Work Relief Programs Sites

The Works Progress Administration completed repairs on Adams Avenue in Huntington, Cabell County.

Adams Field, also since known as Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport, was first constructed during the early 20th century. The federal Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) assisted with the airport's development. The W.P.A.'s Division of Operations wrote: This project is unusually interesting because of its history. The hangar was originally constructed by TWA in Waynoka, Okla. This stopping point was done away with by TWA. The City of Little Rock negotiated for its purchase, dismantled it and shipped the material to Little Rock where the Works Progress Administration constructed it. Prior to this the airport had no hangar and sometimes, during...

Adams Gym is a combination auditorium and gymnasium built of rubble masonry construction with a wood floor and steel trusses supporting the roof. The Works Progress Administration built the gym under official project number 65-66-4648.

Now the Ellis-Polk Police Station. Remodeled room for telatype and general complaints.--Healy, p.72. Originally the Adams School Annex, this building was then the San Francisco Ellis-Polk or "Northern" Police Station for many years. Though the inscription above the door now reads "Harvey Milk Children's Center," the building now houses the San Francisco Unified School District Student Nutrition Services Center.

A public swimming pool in Adel IA was built by the Works Progress Administration in 1935. One of the earliest municipal pools constructed in Iowa, the facility was around for a good share of historical events – war, environmental disasters, and cultural and economic changes. “When the pool was completed,” states Allison McNeal of the Dallas County News, “it was quite an attraction to residents including the fact that it had covered restrooms and a bathhouse, uncommon for the era.” The WPA project also provided unemployment relief for area residents. Over time, the pool faced a lack of upkeep as well as...

The Colonial Revival style Adjutant General's house at Camp Withycombe was constructed by Works Progress Administration workers in 1938. Although a military facility since 1909 when it was developed as a rifle range, Camp Withycombe had few permanent structures before the Depression era. During World War I, the camp received inductees who were housed in tents. When it became a supply depot in the 1930s, additional structures were required. Salem based architect Lyle Bartholomew designed the Adjutant General's house using details that have been referred to as the Oregon Rustic style. These include a coursed stone chimney and stone landscaping decoration. The...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was present in Death Valley National Monument  from 1933 to 1942. CCC 'boys' built erected a total of 76 buildings in the monument, including administrative, residential, maintenance & visitor facilities.   The main CCC camp was at Cow Creek, built in 1933 and rebuilt after a fire in 1936.   The original park headquarters was at Cow Creek, as well, and now serves as a Research Center.  Some of the old camp buildings at Cow Creek still stand and are in use as support facilities for park administration: warehouses, a carpenter shop, trades shop, radio building and...

The Hannibal Armory is constructed of rock that was obtained from a local quarry that also was the source for the adjacent Clemens field baseball field.  There is a locked room that was previously used for arms, but the majority of the building is a large open area for basketball courts and is part of the parks and recreation department.

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) workers built a shelter at Admiralty Cove as part of the Admiralty Island Canoe Route, created from 1933 to 1937. This route included shelters, portages, dams, cabins, boathouses, and skiffs and was part of a program to enhance recreational opportunities in Alaska. The CCC structure serves as a boat shelter today and is located on the site of the Admiralty Cove Cabin.    

From 1933 to 1937, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) created a canoe route from east to west across Admiralty Island with multiple shelters, trails and a bear-watching tower at Pack Creek. The CCC Canoe Route is on the National Trust Registry of Historic Places.  The documentation form for the canoe route provides these details: "Work on Admiralty Island began in 1933, with three CCC crews totaling 23 men. By 1934 four shelter cabins had been constructed. In 1935 crews built the trails, more shelters, and installed a dam at the outlet of Beaver Lake to make it navigable to LakeAlexander. By 1936...

"The Adobe building, located on the grounds of the Castro Valley Elementary School, was leased to the Hayward Area Recreation and Park District for use as a community center. The Adobe was a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project designed by Mario Corbett of San Francisco and built in 1938. The building is located in an elm grove planted by the Castro Valley Boy Scouts in 1926. There are hundreds of 4x9x16 inch adobe bricks made by the W.P.A. from dirt excavated from the site of the Redwood School in Castro Valley. The walls of the Adobe are 16 inches thick....

In 1937 the federal Works Progress Administration rebuilt San Diego's Adobe Chapel of the Immaculate Conception "close to its original site."

