Works Progress Administration (WPA) Sites

Bethpage State Park is a 1,476-acre New York state park on the border of Nassau County and Suffolk County on Long Island. It is best known for its five golf courses, including the Bethpage Black Course. "The park’s clubhouse and four of its five courses, including the legendary Black course, were either built or improved with federal relief funds and labor."   (https://www.nytimes.com) "In the early 1930s, the Bethpage Park Authority purchased the Lenox Hills Country Club and other adjacent properties to build what we now know as Bethpage State Park. * All of the work on these four courses (Black, Red, Blue and...

Five years after the WPA built a new pool and bathhouse in Betsy Head Park, the Parks Department announced the completion of the rehabilitation of the south section of the rest of the park, bounded by Livonia and Dumont Avenues, Strauss Street and Hopkinson Avenue: "The remainder of the plot, to the west of the pool has been entirely reconstructed to meet the needs of a district well supplied with children and young people and under-privileged in the matter of play areas. The new plan, designed by the Department of Parks, called for the reconstruction of the baseball diamond, football field...

In 1936 the Betsy Head Park in Brooklyn, New York, "was redesigned extensively and the Olympic-sized swimming pool was constructed. Architect John Matthews Hatton’s pool house exemplified the sleek Art Moderne style with liberal use of glass block and a parasol roof. One of eleven pools built by the Works Progress Administration during the summer of 1936, the pool is a relic of the New Deal era. The construction project, organized by Parks Commissioner Robert Moses, and funded by the federal government, was part of a citywide effort to erect recreational facilities in under-served neighborhoods. The pools represented the forefront of...

Longport, New Jersey's Betty Bacharach Home for Afflicted Children was constructed in 1924, before the Great Depression. However, the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed an addition, featuring a "new physiotherapy pool and treatment unit" at the site starting in 1936. The old Betty Bacharach Home is now the Borough Hall building.

While the main buildings of Beverly Hills High School date to 1927, the unique "Swim Gym" was built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1939. Designed by Stiles O. Clements, the gym features a basketball court that can be opened to access a 25-yard swimming pool below. It has appeared in films such as It's a Wonderful Life and Clueless.  

The Works Progress Administration built sidewalks on several streets in Kingwood. Work on Beverly Street was started in 1935.

WPA funded two projects for the Bexar County Boys' School in 1939. Construction of a greenhouse for the facility, which served as a "juvenile delinquent" training school was authorized in December 1939, with WPA funding $2,213 and Bexar County funding $968 and employing 30 workers. A workshop, 30x85 feet, "...for inmates at the Bexar County Training School for Boys" replaced a building previously destroyed by fire (Boys Home Gets $15,000 Shop, 1940). WPA funded $10,738.50 of the cost of the workshop and Bexar County funded $4,397.62. Plans were drawn by Russell White, Bexar County engineer. The workshop was constructed of...

Quoins at corners-smooth limestone also on buttresses. Ticket windows along facade, 1 story 6 windows, flat roof-bonded cement overhang. All windows filled with cement block. Facade: 2 pairs of double doors w/transom. Large open space, wooden stairs to bleachers. Walls Oolitic Limestone-rough cut. Constructed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) between 1938 and 1939.

The Bidwell Bowl amphitheater sits along Big Chico Creek on the California State University, Chico campus.  It was built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1938, no doubt in conjunction with improvements the WPA was making in Bidwell Park at the time (just upstream). The campus website provides the following information: "Built as a WPA project in 1938, the amphitheater known as the Bidwell Bowl was one of many ventures in Chico that created work for people during the depression. Located on the bank of the creek, next to the Physical Science building, the Bidwell Bowl had been used for various...

Chico's Bidwell Park is one of the largest municipal parks in the United States. It follows the course of Big Chico Creek for several miles into the foothills.  The park land was originally donated to the city early in the 20th century by the widow of Chico's founder, John Bidwell. New Deal agencies made several improvements to the park in the 1930s. It appears that State Emergency Recovery Agency (SERA) workers did road gravelling in the park, and worked on bathhouses and repair of the superintendent's residence–SERA was funded in part by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FEMA). At the upper end of the park, the Works Progress Administration (WPA)...

The Works Progress Administration completed landscaping and grading work in Bienville Square in Mobile.

"The Senator was the biggest and oldest pond cypress tree in the world, located in Big Tree Park, Longwood, Florida. At the time of its demise, it was 125 feet tall, with a trunk diameter of 17.5 feet. The tree was destroyed by a fire started by the criminal arson of a meth addict on January 16, 2012... Seminole Indians and other Native American Indians who lived throughout Central Florida used this tree as a landmark. In the late 19th century, the tree attracted visitors even though much of the surrounding land was swamp; reaching the tree was done by...

