Works Progress Administration (WPA) Sites

The Public Works Administration project 1408 provided a grant of $20,250 for disposal plant for the city of Corinth. The project was approved 10/2/1936, construction started 1/18/1937, and was completed 6/12/1937 for a total cost of $46,505. WPA provided an additional $1,104 for a sludge bed and grading on site in September 1937 following the June completion of the sewage plant. The Corinth treatment plant was abandoned when the city built a new one in 1972.

Works Progress Administration (WPA) laborers worked to clear land in preparation for the creation of a seven-mile diversion canal that would connect Lake Marion and Lake Moultrie, part of the Santee Cooper Project. South Carolina Encyclopedia: "Following a four-year court battle, construction began in 1939. At its peak, the project employed nearly fifteen thousand workers, most of whom came from Depression relief rolls. Living in military-style camps scattered throughout the Santee and Pinopolis basins, the laborers cleared more than 160,000 acres with handsaws and mule-drawn wagons. They hauled dirt and clay to dam sites, built railroads, relocated cemeteries, and aided in...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the Dixie Bibb Graves Armory in Montgomery in 1935. The structure was named after Dixie Graves, the first female senator to represent Alabama, and wife of Governor Bibb Graves. A WPA grant for the armory was secured through the lobbying of Governor Bibb Graves, Mayor Bill Gunter, and Alabama Senator Hugo Black. Today the structure serves as the Armory Learning Arts Center. The armory was designed in “Streamline Modern Style” and followed a plan produced by architect Earl G. Lutz, which served as a basic plan prototype for all thirty-six armories built in Alabama.

"The school was built by the Works Progress Administration. It opened for classes in 1936 and was dedicated by Eleanor Roosevelt. The main building is nearly identical in construction and materials to Simon Kenton High School, located in Independence, Kentucky. Before the renovations to both Dixie Heights High School and Simon Kenton High School, they were known as the sister schools. The school was originally to be named for Franklin D. Roosevelt. The school is on U.S. Route 25 (Dixie Highway)/U.S. Route 42."

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed a community center for the Dixie Pine community in 1936. Dixie Pine had 1000 residents and no public building for social activity. The center hosted many dances for the Camp Shelby soldiers through the WPA Recreation Project. The center was in use occasionally as a polling location for elections in 1977 when it was destroyed by fire.

The Dixie Springs Lake was one of the first projects initiated in Pike County by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Work began in early November 1935 when 20 men began clearing the site. Efforts were made for early completion of the Dixie Springs Lake project, which was also sponsored by the State Game and Fish Commission and would serve as a refuge for waterfowl and for fish breeding. Engineer J. Wesley Brown completed the survey and plans for the Dixie Springs dam and lake project. After a number of delays, the spillway was almost completed by 1939. Dixie Springs Lake...

The school contains a WPA mural "Winter and Spring" by Mary C. Hague. Medium: oil on canvas Size: 2 panels, each 12' x 10'

"The bridge is stamped as a Works Progress Administration project, built during the Great Depression in the 1930s as a way to create jobs to employ millions of out-of-work Americans. The federally-funded WPA built thousands of public works projects across the nation during the administration of President Franklin Roosevelt and was a key element in the nation's eventual economic recovery." The 1938 WPA bridge was slated for demolition in 2015, but is still standing as of 2018.

A chain of lakes for the hill counties of Mississippi was proposed in 1936 by Si Corley, director of conservation of the State Game and Fish commission. Funds from the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in concert with the sponsorship of the Game and Fish commission began the construction of a series of lakes adjacent to cities including Dockery Lake near Byram. Dockery Lake completed an earthen dam by April 1937 and began sodding it. Corley pointed out that in addition to providing sites for outdoor sports, when fully stocked, the lakes could produce 2,000 pounds of fish per acre each...

"The Dockton King County Park was created during the Great Depression as a project of the Works Progress Administration. Theo Berry was the local storekeeper and WPA administrator. The original structures, which included a bathhouse, a kitchen building, a bandstand, toilet facilities and a lifeguard residence, have since been replaced."

