Auxiliary Civic Facilities Sites

The Works Progress Administration built the Taylor County Agriculture Building in Abilene, Texas between 1938 and 1939. The building then became the Taylor County Welfare Office for a number of years. The building's current use is unknown. Anecdotes tell that the stone in the building came from Abilene's 1895 jail. The jail was demolished as another WPA project.

WPA built adobe city hall with red tile roofs. Adjacent to the WPA Veterans Memorial Hall and the old WPA firehouse.

The Fort was built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Kern County in 1938-40. This unusual New Deal site is a replica of the pre-Gold Rush Sutter's Fort in Sacramento, designed by W. Francis Parsons. It was constructed of native adobe mud bricks made on site and took 83 relief workers 18 months to build.    The Fort covers nearly three acres and measures 360 feet by 200 feet, over 1,000 feet around the outside walls. The walls are 14 feet high. There are two interior courtyards with shade trees and many small offices arranged along the side walkways, which are roofed...

The Thirteenth Avenue Retail Market in Borough Park was constructed in the 1930s as a Public Works Administration (PWA) project. Much of the structure's visual presence is still intact.

In 1936, Public Works Administration (PWA) helped to fund the Torrance City Hall (former). The former city hall cost $48,000 to build and was part of a larger Torrance Civic Center project. The Civic Center project also included a new library and auditorium building. A much larger City Hall was built in the 1970s. Since then, the former city hall building has been repurposed and has housed a Home Savings, Time Warner Cable, and most recently, the Torrance Community Credit Union. Although most of the original building remains, the original center seal, lamp posts, flower pots, flag pole, a decorative eagle sculpture...

"The new town hall is in the commercial center and opposite the post office. It provides quarters for the town clerk, the tax collector, the selectmen, the nurses, and a record vault on the first floor, and quarters for the police department and a jail in the basement. The building is semifireproof, the first floor being concrete and the ceiling beams and roof of wood. The exterior walls are selected common brick, windows, doors, cornice, and cupola are wood, and the roof is covered with slate. The over-all dimensions in plan are 84 by 38 feet....

"The new municipal building replaces an old and obsolete structure which was inadequate in size and had no proper facilities for the storage of records. Some of the municipal offices were in temporary buildings, some in rented quarters and there were no garage facilities with the result that the city-owned automobiles had to be stored in public garages. The new building houses all of the city departments. The basement contains a garage, storage space, and a block of six cells. On the first floor are the police headquarters, courtroom, and offices for the mayor, clerk, treasurer, and others. The second...

Below is the first official photo view of the Golden Gate International Exhibition a few years prior to its opening in 1939. And apparently based on the photo is the original WPA, 9' x 6' oil on canvas mural. Artist unknown.

'The administration and terminal building is semicircular in plan, its court having a diameter of 86 feet. It is constructed entirely of reinforced concrete and is designed to resist earthquake shocks. It has 2 main floors and 2 mezzanine floors and is provided with a radio control room and an aerial beacon on top of the structure for eventual use in connection with the airfield.'--Short and Brown, p. 639.

'These twin hangars were constructed for permanent use to be part of a future flying field but were made available for temporary use by the exposition. Each structure has mechanically operated doors 200 feet wide and 40 feet high with a possible increase in height to 65 feet at the centers. A one-story shop wing 40 feet wide extends along one side of each building. The two structures were completed in June 1938 at a total cost for both of $709,239.'--Short and Brown, p. 534. The west hangar was the Hall of Transportation and the east hangar was the Palace of...

Fine Arts Building at the Golden Gate International Exposition constructed with PWA funds.

This building was part of the Pan American Airways Exhibit of the Golden Gate International Exposition.

Funds for a seawall and fill for the exposition site were provided through a $3,043,000 WPA grant. Another WPA grant of $1,296,000 provided for roadways, a causeway, trestles, landscaping, and drainage of water systems. A PWA grant of $1,711,000, matched in part by local funds, provided for paving, ferry slips and some buildings. Private funding for the exhibition were raised through private subscriptions, through the sale of bonds. A 1940 WPA publication describes the construction of Treasure Island as follows: "Dedicated November 21, 1937, Yerba Buena Shoals, more popularly known as Treasure Island, was raised from beneath the waters of the bay through the handling...

