Work Relief Programs Sites

From 1938 to 1939 federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) laborers constructed a freight shed at the north end of the Bronx Terminal Market. Much of the funding for the project came from a $250,000 allocation from the New Deal Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC). A city appropriation of $130,000 paid for the rest. Researcher Frank da Cruz has collected evidence about the freight shed's construction which make clear that, at the time, the project received widespread praise in the local press for reducing the price of food in the surrounding area, by allowing for more direct distribution of wholesale produce. Mayor LaGuardia initiated the formation...

The Triborough Bridge is one of three major bridges, along with the Henry Hudson and the Bronx-Whitestone, built during the New Deal era to link the boroughs of Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx, and tie together the expanding highway system in and out of New York City.  Robert Moses was the master planner of New York from the 1920s to the 1920s, and one of Moses' seats of power was the Triborough Bridge Authority, which built this and other bridges. Moses used New Deal funds liberally to build the projects he had in mind for the city. But he did not...

"Hackettstown is receiving full value of Federal work relief money and is accomplishing a much needed improvement. The clearing and widening of the brook that flows back of Park Avenue, then through the dump meadows on Franklin Street before it empties into the Musconetcong, is a worthwhile project from a sanitary point."

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed Richmond’s Brook Field Park Swimming Pool in 1938. The pool was a segregated one, operating exclusively for the African American people of the city, as was normal practice in the Jim Crow era.   Made out of concrete, the pool’s physical dimensions were listed as 185 x 60 feet by 2 and a half to 11 feet deep. Like other WPA pool projects, the Brook Field Park Swimming Pool included the most modern equipment of the day, including a circulation pump and filter system as well as water treatment tools and a series of floodlights....

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) completed improvements in Brookdale Park NJ (Essex County) in 1937. Initial construction of the park began in 1928 following an Olmstead Brothers’ design. “The basic work was in place by 1930,” suggests the Essex County Parks Department. But hen the Depression hit, the work that was originally estimated to take only a few years was extended to many years. Construction became dependent upon labor available from the WPA and ERA agencies, who completed the major work by 1937. The result is one of the County's most beautiful parks.” The WPA provided most of the funds and labor...

The federal Civil Works Administration constructed the old entrance, Huntington's Gate, to Brookgreen Gardens outside Murrells Inlet, South Carolina. Living New Deal believes that the old gate is no longer extant. "Huntington's Gate, Route #49, CWA Project #99. Archer and Anna Huntington built Atalaya, a Moorish-style home between 1931-33. At that same time, they were building Brookgreen Gardens, which was intended to preserve the native flora and fauna and display objects of art within that natural setting. Brookgreen Gardens continues to operate as a National Historic Landmark and a display garden for figurative sculpture." (Georgetown County Digital Library) A photo of the...

The WPA contributed funds for a "handsome new building ... for the purpose of sheltering the valuable equipment of the highway department of Brookhaven Town. ... is believed that the new structure will result in a considerable saving to the taxpayers." The building was to be set on a three-acre tract in Coram. It is still in use at the coordinates specified.

The old Brookhaven Town Hall in Patchogue is located at the northeast corner of South Ocean Ave. & Baker St. According to Sayville's Suffolk County News in 1939, "The WPA has approved the proposed construction of an extension to the Brookhaven Town Hall at a cost of $86,369, of which the government's share will be $39,338." The building was renovated by Northwell Health and now functions as a Medical Building.

In 1936-37, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) improved a segment of Brookland Avenue NE between Michigan Avenue to Bates Road. WPA improved this road with recycled material and the “laying of a thin blanket of bituminous material.” Also, “this project required a fill of about 10 feet at the Michigan Avenue end, due to the necessity for raising the grade at this location in connection with the construction of the Michigan Avenue viaduct.”

Now an industrial park, the Brooklyn Army Terminal at 140 58th Street, which was previously known as the Port of Embarkation, was improved through numerous projects conducted by the federal Work Projects Administration during the 1930s and early 1940s.

"In the rotunda of the are bronze busts of Linnaeus, Darwin, Mendel, Asa Gray, Robert Brown, and John Torrey--the work of WPA sculptors."

The New Deal supported various improvements to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden during the Great Depression, among which was the Herb Garden: "Works Progress Administration (WPA) labor was used to build the 1938 Herb Garden, a Caparn design taken from a 1577 Elizabethan knot garden." The herb garden is no longer extant. Other New Deal-funded efforts, such as bronze busts of noted naturalists that reside in the Laboratory Building rotunda, also grace the Botanic Garden.

