Civil Works Administration (CWA) Sites

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) undertook a project to install a new floor and steps at what was then the junior high school in Northumberland, Pennsylvania. The location and status of this facility is unknown to Living New Deal, though we believe it to be no longer extant.

Constructed with CWA and probably FERA funding.

"The lava rock terracing at Kawananakoa School (1934), as well as the fountain featuring bas reliefs by Margarite Blasingame, resulted from the continuation of a number of the CWA's projects by FERA." Blasingame was an American sculptor born in Honolulu in 1906. She did a number of projects under federal support during the Great Depression, including this "Hawaiian Decagonal Fountain" at the Kawananakoa School.

The Keller Recreation Center, also referred to as the Rock Gym, was constructed in 1933-34 by the Civil Works Administration. The structure is made of native sandstone and petrified wood, and cost $16,000. It included meeting rooms, locker rooms, two basketball courts, a stage and a fireplace for heat. The building was given a new purpose when bond issues in 1992 and 1995 included $3.2 million for renovations for the gym and adjoining Keller Elementary School. The campus became the Keller Independent School District Education Center. The building still hosts a variety of district and community events.

The former City Park and Athletic Field (now the Ken Lindley Park) originated in 1908, but major improvements were made with relief labor provided by the Civil Works Administration (CWA) in the winter of 1933-34.  It is likely that after the CWA was discontinued in early 1934, the stone work was completed under the auspices of the Arizona Emergency Relief Administration and largely funded by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA).   The main work done by the New Deal crews was to build the elegant stone walls that enclose the entire square block, and which serve as retaining walls on...

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) constructed a community center in Arvada, Wyoming. The location and status of the building is unknown to Living New Deal. Cassity: "The CWA constructed a forty by sixty foot log building on a concrete foundation, with a maple floor, stage, and additional rooms as kitchens or dressing rooms, and finished it with a rubble masonry fireplace. The community named the building Kendrick Hall in honor of the late senator ..."

The Kenesaw auditorium was originally a Civil Works Administration (CWA) project that eventually morphed into a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project with the termination of the CWA. The WPA portion of the project began in November 1935. The town of Kenesaw donated both money and labor to the project. The WPA installed and constructed two septic tanks and cesspools, finished the interior walls, offices and floors, constructed stage props and the staircase, hung the doors and built a large marquee. The WPA also provided 325 folding chairs for the auditorium. Even so, parts of the building remained unfinished, such as...

"The Keweenaw Mountain Lodge and Golf Course Complex is a resort located near Copper Harbor, Michigan. It was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1976 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, and is open to the public... During the early 1930s, the Great Depression hit Keweenaw County hard. The mining industry had fallen on hard times, and unemployment stood at over seventy percent. Ocha Potter, the head of the Keweenaw Road Commission and superintendent of Ahmeek Mine, conceived of constructing a resort complex in the county. In 1933, he applied to the Federal government for...

The CWA built the famous Key West Aquarium in 1934, amid a flurry of relief work by the FERA and the WPA on the island.

In 1933-1935, Alfred Crimi was one of several artists to be employed to create murals for the Key West Aquarium. The murals were begun under the CWA and completed under FERA. The Crimi murals were later destroyed, but modern day reproductions were later installed. The status of the murals by other artists is not known to the Living New Deal.

This collection of buildings includes an elementary school, a gymnasium and a high school. The three buildings are located on a row along State St. and still serve as the primary educational facilities for the community. "Three stone buildings, a gymnasium flanked by an elementary and a high school, represent the work of several New Deal relief programs. Constructed over an eight-year period, the buildings provided employment in Kim during much of the Great Depression. Construction on the gymnasium began in December 1933 as a Civil Works Administration project. It was completed in the spring of 1935 after being transferred to...

An elementary school and high school, plus a gymnasium, were constructed by the New Deal for the rural settlement of Kim, Colorado.  The work was undertaken by three different New Deal agencies over a period of 8 years, 1933 to 1941.  History Colorado provides more details: "Three stone buildings, a gymnasium flanked by an elementary and a high school, represent the work of several New Deal relief programs administered in eastern Colorado.  Constructed over an eight-year period, the buildings provided employment in Kim during much of the Great Depression.   Construction on the gymnasium began in December 1933 as a Civil Works...

The Civil Works Administration carried out repair work at King’s Hill Village (a subsistence housing development). The repair work included multiple buildings.

This golf course at Kissena Park in outer Queens was one of several golf courses created with federal funding under Robert Moses' tenure as Parks Commissioner. The Department of Parks first announced the opening of the course in August 1935. Another Department press release in May 1936 announced the opening of the Kissena Park golf course again, suggesting that there was likely further work done in the meantime. The 1936 release further noted that the work was completed "with relief funds provided by the C.W.A., T.E.R.A. and W.P.A."