At approximately the same time that the State Board of Control was considering the construction of a new Men’s Hospital, a need for a new heating plant was also being considered. Architect John P. Helleberg, of Kearney, completed plans for the power plant and boiler room, which when equipped would cost $40,000.00, 45% of which was to be paid for through a Public Works Administration (PWA) grant. In addition, a series of heat tunnels would be dug to move steam from one building to another, as well as new wells, an extension to the water system, the storm sewer system,...

"The old Tularosa City Hall was constructed by the W.P.A. in 1941." -Waymarking

"The N.P. Severin Company of Chicago erected the building in 1931 under the direction of James A. Wetmore, architectural supervisor for the Treasury Department. The walls of the Italian Renaissance Revival style building are of smooth-rubbed, course cut Colorado Yule marble. The Public Works Administration financed a large 1937 addition designed by Denver architects Temple H. Buell and G. Meredith Musick. Various government agencies housed in the building, but its primary tenant the U.S. Custom Service."   (www.historycolorado.org)

The building is 16 stories and 220 feet or 67 meters high.

The Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House was constructed in 1902-1907. In the 1930s and early 1940s, federal funding was used to make several improvements to the building, including the addition of a copper apron to the dome in 1933; improvements to the elevators in 1937; and the installation of revolving doors at the Bowling Green entrance in 1941. The building now serves as the New York branch of the National Museum of the American Indian, a part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

Baltimore's third custom house was designed by the firm Hornblower and Marshall and completed 1907. The building was improved several times during the New Deal era, with notable projects including the addition of new passenger and freight elevators. The GSA notes other improvements.

This US Custom House in Portland, Maine was completed in 1872. In 1934, plumbing improvements were made by federal architect Louis A. Simon and federal engineer, George O. Von Nerta.

OKState.edu: "The Administration Building, located at 831 Southeast 172 Road, is a one-story building, situated at the peak of a rise after entering the colony. Constructed in 1935, the building is the work of the Works Progress  Administration." "The method of construction, contribution of materials, and sources of labor were standard operating procedures for the WPA throughout the nation. WPA buildings are significant as  the program through which t hey were funded significantly reduced the economic and social distress of the national depression of the 1930s. T he Administration Building provides a legacy to the WPA through recognizable architecture by...

"The Sanitary Division, through a W. P. A. grant, started a complete renewal of the siding of the Disposal Station at Victory road. Included in this work was a general overhauling and repairing of the superstructure." The operation was located at the eastern end of Victory Road.

"This small village hall has a distinct Scandinavian flavor and might almost be standing in some Swedish village rather than in Bovey, Minnesota. It is two stories and a basement in height and in the basement houses a garage for the fire department, a large dining room, kitchen and pantry, storage space, and the heating plant. On the first floor are offices for the police department, the council room, a library, and a club room. The second floor is occupied by a large auditorium with a stage and dressing rooms. The building is steel and reinforced concrete with...

"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.

The Public Works Administration funded the construction of the Wade Hampton State Office Building in Columbia SC. According to Historic Columbia, "This structure was built using funds from the federal Public Works Administration to alleviate the state’s constant need for office space. Its Stripped Classical exterior and Art Deco interiors are typical of other buildings constructed under the New Deal and compliment the State House and the John C. Calhoun State Office Building next door. Built with separate bathrooms for African American citizens, the building housed the State Department for Education throughout the state government’s stalwart defense of racial segregation in public...

"The following work was done by the W. P. A.: At the Ward Street Station, for the transfer of sand, etc., hoppers were reconstructed, and the ramp renovated."

Two construction projects for the Texas state highway department were undertaken in 1934 in Del Rio, Texas, with the assistance of Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. P.W.A. Docket Nos. TX 4233 and 4506. Maps suggest that this is the property along the south side of East Gibbs St. at the intersection of Ave. E (west side). The status of the original facilities is currently unknown to Living New Deal, although a building of similar dimensions to the below-described office building still exists at that site, presuming it was expanded during the 1960s; it bears an internal plaque from 1969. Per the...

The Watauga County Courthouse complex in Boone, North Carolina "includes a Works Projects Administration funded building as part of its annex." The striking stone building "was completed in 1939 and housed the Watauga County Library from 1946 through 1997." The building is located at the southwest corner of Queen Street and North Water Street. The News and Observer explained: With county functions becoming greater, Watauga found itself with insufficient space in which to house the public health officer, the county agent, the home demonstration agent, the public welfare department, school superintendent and other governmental agencies. The new county native stone structure now provides...

