Works Progress Administration (WPA) Sites

In 1936, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) conducted cleanup efforts at Battery Kemble Park, the site of a Civil War-era fort in the city's western corner. Crews removed underbrush, poisonous plants, and dead trees to make the park more welcoming to the public.

In the 1937 the Works Progress Administration undertook construction on the Battery Landing Platform which was used as a landing pier for excursion boats (WPA).

The WPA allocated $612,800 in 1935 toward the renovation of the "pier building foot of Whitehall & South Sts." The building in question is most likely what was then known as the Municipal Ferry Pier (built 1906-1909), now known as the Battery Maritime Building. WPA Official Project No. 65-97-427.

The W.P.A. developed Burlington's Battery Park, including constructing sidewalks and a masonry parapet wall. WPA Project No. 65-12-344

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) worked to improve the public golf course at Battle Island State Park.

Also known as Muni on Main, this art deco building was built by the WPA in 1937-38.

"The Baxter County Courthouse in Mountain Home was constructed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) between 1941 and 1943. It was designed by T. Ewing Shelton of Fayetteville, and constructed by the WPA. Its minimalist design and use of local materials in its construction are features common to many depression- era public works projects... The Baxter County courthouse in Mountain Home is being nominated under criterion A with local significance because of its role as a seat of government in Baxter County and for its association with the WPA. Through its many projects in the area, the WPA had a...

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) worked to improve many roads in San Francisco, including the 1.8-mile stretch of Bay Street between Fillmore St. and The Embarcadero.

Landscaped embankment along Bay Street. Built small recreation building.--Healy, p. 67.

This building was originally the Textile High School, then the Straubenmuller Textile High School, then the Charles Evans Hughes High School, before eventually assuming its current title as the Bayard Rustin Educational Complex. It is now an NYC "vertical campus" housing several smaller schools. In addition to a pair of stained glass windows by Gerard Recke, the building contains several large WPA Federal Arts Project murals created by various New Deal artists in 1934-36. In a 1965 oral history, New Deal artist Irving Block said of the high school that "there were many rooms available to us for decoration." In the same...

Also known as Island Park, Sarasota's Bayfront Park was developed during the 1930s/40s by the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA).

The caption to the Works Progress Administration photo above notes that this is "one of 2 culverts built by WPA in the city. This project is known as Bayless Ave. Culverts and employed 37 men" (WPA) More information is needed about the present status and exact location of the project.  

"In the early 20th century, commercial use of the Bayou declined, and the Carondelet Canal was filled in. A number of New Orleanians started living in houseboats on the Bayou. Complaints from people in nearby neighborhoods and sanitation concerns led to this being outlawed in the 1930s. A Works Progress Administration cleaned up and beautified the Bayou. A lock was installed near the Lake Pontchartrain end of the Bayou. In the summer of 1955 the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board temporarily drained the Bayou, to clean out debris and material that was causing foul odors. The Bayou then took on...

In November 1935 the WPA approved the provision of labor for the construction of curbs and gutters along Bayport Avenue in Bayport, NY.

This was one of many WPA projects in Tampa: "The most outstanding project was the work done on Bayshore Blvd., the first allotment for which was made on Nov. 4, 1935, amounting to $248,689.  During the next 3 years, new seawalls were constructed the entire length of the boulevard and new, much wider pavements laid.  Also, the missing link between the Platt Street Bridge and Magnolia Street was opened and completed.  Altogether, the work on Bayshore cost $1.2 million.  The costly project had been made necessary largely due to the old seawall, built for the city and county less than 10...

The federal Works Progress Administration worked to conduct repairs and alterations to several civic facilities in Queens as part of a $300,464 project begun in 1935. Facilities improved included the Bayside Pumping Station, located roughly at Northern Blvd. and the creek in Alley Pond Park that leads to Little Neck Bay. The original pumping station has been replaced and no longer stands.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) made improvements to the 44-acre Bayview Park in San Francisco on Bayview Hill (or Heights).  These included a stone retaining wall along the loop road on the north side of the hill and two sets of stone steps on either side that lead to a trail over the crest of the hill.  There is another, mysterious stone path/stairway far below the loop road on the west side of the hill (we do not know if this is also WPA work). Bayview Park dates back to 1902, but is still a relatively isolated and undeveloped part of...

