Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) Sites

The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) constructed water supply reservoirs northwest of Casper, Wyoming. Casper Star-Tribune, March 3, 1935: "Drought conditions of last year prompted the excavation and construction of important and permanent reservoirs on the 33-Mile stock trail west of Casper, which links the prairie winter range with the Big Horn summer range, at a cost of $33,740. Of this sum, $30,000 was supplied through the ERA ..." It is unclear to Living New Deal whether these projects includes what are now known as Bressler Reservoir, Daly Reservoir, or possibly even Gowin-Kesecker Lake, which are located in the vicinity of Thirtythree...

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) and Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) supplied labor for the development of a "Rhododendron Gardens Park" in Asheville, North Carolina. The project cost was $4,089.29, all footed by the federal government. The location and status of this project is unknown to Living New Deal, although there was a Rhododendron Park reputedly located in West Asheville. A 1936 USGS map places Rhododendron Park at the coordinates shown.

The PWA and FERA worked on a segment of the Richardson Highway, from Gulkana to Nabesna. About half of this road was improved to accommodate automobile traffic.

The municipal building at 101 S. Franklin St. in Richwood, Ohio has seen many functions over the years and was the site of New Deal work relief efforts during the Great Depression. Est. in 1890 to function as the seat of the Village Government, house the police force and jail, house the fire department, and an Opera House. From 1933 to 1935 the building was gutted as part of Project B-1618 of the Civil Works Administration and Project 80-B4-4 of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. The local government stayed in place, an addition was built to house the fire department, the Opera...

The Civil Works Administration and the Puerto Rico Emergency Relief Administration carried out new road construction on Rio Abajo Road in Ceiba.

The Civil Works Administration and the Puerto Rico Emergency Relief Administration carried out repair and maintenance work on Rio Lajas Road in Dorado.

In March 1935, nearly one hundred Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) workers started work at Cottonmill Lake, located west of Kearney. Primarily, they were involved in widening and improving the driveway around the lake. The shovel crews were widening the roadway, cutting away the sharp turns, reducing the steep grades, and surfacing the roadway with gravel. The Buffalo County Sportmans’ League underwrote the project by supplying all the gravel and covering the costs of hauling it in. In this way, the FERA funding could be reserved for labor alone. The first “survey” of the road was made very simply: Arnold...

New Deal funds supported extensive road and infrastructure work in the town of Proctor. The Selectmens report for 1933 mentions 7 highway projects and the extension of the sewer near Field St done by the C.W.A. starting Nov. 2nd 1933, employing 90 men, and costing the New Deal $6,494 for wages and $2,293 for a truck, tools, materials, and supplies. Highway projects by the Vermont Emergency Relief Administration VERA (the state agency set up to distribute Federal funds) cost $16,685. In 1934, further CWA and VERA funds were used to distribute money to families in need of seeds and other farming...

From The New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties (2004): "The coming of the New Deal and many of the work relief programs funded by the WPA proved to a boon for improving downtown Hot Springs and for civic organizations to improve amenities for the community. Under the first New Deal program, the Civil Works Administration, in 1934 the Women’s Improvement Club provided landscaping for a public drinking fountain. Other improvement projects included road and sidewalk construction (with most of the sidewalks within the historic district still bearing WPA or Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) imprints), construction of a...

The City of Barre relied greatly on multiple federal relief programs for the improvement and development of its street network during the Great Depression. Such included reconstruction, grading, paving. Work also included related safety measures such as the construction of retaining walls and guard rails. The National Youth Administration (N.Y.A.) contributed by landscaping streets.

Between 1933 and 1943 multiple New Deal agencies: the C.W.A., F.E.R.A., and W.P.A., provided the labor for dozens of street paving and improvement projects throughout Framingham, Mass. Work included "15 miles of secondary gravel streets, 2 miles of primary paved streets." Some important W.P.A. work involved country road improvements, "consisting of widening, straightening, removing outcropping ledges and trees, grading, graveling, building new stone walls and removing and rebuilding existing stone walls, and applying bituminous surface treatment... These streets as completed have a minimum width of traveled way of 18 ft. to 20 ft. and all dangerous curves and other obstructions have...

