Civil Works Administration (CWA) Sites

Colonial National Historical Park (CNHP) was created by Congress and President Herbert Hoover in 1930 and consists primarily of the Yorktown Battlefield, the historic Jamestown Settlement, and Colonial Parkway. Several federal agencies participated in its development. The National Park Service (NPS) provided general supervision of the entire historic site project after it was given responsibility for all historic battlefields by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Public Works Administration (PWA) contributed at least $600,000 (and probably much more) in funding. Relief agencies provided labor power: the Civil Works Administration (CWA) worked over the winter of 1933-1934 (probably for mosquito control and general...

Colonial National Historical Park (CNHP) was created by Congress and President Herbert Hoover in 1930 and consists primarily of the Yorktown Battlefield, the historic Jamestown Settlement, and Colonial Parkway. Several federal agencies participated in its development. The National Park Service (NPS) provided general supervision of the entire historic site project after it was given responsibility for all historic battlefields by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Public Works Administration (PWA) contributed at least $600,000 (and probably much more) in funding. Relief agencies provided labor power: the Civil Works Administration (CWA) worked over the winter of 1933-1934 (probably for mosquito control and general clean-up)...

From late December 1934 through early spring 1935, the State Emergency Relief Administration (SERA) funded improvements to the Columbia Slough that involved raising and leveling a dike on the slough's channel approximately 1.5 miles east of Faloma station. While improving the Columbia Slough dike, it provided work to approximately 190 men for 70 days as part of a work relief program. The City's project description notes the following need: "Dredging operations on this locality had deposited many thousands of yards of excavated material on the banks of the slough. This material was continually sluffing back into the channel. The project consisted...

Columbus Park, located in Manhattan's Chinatown, was one of the city's earliest major parks. By the early 1930s, it was quite rundown. New Deal programs greatly remodeled and upgraded the park and its facilities. In October 1934, the Department of Parks announced the opening, presided over by Mayor LaGuardia, of the newly remodeled Columbus Park, saying: "This old park with its fine big trees formerly included a small play area, which was in reality only a broken surfaced area containing poorly arranged rusted swings and slides. It has been replanned to double the size of the play area and provide...

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) and Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) constructed the Community Building in Ayden, North Carolina, with work completed in 1935. The building is still in use.

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) and Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) constructed Lander's believed former Community Center on Buena Vista Drive in 1934-5. The structure was destroyed by fire in 2012 and has since been replaced.

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) constructed a community center in Recluse, Wyoming. The location and status of the building is unknown to Living New Deal.

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) constructed a community center in Farson, Wyoming. The building then "burned in 1936 and was reconstructed with insurance proceeds and WPA labor." Living New Deal believes the community centers were located on what is now the site of the current Eden Valley Community Center, constructed in 2011. Google Street View imagery shows a building that reasonably fits the description of a mid-1930s community center.

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) and Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) constructed the Community House in Pittsboro, North Carolina. The building is still in use.

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) and Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) constructed the Community House in Red Oak, North Carolina. The building, which is located on the south/east side of Church Street between Red Oak Blvd. and School St., is still in use.

The CWA paved Company Street between 1933 and 1934. “Entire block between Queen and King Cross asphalted and 200 ft. between King Cross and Princess Street also asphalted, balance of block 150 ft. graded ready for stones and asphalt.”

The federal Civil Works Administration (CWA) worked to develop what is now known as Connelly Blvd. in Sharon, Pennsylvania in 1934. Then known as Pine Hollow Blvd., work involved "cutting, draining, filling and paving of the boulevard route, from South Dock street to Smith avenue." The project was described at the time of its proposal. Validation is preferred to confirm that project was undertaken, and possibly continued under FERA.

The CWA carried out street improvement work in Convalecencia Town Square, Río Piedras.

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) built Cony Park in Eastport ME in 1934. "Cony Park, located adjacent to Shackford Head State Park, boasts beautiful views of Cobscook Bay, a large pavilion with picnic tables, outdoor musical instruments, and 3 horseshoe pits. A porta-potty is provided during the summer months. The park is great for picnics, parties, and many other gatherings and events. There is also a hand carry boat launch." According to the Community Notes in the Bangor Daily News of January 12 1934, " So with 100 men employed at times since last November, seventeen local women now on the payroll...

The Civil Works Administration (C.W.A.) conducted improvement work at Maynard's former Coolidge School, including the installation of smoke partitions as well as painting of the school inside and out. The Work Projects Administration (W.P.A.) conducted further work in 1941. All school buildings in the town "on the exterior have been completely renovated by having the windows weather stripped, puttied and painted. The interior... are now being repaired with W.P.A. labor by installing new celotex ceilings where needed, replacing plaster ceilings that were beyond repairs, having the hallways, classrooms washed and painted. These repairs have added consiterabl to the appearance of our...