The WPA constructed a cluster of buildings at O and Golden State streets, including a sizeble adobe office building, as well as some shop and storage buildings. The former is currently unused. Its last occupant was Kern County Parks & Recreation after they were burned out of their much newer building. Parks & Rec have been moved to a more recently acquired building. The WPA warehouse and shop buildings have served the county since the late 1930s with very little in maintenance costs. They are currently under threat of demolition.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) managed an adult education program in Rochester, New Hampshire during the Great Depression. The program replaced a similar one that had been locally organized and funded. A somewhat disdainful attitude toward federal assistance is typified by this addition to the school report by the City of Rochester School Board. "ADULT EDUCATION Contrary to our plans of last year we have again organized adult classes under W. P. A. The work is devoted wholly to preparation for citizenship to meet the needs of about seventy residents of this city. Both afternoon and evening classes have been organized to serve...

"By January, 1937, the Works Progress Administration had supervised the painting of one hundred and eight town markers, airport symbols, and meridian markers throughout Maine." (Marker is for the capital of Maine, but work was spread throughout the state)

Originally constructed as Public School 27 (P.S. 27) in Red Hook, Brooklyn by the federal Work Projects Administration. The school was described by the WPA in 1940: "Will serve the Red Hook Housing Project, was completed in June, 1940. A three-story U-shaped building of colonial design of red brick with granite base and limestone trimmings. Replaces a school built in 1869. Features include a playroom 130 feet by 30 feet, lunch room and kitchen, 22 air-conditioned class rooms, each seating 42 pupils. Radio equipment will pick up the Board of Education's proposed ultra high frequency programs and the regular broadcase programs...

The single-story stone building was constructed by the WPA in 1940. It is of native stone veneer, quarried from the George Keck farm north of Berryville (Story, 1992). It is in the Plain Traditional style.

The National Youth Administration constructed a 1-story "very modernistic" brick classroom building for the Holmes County Agricultural High School in 1940 (Goodman High to have work). Architect James Manly Spain designed the building containing auditorium, classrooms, cafeteria, and basement. Approximately 75 laborers worked on the project from August 1939 to completion in January 1941. The project was slowed by winter weather.

From The Fur Farms of Alaska: Two Centuries of History and a Forgotten Stampede: "In 1937, the legislature responded by appropriating $20,000 to establish an experimental fur station near Petersburg on land to be selected by a committee of three— Governor John Troy, B. Frank Heintzelman from the Forest Service (which contributed thirty-five acres of land), and Frank Dufresne of the Biological Survey (which granted $4,000 for research equipment)... The site chosen by the committee was cleared of trees by the Civilian Conservation Corps. The Public Works Administration awarded a building grant and oversaw the building contractor. The new farm...

The New Deal's Civil Works Administration (CWA) employed 40 men "in making improvements" at what was then known as the Fort Hays Branch of the Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station (now Agricultural Research Center).

The National Youth Administration began construction of a vocational classroom building for agriculture and home economics for the H. O. M. E. Consolidated School in Big Level in 1938 as W. P. 5209. The building was constructed of concrete blocks made at the project site. The project cost approximately $2400 and employed 25 boys. Although the building is no longer extant, the site is marked with a Mississippi Historical monument that acknowledges the NYA construction.

The National Youth Administration construction the agriculture vocational building at the Stringer School in 1938, employing 25 boys in the project.

Between 1935 and 1943, the Ah-Gwah-Ching (“out of doors” in Ojibwe) sanitarium housed “more the 160 items including prints, watercolors, oils and woodcarvings by such artists as Bob Brown, Henry Bukowski, Reathel Keppen, Dorothea Lau, Alexander Oja and Bennet Swanson,” all created through the Works Progress Administration (WPA). When the sanitarium, which opened in 1907 to treat tuberculosis, closed in 2008, the Minnesota Historical Society became the steward of many of these artworks. They now comprise the Ah-Gwah-Ching Archive, much of which can be viewed through this page of the Minnesota Historical Society.

During 1935, Civilian Conservation Corps workers made improvements to Ainsworth State Park, thirty-six miles east of Portland on the Columbia River Highway. John C. Ainsworth, former chairman of the State Highway Commission (1931-1932) donated the original forty acres for the park in 1933. CCC enrollees worked on picnic facilities and trails in the park. Perhaps the most distinctive improvement made by CCC workers involved the stone work steps and fountain that provided public drinking access to the park's spring.