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) conducted an improvement project at Knoxville National Cemetery, providing work for about 35 laborers.

On May 7, 1936, the Department of Parks announced the opening of the newly constructed second nine and the reconstructed first nine at La Tourette Golf Course in Staten Island, which had been “thoroughly reconstructed with new tees and greens throughout…with relief funds provided by the C.W.A., T.E.R.A. and W.P.A.” The course is still in use.

A sizable flood control project along Labette Creek in Parsons, Kansas was undertaken by the Civil Works Administration (CWA) in 1933-4. The Parsons Sun: "This is one of the most important Improvements, from a practical civic viewpoint, made In Parsons in years. It remains to he seen just how much the removal of thousands of cubic yards of earth from the creek bed and banks will alleviate flood conditions at that point on Labette creek, but is is believed that it will go a long way toward preventing bad inundations caused by heavy rains."

Friday, February 16 - "About 100 CWA men are working on Lafayette Field. The football field will have a cinder track around it, and a baseball diamond will also be laid out. The fields will be surrounded by at least 1500' of fencing." Lafayette Field is located behind the old Lafayette High School.

The Laguna Beach Sewage Disposal Plant was funded by both local bonds and the Public Works Administration (PWA).  Construction started in 1934 with the help of relief labor from the Civil Works Administration (CWA).  The sewage treatment plant used a distinctive architecture that sets it apart. Laguna Beach considers the buildings to have local historical significance.   Although the plant is no longer used, the distinctive tower of the 'digester' remains. As the following 2006 archaeological report documents: “Little remains of the original immediate landscape of the sewage treatment plant, since its adjacent filtration and settling ponds have been removed .... However, the adjacent...

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) conducted a project to improve "the Lake George road from the North Western railroad" in the town of Pelican, Wisconsin. Work started in Dec. 1933.

Multiple New Deal agencies: the Civil Works Administration (CWA) and Works Progress Administration (WPA) were involved in the improvement and development of the park surrounding Lake Herington in Herington, Kansas. 1934: "Herington has been allotted $6,106 from the CWA state funds for improving Lake Herington. Excavating will be done and stumps pulled around the edges." "Lake Herington was created in 1929. WPA funds were used for the construction caretaker's house and garage as well as the shelter house just up the street (N). Appropriations for the project in 1935 and 1936 exceeded $12,000, of which approx. $9,634 were for the construction of...

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) undertook the dredging of Lake Sammamish, in Lake Sammamish State Park, in 1934.

"The bathhouse at the new Lake Springfield beach area started out as a Civil Works Administration program but couldn’t be finished as a work relief program because there was “an absence of skilled workers on the relief rolls,” according to the Illinois State Journal in 1933. It was completed by private construction. The beach opened in 1935 with help from the federal programs. Public parks, the wildlife sanctuary and other recreational areas also benefited."

In the summer of 1933, the City of Sweetwater offered land on Lake Sweetwater to the State of Texas in exchange for the state developing a park. Development started with the Civil Works Administration in the winter of 1933 with construction of a refectory at the site. In fall 1934, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Company 1823(V) arrived to continue work. The company was a mix of white and black enrollees. Six months later the unit became the state's only all black company. As a result, politicians demanded the removal of the camp, and the company moved to Lake Abilene State Park. While...

In 1934 the Civil Works Administration (CWA) and Federal Emergency Lake Administration (FERA) constructed a dam to impound a recreational lake: Lake Tomahawk, in Black Mountain, North Carolina, as well as a community building and boathouse at its shore. The lake "was officially opened on Labor Day weekend in 1934." The community building featured shingle siding and a large room for social gatherings and boating and bathing facilities. The building is still in use today and the lake continues as a gathering spot. "The community house, built at Black Mountain, in Buncombe County, under project No. 11A-B11-2, is situated on the shore...

Lakeview Cemetery in Wayland, Mass. was improved by Civil Works Administration (C.W.A.) labor.

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) conducted modest street improvement work in the Lakeview section of San Angelo, Texas.

"The Civil Works Administration was absorbed by the FERA in the spring of 1934, but it had several projects underway by that time. On land leased from Dr. J. F. Williams and G. B. Truka of Daytona Beach, it was constructing an airplane landing field about a mile south of Monticello. According to the News, the Kiwanis Club had long desired the landing field, "and now through federal aid its dream is about to be realized." The FERA rented a warehouse from D. A. Finlayson to store its supplies."