"Situated in a grassy, tree-covered field in a remote area. the abandoned Big Four School building was constructed in 1915, but remodeled so extensively in the 1930's by the Works Progress Administration bar it is actually more representative of this time period." (National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form) The exact location of the building along Route 383 in Providence, Arkansas and the status of the structure are presently unknown to Living New Deal.

"The Big Horn Academy Historic District includes the Big Horn Academy constructed in 1916 of rusticated sandstone and the Cowley Gymnasium/Community Hall built in 1936 of lodgepole pine logs. In 1936 the Gymnasium and Community Hall was constructed adjacent to the Cowley High School as part of a Works Progress Administration project." The log gym lies behind the old school building, which presently houses school district administrative offices.

Billings architect J. G. Link designed the 1937 Monumental Deco-style courthouse that resides in downtown Hardin, MT. It was built using WPA labor. A nearby historical marker notes: "Constructed at a cost of $150,000, the project put over a hundred men to work. ... Simple cast concrete elements decorate the courthouse's rose-colored ashlar limestone, quarried forty miles south of Hardin. In addition to the courtroom, the two-and-one-half-story building housed a jail, public auditorium, living quarters for the sheriff, and county offices."

Big Pool opened in Garden City KS in 1922. The Works Progress Administration added a bath house and a children's wading pool.

The Municipal Building in Biggs CA was constructed under the New Deal with funds and labor from the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which was very active in Butte County.  The federal government provided about one-third of the cost and local governments paid the rest.

The Department of Parks announced the opening of this new playground on Bedford Ave. on October 14, 1935. As researcher Frank da Cruz explains here, almost all New York City Parks Department projects between 1934 and 1943 were accomplished with New Deal funds and/or labor. After its inception in 1935, the WPA quickly became the main source of relief funds and labor for the NYC Parks Department. In a 1939 study, The Works Progress Administration in New York City (pp. 101-102), future Columbia University professor John Millett describes the WPA's deep involvement: “The city Parks Department planned all work-relief activities in city...

Made general repairs, cleaned tile and installed new tile, replaced glass, installed new plumbing and heating fixtures, did painting and concrete work, layed new floor in main auditorium, made accomodation for new health service municipal employees, increased corridor space on 2nd floor by removing hat check rooms.--Healy, p. 69.

Originally constructed as the Lumberton City Armory-Auditorium, what is now the Bill Sapp Recreation Center was constructed by the federal Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.). Postcard: "The Lumberton City Armory-Auditorium is one of the most handsome and best equipped buildings of its kind in North Carolina. It is the home of the famous Lumberton Coast Artillery Company and the war-time organization Home Guards."

The community house was approved as Works Progress Administration (WPA) project 20,814 in 1938. The wood-frame Colonial Style building was constructed to replace the former community house, on the same site. The design featured a banquet hall, recreation room, 850-seat auditorium and 350-seat balcony (Approve Biloxi Community House, 1938). The portico and columns were planned to be used from the existing community house. Biloxi provided $6,287 of the total cost of $17,051. The building was "nearing completion" in January 1939, and scheduled for dedication in late February or early March. It was demolished following Hurricane Camille damage in 1969.

The new athletic field commenced development in 1940, prior to beginning the new Junior High in 1942. The $17,000 project included "grading, drainage and fencing of the new field" (Daily Herald, January 1, 1940). It included a playing field, three practice fields, and a quarter mile track. The field was used for the first time by Biloxi High School vs. Moss Point on September 17, 1941 (Biloxi will use new school field).

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) initially funded the project, but closed it due to lack of WPA labor in Biloxi (The Daily Herald, 1941). WPA expended $27,937 on the school construction. The design indicated eighteen classrooms, home economics, science and manual training facilities. In addition to the WPA funding, voters approved bonds for $47,000. The bids for building, plumbing and heating exceeded the funding available (The Biloxi Schools, p. 7-8). Additional funding was sought from the Federal Works Agency to complete the building, and it opened in September 1943 (Biloxi Schools).

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built football and baseball fields for the former Bingham High School in Copperton, Utah.   Over the last 150 years, there have been five successive Bingham High Schools in the Bingham Canyon Area, part of the present  Jordan School District, including the current one in the town of West Jordan. The WPA athletic fields were built for  the fourth version of the high school, located in the town of Copperton. The High School transitioned to a Junior High School in 1996 and the fields were still in use then. The football stadium was demolished in 2002. Remnants...

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) provided funding toward the paving of previously unpaved roads in Scranton, Pennsylvania. "The costliest job ... was the paving of Birch Street from Pittston Avenue to Crown Avenue, at an estimated cost of $63,469."

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built sidewalks on the 1500 block of Birchmont Dr. NE in Bemidji MN.

