playground in the city's northwest quadrant. Today, park abuts the Washington Latin Public Charter School and is apparently part of the school's recreation area.  There is a baseball field and traces of an older field, as well as a soccer pitch.  The ball fields very likely trace back to the New Deal work of the early 1940s.

A three story Art Deco style limestone school building with auditorium and gymnasium, it was completed by the Federal Works Agency (FWA) between 1935 and 1938. It is now the site of the Ruppenthal Middle School.

In response to the foot dragging of Portland city officials on creating affordable housing for the influx of military related industry in a city with a severe lack of modern housing, the Federal Housing Authority of the Federal Works Agency ordered the construction of 550 units, 200 of which were in Sagamore Village. Designed by John Howard Stevens and John Calvin Stevens II, it featured Colonial Revival houses with a community center, playground, & school.

Record flooding of the Salt Fork Red River occurred on June 15, 1938, damaging the bridge for then State Highway 52 (now State Highway 203). Deemed unsalvageable by Texas Highway Department Engineers, plans were made for a replacement bridge. The funds for the bridge were jointly allocated by the Texas Highway Department and the Federal Works Agency, each of which committed $80,000. The new bridge was built seventy-five yards north of the previous bridge. This new location was chosen for its stable red clay and shale bedrock which would help prevent future flood damage. When letting for the contract was concluded,...

The Works Progress Administration and the Federal Works Agency funded and built the South American Tropical Rainforest and Aviary at the San Francisco Zoo in 1940. The structure was originally an aquatic birdhouse. Now it serves as an aviary.  

Sergeant City is a military-themed housing complex that provided living quarters for non-commissioned officers of the near-by Gowen Field airbase. The complex was built in 1940 with funding from the Federal Works Agency.