Territories & Reservations Sites

The PRRA built rural schools across the Island through its Program of School Construction. Between 1937 and 1938, "The Federal government authorized the expenditure of $3,000,000 by the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration for school buildings. Of the original grant, $1,000,000 has been spent.” The exact location and status of this facility are unknown to Living New Deal.

Between 1936-1937, the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration (PRRA) built the Carite hydroelectric plant no. 3, located North of Guayama.

"Located between the low hills and marshy bay shore of Guaynabo," what was known as the Cataño cement plant by government sources was constructed with federal funds administered through the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration (PRRA), a New Deal agency. Completed in 1938, the large facility (renamed Puerto Rico Cement Corporation in 1940) was immediately able to produce 1.5 million bags of cement a year changed the course of infrastructure development and even the social fabric of Puerto Rico for years to come. Geoff G. Burrows, pp. 114-115: Puerto Rican civil engineers envisioned the construction of a lasting “hurricane-proof” infrastructure, and labored to...

The Massachusetts Avenue bridge was built in 1940-1941 by the Army Corps of Engineers with federal funds provided by Congress to the District of Columbia Commissioners.  It was a final step in the completion of the Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway in the New Deal era.  The new bridge replace a low earth-fill causeway over the creek, built in 1901, and a tunnel under the causeway that impeded traffic on the new Rock Creek parkway.  Congress appropriated $360,000 for the bridge under the District of Columbia act of 1939.  Additional funding was added in 1941 to dynamite the old bridge and...

Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration (PRRA) work relief division efforts included "an athletic field and recreation park to mark the site where Columbus landed in 1493" in Aguadilla, ca. 1937. Known as Colón Park, the area lies just inside Municipio de Aguada, just outside Aguadilla. The images shown on this page are general scenes of Colón Park; it is unknown what connection, if any, the facilities shown on this particular page have with PRRA efforts.

Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration (PRRA) work relief division efforts included the reconstruction of an 1893 monument commemorating the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's landing, at the site where he landed in 1493. The PRRA made improvements to what is now known as Colón Park, an area that lies just inside Municipio de Aguada, just outside Aguadilla. The monument resides inside a traffic circle within the park. A plaque faces north, and says the following (in Spanish as well as English): To Commemorate the Landing of Christopher Columbus on November 19, 1493. This monument was erected on November 19, 1893 by the Board of...

Coolidge Senior High School in northwest Washington DC was built in 1938-40 with federal aid to the District of Columbia Education Department.   An appropriation of $350,000 was made by Congress in 1937 to the District Commissioners (the municipal government).  Since the full cost of the school building was $1,500,000, additional funds must have come from Congress, the District or the Public Works Administration (PWA).  More information is needed on this. Coolidge High School was built to relieve crowding at Theodore Roosevelt High School, on property that the District of Columbia had purchased five years before.  Some local citizens associations wanted to name the...

The DC Armory was paid for by a congressional appropriation (part of the District’s general funding bill for fiscal year 1940), and probably also through local revenue sources such as real estate taxes and parking fees. The DC Municipal Architect’s Office was responsible for planning and supervising the construction. The Armory was completed in 1941 at a total cost of about $1.5 to $2.5 million. One year after the Armory opened, the New Deal’s Federal Works Agency (FWA) approved funding for a recreation area in the “stadium-armory area at the end of East Capitol Street” (Evening Star, 1942). It was reported...

The Henry J. Daly Building is the former District of Columbia Municipal Center, built in 1939-41 with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) (which was incorporated into the Federal Works Administration in 1939 in a major government reorganization).  The Municipal Building was meant to replace the old City Hall and consolidate the District's local government functions, but has mostly been used as the DC police headquarters. The PWA made an initial allocation of $5.7 million in 1938 (Evening Star 1938) , but the final allocation was evidently $7.75 million (National Archives).  Sources differ over whether this was a grant or...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built the Decatur Co. CCC camp in Decatur County KS in 1936. According to the Kansas Historical Society, "The former camp ground eventually was consumed by residential and commercial development. Today no remnants of Camp Decatur are visible.  Property divided into multiple lots including housing and industry."  

Dos Bocas Dam, a hydroelectric generation facility, was constructed as part of a large rural electrification plan undertaken by the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration, a New Deal agency. Construction began in 1937 and was completed in 1942. The plant is located in the north central part of Puerto Rico, on on Lago Dos Bocas and the Rio Grande Arecibo. The work “consisted of a concrete dam and two generation units directly below the lake measuring a combined 12,450 horsepower of electric power, enough to generate more than 30 million kilowatt hours per year.”

The Calvert Street bridge was built in 1935 as part of the completion of the Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway project of the 1930s. It was later named for Duke Ellington. It replaced a streetcar bridge built in the 1890s. Plans for a new bridge were submitted by architect Paul Cret and Modeskji, Masters and Chase engineers in 1931-32, but work was held up by disputes over the proper design (between a single steel arch or multiple concrete arches) and opposition from an architect who had another design approved before World War I.   The concrete design finally won over the Civic Arts...

The Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration (PRRA) built El Falansterio, a new public housing development located in Puerta de Tierra, San Juan, between 1936-1937. PuertaDeTierra.info: In Puerta de Tierra a neighborhood house would be built between Matías Ledesma streets, San Juan Bautista, Fernández Juncos avenue and the train track (today the exclusive lane of the Authority Metropolitan Buses); cataloged as Tenement Group Project A, today known as El Falansterio. The inauguration of El Falansterio took place on November 7, 1937 at a cost of in 110,708 square meters and 216 apartments. The foundation work cost about $130,000, as there was a need...

Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration work relief division efforts included "the remodeling of the old 'Manicomio'" in San Juan, in 1937, "to render it available for the motorized transport of the Sixty-Fifth United States Infantry." The facility now houses Escuela de Artes Plásticas y Diseño de Puerto Rico (the School of Plastic Arts of Puerto Rico).

In October 1936 -- two years after the First Lady visited Puerto Rico to assess social and economic conditions -- it was announced that the New Deal’s Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration (PRRA) was taking bids for the construction of the Eleanor Roosevelt housing development.  We don’t know which firm won the bid, but by 1939 about 472 homes were completed and about 1,500 more were planned.  The Eleanor Roosevelt neighborhood still exists today – it is a subbarrio of Hato Rey Norte, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico had been plagued by hurricanes, poverty, sub-standard housing, and a lack of...

Garzas Dam, a hydroelectric generation facility, was constructed as part of a large rural electrification plan undertaken by the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration, a New Deal agency. Construction began in 1935 and it included "the reservoir, hydroelectric plant, and three minor river diversions.”

Grants from the Federal Government helped build healthcare facilities across the island. “The outstanding achievement in the field of public-health this year was the extension, after twelve years of endeavor, of health services to every municipality in the Island. Twenty-four new buildings, made possible by grants from the Federal Government, have been completed and occupied by health units in twenty-three municipalities. These buildings have not only improved conditions under which the work is done but will mean a substantial saving in rentals, which may now he used for further expansion of the service. Four District General Hospitals, with a capacity of...

The PRRA carried out slum clearance work and built hurricane-proof housing developments in Arecibo and Ponce. “The PRRA located nine parcels of land available to purchase in Ponce, and two in Ponce Playa, and began construction on 4,290 concrete houses in Ponce and Ponce Playa. Built to house over 21,000 people, the PRRA also constructed an nearby incinerating plant, concrete storm sewers, new water supply system, and temporary workingmen's residencies (for PRRA construction workers) as part of the Ponce slum clearance project.”1 The PRRA created housing programs across the Island, as described in the 1938 Annual Report of the Department of the Interior: “The development...

The PRRA built housing across the Island, as described in the 1938 Annual Report of the Department of the Interior: “The development of that part of the urban housing program of the P. R. R. A. originally aimed for the elimination of unsafe and unsanitary housing conditions, for the provision of decent, safe, and sanitary dwellings for families of low income, and for the reduction of unemployment and the stimulation of business activity, was continued during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1938. Inasmuch as the funds originally allotted were not sufficient to accomplish the demolition and clearance of the existing slum areas,...

Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration forestry division efforts included reforestation work on Isla de Mona during the 1930s. Dept. of the Interior report: Mona Island—lying in the Mona passage separating Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic—some 25 square miles in extent, formerly rich in tropical timber, and virtually a deserted island, with two cave-dwelling families and three lighthouse keepers as its sole inhabitants, is now being reforested.

The John Philip Sousa Bridge carries Pennsylvania Avenue across the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C.  It was built in 1939-40 during the New Deal and named after the famous American marching band composer, who grew up nearby. Agitation for a new bridge began in earnest in 1934 but met continuing opposition in Congress throughout the decade (DC government is officially a creature of the federal government).  Funds for a new bridge finally won approval in 1938 and were included as part of the District of Columbia Commissioners allocation in the federal budget of that year. The first span opened in late 1939 and...

The work relief division of the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration (PRRA) conducted "extensive repairs to the patio" of La Fortaleza, the 16th Century governor's mansion in San Juan, capitol of the territory of Puerto Rico, ca. 1937. In 1940-1 the Work Projects Administration (W.P.A.) conducted extensive restoration work on La Fortaleza. Improvements included utilities upgrades, new roof, replacement of floor and ceiling beams, elevator installation, modern bathtubs & showers installation, and more.

Lago Dos Bocas was created upon completion of the Dos Bocas Dam, a Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration project, in 1942. It primarily serves as a reservoir.

In 1933, the Public Works Administration allotted $10,000 (about $203,000 in 2020 dollars) for the construction of three small schools on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation (home of five Shoshone-Bannock Tribes), one of which was the Lincoln Creek Day School. The schools were completed in 1935 and described by Rosalie Springfellow in early 1936: “Three fine school buildings have been erected on the reservation: one at Lincoln Creek, one at Ross Fork and one on Bannock Creek. Compared with the little red schoolhouse of a bygone year, this new school is a palace, with hardwood floors, insulated walls to keep out...

