1 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 195
  • Brooklyn Botanic Garden: Osborne Garden - Brooklyn NY
    The New Deal supported various improvements to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden during the Great Depression, among which was the Osborne Garden. "Works Progress Administration (WPA) labor was used to build the 1938 Herb Garden, a Caparn design taken from a 1577 Elizabethan knot garden. The Italian-style Osborne Garden was also constructed with labor from the Civil Works Administration and the WPA in 1939." Other New Deal-funded efforts, such as bronze busts of noted naturalists that reside in the Laboratory Building rotunda, also grace the Botanic Garden.
  • Brooklyn Children's Museum Assistance - Brooklyn NY
    According to a Brooklyn Children's Museum history: 1930s "The Work Progress Administration (WPA) brings more than 200 docents, artists, carpenters, printers, and clerks to work at the Museum during the Depression. Over 200 volunteers support museum projects including the construction of exhibits, wooden jigsaw puzzles, and collection boxes. "
  • Brooklyn College - Brooklyn NY
    Brooklyn College was created in the 1930s with the assistance of the New Deal.  The five original buildings, including a library and gymnasium, were built with PWA funding and the grounds were landscaped by WPA workers. The college's web page tells the story as follows: “Founded in 1930, Brooklyn College was New York City’s first public coeducational liberal arts college. The school was envisioned as a stepping stone for the sons and daughters of immigrants and working-class people toward a better life through a superb — and at the time, free — college education… Despite being in the throes of the Great Depression,...
  • Brooklyn College: Landscaping - Brooklyn NY
    The buildings of Brooklyn College were financed by a massive federal Public Works Administration (PWA) project undertaken during the Great Depression. After the buildings were constructed, Works Progress Administration (WPA) laborers worked on improving the campus, primarily through landscaping efforts, beginning in 1938. The above image of WPA workers doing landscaping on the Brooklyn College campus comes from the Brooklyn Public Library. The caption reads: "Planting new shrubs on the grounds of Brooklyn College, between the hockey field and proposed tennis courts, has kept WPA gardeners busy these fall days." The WPA even maintained a plant nursery and a tulip garden on the campus, as the lower image...
  • Brooklyn College: Library Murals - Brooklyn NY
    Brooklyn College Library contains two WPA Federal Arts Project murals entitled "Famous Libraries of the World" painted by Olindo Mario Ricci in 1936-1939. A plaque on the wall near the murals reads: "Gracing the Library's grandest reading room are murals of two of the ancient world's greatest libraries: Egypt's Alexandrian Library and Rome's Augustan Library. Muralist Olindo Maria Ricci wanted students to 'feel as if they are in the company of the greats as they read the classics' and thus included many illustrious figures, including the mathematician Euclid and the poet Virgil.  Ricci began the murals as a WPA artist and completed them...
  • Brooklyn High School of the Arts Mural - Brooklyn NY
    Under the WPA Federal Arts Project, artist Monty Lewis installed a large double fresco depicting "The Cotton Industry in Contemporary America" in 1936. The fresco may be in the auditorium or in a corridor. At the time of installation, this building was the High School of Industrial Arts. It later became the Sarah J. Hale High School and then, in 2001, the Brooklyn High School of the Arts.
  • Brooklyn Museum (Williamsburg Houses) Murals - Brooklyn NY
    In 1936, "when the United States was still reeling from the Great Depression, a series of murals was commissioned by the Federal Art Project (FAP), to be painted in the community rooms at the Williamsburg Public Housing development in Brooklyn, NY. This development was built in 1936-37, designed by the chief architect William Lescaze. The head of the New York Murals of the FAP division in 1937 was Burgoyne Diller. It was a brave move to commission a series of abstract murals from avant-garde, relatively unknown artists. At the time, most murals (perhaps all) were figurative... The artists whose murals were found in the...
  • Brooklyn Museum Improvements - Brooklyn NY
    The WPA contributed to several improvements at the Brooklyn Museum during the 1930s. According to the Federal Writers' Project: "During the past few years a WPA project has been making the useum one of the most modern and pleasantly arranged in the country. The most striking change has been the removal of a monumental stairway which originally gave access to the third story, and the building of a new entrance hall at the ground level."
  • Brooklyn Navy Yard Improvements - Brooklyn NY
    In 1934, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported that Brooklyn and Queens received their largest allotment of funds to-date, "in the government's drive to spread employment and aid industry." Improvements to drydock 2 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, were part of the Public Works Administration's (PWA) metropolitan-wide program which added "1,079,328 man-months of direct employment," as well as indirect employment, much of it in the construction trades (Brooklyn Daily Eagle). Forty percent of the $250,000,000 that the PWA allocated to the New York metropolitan area went to Brooklyn and Queens. A significant portion of these funds were used to improve and extend the city's transportation system,...