The New Deal supported various improvements to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden during the Great Depression, among which was the Osborne Garden. "Works Progress Administration (WPA) labor was used to build the 1938 Herb Garden, a Caparn design taken from a 1577 Elizabethan knot garden. The Italian-style Osborne Garden was also constructed with labor from the Civil Works Administration and the WPA in 1939." Other New Deal-funded efforts, such as bronze busts of noted naturalists that reside in the Laboratory Building rotunda, also grace the Botanic Garden.

According to a Brooklyn Children's Museum history: 1930s "The Work Progress Administration (WPA) brings more than 200 docents, artists, carpenters, printers, and clerks to work at the Museum during the Depression. Over 200 volunteers support museum projects including the construction of exhibits, wooden jigsaw puzzles, and collection boxes. "

Brooklyn College was created in the 1930s with the assistance of the New Deal.  The five original buildings, including a library and gymnasium, were built with PWA funding and the grounds were landscaped by WPA workers. The college's web page tells the story as follows: “Founded in 1930, Brooklyn College was New York City’s first public coeducational liberal arts college. The school was envisioned as a stepping stone for the sons and daughters of immigrants and working-class people toward a better life through a superb — and at the time, free — college education… Despite being in the throes of the Great Depression,...

The buildings of Brooklyn College were financed by a massive federal Public Works Administration (PWA) project undertaken during the Great Depression. After the buildings were constructed, Works Progress Administration (WPA) laborers worked on improving the campus, primarily through landscaping efforts, beginning in 1938. The above image of WPA workers doing landscaping on the Brooklyn College campus comes from the Brooklyn Public Library. The caption reads: "Planting new shrubs on the grounds of Brooklyn College, between the hockey field and proposed tennis courts, has kept WPA gardeners busy these fall days." The WPA even maintained a plant nursery and a tulip garden on the campus, as the lower image...

Brooklyn College Library contains two WPA Federal Arts Project murals entitled "Famous Libraries of the World" painted by Olindo Mario Ricci in 1936-1939. A plaque on the wall near the murals reads: "Gracing the Library's grandest reading room are murals of two of the ancient world's greatest libraries: Egypt's Alexandrian Library and Rome's Augustan Library. Muralist Olindo Maria Ricci wanted students to 'feel as if they are in the company of the greats as they read the classics' and thus included many illustrious figures, including the mathematician Euclid and the poet Virgil.  Ricci began the murals as a WPA artist and completed them...

Under the WPA Federal Arts Project, artist Monty Lewis installed a large double fresco depicting "The Cotton Industry in Contemporary America" in 1936. The fresco may be in the auditorium or in a corridor. At the time of installation, this building was the High School of Industrial Arts. It later became the Sarah J. Hale High School and then, in 2001, the Brooklyn High School of the Arts.

In 1936, "when the United States was still reeling from the Great Depression, a series of murals was commissioned by the Federal Art Project (FAP), to be painted in the community rooms at the Williamsburg Public Housing development in Brooklyn, NY. This development was built in 1936-37, designed by the chief architect William Lescaze. The head of the New York Murals of the FAP division in 1937 was Burgoyne Diller. It was a brave move to commission a series of abstract murals from avant-garde, relatively unknown artists. At the time, most murals (perhaps all) were figurative... The artists whose murals were found in the...

The WPA contributed to several improvements at the Brooklyn Museum during the 1930s. According to the Federal Writers' Project: "During the past few years a WPA project has been making the useum one of the most modern and pleasantly arranged in the country. The most striking change has been the removal of a monumental stairway which originally gave access to the third story, and the building of a new entrance hall at the ground level."

In 1934, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported that Brooklyn and Queens received their largest allotment of funds to-date, "in the government's drive to spread employment and aid industry." Improvements to drydock 2 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, were part of the Public Works Administration's (PWA) metropolitan-wide program which added "1,079,328 man-months of direct employment," as well as indirect employment, much of it in the construction trades (Brooklyn Daily Eagle). Forty percent of the $250,000,000 that the PWA allocated to the New York metropolitan area went to Brooklyn and Queens. A significant portion of these funds were used to improve and extend the city's transportation system,...

The school's main lobby features a large oil on canvas WPA mural painted by Maxwell Starr in 1941 . Entitled "History of Mankind in Terms of Mental and Physical Labor," the mural "traces developments from the Stone Age through the 1930s and portrays notable scientists and inventors." The mural was restored in 1998 by the Tech Alumni Association.   (https://www.bths.edu)  

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) and Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) "constructed a new entrance to Brookside Drive" in Amherst, Ohio.