Works Progress Administration (WPA) records in the National Archives report that in 1937 WPA labor was used to "erect a brick building in the city to be used as a combination carpentry and blacksmith shop by the Sewer Department." The location was not given, but is very likely to have been at the old Sewer Department site on the Anacostia River in the southeast quadrant of the district.   Next to the still-extant Water and Sewer Authority garage is a group of brick buildings of the same era at the junction of First Street and Potomac Avenue. Any one of these,...

"The Webster Hose, Hook and Ladder Company No. 3 is a unit of the fire department of Ansonia. Its new building is located in a residential area of the city. The first floor houses the apparatus and the second floor a recreation room, cardroom, and lounge. The building is two stories and a basement in height, 36 by 46 feet in plan, and is built of red brick with limestone trim and wood floor construction. It was completed in May 1937 at a construction cost of $25,830 and a project cost of $29,780."

From the General Services Administration Web site: The West Heating Plant is a six-story, near monolithic structure realized in a vestigial Art Deco style. The solidity of the brick exterior is relieved by rhythmic, linear fenestration - the whole depending upon the play of voids against solids for architectural effect. The coal house and ash house, sited in close proximity to the main heating plant building, echoes the plant's architectural composition - both in terms of massing and material. The West Plant was to supply heat to existing and future government buildings in downtown, thereby providing relief to the overburdened Central Heating...

"The former West Salem City Hall building was a Public Works Administration project, completed in 1936 at a cost of $30,000. This two-story Art Deco style brick building was designed by architect Lyle P. Bartholemew and served as City Hall for the City of West Salem from 1936 to 1949. It is one of only two Art Deco style buildings in West Salem. Until 1949, West Salem was an independent city, in Polk County on the west side of the Willamette River. It's location on Edgewater Street was in the heart of West Salem's business district. After being plagued by...

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) undertook a project "painting the building on Delaware street wharf"—a city-owned facility—in New Castle, Delaware, starting Jan. 1934. The facility appears to be no longer extant.

"The Spanish Colonial Revival style City Hall was built in several phases, starting in 1932 with the firehouse and jail building, including the tower, which was not only picturesque, but also created a functional space for hanging wet fire hoses. Woodland contractor Joe Motroni built the first phase, designed by prominent Sacramento architect, Dean & Dean. This new public building replaced the 1892 city hall and firehouse, which developed structural problems and had to be demolished. In 1936 the building was enlarged to include space for a new city hall. Designed by noted Sacramento architect, Harry J. Devine and built...

Plans for construction of a native stone workshop on the courthouse lawn in Ballinger were begun in June 1939. Rock was obtained from the city quarry. The building was planned for 40 x 60 feet with space for 15 boys to work at the same time. The project was expected to cost about $5,000 and employ 50 workers. The machinery was installed in April 1940 and the center expected to begin production that month. The project held open house April 16, 1941. The agricultural adjustment administration were relocated from the courthouse to the building following the close of the NYA...

The World War Memorial Building, which houses the Alabama Department of Archives and History, "was completed in 1940 with the aid of WPA funds". The Greek Revival-style building, designed by Warren, Knight, and Davis of Birmingham, is still in service.

The building was originally constructed as the Works Progress Administration (WPA) District Offices In Tallahassee, the WPA or PWA funded numerous civic projects, including the Leon County Jail, Leon High School, the Leon County Health Unit, the Leon County Armory, an addition to the old Florida Capitol, and the Dining Hall at Florida State University. Numerous other projects in the North Florida region were also completed, including the Apalachicola River bridge between Blountstown and Bristol, the original John Gorrie Memorial Bridge between Eastpoint and Apalachicola, improvements to the Jefferson County Jail in Monticello; a new main post office in Perry;...

The Yamhill County Clerk building in McMinnville, Oregon was originally constructed as the town's post office with funds from the Treasury Department during the New Deal. The building was completed in late 1935. The cornerstone has been altered to remove all trace of the building's origins, just leaving the date. This is not something one usually sees when the U.S. Postal Service sells off old post offices. Some of the interior appears to be intact, but we visited too late in the day to gain entry.