  • Brooklyn Technical High School Mural - Brooklyn NY
    The school's main lobby features a large oil on canvas WPA mural painted by Maxwell Starr in 1941 . Entitled "History of Mankind in Terms of Mental and Physical Labor," the mural "traces developments from the Stone Age through the 1930s and portrays notable scientists and inventors." The mural was restored in 1998 by the Tech Alumni Association.   (https://www.bths.edu)  
  • Brookside Golf Course Bridges - Pasadena CA
    Two Works Progress Administration concrete pedestrian bridges built over the Arroyo Seco flood control channel in the Brookside Golf Course next to the Rose Bowl.
  • Brookside Park Improvements - Pasadena CA
    "The Brookside Park Improvements, WP 25, WP 5702, WP 5704, WP 6978, WP 7716, WP 8101, WP 9534, WP 9624 and WP 9810, sponsored by the City of Pasadena, comprise a diversified construction program to improve the facilities and beauty of the park for the comfort, safety, and convenience of the public. Brookside Park, in the City of Pasadena, is a major recreational center, located in the Arroyo Seco and is one of the most popular parks in Los Angeles County. Many major golf tournaments are held on the Brookside course each year and the annual New Year's Day football...
  • Brookside Park Public Toilet - Pasadena CA
    A lattice steel public toilet built similarly to the one next to the Rose Bowl nearby. Two plaques on the front read "Built by United States Work Projects Administration 1940" and "Renovated by Public Works and Transportation Building Systems and Fleet Management Division 1995."
  • Brookville Park Playground - Springfield Gardens NY
    In November 1937, the Department of Parks announced the completion of a new playground at Weller Ave. and Brookville Blvd in Brookville Park: "the new playground is equipped with swings, seesaws, slides, jungle gym, sand tables, playhouses, ping pong tables, horizontal bar and ladder, basketball and volley ball courts; also, a circular wading pool surrounded by shade trees and permanent concrete benches. Brookville Park, which occupies a long narrow valley and is entered from the Sunrise Parkway at the north, is being completely constructed as a modern park with modern facilities, of which this playground forms one unit. With the completion...
  • Brower Park - Brooklyn NY
    Then known as Bedford Park, this Brooklyn Park was first established in the 1890s. Since 1899, the Brooklyn Children's Museum has been located on the property. The park was renamed Brower Park in 1923. In 1941, the Department of Parks announced that the WPA had significantly reconstructed the park and area around the museum: "The new development, which reserves 80% of the area for passive enjoyment of broad tree-dotted lawns, also provides a new playground for youngsters where they may safely play on a variety of exercise units. The museum...has been provided with a spacious block paved terrace extending around all sides....
  • Brown Avenue Sidewalks - Kingwood WV
    The Works Progress Administration built sidewalks on several streets in Kingwood. Work on Brown Avenue was completed in 1937.
  • Brown Deer Park - Milwaukee WI
    "In Brown Deer Park the lagoon was enlarged during the WPA program, and a pavillion of English design utilizing stone and timber was constructed in the side of a hill overlooking the lagoon. A stone-faced arch bridge was built." The WPA project also included a skating rink.
  • Brown's Prairie School - Washington TX
    In 1888, a church and school building was erected in a central location at newly-divided Brown's Prairie, with the Reverend David Buchmueller as pastor and teacher. By 1911, a new wooden six-room school building was used each Sunday, with one teacher for six grades. In 1939, the wooden school was replaced using WPA funds, constructed by architect Travis Broesche and stone mason Carl Whitmarsh. In the 1940s, the Brown's Prairie School was referred to as Washington School, and after the 1950-51 school year, all students were transferred to Brenham after its annexation into the district.
  • Brown's Prairie School (former) - Washington Co. TX
    A small rural schoolhouse was built in 1939 by the WPA for students in the rural community of Brown's Prairie, replacing a 1911 wooden one-room schoolhouse. Brown's Prairie School as described on a Texas Historical Marker located on the site of the former school: "In 1888, a church and school building was erected in a central location at newly-divided Brown's Prairie, with the Reverend David Buchmueller as pastor and teacher. By 1911, a new wooden six-room school building was used each Sunday, with one teacher for six grades. In 1939, the wooden school was replaced using WPA funds, constructed by architect Travis...