The Doctors Park Bathhouse in Bayside, Wisconsin, a northern suburb of Milwaukee, is adjacent to Tietjen Beach on Lake Michigan and within 75 feet of the shoreline. This former bathhouse was constructed as a Work Projects Administration (WPA) project in 1939-1940, part of a far broader county-wide park improvement program undertaken by the New Deal agency. While the park straddles Bayside and Fox Point, the bathhouse is located north of the border, in Bayside. For many decades the bathhouse provided a place to change into a swimsuit and shower off sand before heading for home. the building housed lifeguards to...

"The most visible legacy of WPA projects in Milwaukee County was the parks system, which had more construction and landscaping during the WPA period than any other time in its history. WPA construction included six swimming pools, pavilions at Red Arrow and Brown Deer Parks, service buildings at Jacobus, Jackson and Whitnall Parks, the Botanical Garden administration building and golf club house at Whitnall Park, a bathhouse at Doctor's Park, a recreation center at Smith Park, new roads in nearly every park, and parkways throughout the county."

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) conducted numerous sidewalk, curb, road, and other infrastructure projects in West St. Paul, Minnesota. Among the evidence for such projects: On Dodd near Hedge Street there’s slab with a 1941 stamp. A map as part of the source, The WPA in West St. Paul presents the location and an image of the stamps, which appears to be located at about 936 Dodd Rd.

Built 16 sets of horseshoe courts for local use.--Healy, p. 67. The park was the property of the San Francisco Unified School District and is the current site of the Zaida T. Rodriguez Child Development Center

On October 1937, Parks announced the opening of a new playground in what later became known as Dome Playground: "At Dahill Road and 38th Street, also in Brooklyn, the new playground, the wading pool section of which was opened some time ago, has facilities for handball, basketball, volley ball, soft ball games, a roller skating track, horizontal ladders and bars and a generously equipped small children's playground with slides, swings, see-saws, playhouse and sand tables. Shade trees and permanent concrete benches are also included in the design. This area is another one of the twenty-four sites selected by the Commissioner of...

"The WPA partially funded the construction of the Old Dona Ana County Courthouse (251 West Amador) a three story white adobe with exposed vigas and wooden balconies." -New Mexico the Off Road

Fieldstone structure built by the Works Progress Administration in 1935 for grange meetings. Also has been used as a city hall and library. Still in use as a grange hall. According to Brian Scott (The Historical Marker Database) "Construction in 1935 by local Works Progress Administration (WPA) labor on land donated by W. Maxie Agnew, the building served originally as the home of the town hall, the grange, and the public library. Since its inception, the fieldstone building has been the meeting hall for the agricultural organization known locally and most commonly as the Donalds Grange."

"One of several small monuments in the vicinity of what is known as the “Battle Pass” in Prospect Park, the Dongan Oak Monument commemorates events which took place in this area during the Battle of Long Island on August 27, 1776. During this significant battle of the Revolutionary War, a large white oak mentioned in 1685 in the patent of Governor Thomas Dongan (1634–1715), was cut down by Colonial soldiers and thrown across the road to impede the advance of the British army."   (www.nycgovparks.org) In the 1930s, the sculpture was restored with federal funding under Karl Gruppe, "chief sculptor of the...

A Boston Public Works Department report cited Federal Emergency Relief Administration (F.E.R.A.) labor as conducting the following work: "Repairs to fender piers of Dorchester Avenue Bridge." The bridge spanned Fort Point Channel.

The WPA allocated $18,689 for "Dornblaser athletic field improvement" at the University of Montana in Missoula. The stadium housed Montana Grizzlies football home games, and is not to be confused with the newer recreation center that bears the same name. According to Wikipedia, the site of 'old' Dornblaser Field "is now the location of the Mansfield Library."

Improvements were made to the Millbury, Massachusetts's Dorothy Manor School building and grounds with the assistance of federal New Deal funds. Municipal reports note that the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) redecorated the building and installed a concrete floor in the school's basement in 1936.

This city hall resides in the heart of downtown Dorris and along Hwy 97. It is a stone structure built in 1935 with funds provided by the WPA. The city hall was built for $20,000. No noticeable plaque was located on the outside of the building. There may be a plaque inside.

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed more than 1,000 feet of sewer line along Dorsey Street in Watertown, New York.