Multiple New Deal agencies worked to resurface, widen, straighten, repair, and otherwise improve the roads in Maynard, Massachusetts during the Great Depression.

The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (F.E.R.A.) and Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) funded the labor for "a program of comprehensive repair" of roads in Millville, Massachusetts. One slate of work involved 8.5 miles of roads in the town, "four miles of which are farm to market roads."

"Some of the early projects implemented  included grading the "Big Lake road" out to the Wheeler settlement near Lake Miccosukee."

Multiple New Deal agencies contributed to safety improvement work and other road development in Wayland, Mass. For example, work in 1934 included the widening of Hazelbrook Ln., Rice Rd., and Stone Bridge Rd. Island Road and Oak St. were widened, and Water Row rebuilt in 1935.

"Between 1934 and 1935, Civil Works Administration and Federal Emergency Relief Administration workers had repaved over fifty-eight blocks. Much of the work was in the suburbs, where the "dust menace" had long been a problem."

The Civil Works Administration (C.W.A.), Federal Emergency Relief Administration (F.E.R.A.), and Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) conducted improvement work along roads in Ashland, Massachusetts. Work included the "relocation of Manning Road," no longer extant; and Sunset Rd. in 1936. State highways and farm-to-market roads were improved by the W.P.A. in the town as well.

In 1934, the C.W.A. completed 2,000 feet of repair work on the East Blue Hill Road employing 26 men. The E.R.A. did construction work on the North Blue Hill Road employing 44 men. Total on both projects paid by C.W.A. and ERA $6,060.61 Total on both projects paid by town $263.48

Streets got some help from the New Deal as part of the cities effort at tackling the pervasive unemployment in the city. Only 1933 and 34 town reports were available. 1933 Road Commissioner "On account of frost ruining many of our streets and roads for the lack of proper ditches or drainage the entire city was ditched by the relief crews. I feel that there will be some relief from heaving of our thorofares by so doing." Spring Street, and Water Street were constructed with concrete. Gilman Street was extended up to the area of Mayflower Hill that Colby College was being built on. Project...

The Robert LaFleur Airport is a small general aviation airport in Waterville. It was originally opened in 1931. A 2011 history of the airport explains the federal involvement in its development. In a 1933 town report, Mayor Thayer explains that: "In order to secure improvement for the airport— a very desirable improvement for the community—the City has entered into an agreement of lease, with option to purchase, with the owners of the airport, this condition being precedent to any activity by the Civil Works Administration. This contract will not involve any expense to the City of Waterville but will result in...

"Robert Mitchell School in Sparks got a new playground with supervised play for children from FERA."

"Park improvements were started by the Federal Emergency Relief Association in 1934 and completed by the Works Administration in 1936." The WPA was also involved in projects within this and other Connecticut state parks.

The Federal Emergency Relief Administration funded the construction of the Roosevelt High School athletic facilities: “Another major operation concluded during the year consisted of the completion of a concrete stadium and the Roosevelt High School athletic field with facilities for track and field activities, football, baseball, and other sports, together with necessary flood control and drainage walls and other general improvements.”

Roosevelt Park in Blackstone, Massachusetts was developed with the assistance of federal funds during the early stages of the New Deal, most likely the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (F.E.R.A.). The facility is located behind the town's municipal complex, off St. Paul Street.

All 17 schoolhouses in Framingham, Massachusetts were painted, remodeled, and/or repaired with federally funded labor during the Great Depression. The former Roosevelt School, demolished in the 1950s, was located at the southeast corner of Fay Rd. and Seminole Ave., now the site of Roosevelt Park (UT map). In 1935 the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (F.E.R.A.) and/or the Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) painted many facets of the school building. New fences were constructed in 1939. The heating system was improved, the school painted, and the roof shingled by W.P.A. labor in 1942.

A marker was erected in 1985 to commemorate this New Deal resettlement community. The text reads: "The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) was enacted in 1933 as part of U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal Program to aid families during the country's Great Depression. The Rural Rehabilitation Division of that agency began in 1934 to work specifically with the problems of the nation's farm families. The Ropesville Resettlement Program was one of 78 FERA- approved projects to help farmers re- establish themselves near the already-established town of Ropesville. Federal money was used to construct homes, wells, and farm buildings. The first...