The W.P.A. developed what is now known as Belfast Municipal Airport, in Belfast, Maine. W.P.A. project info: "Construct municipal airport" Official Project Number: 165‐1‐11‐120 Total project cost: $1,020,780.00 Sponsor: City of Belfast

The Works Progress Administration (WPA), in conjunction with the War Department, developed Beverly Airport in Massachusetts. WPA project details: "Construct municipal airport" Official Project Number: 165‐1‐14‐265 Total project cost: $168,866.00 Sponsor: War Department "Construct runways at airport" Official Project Number: 265‐1‐14‐50 Total project cost: $376,440.00 Sponsor: Mayor, City of Beverly

The Works Progress Administration (WPA), in conjunction with the War Department, developed Fitchburg Airport in Massachusetts. WPA project details (referred to as 'Leominster'): "Improve municipal airport" Official Project Number: 165‐1‐14‐260 Total project cost: $121,270.00 Sponsor: War Department "Make improvements to airport" Total project cost: $149,270.00 Sponsor: Mayor and Public Works Department "Improve airport" Official Project Number: 265‐1‐14‐59 Total project cost: $509,980.00 Sponsor: Public Works Department

The federal Civil Works Administration (CWA) worked to construct an airport for Grand Marais, Minnesota in 1933-4. Living New Deal believes this to be Grand Marais Cook County Airport, which is still in use today.

The W.P.A. worked to develop what is now known as Havre City County Airport, in Havre, Montana. W.P.A. project info: “Develop and improve airport” Official Project Number: 265‐1‐91‐58 Total project cost: $522,520.00 Sponsor: City of Havre and Hill County

Among the numerous infrastructure improvement projects undertaken by CCC Company 1915 near Hawthorne, Nevada was the construction of the town's new "12-acre airport." Living New Deal believes that this is what is now known as Hawthorne Industrial Airport.

The Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) developed Mackinac Island's airport, originally a "simple grass runway."

"Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal programs helped the community... Additional aid came when the Works Progress Administration provided funds that ... developed the airport ..." The airport in question is unclear to Living New Deal.  A good candidate, the public Ralph Wenz Airport, was established during the 1940s according to the town's website.

From the Pittsfield Historical Society: One project that had far-reaching importance to Pittsfield was the construction of an airport. Mr. McDonough was an old baseball player and he urged many of the towns to build baseball fields. Our officials preferred and strongly recommended an airport and after several meetings in Augusta, a grant of $25,000 was made to Pittsfield for the survey and initial construction of two runways. Administrator Badger appointed Ralph Cianchette Foreman and work was started. As a result of this decision, Pittsfield was later designated an official landing field on the first Maine airway map, and when...

The W.P.A. worked to develop what is now known as Princeton Municipal Airport, in Princeton, Maine. W.P.A. project info: "Improvements to airport" Official Project Number: 165‐1‐11‐52 Total project cost: $358,036.00 Sponsor: War Department "Make improvements to municipal airport" Official Project Number: 165‐1‐11‐61 Total project cost: $417,070.00 Sponsor: Town of Princeton

The Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) aided in the construction of Raton Municipal Airport. Official Project Number: 265‐1‐85‐63 Project cost: $265,565.00 Sponsor: City of Raton

The Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) aided in the development of what is now Tucumcari Municipal Airport. Official Project Number: 165‐1‐85‐164

Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) labor worked to develop Turners Falls Airport.

Tennessee Encyclopedia: "Some of Tennessee's largest WPA projects reflected the arrival of the age of flight. WPA workers helped complete landing fields and airports at Jellico, Cookeville, Lebanon, Jackson, and Milan." The location of the facility, which has long closed, is difficult to discern, as the airport is not recorded on readily accessible topographic maps (the early ones predate the site and the 1954 topographic and 1951 aerials show development along the reported site). It appears the Jellico Aero Club was in existence by 1921 owned 60 acres of ideal field, with hangars and gas listed in the Flying Guide and Log...

Multiple New Deal agencies worked to develop a former municipal airport in Farmington, Maine. The Farmington airport was initially a FERA/MERA project as part of a state wide airport building program. It was built as a North/South 2000x100' graded runway, open about June 15, 1934. W.P.A. project info: "Construct municipal airport" Official Project Number: 165‐1‐11‐97 Total project cost: $622,000.00 Sponsor: Town of Farmington

The W.P.A. developed a former municipal airport in Van Buren, Maine. The location of this facility is unknown to Living New Deal.. W.P.A. project info: "Construct municipal airport" Official Project Number: 165‐1‐11‐103 Total project cost: $950,000.00 Sponsor: Town of Van Buren