The WPA made street improvements in Dos Palos and other Merced county cities.

"The grounds have been used for baseball since 1920, on what was Elihu Phinney's farm. A wooden grandstand was built in 1924, later replaced by a steel and concrete grandstand built in 1939 by the Works Project Administration."

The Works Progress Administration built the Municipal Golf Course and club house in Douglas, Converse County, Wyoming. The facility is still in service today and operates under the name Douglas Community Club.

"Admire the craftsmanship and pristine condition of this WPA-era masonry bridge that features six fourteen-foot arches of locally quarried stone. The Douglas Crossing Bridge over Two Buttes Creek is one of the most substantial and handsome of Colorado's relief-agency bridges and continues to provide an important crossing for the agricultural community. The bridge was constructed with a crew of only eight men, at a cost of $20,000. The stone was hauled by teams from a quarry located about one mile up the creek. The WPA was particularly active in Colorado's southeastern corner, where high unemployment was endemic during the Depression."  ...

This Federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed bridge is located at the intersection of Coffee Creek and Douglas Roads, 2.5 miles east of Interstate 35, and 3 miles north of Arcadia Lake. The bridge traverses an unnamed creek which runs north-south along the roadway. The WPA stamp shows the year 1936.

Douglass Auditorium is a two-story native stone building in Duncan, Oklahoma that was constructed by the Federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1936. It faces east and has five distinct bays, separated by projected stone pilasters with heavy stone caps. On the upper wall of the center bay is a stone panel which reads "19 DOUGLASS 36 / AUDITORIUM". Lower on that wall is an embedded bronze WPA shield showing the year 1936. A community center is located in the adjacent school and we believe this auditorium is used as part of that operation.

Douglass Community Center, formerly Douglass School, is is a one-story classroom building constructed by the Federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1938. It is located just south of the Douglass Auditorium. The school was an African American school during segregation and closed in 1968. It now houses the community center and is an active building. There is no WPA shield on the school itself, however, stamped in the sidewalk in front of the entrance is a WPA shield with what appears to be the year 1938. (The auditorium directly to the north is dated 1936).

(10.48 Acres) 26th and Douglass Streets. Excavated and removed 5,700 cubic yards of loose rock, constructed a rubble masonry wall and faced 12,000 square feet of slope with rubble masonry; installed 3,500 pipe feet of irrigation system and 475 feet of drainage system; erected 1,550 lineal feet of chain link fence, a standard convenience station; spread loam and planted 130,000 ice plants; built ball field and irrigation system. This is an example of what a city can do with worthless, abandoned quarry.--Healy, p. 62.

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) undertook a sizable public building improvement project in Brooklyn, New York beginning in 1935.  The project involved the "Improvement of Public Buildings and Offices" at more than 30 locations, including the water pumping station at "Pt. of Douglass St.", believed by Living New Deal to be located at the end of Douglass St. at the Gowanus Canal. A municipal site presently located at this spot is called 'Gowanus Facilities.'

The Tarrant County Works Progress Administration (WPA) built this small bridge between 1938 and 1939. This is a small vehicle bridge on Dove Road leading into Grapevine, Texas. The bridge has a WPA marker bearing the date of 1938-1939.

The WPA constructed this park from a reclaimed landfill c. 1937.

Multiple municipal improvement projects were conducted in West Hartford in 1937-8 utilizing Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) labor. One such project involved storm sewer construction along Dover Road.

Santa Rosa's Doyle Park Bridge was constructed as a WPA project during the 1930s.  The bridge is located at the north entrance to the park, Doyle Park Drive.

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed a drainage canal in the vicinity of Buckeye, Arizona during the 1930s. The exact location and present status of the canal is unknown to Living New Deal.

The Works Progress Administration built a stonework drainage culvert in San Antonio Heights, CA (mailing address is Upland, CA- San Antonio Heights is unincorporated). On the curb, there is a plaque that says "Improved by the Works Progress Administration and San Bernardino County 1936-1937"

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) undertook an extensive project in Middletown, New York to enclose sections of Draper Brook with concrete culverts.

The WPA carried out construction and improvements on Dronningens 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.”