Works Progress Administration (WPA) Sites

The Richmond Professional Institute (RPI) was an educational institution established in 1917. It eventually merged with the Medical College of Virginia to become the Monroe Park Campus of the Virginia Commonwealth University. In the 1930s, as the Richmond Professional Institute, it received significant support from the WPA: "When the Great Depression hit and RPI continued to receive no state support, the federal government stepped in to fill the gap. With the help of the Works Progress Administration, many of the buildings were renovated during the depression. In fact, Dr. Hibbs was quoted as saying, That if it had not been for the...

A report in 1936 states: "Completion of nine-hole course begun three vears ago now under-taken following WPA allotment of $23,940."

Virginia Lake Park south of Reno was constructed by the WPA in 1936-1938. The park is both a recreational site and serves as a detention reservoir for flood control and irrigation. "Thanks in part to night work crews, the WPA quickly created what became known as Virginia Lake Park south of Reno. The lake was designed for swimming and wading with an average depth of five and a half feet. It was one of many Nevada parks created."   (https://www.newsreview.com)

In 1936, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) built a bridge on E. Willis Street across a small wash just east of N. Virginia Street in Prescott AZ.  It is a short bridge made of concrete and local stone, in typical WPA rustic style.  The downstream side (north) has a long channel, presumably to prevent erosion of the banks. The WPA project card in the National Archives is mislabeled as the Virginia Street bridge – an understandable error, given that there are two WPA bridges, one on West Willis and one on East Willis Street (the Virginia Street bridge is not actually...

The campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia—or, as it was then known, as Virginia Polytechnic Institute (V.P.I.)—was dramatically developed as part of numerous New Deal projects during the Great Depression. The Public Works Administration (PWA) provided multiple rounds of funding for the construction of several buildings on campus from the mid-1930s to early 1940s. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was also active on the campus. Public Works Administration-financed buildings included: Burruss Hall Graduate Life Center (originally Faculty Center) Owens Hall Eggleston Hall (Main, East, and West) East Campbell Hall Military Building (orig. Utilities Building) Hutcheson Hall Smyth Hall (orig. Natural...

Virginia Tech's Agnew Hall, originally known as the Home Economics Building, was constructed as a Work Projects Administration (WPA) project and dedicated in 1940. It was part of a broader development of several buildings on its corner of campus that involved both the WPA and the Public Works Administration (PWA).

The airport at Virginia Tech, now known as Virginia Tech Montgomery Executive Airport, was enlarged as part of a Work Projects Administration (WPA) project completed in 1940.

Virginia Tech's Seitz Hall, originally known as the Agricultural Engineering Building, was constructed as a Work Projects Administration (WPA) project and dedicated in 1940. It was part of a broader development of several buildings on its corner of campus that involved both the WPA and the Public Works Administration (PWA).

The Visalia Municipal airport was founded in 1927. In 1941, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) spent $375,000 improving the airport.  The work included the construction of a new terminal building and a new, longer runway of nearly 5000 feet. WPA work ceased when the War Department took control of the airport in 1942 with the onset of the Second World War. It is unknown if the current terminal building (pictured) is the one built by the WPA or if any other buildings remain from that time.

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed San Francisco's old Visitacion Nursery School during the Great Depression. The agency: Built a new community center with facilities for a nursery school.--Healy, p.72.

The WPA worked on the Visitacion Valley Playground.

Now a visitor center, what was constructed as a community center in Truth or Consequences was constructed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1938. From The New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties (2004): "A WPA project completed in 1938, the former Hot Springs Community Center is one of the best examples of the Spanish-Pueblo Revival style in Sierra County. On a concrete foundation, the building is one story with a flat stepped roof with parapets. The greater height of the central core of the building denotes the auditorium located at the rear of the building. Consisting of a steel...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) employed 19 men in work on the station in 1940 totaling 11,560 man hours. Expenditures were $6,752 and $449 for other. The station is currently abandoned.

WPA labor worked to renovate the old Vitagraph Building, a former movie studio located at 94 4th Avenue in Bay Shore, NY, for the purpose of utilizing the structure as a "sewing room, the Old Age Security offices and other home relief offices." The building is now a residential complex.