  • Brownwood Airport Improvements - Brownwood TX
    The Abilene Reporter-News discusses various New Deal projects in northern Texas, and includes the following: "In Brownwood, more than $350,000 was designated for improving the Brownwood Municipial airport as a WPA project. Later, another WPA project was added, constructing an $80,000 road from the city to the airport."
  • Bruce Park Swimming Pool - New Martinsville WV
    This swimming pool, with a unique design (above ground, concrete), is in New Martinsville, West Virginia. It was operational until just a few years ago. I swam there often as a child. Unfortunately, though it is still in existence, the pool needs repairs, and the town council refused to spend the money on the project, to the chagrin of constituents. It was built by the WPA. See the attached news article for a photo and history. The signage is original to the period.
  • Brunswick Country Club - Brunswick GA
    A former municipal golf course in Brunswick Georgia built by Donald Ross and the WPA. It was purchased in the 1950's as a private club and has recently been rehabilitated.
  • Brunswick Executive Airport - Brunswick ME
    The Brunswick airport was originally built in 1935 by the Maine Emergency Relief Administration, a state division of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration after a survey of airports in the state by Capt. Harry M. Jones with the intention of building a chain of airports in coastal towns, inland towns, and lake resorts. It built 1 NW - SE 1800 x 50 gravel runway and 1 E - W 1800x100 graded runway. Naval Air Station Brunswick was developed and occupied in March 1943, and was first commissioned on April 15, 1943, to train and form-up Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm squadrons...
  • Brunswick St. Improvements - San Francisco CA
    The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) worked to improve many roads in San Francisco, including Brunswick St. "Consisted of excavation and disposal of 3,550 cubic yards of earth and rock, making available for use a hitherto ungraded street from Allison to Concord Street, the same as Silver Avenue."--Healy, p. 44.
  • Brush Creek Flood Control - Kansas City MO
    Pictured is some of the remaining original paving installed by the WPA along Brush Creek as a flood control project in 1935. The project has a controversial history due to its relation to political machine boss Tom Pendergast's Concrete Company. "Other buildings built with Pendergast concrete were the Municipal Auditorium and Police Headquarters. Paving Brush Creek began November 1935 at a cost originally estimated at $1,395,000 and employing at one time 1,647 WPA workers. Concrete was laid eight to 10 inches thick and 70 feet wide." (www.kclibrary.org) The rumor is that there are bodies under the concrete, though with further improvements, no...
  • Brush Hill Road Sewer - Milton MA
    Description of a New Deal project in a 1937 annual report: "During construction of a roadway along the southerly side of the Neponset River in Milton, 8 feet of earth fill was placed over the High-level Sewer near the corner of Brush Hill Road and Brook Road. This is a W.P.A. project, under the supervision of the Massachusetts Department of Public Works, and no permission was given by this department for making this fill. No damage to the Metropolitan Sewer has resulted from this construction."
  • Brush School Improvements - Santa Rosa CA
    The WPA made extensive improvements to Brush School, Santa Rosa, California, under Official Project Number 65-3-364. The work to the one-room school house included building stone retaining walls, a playground and a presumed tennis court (Goddard, 1976: 72-74). Though now under private ownership, the stone walls and tennis court are visible from the public right-of-way. (Goddard does not identify the specific year of construction but it can be inferred from the WPA project number).
  • Brushy Creek Bridge - Atmore AL
    The Works Progress Administration built a three-span bridge over Brushy Creek in the vicinity of Atmore. This bridge was part of a county-wide bridge construction project in Escambia County. The approximate cost of the entire program was $377,500.00.  
  • Bryant Park Outdoor Reading Room - New York NY
    The Works Progress Administration set up an outdoor library in Bryant Park. The "Reading Room" began in 1935 and closed in 1944. Today the park still serves as the site of an outdoor library, opened in 2003.
  • Bryant Park: Dodge Sculpture Restoration - New York NY
    "This bronze sculpture depicts William Earl Dodge (1805–1883), one of the founders of Phelps, Dodge, a leading mining company. Dodge helped organize the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) in the United States and served as the president of the National Temperance Society from 1865 to 1883. John Quincy Adams Ward (1830–1910) sculpted the piece, which was donated by a committee of Dodge’s friends and acquaintances and dedicated October 22, 1885. Dodge is represented leaning on a podium while delivering a speech. The piece originally stood in Herald Square on a pedestal designed by Richard Morris Hunt (who designed the pedestal for...