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) conducted landscaping work at a "triangular plot at the intersection of Bronx Blvd. and Duncomb Ave." The New York Times reported on an adorable story that occurred during the project, involving the hatching of six baby birds from eggs in a nest "no larger than fist."

Birmingham's Lane Park was the site of substantial work relief efforts on the part of multiple New Deal agencies: the Civil Works Administration (CWA) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Historical marker: "The land was also used for the Allen Gray Fish Hatchery (fed by Pullen Springs), a stone quarry, a complete baseball diamond, and a golf driving range. Several of the stone structures were erected by the WPA. Two hundred acres are now the home of the Birmingham Zoo (est. 1954) and the Birmingham Botanical Gardens (est. 1962)." A CWA/Alabama Relief Administration project was soon after launched to fully develop the...

"The reservoir at what is now the site of Lanphier High School was removed as a CWA project in 1933. The $300,000 construction of Lanphier High three years later was partially financed by Public Works Administration funds, as was an addition completed in 1938."

The federal Civil Works Administration (CWA) undertook improvement work at the Laurel County Courthouse in London, Kentucky: "Wiring, Painting, Roofing, Stairways, Flooring, and Window Repairs," in addition to "Extensive General Repairs and Painting."

During the late 1930s, with funds from various New Deal programs, the Seattle Park Department made significant improvements to Laurelhurst Playfield. The largest of these improvement projects was the construction of a field house near the southern end of the playfield. Workers with the CWA began constructing the field house in January 1934. Work had not yet been completed when the federal government shut down the CWA program at the end of March 1934. The remaining work on the structure was completed in 1935 with assistance from the Washington (State) Emergency Relief Administration. Designed by Seattle architect Lloyd J. Lovegren,...

The Seattle Park Department acquired the site for Laurelhurst Playfield along NE 41st Street between 45th Avenue NE and 48th Avenue NE in 1927. Although a few improvements to the site were completed between 1929 and 1932, a series of New Deal projects between 1933 and 1941 allowed the Park Department to move forward with additional upgrades despite the hardships of the Great Depression. Laurelhurst Playfield was one of a limited number of Seattle park facilities to receive funding under the New Deal's Civil Works Administration program. During the winter of 1933-1934, CWA laborers began construction on a brick field house...

Lawrence-Dumont Stadium, originally Lawrence Stadium, was a baseball stadium built by the Civil Works Administration (CWA) in 1934. Home to minor league baseball and National Baseball Congress tournament for many years. It was demolished in 2018 to make room for Riverfront Park.

Lehman Caves National Monument was established in 1922 and put under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service in 1933. New Deal relief agencies came in to aid the Park Service in improving facilities at the park to make it more welcoming to the public. First to arrive was the Civil Works Administration (CWA) in the winter of 1933-34. Relief workers made repairs to the water line from Lehman Creek to the caves, the cave trail and the modest park buildings by the cave. In the summer of 1934, workers from the Transient Relief Camp at Lehman Creek did general clean-up...

Leif Ericson Park is a long, narrow park in the Bay Ridge neighborhood of Brooklyn, which "features a Norse theme in honor of Leif Ericson and the local Scandinavian-American community" (NYC Parks). By the turn of the 20th century, the neighborhood had a large Norwegian population, and in 1925 community leaders convinced City Hall to turn the five blocks from 4th Ave. to Fort Hamilton Parkway between 66th St. and 67th St. into a park. In the 1930s, the park was extensively developed by the New Deal. In October 1934, the Department of Parks announced the addition of two play areas...

The Portland Department of Public Works rebuilt the sewer on Leland Street in Portland as part of a C.W.A Project No. 10-GG.

"In 1900 the artillery tube was donated by the Navy Department to the T.L. Sutphen Post No. 41 of the Grand Army of the Republic in Evansville. The Post in turn donated the piece to the City of Evansville, which placed it on the City Hall lawn on a stone base that resembled a gun carriage. "The cannon monument to the Evansville memorial was removed from City Hall to Leonard-Leota Park in 1938 as part of Depression Era improvements to the park." "THE COURSE OF ALLEN'S CREEK WITHIN LEOTA PARK WAS STRAIGHTENED AND ITS BANKS WERE RIP-RAPPED WITH LIMESTONE BETWEEN 1933 AND...

Levy Playground is a small plot in the Richmond district of Staten Island. It was one of five “model playgrounds” designed as templates for further playground development by Robert Moses and his team after Moses assumed control of the New York City Parks Department in 1934. The August 1934 press release announcing the opening of this and 13 other playgrounds – constructed with Work Relief funds probably coming from the Civil Works Administration (CWA) – described this playground as containing: "Recreation building and the usual playground apparatus. There is an octagonal wading pool. The smaller children will be separated from...