Cataño Cement Plant (former) – Guaynabo PR

“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… read more

Charles C. Glover Memorial (Massachusetts Ave) Bridge – Washington DC

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… read more

Colón Park Monument – Aguada / Aguadilla PR

Colón Park: Columbus landing monument

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… read more

D.C. Armory and East Capitol Street Recreation Area – Washington DC

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… read more

Daly Building (former DC Municipal Center) – Washington DC

Daly Municipal Building - Washington DC

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… read more

Hurricane-Proof Housing – San Juan PR

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… read more

Isla de Mona Reforestation – PR

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,… read more

La Fortaleza (Governor’s Mansion) Renovations – San Juan PR

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… read more

Lincoln Creek Day School (former) – Fort Hall Reservation ID

Former Lincoln Creek Day School - Fort Hall Reservation ID

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…. read more

Northeast Boundary Sewer Extension – Washington DC

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… read more

Recorder of Deeds Building (former) – Washington DC

Recorder of Deeds Building - Washington DC

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… read more

Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway: Shoreham Hill Bridge – Washington DC

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… read more

Scott Circle Underpass – Washington DC

Aerial view of Scott Circle Underpass - Washington DC

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… read more