Works Progress Administration (WPA) Sites

The W.P.A. worked to improve the former U.S. Naval Direction Finder Station, by Schoodic Point, south of Winter Harbor, Maine. W.P.A. project information: “Construct garage, tennis courts, and roadways” Official Project Number: 109‐3‐11‐24 Total project cost: $17,673.00 Sponsor: Commandant, 1st Naval District, U.S. Navy

The index to WPA projects at the National Archives includes the following description of WPA efforts at the magazine and torpedo factory: "Rehabilitate buildings, roads, and walks at the Naval Magazine and Naval Torpedo Factory of the Navy Yard; Rehabilitate the Naval Torpedo Factory in the city of Alexandria, including painting, removing, reconstructing, raising and relaying floors, placing tile, overhauling and installing plumbing, heating and electrical facilities, installing foundations and resetting machinery, installing refrigeration facilities, constructing partitions."

The Soldiers' Home was established in 1851, as an "asylum for old and disabled veterans." Four of the original buildings still stand and are listed as national historic landmarks.  The U.S. Soldiers' and Airmen's Home remains a thriving community of military retirees and veterans in the heart of Washington DC. In 1934, the Civil Works Administration (CWA) reconstructed and repaired buildings and machinery at the site, did general landscaping and painting, built two storehouses, tiled the milk house and built roads, according to records at the National Archives In 1938-39, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) did extensive work at the facility. WPA records...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) or Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), possibly both, completed the dam and Lake Kunkal in 1939. The 25 acre lake is impounded by an earthen dam. There are also concrete steps on dam's south face.

This WPA angel fresco sits in the Richardson Hall administration building at the Southwest corner of the campus at Hermann and Laguna. With the recent plans for demolition, parts of the building have been demolished and access to this fresco appears to have been privatized. The fresco may have been painted by Hebe Daum.

San Francisco State University (then, the Normal School) moved here from its original location at Powell and Clay Streets after the 1906 earthquake. In 1936, the Woods Hall Annex science building was completed in the Northwest corner of the campus at the corner of Haight and Buchanan. It had been started under SERA but was completed with WPA funds. The work included the completion of the building from the first floor. The project was submitted under WPA Serial No. 0702-14 for completion of footings to and including the first floor slab. (Mooser) San Francisco State moved its Lake Merced campus in...

The WPA contracted an Italian mosaic setter for this project to teach Albro and other involved artists how to work with marble mosaics. The mosaic was built over the main entrance to Woods Hall. Unfortunately the mosaic appears to have since been removed or covered over, though confirmation is needed.

The Annex contains a 1937 WPA fresco, "A Dissertation on Alchemy", by Reuben Kadish and Urban Neininger. The fresco is 9' x 11' and is located in the stairwell in the northeast corner of the Woods Hall Annex.

The WPA improved the campus grounds in the 1930s.

A ten panel fresco depicting the "History of Medicine in California" was completed by Bernard Zakheim in 1936 with FAP funds. The mural is located in Toland Hall. Zakheim also painted another pair of murals in 1935 for Cole Hall: "Rational Medicine" and "Superstitious Medicine." These frescoes of ground earth pigment on incised plaster were relocated to Health Sciences West in 1967. The program behind these murals is unknown to the Living New Deal.

These two limestone sculptures "Asclepius" and "Hygeia" were created by Edouard Chassaing in 1938 with the help of WPA Federal Art Project funds.

This mosaic mural "Signs of the Zodiac and Heavenly Bodies" was created by John Stephan in 1936 with the help of WPA Federal Art Project funds.

This 3'6" x 5' sculpture entitled the "Spirit of Medicine Warding Off Disease" was created with Federal Art Project funds and has been relocated multiple times.

The Ukiah Municipal Golf Course, now known as the Ukiah Valley Golf Course, was constructed in 1935-1936 with federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) funds and labor. It is a full 18-hole course, designed by Paul Underwood. "he golf course has cost $28,000, of which WPA contributed $18,000 and the City of Ukiah $10,000. The city is to repay no part of the contributed sum received from the WPA and for its outlay the city has acquired 154 acres of land, a clubhouse valued at $3,000, golf equipment (including a tractor, mowers, hose and pipe) valued at $4000." Ukiah Republican Press, August 26,...

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 stretches of Underhill Avenue: (a) from Patterson Ave. to Randall Ave.; and (b) from 177th St. to Havemeyer Ave—a project which might seem rather odd, given as these two cross-street intersections with Underhill Avenue do not presently exist.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) worked to improve and otherwise restore Lebanon, Pennsylvania's Union Canal Tunnel. AmericanCanals.org: "The south portal is in almost "as new" condition thanks to restoration work performed in the 1930s under the WPA."