This rock building was constructed by federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) and remains in use as part of the Ethel school complex.

The Works Progress Administration built a vocational education building in Elmore City, OK. Contributor note: "This is a rectangular one-story building constructed of rusticated native sandstone, which is painted a brick color. The roof is gabled. The south entrance is recessed under a wood porch. The window units which extend to the eaves have been partially filled with wood siding, leaving a fixed window pane. Windows on the north side of the building have been covered with wood siding. The building is currently occupied by the Billy Joan English Library"

Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) labor constructed the former vocational school in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The location and status of the facility is unknown to Living New Deal.

Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) labor constructed a gym for the former vocational school in New Bedford, Massachusetts. WPA Bulletin: Building materials salvaged from WPA Demolition Projects are used in the New Bedford WPA construction of the Vocational School Gymnasium. Many skilled workmen are busy on this project. The location and status of the facility is unknown to Living New Deal.

"WPA work on this run is plainly visible to thousands of people who view the run under summer skies. The run has been made safer as the result of WPA work. WPA iced the run as required, manned telephone booths along the run, transported Bob-sleds and passengers to the top of the mountain, and repaired and maintained equipment and machinery. Photo shows curves improved by WPA in use."

"It was not until 1936 that the statue found a suitable home, thanks to the Works Progress Administration, which partially funded a new park in the city at the top of Red Mountain. A 126-foot pedestal was built of local sandstone, and Vulcan was hoisted into place." (Wikipedia) The pedestal was constructed with WPA funds.

Nine murals resided in the auditorium lobby of the W. H. Kirk Middle School in East Cleveland, Ohio. "The school, built in 1930, displayed nine murals, collectively known as The Progression of Man. The murals were commissioned by the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s and were removed and placed in storage when the school was demolished in 2002."

A perimeter wall around the formerly municipal property along the east side of Main Street, between Wisconsin Ave. and E. Center Ave., was constructed by the W.P.A. Remarkable, giant stone lettering identifying the W.P.A. as the builders adorns one segment the wall, facing Main St., about halfway down the block. The building at the north end of the property was formerly a clinic and nursing home, but is now privately owned. The south end of the property, a modest open space / park property, features an inner stone wall that had marked the perimeter of a since-demolished water tower.

The Works Progress Administration built a brick addition for the W.S. Neal High School in Brewton, Escambia County. The new addition housed a library, several classrooms, a study room, a conference room, and other school uses. The new facilities expanded the capacity of a previously overcrowded school and allowed for the enrollment of new students. The school is still in service today.

The W.P.A. conducted repair and improvement work on numerous civic facilities in Newton, Massachusetts, including at the former Waban / Lower Falls fire station.

Duluth, Minnesota's Wade Municipal Stadium was constructed with federal Work Projects Administration (WPA) funds/labor between 1940 and 1941. The 4,200-seat stadium is still in use today.

In 1936 the Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed a wading pool in the "city park" in Scottsbluff. Living New Deal believes this to mean what is now known as Pioneer Park as the project is mentioned in conjunction with a museum that was another Pioneer Park project. The pool appears to no longer be extant.

"On July 12, 1938, the people voted to approve an increase in ad valorem taxation to 5 mills for the purpose of erecting a new County Courthouse with a new County Jail.  The Board of Commissioners subsequently entered into contract with an architect, Jos. I. Davis, to submit plans to the Federal Government through the Works Progress Administration of Oklahoma for the construction of the Courthouse.  By December of that year, all protesters to the building of the new Courthouse and Jail had been satisfied.  The Commissioners then began receiving bids for the various components of the Courthouse and Jail—from...

The Works Progress Administration built the Wainwright School in Wainwright. The north side of the school has the entry and three triangular-peaked gable ends which extend to the ground. The east side has three tall, narrow windows with rounded tops, the center is the main entrance which is flanked by glass. The stone is of the red native rock cut into irregular shaped rectangles. “The greatest legacy of the WPA in Oklahoma may be the hundreds of WPA-built buildings that are still in use. To most citizens, the public buildings are the most visible remains of a work relief program that...