This 1940 oil-on-canvas mural by George Goethke covers all 4 walls of the kindergarten room of Baywood Elementary School (formerly the George Hall School).

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed a 1,345-foot-long sewer line along Beach 87th Street in Far Rockaway, New York, from a road then known as Bruce Place to Jamaica Bay. Work began in May 1939.

The federal Work Projects Administration put many men to work starting in 1935 with a Bronx street repair and maintenance project along roads throughout the borough. The streets, many of which in New York City were still unpaved, were surfaced with penetrated macadam. Roads improved included two stretches of Beach Avenue in the Soundview section of the Bronx: (a) between "Bronx River Avenue" and 'Sound View' Avenue; and (b) between 'Sound View' and Watson Avenues.

Sidewalks lining Conimicut's Beach Avenue. Parts have been replaced and removed over the years, but WPA stamps remain.

The Beach Chalet at the western end of Golden Gate Park, built in 1925, is home to a trove of New Deal artworks in the first floor lobby, or entrance hall. The centerpiece of the Beach Chalet's artworks is an enormous fresco mural by Lucien Labaudt, entitled "San Francisco Life."   This magnificent mural cycle is 9' high and covers all four walls of the lobby (about 1500 square feet in all). It was painted by Labaudt in 1936-37. The mural cycle has nine sections depicting San Francisco locales: the Embarcadero & Fisherman's Wharf on the north wall; Baker's Beach on the...

The Beach Chalet at the western end of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco contains several New Deal artworks. Lucian Labaudt painted a set of monochrome frescoes around the stairwell and in the corridor to the restrooms on the south side of the ground floor.  The stairwell is surrounded on all sides and on the ceiling by soaring gulls and sea birds. The frescoes were done in 1937 under the auspices of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) Federal Art Project (FAP). Labaudt also painted the immense mural around the entrance hall.  

The Beach Chalet contains several New Deal artworks.  Include decorative mosaics by Primo Caredio, done in 1937.  They are located in the South Staircase and over the north and east doorways of the large first-floor lobby. All the Beach Chalet artworks were done by unemployed artists hired by the Federal Art Project (FAP), a branch of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). 

Michael von Meyer created the enameled, magnolia wood carvings, called "Sea Creatures," in the balustrade of the south stairway of the Beach Chalet.  The carvings are 36" high and run all the way up to the second floor, about 25 feet in all.  It is a marvelous fantasy piece that includes an octopus, mermaid with child, merman (Neptune?), porpoise, fish with elephantine trunk, sailing ship and a deep-sea diver, among others. All the Beach Chalet artworks were done by unemployed artists hired by the Federal Art Project (FAP), a branch of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). 

The original Beach School was built in 1913 but declared an earthquake hazard and torn down in 1934.  It was replaced in two phases: the main wing in 1936 and the rear classroom wing and auditorium in 1940 (PHS 2007). The new school included 8 classrooms, a kindergarten, offices, a health room and an auditorium. There had been three previous efforts to replace schools and temporary buildings at schools in Piedmont in the 1920s, but the bond issues lost.   After the school board sought and gained funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA), a new bond issue passed in December...

A 1938 Works Progress Administration bridge on Beach Lane in Westhampton Beach was torn down and replaced in 1993. However, the old double-leaf bascule bridge's Art Deco "command center" tower at the bridge's northeast corner, and a similar secondary structure at the southwest corner, are still extant.

Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) workers conducted erosion control and other improvement work along Beach Street in Manchester, Mass. WPA Bulletin: Protection from damaging tides is given by this Manchester WPA riprap wall constructed along Beach Street where commercial fishermen and other boatmen use the wall landing. The entire surrounding area was also graded and beautified by WPA.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed the Beachland Park pool and bathhouse in West Hartford CT in 1936.  