The CWA constructed this park at Corlears Hook. From a 1934 New York City Parks Department press release: "Facilities: An open shelter is to be erected. There are four handball, four horse-shoe pitching, one volley ball, two basketball and shuffle board courts. This area, which adjoins a lodging house with accommodation for 1800 men, has been planned to provide recreation for the unusually large number of men residing in this particular district." The amphitheater, known as the East River Amphitheater, was built in 1941. At least one of the playgrounds was replaced in 1969.

Corlears Hook Park is located on the Lower East Side across FDR Drive from the East River. The park was completed in 1905. In 1934, the Department of Parks announced the opening of a new playground in the park constructed with labor and materials supplied by Work Relief funds: "An open shelter is to be erected. There are four handball, four horse-shoe pitching, one volley ball, two basketball and shuffle board courts. This area, which adjoins a lodging house with accommodation for 1800 men, has been planned to provide recreation for the unusually large number of men residing in this...

CWA PROJECT COMPLETE: "White Shale Used To Surface County Road Ferd Williamson, county engineer, says that work on the CWA project west of White City has been completed. The road under construction was surfaced with white shale. This is the first time shale has been used for that purpose in Morris county." Living New Deal presumes the road in question is G Avenue, west of White City.

Delaware utilized substantial federal resources in developing and improving its road network during the Great Depression. Among the dozens of projects undertaken by the federal Civil Works Administration (C.W.A.) during 1934 was construction of balustrades at the Court Street bridge, east of the Capitol building in Dover. The street has since been renamed for Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the status of the structures is presently unknown to Living New Deal. An average of 1,410 were put to work each week during 1934 as a result of the CWA's road, sidewalk, bridge, and other related infrastructure efforts in Delaware.  

The federal Civil Works Administration (CWA) undertook street grading work along the roads surrounding the McCreary County Courthouse in Whitley City, Kentucky.

The CWA was involved in repairs to the aging county courthouse which had been built in 1874 to replace an 1836 building. A few years later in 1939, a new county courthouse was built by the PWA in Hope Arkansas when the county seat was moved. Both the original 1836 and 1874 courthouses (which is the visitor center) can be visited at Historic Washington State Park.

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) was involved in fixing up the Lake Village County Courthouse, likely repairing the damage from a bad Mississippi River flood in 1927 that had caused massive damage to Arkansas. The original courthouse was constructed in 1857 when the county seat was moved to Lake Village and replaced in 1907 with a neoclassical design building. Foundation problems caused the replacing of the court with the current art deco style of building in 1956.

The CWA did repairs to the Garland County courthouse in Hot Springs. The Garland County Courthouse is located at Ouachita Avenue and Hawthorne Street in Hot Springs (Garland County). The four-story brick building is recognized by the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program to be both architecturally and historically significant, with one source calling it perhaps the finest example of Renaissance Revival–style architecture in the state. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. The Garland County Courthouse was constructed as a rectangular building with central bays projecting from its northern and southern sides. It featured a domed...

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) was involved in minor repairs and upgrading of the White County courthouse in Searcy. The present White County Courthouse, completed in 1871 and remodeled in 1912, is the oldest Arkansas courthouse still being used for its original purpose. The first story is constructed of cut stone, while brick is used on the second floor. The circuit/chancery courtroom has been restored to its original condition. The large clock tower includes an 1855 bell which resembles the Liberty Bell.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed the stately and historic Cove Creek High School building in Sugar Grove, North Carolina. It was one of many educational facilities constructed by the WPA in Watauga County. The building features three WPA plaques (one at each entrance). Wikipedia: "It was built by the Works Progress Administration in 1940–1941, and is a two-story, Collegiate Gothic style stone building. It is seven bays wide and features slightly projecting square stair towers and a crenellated roof parapet. It was designed by Clarence R. Coffey, an apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright, and constructed by local artisans and laborers...

Numerous improvements were conducted along Cow Creek in Hutchinson, Kansas in 1933-4 with Civil Works Administration (CWA) funds and labor: Creek straightened for one mile near the Newlin farm Creek cleaned, Adams to 5th st. Creek covered at city tool yard Rock walls built along creek, from Maple to First st.

The Civil Works Administration (C.W.A.) worked to develop and improve the safety of Cranberry Road in Carver, Massachusetts. Town report: "4000 feet of Cranberry Road was gravelled and given a Mixed in Place Tar top. This portion of Cranberry Road was widened and straightened under the C.W.A. last winter." The work was continued by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (F.E.R.A.).

In 1934 the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) completed a Civil Works Administration (CWA) project in Crane Eater, Georgia, about six miles east of Calhoun: a two-room schoolhouse. The location and status of the building is unknown to Living New Deal.

"The 418 acre park has a series of gravel roads circulating around reclaimed strip mine pits. Some of the roads terminate in small earthen boat launches into the pit lakes. In 1926 mining company landholders donated the land to the Kansas Forestry, Fish and Game Commission for a 418 acre park. CWA laid out and surfaced roads in 1933-34. CCC leveled strip mine dumps and planted trees in 1934. Now managed by the Kansas Wildlife and Parks Department, the Minded Land Wildlife Area now includes over 13,000 acres in a four county area."