The Works Progress Administration built the Wainwright School and Gymnasium in Wainwright. The structure is built of red native rock cut into irregular shaped rectangles. The gym to the southwest has tall windows, rounded at the top. The Historic Preservation Survey states that it was one of the last educational complexes constructed in Oklahoma.

"In the 1930's the Works Progress Administration (WPA) undertook a series of improvements including the construction of the loop road around the summit ." A 1937 WPA Bulletin reported: In 1934 Waitt's Mount in Maiden looked like a quarry-workers' nightmare. It was a huge, bald and jagged granite ledge whose slope was covered with twisted, stunted trees and tangled underbrush; probably the most useless piece of land in this section of the state. Today the Mount is a beautifully terraced park which commands a 15-mile panorama of metropolitan Boston. The park, built by the WPA, has landscaped slopes, shade trees, rustic...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the Wakefield Public Library in Wakefield, Kansas in 1938. The library is still in use.

WPA Bulletin, 1937: "Residents of Lynn consume 2,854,464,350 gallons of city water a year and from the same reservoir system the town of Saugus uses 333,542,250 gallons during the same period. Last week a WPA project started which will improve the purity of the water supply by clearing and grubbing 40 acres along the northerly shore of Walden Pond and cleaning out a half dozen tributary brooks which feed into the pond. When the land is cleared 25,000 three-year-old white pine seedlings will be planted. Most of these trees will be taken from the 2,200-acre Lynn Woods Reservation and will...

According to local sources, "Wales Center Burying Ground" was "renovated into modern cemetery" using federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) labor ca. 1936. The cemetery in question is likely that at 12150 Big Tree Rd.

The Works Progress Administration built a new county jail in Jasper, Walker County, circa 1937. The exact location and condition of the structure is unknown to the Living New Deal.

The Works Progress Administration built the Walker County Library, adjacent to the WPA-built Walker County Courthouse in Jasper.

"Mayor George Walker: In the 1930's, Winter Garden, Florida, was struggling economically along with the rest of the nation. The Great Depression left growers without markets, consumers without spending money, and many without work. It was Winter Garden's fortune to have George Walker as its mayor during this difficult period. Mr. Walker, a native of Savannah, Georgia, came to Winter Garden in 1919, and in the following year opened Walker Electric Company and Appliance Store. An avid sportsman, Walker was the director of the Lake-Orange County semi-pro baseball league and served as the manager of the Winter Garden League in...

"Walker Field Shelterhouse is a historic park shelter located at South Bend, St. Joseph County, Indiana. It was constructed in 1938 by the Works Progress Administration."

The Works Progress Administration built the Walker School & Gymnasium in Pauls Valley OK. Contributor note: "The Walker School and Gymnasium is located on County Road 1570 (Longmeier Lake Road), east of Pauls Valley. This is an 8-room school which is in ruins and no longer in use. The school is L-shaped, with the gymnasium forming a U-shape. It is 169 feet across the front and 83 ft. down each side. The school was a WPA project in 1939. This school is one-story red brick with a flat roof, except for the higher barrel roof on the gymnasium. The main entrance is recessed...

In the 1930s, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) landscaped the grounds of the Utah State Training School in American Fork, just north of Provo UT. The landscaping included a quarter mile-long stone wall along the south property line of the school, along 700 North Street.  The school morphed into the Utah State Development Center and grew much larger; the original building is gone.  Part of the grounds have been carved out as Quail Cove park for the city of American Fork. But the stone wall still stands, marking the southern boundary of Quail Cove, home of a beautiful New Deal amphitheater.    

Today, The Wallace Bowl is now the home of the Park District's summertime Starlight Theatre, which provides a unique outdoor setting for musical and dramatic performances offered to the public free of charge. The WPA began construction in 1936 of an outdoor amphitheater at the Lakefront. This outdoor stage was officially dedicated as the Wilmette Outdoor Amphitheatre in 1946. The same space would later be named the Wallace Bowl in honor of Gordon Wallace, superintendent of parks from 1936-68. This project was made possible through the generosity of Charles H. Feltman, one of the commissioners of the Wilmette park district. It...