  • Bryant Park: Shaw Lowell Fountain Restoration - New York NY
    The NYC Parks Department website explains that: "Architect Charles A. Platt (1861–1933) designed this elegant black granite ornamental fountain to commemorate social worker and reformer Josephine Shaw Lowell (1843–1905). Shaw, who is said to be the first woman to be honored by a major monument in New York City, was the first female member of the New York State Board of Charities, serving from 1876 to 1889. The Memorial Committee that worked to build the fountain originally wanted it placed in Corlear’s Hook Park on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, near where Shaw focused her energies. Instead, the fountain, with its 32-foot-wide...
  • Bryce Canyon Airport Hangar - Bryce Canyon UT
    "The Garfield County Airport Hangar is significant as an unusual example of a log hangar. The hangar was built of local ponderosa pine by the Works Progress Administration in 1936. The hangar's gabled roof is supported sawn wood trusses spanning 83 feet (25 m). The trusses are expressed on the outside and infilled with half-rounds of log, giving a half timbered effect. The hangar and airport were built by Garfield County and the WPA with the aim of attracting tourism to Bryce Canyon National Park, which had been designated in 1928. The timber used in the hangar shows the marks of the...
  • Bryce Canyon National Park Improvements - Bryce Canyon UT
    Bryce Canyon was originally designated as a national monument by President Warren G. Harding in 1923 and became a national park through an act of Congress in 1928. The park covers 35,835 acres in south-central Utah. The New Deal greatly improved Bryce Canyon National Park.  Along with the National Park Service, the Public Works Administration (PWA) provided special funds, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) worked continuously in the park, and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) was also active. The National Park Service recognizes the CCC's contribution on its website for Bryce Canyon NP, but not that of the PWA or WPA:  “During the 1930s...
  • Bryce Canyon National Park: Cabins - Bryce Canyon UT
    Several cabins for Bryce Canyon National Park employees were built by New Deal agencies over the course of the 1930s.  They appear  in the residential area of the Park near the lodge. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built a 3-room employee cabin in 1937; the Public Works Administration (PWA) built two employee cabins in 1934; and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) build a rangers' dormitory in 1939 and remodeled a mess hall as a residence in 1938. It is not certain which of the present cabins are from the New Deal and which were built later; some park rangers believe that all of the cabins...
  • Bryce Canyon National Park: Road Work - Bryce Canyon UT
    The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) performed road work in Bryce Canyon National Park from 1934-1941.  The CCC made grading improvements on the Rim Road (the 20 mile-long road through the park) and built service roads.  The exact locations of such work cannot be ascertained today, but the roads are still there. The CCC also built parking lots at the Bryce Canyon Lodge and the headquarters building in 1936 and 1939. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) did some road work as well, in 1938-1941.
  • Bryce Canyon National Park: Trail Work - Bryce Canyon UT
    From 1934 to 1940, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built or improved major trails in Bryce Canyon National Park, greatly expanding the park's trail system.  The most impressive is the Under-The-Rim trail, running from Bryce Point to Rainbow Point (18.8 miles).  The second longest is the Rim trail from the administration area to Bryce Point.  The CCC also made improvements to the Fairyland Trail and trails from the South Campground to the rim. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) also did some unidentified trail work at Bryce Canyon National Park from 1938-1941.
  • Buckeye Road Sidewalks and Improvements - Phoenix AZ
    The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed sidewalks along, and otherwise improved, Buckeye Road in Phoenix, Arizona during the 1930s.
  • Buckshot Spring - Colebrook PA
    The structure at Buckland Spring, between Colebrook and Mt. Gretna, Pennsylvania along Rt. 117, was constructed as a federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) project in 1938. ""From the back wall of this structure, there were two separate pipes from which flowed cold, pure spring water. People from a wide area would come to this site in large numbers with their glass gallon jugs and other containers to collect and take home this spring water," said Bowman of Mt. Gretna." (ldnews.com)
  • Buena Vista Park - San Francisco CA
    '(36 Acres) Work done consisted of rocking 1,500 lineal feet of paths 8 feet wide, surfacing 132,960 square feet of foot paths, resurfacing 22,300 square feet of drives, laying 15, 455 lineal feet of rock gutters, building 6,000 square feet of log retaining walls, 72 rock steps and coping, rubble masonry wall, surfacing 21,600 square feet of tennis courts, erecting 13,590 square feet of standard chain link fence, installing 2,800 lineal feet of pipe irrigation system, grading two small playgrounds, constructing 18,900 square feet of artificial stone sidewalk, spreading 1,000 cubic yards loam, planting shrubs furnished by the Park Commission...
1 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 195