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) built the curving bridge over the Creosote Wash on North Main Street in Cottonwood AZ in the winter of 1933-34. The bridge is built of reinforced concrete with river stone cladding. The upstream side features a handsome arch, while the downstream side reveals the underlying concrete substructure. Creosote Wash is an episodic creek that is dry much of the year.  It used to be called Blowout Wash (and is still marked as such on some online maps).

As part of $106,612 spent on 38 projects in Fresno County in March 1934, the Civil Works Administration spent $12,416.67 on the Crescent Weir, a flood control structure on the Kings River. 91 men were employed. By April, the CWA was being liquidated, but 24 projects like the weir were continued under FERA with compensation insurance by the sponsor. A hand drawn CWA 1934 marker is still in the concrete.

"Geographically, the Crescenta Valley extends eastward from the Los Angeles City communities of Sunland and Tujunga through a portion of the City of Glendale and the County territories of La Crescenta and Montrose to the incorporated city of La Cañada Flintridge... After the disastrous flood of 1934, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Los Angeles County Flood Control District embarked upon major construction of dams, channels, debris basins and continued efforts to control erosion."   (https://www.villageprofile.com) According to the Feb 1934 California Highway and Public Works magazine, "Several thousand C.W.A. relief workers were rushed to the flooded area to render aid to...

This playground is named for the first African American to be killed in the American War of Independence. It opened on October 28, 1934, along with two other playgrounds, one in Manhattan and one in the Bronx. The press release announcing the opening ceremonies explained that "All three playgrounds have recreation buildings and are fully equipped with play apparatus for children, and have space for basketball and handball courts. Each of the new playgrounds in Manhattan end Brooklyn will have a wading pool..." In addition to speeches, the opening ceremonies involved a "rendition of the Star Spangled Banner; games and...

"During the 1930s, the cemetery was improved through several Depression-era federal make-work programs. In 1934, the original tool house was demolished and replaced by a new brick garage-tool-comfort station erected by the Civil Works Administration (CWA) at a cost of $8,000. Another CWA project in May 1934 included repairs to the lodge, raising and realigning 912 headstones, and constructing a concrete driveway and walk. In 1936, a Works Project Administration project accomplished the realignment and re-setting of 402 headstones. The old flagstaff was removed and replaced with a new one in 1938 and in December 1939 a brick and slate-roof...

The only New Deal project undertaken in or near Freistatt, Missouri was a culvert constructed by the Civil Works Administration (CWA) "between Freistatt and the highway." The location and status of the project is unknown to Living New Deal.

"Cumberland Homesteads is a community located in Cumberland County, Tennessee, United States. Established by the New Deal-era Division of Subsistence Homesteads in 1934, the community was envisioned by federal planners as a model of cooperative living for the region's distressed farmers, coal miners, and factory workers. While the cooperative experiment failed and the federal government withdrew from the project in the 1940s, the Homesteads community nevertheless survived. In 1988, several hundred of the community's original houses and other buildings, which are characterized by the native "crab orchard" sandstone used in their construction, were added to the National Register of Historic...

"Cumberland Mountain State Park is a state park in Cumberland County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. The park consists of 1,720 acres (7.0 km2) situated around Byrd Lake, a man-made lake created by the impoundment of Byrd Creek in the 1930s. The park is set amidst an environmental microcosm of the Cumberland Plateau and provides numerous recreational activities, including an 18-hole Bear Trace golf course. Cumberland Mountain State Park began as part of the greater Cumberland Homesteads Project, a New Deal-era initiative by the Resettlement Administration that helped relocate poverty-stricken families on the Cumberland Plateau to small farms centered around what...

"When federal funds became available under the Civil Works Administration (CWA), with only three weeks of planning time Milwaukee city and county officials developed projects to employ 26,000 workers in the winter of 1933-34 doing landscaping, road grading, street repair and painting. One of the largest projects employed almost 2,000 men straightening out an S-curve in the Milwaukee River and constructing a lagoon and islands in Lincoln Park in order to reduce flooding on the north side of Milwaukee. County park projects included construction of a quarry at Currie Park."

"In 1934 Federal CWA and ERA funds were used for bituminous treatment at Cutter Street."

The Civil Works Administration and the Public Works Administration (PWA) completed improvements at the District of Columbia Reformatory and Workhouse (today’s “D.C. Workhouse and Reformatory Historic District”) between 1933 and 1940. “During the latter part of December 1933 an appropriation was obtained from the Civil Works Administration for the construction of 4 dormitory buildings and 2 buildings for officers' quarters. This work was handled as a Virginia project through the Fairfax County administrator. Work was started January 2, 1934, and when work was terminated on March 31, 1934, the 4 dormitories were about 90 percent complete, and the 2 buildings for officers' quarters...