The Works Progress Administration built a new National Guard Armory in Birmingham. According to BHAM Wiki: "The Graymont Armory was an Alabama National Guard armory located at 210 Graymont Avenue in McLendon Park near Legion Field in Birmingham's Graymont neighborhood." The structure has since been demolished.

Established in 1931, the airport now known as Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport was the site of substantial work relief efforts on the part of multiple New Deal agencies: the Civil Works Administration (CWA) and Works Progress Administration (WPA). A 1931 documents said that the airport had 2 asphalt runways 3,600 by 100 feet N/S and 3,700 by 100 feet NE/SW runways. According to the CWA of Jefferson County, the cost as approved Feb. 15, 1934, of the Municipal Airport Project 37-C-381 Grounds - Local Contribution $385.38 Labor $7,362.29 Material $1,080.00 37-C-825 Bldg.& Add - Local Contribution $2,080.00 Labor $141,742.00 Material $91,426.08 In addition from Feb. 15-Mar...

"By a vote of its 113 citizens, the Town of Biscayne Park was incorporated on December 31, 1931, and on June 16th, 1933, a state charter was granted changing the name to the Village of Biscayne Park.  The Works Progress Administration built a log cabin, a clear and distinct reference to the Depression as well as to the simplicity of the American frontier days.  On February 1, 1933, at the height of the Depression, the Federal Emergency Relief Program provided the labor for the Dade County pine construction.  William Green, a resident of the Park, as well as a Councilperson,...

The Works Progress Administration built a grade school in Bison KS. The school in no longer in use.

The WPA carried out construction and improvements on Bjerge Gade in Charlotte Amalie. Road construction and improvements carried out by the WPA in the Virgin Islands typically included “clearing the old roadway widening existing curves, blasting rock from the road surface and drains, relocating where necessary, installing culverts, preparing the subgrade and placing the bituminous macadam surface.”

The WPA carried out construction and improvements on Bjerge Gade in Charlotte Amalie. Road construction and improvements carried out by the WPA in the Virgin Islands typically included “clearing the old roadway widening existing curves, blasting rock from the road surface and drains, relocating where necessary, installing culverts, preparing the subgrade and placing the bituminous macadam surface.”

"The Black Belt Substation, now expanded to become the Black Belt Research and Extension Center, was established in 1929 as one of the original "substations" of the Main Agricultural Experiment Station at Auburn University. Most of the research projects conducted at the Center emphasize beef cattle and forage production--a vital industry in the 12-county Blackbelt region containing 349,000 head of cattle. Research on cotton, soybeans, and small grains also provide equally valuable research proven information for Blackbelt farmers and cattlemen." The Works Progress Administration was involved in "Improve Black Belt Experiment Station near Marion Junction, Dallas County, including clearing, grubbing, and...

A WPA press release from Jan. 1938 reported: "Improvement of the grade school building at Black Diamond also begins this week. WPA workers will modernize the inside and landscape and seed the grounds and add other improvements, with the aid of $7,190 in Federal funds and material funds from the sponsor, Abel said." The exact location and status of the old school is unknown to Living New Deal.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) undertook mosquito control work in Tyler, Texas. Work included lining a creek bed with rubble masonry walls, and paved cement pan to keep down mosquitoes.

The CCC lodge at the Black Hawk State Historic Site contains "two murals painted in 1936 by Works Progress Administration (WPA) artist Otto Hake. The murals depict the seasonal activities of the Sauk and Mesquakie Indian people."   (www.blackhawkpark.org)  

This historic Depression-era bridge was built in 1938-9 and reconstructed in 1968. Bridgemeister: It was a WPA and CCC effort. The CCC Camp discipline and logistics were provided by the US Army, but the construction supervision was provided by the WPA. About 200 Men from the Norrie CCC camp (Ironwood, Michigan) participated in the construction of the bridge and surrounding park. They worked during the cold of winter and rode to and from Camp Norrie in open trucks. Each trip took 1 1/2 hours. The architect of the bridge was 'Oakey' Johnson. The WPA construction foreman was 'Charlie' Johnson. Tom Haapoja provided...

The WPA worked to improve roads throughout Blackfeet Indian Agency , Glacier County, Montana. $7,437 was allocated for such projects in July 1938 alone.

The WPA installed improvements off the Blackstone Boulevard as well, displayed by a plaque found in a manhole cover at the intersection of Mount Avenue and Slater Avenue, Providence. "One of my favorite places in Providence is Blackstone Boulevard, the tree-lined, two-mile stretch of road on the East Side that is a popular destination for joggers, walkers, readers and painters. At both ends of the boulevard, there are tiny plaques in the sidewalk that credit its construction to employees of the Works Progress Administration, the New Deal jobs program that funded everything from highways to playwrights."  

The waterfront area of Blackstone Park in Providence was a WPA project. However, the photograph below comes from an archive of FERA projects, indicating that agency's potential involvement as well.