Between 1938 and 1941, with funding assistance from the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the Seattle Park Department completed several improvement projects at Beacon Hill Playground. In the first of these projects, WPA workers re-painted the playground shelter house in 1938. This was part of a city-wide project to paint and repair park buildings that, due to budget cuts, had received little to no maintenance since the early years of the Great Depression. The following year saw the installation of new lighting fixtures to provide nighttime illumination of the playfield. Then, in 1941, WPA workers regraded part of the playfield, installed...

The Works Progress Administration built the Bear Creek farm-to-market road in the vicinity of West Hamlin in Lincoln County. The work included the relocation of the road away from the creek bed.  

This appproximately 7-acre Lake impounding log earth dam, located in Yellowwood State Forest, was complete in 1939 with funds provided by the Works Progress Administration (WPA).

“Bear Mountain State Park is located on the west side of the Hudson River in Orange and Rockland counties of New York… In the 1930s the federal government under Franklin D. Roosevelt was developing plans to preserve the environment as part of the Depression-era public works programs; the Civil Works Administration and the Works Progress Administration, spent five years on projects at the park. Pump houses, reservoirs, sewer systems, vacation lodges, bathrooms, homes for park staff, storage buildings and an administration building were all created through these programs.”   (wikipedia) In addition, a report of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration from 1933 records...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) completed the Historical Museum at the Trailside Museums and Zoo, Bear Mountain State Park, Bear Mountain, NY. The Trailside Museums and Zoo, built during the years 1932-35, expanded an earlier Trailside Museum in the park that dated to the 1920s. The naturalistic style of the building, which ties the structure to the landscape around the building, recalls the "Park Service Rustic" design of Herbert Maier, who designed a building for the Trailside Museums completed in 1927. Maier went on to work in both Grand Canyon and Yellowstone national parks.

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) improved roads in Peru, New York in 1936, including "Bear Swamp road beginning at Turner Hill and running east to Valcour at station."

"Improve and rehabilitate the Hornitos - Bear Valley Road near Hornitos Mariposa County, by widening, realigning, surfacing, oiling and doing other incidental work. Not a part of the Federal Aid Highway System. In addition to projects specifically approved. County owned property." Sponsor: County of Mariposa WPA Proj. No. 165-3-1131, February 9, 1937, $7,563, Total Federal and Sponsor funds $14,176, Average Employed 39 There is also another unspecified road project conducted by the WPA in Hornitos "Road improvement" WPA Proj. No. 65-3-3842, December 30, 1935, $13,138

According to the Beauregard Tourist Commission, “This project in a stump littered field provided employment for about 400 men, who worked to clear what had once been a densely wooded region. They constructed two earthen runways on 160 acres of land leased from the owner.”

The Works Progress Administration built the Beaver Creek Recreation Hall in Newcastle, Weston County. The exact location and condition of this facility are unknown to the Living New Deal.

In 1935 the F.E.R.A. and W.P.A. conducted erosion and hazard-removal work along Beaver Dam Brook in Framingham, Mass. "The brook was cleaned out, shaped and the bushes cut on the banks from the Ashland line to the B. &. A. Railroad near Waverly Street, a distance of about 3.1 miles."

Surrounding the city of Cumberland, Beaver Dam Lake (or Che-wa-cum-ma-towangok, "Lake Made by the Beavers") is both the deepest lake in Barron County and had served as a hub for the sawmills in the area since 1880. Testimony by engineer K.C. MacLeish to the Wisconsin Public Service Commission revealed that by August 10, 1936, the elevation of Beaver Dam Lake had dropped from normal levels of approximately 96.0 feet to 85.8 feet. At MacLeish's recommendation, the Wisconsin PSC approved a Works Progress Administration to widen an old diversion ditch from nearby Duck Lake to help raise the level of Beaver Dam...