The house was first leased to the Arthur Murphy family inn 1938, The entire farm consisted of 299 acres. The house was donated and moved in March 2014 to the FiberMax Center for Discovery (formerly the Bayer Museum of Agriculture) by the Larry Smith family, to be used as a museum exhibit. Originally built and located in Hockley County, near Ropesville, Texas. The house was donated by the Larry Smith family and moved to Lubbock March 2014. The house was first leased to the Arthur Murphy Family in 1938. The farm number was #63. Between 1936 and 1938, there were about...

The Puerto Rico Emergency Relief Administration carried out repair and maintenance work in Rosario in San Germán.

Glassboro State Normal School, founded in 1923, trained South Jersey women and men to be elementary school teachers. In 1935, when they received federal funds, there were 330 students at the school. Today, Glassboro State Normal School is Rowan University. A rapidly growing institution with a full complement of University undergraduate subjects, two medical schools, a nursing school, and a new school of veterinary medicine, Rowan has bounded beyond its origins as a Normal School. In the summer of 1935, Dr. J. J. Savitz received approval from the Works Progress Administration of Camden County 8th District for several Improvement projects for...

"During 1935 the pond in the Rufus Putnam Memorial Park in Rutland was developed as a swimming pool under the provisions of said Chapter 346 of 1934 in co-operation with the town under the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, which provided about $1,500 for labor in addition to the $3,860 expended by the Water Division for labor and materials. The pool has an area of about 1.6 acres, a maximum depth of 6.5 feet and a shallow sand beach, 140 feet long and 30 feet wide to a depth of 3 feet."

The Puerto Rico Emergency Relief Administration carried out repair and maintenance work in Sabana Grande in Lajas.

Sabino Canyon Recreation Area is in Coronado National Forest at the northeast corner of Tucson AZ. At the behest of the city of Tucson and Pima County, it was developed out of former mining and grazing land in the Santa Catalina Mountains by New Deal agencies, which built roads, dams and recreational facilities.  Relief workers hired under the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), and Works Progress Administration (WPA) all contributed to the park's improvement.  A major recreational lake never materialized, as funds ran out in the mid-1930s and, beside, dams in the desert quickly fill with sediment...

The Puerto Rico Emergency Relief Administration built a road segment connecting Salinas to Cayey.

The Civil Works Administration and the Puerto Rico Emergency Relief Administration carried out new road construction on Saltillo Road in Adjuntas.

The Puerto Rico Emergency Relief Administration carried out repair and maintenance work in San Joaquin in Adjuntas.

The Puerto Rico Emergency Relief Administration carried out new road construction on San Lorenzo Road in Juncos.

"Sanford Town Engineer, Earnest Gallant, oversaw initial construction of the runways in 1930 on land owned by Lela H. Goodall Thomurg..." William Campbell, President of the Goodall Worsted Company, founded Sanford Airways in 1931. After several improvement were made during the 1930s and early 1940s, funded primarily by New Deal agencies, the Sanford Airport was leased to the Navy in 1942. By then it boasted three lighted, paved, 3,000-foot runways... . Sanford Regional Airport is now overseen by an Airport Advisory Committee of the Town of Sanford and a part-time airport manager."   (https://www.someoldnews.com) W.P.A. project information: "Construct municipal airport" Official Project Number: 165‐1‐11‐38 Total project...

From 1933 to 1938, the Civil Works Administration (CWA), Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) and Works Progress Administration (WPA) – in short, the work relief agencies of the New Deal – built over a thousand “sanitary privies”, or outhouses, around Arizona under the Community Sanitation Program directed by the Arizona Board of Health.  The program canvassed private property owners to see if they needed new privies and the government provided the labor if the owner paid for the materials. Over one hundred such outhouses were built in the Verde Valley of Yavapai County.  In all likelihood, every last one has disappeared...

The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)'s "constructive project work" in Russell County, Virginia included "improvements of the entrance to Cleveland school." A historic map suggests that the school was located on the north side of Riverview Terrace Drive.

FERA completed an auditorium on the site of Jay's Elementary and High Schools in 1935. Satellite images shows what appears to be the same auditorium still standing, but confirmation is needed.