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) improved roads in Black Brook, New York in 1936, including "Union Falls road running along the north side of Silver Lake."

Improvements were made to the Millbury, Massachusetts's old Union School (high school) building and grounds with the assistance of federal New Deal funds. The old high school is now the Mary Elizabeth McGrath Educational Center. The Civil Works Administration provided labor for a grounds grading project begun in 1933. At the same time Federal Emergency Relief Act funds enabled a retaining wall repair project and other building improvements, including the painting of the "outside woodwork." The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) redecorated the interior of the building in 1937 and continued retaining wall reconstruction. The National Youth Administration conducted miscellaneous improvements...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) worked to restore the equestrian George Washington monument in Union Square during the mid-1930s.

The NYC Parks Department website explains that: "Although this flagstaff commemorates the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, it is also known as the Charles F. Murphy Memorial Flagpole. The intricate bas-reliefs and plaques were completed in 1926 by sculptor Anthony De Francisci (1887–1964), and feature a procession of allegorical figures representing democracy and tyranny, the text of the Declaration of Independence, and emblems from the original 13 colonies. The enormous flagpole, said to be one of the largest in New York State, is capped with a gilded sunburst." In the 1930s, the sculpture was restored with...

Allentown's historic and distinctive Union Terrace Amphitheater was constructed by the WPA. A brook separates the terraced viewing area from the stage. Stone structures, including stairs, abound. Mcall.com article: Union Terrace, Jordan Park, Fountain Park and the Lehigh Parkway in Allentown and Saucon Park, Monocacy Park and Franklin Park at Sand Island in Bethlehem were built under WPA and its precursor ... "Probably it would have taken 50 years of slow progress to accomplish what has been done under WPA in two years," Robert J. Wheeler, then-secretary to the Allentown Planning Commission, told The Morning Call in 1937.

Queens's Union Turnpike, then an "unimportant stretch less than two miles long," was developed as a paved, 100-foot-wide artery featuring a four-foot "center mall," as a large Works Progress Administration (WPA) project in anticipation of the 1939 World's Fair. Work focused on development of the road from Utopia Parkway east to the Nassau County line. "This six-and-a-half-mile short-cut," a $1,250,000 project, was constructed entirely by the WPA. The road was officially dedicated on June 30, 1939.

The Works Progress Administration completed improvements on University Avenue in Morgantown, Monogalia County.

"In the early 1930s, the federal Works Progress Administration converted a thick cypress-tupelo swamp into an urban lake in Baton Rouge's growing southeast environs. A lake was infinitely more appealing than a swamp, local officials believed, especially in the part of the city that now housed LSU. The campus had been relocated to its current site from downtown in 1926, and an eye-catching body of water served as the ideal gateway. University Lake joined the existing City Park Lake, which had been dug a decade earlier. Together, they have formed one of the city's most enduring points of recreational activity and...

The Works Progress Administration built the entrance gate to the University of Arizona, Tucson campus, circa 1937.

"The Livestock and Forestry Research Station - known as the Batesville Station - is a 3,000-acre unit developed to do research with beef cattle management/production and forestry. The primary focus of this unit is to do large-scale replicated forage utilizing three of the predominate forages commonly used in Arkansas – Kentucky fescue, Bermuda grass and winter annuals on approximately 1,250 acres of pasture and hay areas. Research is conducted using the 350-head brood cow herd. The forestry program is comprised of 1,750 acres of upland hardwood timber and shortleaf pine. These tracts of timber are managed to enhance productivity, species...

Multiple substantial building projects were undertaken on the University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville during the Great Depression. The federal Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) was responsible for an enormous amount of that new development at the time. However, the Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) contributed as well. The W.P.A. built a new stadium for the fledgling institution. Now known as Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium, the venue has served as the home for the University of Arkansas Razorbacks since its opening in 1938. A 1940 W.P.A. document described the need and benefits of the new stadium: Because of the suddenly acquired national fame...

This 1' x 3.5' cast-concrete sculpture of an owl was produced with the help of the WPA Federal Art Project. The artist is unknown.

Helen Bruton completed this 10' by 20' mosaic "Sculpture and Dance" in 1936 for the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project. It is located on the east exterior of the old University Art Building.