Two Works Progress Administration concrete pedestrian bridges built over the Arroyo Seco flood control channel in the Brookside Golf Course next to the Rose Bowl.

"The Brookside Park Improvements, WP 25, WP 5702, WP 5704, WP 6978, WP 7716, WP 8101, WP 9534, WP 9624 and WP 9810, sponsored by the City of Pasadena, comprise a diversified construction program to improve the facilities and beauty of the park for the comfort, safety, and convenience of the public. Brookside Park, in the City of Pasadena, is a major recreational center, located in the Arroyo Seco and is one of the most popular parks in Los Angeles County. Many major golf tournaments are held on the Brookside course each year and the annual New Year's Day football...

A lattice steel public toilet built similarly to the one next to the Rose Bowl nearby. Two plaques on the front read "Built by United States Work Projects Administration 1940" and "Renovated by Public Works and Transportation Building Systems and Fleet Management Division 1995."

In November 1937, the Department of Parks announced the completion of a new playground at Weller Ave. and Brookville Blvd in Brookville Park: "the new playground is equipped with swings, seesaws, slides, jungle gym, sand tables, playhouses, ping pong tables, horizontal bar and ladder, basketball and volley ball courts; also, a circular wading pool surrounded by shade trees and permanent concrete benches. Brookville Park, which occupies a long narrow valley and is entered from the Sunrise Parkway at the north, is being completely constructed as a modern park with modern facilities, of which this playground forms one unit. With the completion...

Then known as Bedford Park, this Brooklyn Park was first established in the 1890s. Since 1899, the Brooklyn Children's Museum has been located on the property. The park was renamed Brower Park in 1923. In 1941, the Department of Parks announced that the WPA had significantly reconstructed the park and area around the museum: "The new development, which reserves 80% of the area for passive enjoyment of broad tree-dotted lawns, also provides a new playground for youngsters where they may safely play on a variety of exercise units. The museum...has been provided with a spacious block paved terrace extending around all sides....

The Works Progress Administration built sidewalks on several streets in Kingwood. Work on Brown Avenue was completed in 1937.

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) laborers improved Brown County State Park from 1933 - 1934. The CWA laborers built shelters and worked on establishing trails during their brief stay at Brown County State Park. In 1933 two Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camps were established. The two camps were comprised of World War I veterans. The CCC laborers built gatehouses, shelters, trails, an exhibit shelter, saddle barns, amphitheater, and more. The CCC camps were disbanded in 1941.

CCC laborers completed the park amphitheater in 1936. The amphitheater was built into a wooded hillside near the Abe Martin Lodge, as a place for programs and entertainment. The seats, stage, and steps were all made from native stone.

In 1934 a vast archery hunting ground was established in the eastern part of the Brown County State Park. In 1935 CCC laborers completed the Archery (Hunters') Shelter. The shelter is classified as parks rustic state park.

The site was originally the camp of Emergency Conservation Work (ECW) laborers. In 1934 it became the home of CCC Co. 1557, which was comprised of World War I veterans. The marker commemorates CCC laborer and reads "It was in this area that members of the CCC 1557 were stationed while completing many early park construction projects. Foundations of some of the building may still be visible." The site of the CCC camp is now used as a picnic grove.

Hesitation Point was completed by CCC laborers in 1935. The vista sign explains view (height, atmosphere). Hesitation Point is a good example of vistas cleared by CCC workers.

CCC laborers completed the Lower Shelter in 1936. The shelter is two stories with multiple fire places. The style of the shelter is classified as parks rustic.

Using a variety of native materials, the CCC built gatehouses designed to appeal to the eye and draw in visitors with hints of the delights of nature within the park. The north gatehouse is one of two at Brown County State Park. The gatehouse was completed by CCC laborers in 1935. The style of the gatehouse is classified as parks rustic.

The CCC laborers completed Ogle lake between 1934 and 1935. The workers also created an earth dam and spillway.

The Ogle Lake Shelter was completed by CCC laborers in 1935. The shelter overlooks Ogle lake and the earth dam to the south. The style of the shelter is classified as parks rustic.

CCC laborers completed the oven shelter in 1940. Inside the stone shelter is a two-sided stone fireplace. The style of the shelter is classified as parks rustic.

Several oven shelters were built throughout Brown County State Park between 1934 and 1940 but only a few survived. The oven and drinking fountains are in the vicinity of Lower Shelter. The style of the shelter is classified as parks rustic.