In 1937, the District of Columbia government contracted with the Fred Drew Co. to reconstruct the Municipal Fish Market Pier (also called Pier No. 1). The cost of the project was $20,000 (about $366,000 in 2020 dollars) and funds were provided via the District of Columbia Appropriation Act for 1937, signed into law by Franklin Roosevelt on June 23, 1936. The project was part of a broad New Deal initiative to modernize and beautify the Washington Channel and Southwest Waterfront areas. Work started on April 19, 1937 and was completed three months later, on July 13. The DC Government noted: “The...

Municipal Jail under construction in Utuado.

On August 22, 1933, Public Works Administration (PWA) chief Harold Ickes announced a grant of $1,759,500 for various DC sewer projects. These included an extension of the Northeast Boundary Sewer “intended to eliminate a pollution nuisance in Kingman Lake in Anacostia Park” (Evening Star, 1933). The following March, a contract of $589,000 was awarded to Michael Bell Balso, Inc., to extend the sewer “from Twenty-first and A streets NE to the Anacostia River, south of Kingman Lake” (Evening Star, 1934). The extension was completed sometime in 1935.  The trajectory appears to lie beneath parts of the RFK sports complex west of...

In Spring 1939, the DC government used funds from the Public Works Administration (PWA) to award contracts for the Outfall Relief Sewer project, a large sewer line to run from the Poplar Point Pumping Station to a point near the Blue Plains Disposal Plant (today’s Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant). The Diamond Construction Company was awarded a contract for $423,116 to build one section of the line, while the Wagner-Larsen Construction Company contracted to build a second section for $293,049. Work on the Outfall Relief Sewer started on May 17, 1939, and was completed in mid-1940. This project was part of...

Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration work relief division efforts included the modernization of the municipal power plant on Vieques, ca. 1937.

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,...

The Shoreham Hill bridge was constructed in 1938 as part of the completion of the Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway project of the 1930s.  It lies just south of the large Connecticut and Massachusetts Avenue bridges.  It is the third and most northerly of three parkway crossings of Rock Creek by the parkway. The Shoreham Hill bridge replaced a steel truss bridge of 1929, which was considered by the National Park Service (NPS) as a traffic hazard and out of keeping with the established look of the parkway and its other bridges. In 1937, the NPS and the DC Board of...

Part of the Program of School Construction, this one-room school building in Camuy was built by the PRRA. The program focused on increasing enrollment, literacy, and expanding school facilities across the Island. "During the school year 1937-38, 275 buildings were added to the number available last year, an increase of 479 rooms." The exact location and status of this facility are unknown to Living New Deal.

This school dining room was built by the PRRA in Guayanilla. The Program of School Construction focused on creating school facilities in rural areas. “During the school year 1937-38, 275 buildings were added to the number available last year, an increase of 479 rooms. The Federal Government authorized the expenditure of $3.000.000 by the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration for school buildings. Of the original grant, $1,000,000 has been spent.” The exact location and status of this facility are unknown to Living New Deal.

This school dining room was built by the PRRA in Luquillo. The Program of School Construction focused on creating school facilities in rural areas. "During the school year 1937-38, 275 buildings were added to the number available last year, an increase of 479 rooms. The Federal Government authorized the expenditure of $3.000.000 by the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration for school buildings. Of the original grant, $1,000,000 has been spent.” The exact location and status of this facility are unknown to Living New Deal.

This rural school was built by the PRRA in Fajardo. The Program of School Construction focused on creating school facilities in rural areas. "During the school year 1937-38, 275 buildings were added to the number available last year, an increase of 479 rooms. The Federal Government authorized the expenditure of $3.000.000 by the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration for school buildings. Of the original grant, $1,000,000 has been spent.” The exact location and status of this facility are unknown to Living New Deal.

The PRRA established the Program of School Construction to create facilities in rural areas. "During the school year 1937-38, 275 buildings were added to the number available last year, an increase of 479 rooms. The Federal Government authorized the expenditure of $3.000.000 by the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration for school buildings. Of the original grant, $1,000,000 has been spent.” The exact location and status of this facility are unknown to Living New Deal.

Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration work relief division efforts included "reconstruction of the ancient Santo Domingo barracks, one of the island's historic edifices dating from the early sixteenth century" in San Juan, in 1937. Also known as Convent of the Dominicans, located with the Galería Nacional / del Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) aided in the construction of the 16th Street underpass beneath Scott Circle NW.  A 1941 Washington Post article reported that: “First steps to remove one of the District’s worst remaining bottlenecks were underway at Scott Circle yesterday. The fashionable residential section resounded to the snorts of straining steam shovels and reverberations of air compressors as District and WPA workmen laid the groundwork for construction of the much discussed $400,000 automobile underpass.” The project was completed that same year.

Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration work relief division efforts included "a concrete landing pier ... at Sein Bay, Culebra, where naval vessels and marines assemble for winter maneuvers." The exact location and status of the project are unknown to Living New Deal. Seine Bay is located "just to the eastward of Scorpion Point" (Navigation, pg. 383), which itself is at the southeast side of Target Bay (Results, pg. 248).

Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration work relief division efforts included construction of "more than a mile of storm sewers" in Mayagüez, ca. 1937.