These two Byzantine-style mosaic murals by Helen Bruton and F. Alston Swift were installed in 1936, two years after the Art Gallery opened. They are located on the eastern facade, flanking the building's double entrance. Each mural measures 18' by 10'. "The left (Swift) panel is said to allegorically depict music and painting. There is a woman with a violin, and a woman with an easel. The right (Bruton) panel is said to depict Sculpture and Dance (a man seated behind a partially carved stone block, and three woman dancers)." - https://www.wpamurals.org/berkel2.htm   Plaque info: worked into mosaic: W.P.A Federal Art Project 1936-1937   This small brick building northeast of...

Florence Alston Swift completed this 10' by 20' mosaic  "Music and Painting" for the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project in 1936. It is located on the east exterior of old University Art Building.

Completed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1939, the Mary Rippon Outdoor theater is located on the University of Colorado campus between the Henderson Building (see post on Henderson Building) and the Hellems Art and Sciences Building.  Mary Rippon is believed to be the first female professor at the University of Colorado and the first woman in the United States to teach at a state university. The theater was designed by George Reynolds, a professor of English and one of the founders of the theater department. The theater was officially completed in 1939, but no plays were staged there until 1944.  Because...

Built in 1937 by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the University's Henderson Building houses the Museum of Natural History.  The building cost nearly $200,000 to build, including furnishings.  In 1951, the building was named in honor of Judge Junius Henderson, appointed curator of the university museum in 1903.  The original layout of the building included archeology and biology halls on the ground floor, an art gallery and geology hall on the main floor; classrooms on the second floor; and laboratories, storerooms, and a darkroom on the top floor. The building is a representative work of noted architect Charles Z. Lauder, who designed...

The University of Houston's old Industrial Building, now known as the Technology Annex, was constructed with the assistance of the Work Projects Administration, a New Deal agency. Houston, a history and guide: "Most of the heavily wooded campus was made available through donations of the Settegast and Ben Taub estates, of 75 acres and 35 acres respectively. The school board purchased a small tract. On the grounds are 101 varieties of trees and shrubs. This campus in 1941 was being improved by a large-scale landscaping program designed by Hare and Hare of Kansas City, Missouri, in cooperation with the Work Projects...

According to WPA records in the National Archives, WPA labor was used in 1935-41 to: "Make improvements at the University of Maryland…by constructing agricultural buildings including barns, silos, storehouses, sheds, and similar structures, and performing appurtenant work; Make improvements at the University of Maryland at College Park…by constructing modern buildings, making additions to and remodeling existing buildings; Construct and improve buildings and facilities at the University of Maryland…includes constructing apiary, cottages, retaining walls, gateways, roads, curbs, parking spaces, and walks; installing plumbing, heating, and electrical facilities, underground electric lines, telephone cables, and campus lights; excavating; backfilling; landscaping; planting; seeding; Construct...

"The laboratory...was designed and built under the direction of a dedicated individual, Lorenz G. Straub. Straub had been a Freeman Fellow and observed several laboratories in Germany during the year of his fellowship. He came to the University in 1930 and promptly set to work to establish his own laboratory. His vision came to fruition through a WPA grant to the University of Minnesota and construction started in 1936. Straub came to be known as the "River Doctor" for his many studies at SAFL on several aspects of river engineering. The Laboratory building lies on the Falls of St. Anthony...

Constructed primarily with Works Progress Administration funding, the University of Mississippi built 22 vernacular cottage-style houses on a new street named Faculty Row in 1939 (Walton, 2008). The three-bedroom houses ranged from 1200 to 1600 square feet, and were sided with clapboard. Each had a garage or carport (Mississippi Department of Archives and History). Only one of the houses remains on campus at this time. Others were demolished in 2007 according to MDAH. Twenty-one faculty houses were relocated to establish a development for affordable housing, however, according to the Lafayette County appraisal records, dates on those houses indicate construction in 1955...

A project grant of $20,000 supported the construction of an Olympic-sized swimming pool west of the gymnasium in July 1936.

"Congress granted permission for universities to use Works Progress Administration funds for fraternal housing. The Sigma Alpha Epsilon House, occupied in the fall of 1935, was the first built on Fraternity Row after the ban on fraternities and sororities was lifted. It burned in 1953" (Walton, 2008, p. 160).

The concrete structure football stadium was begun in 1937 with a capacity for 18,000 (Sansing) or 24,000 (Oxford Campus and University Buildings). The new stadium was proposed as a WPA project in 1936, and completed in 1941. The west side was completed in 1938 (Walton).