Civic Facilities Sites

Now a part of McCaw Hall, Seattle's old Municipal Auditorium was drastically improved by the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA). "McCaw Hall is the latest incarnation of what was once Seattle's Civic Auditorium (1928), which was then gutted and rebuilt as the Seattle Center Opera House for the World's Fair in 1962." (historylink.org) A WPA press release from Jan. 1938 reported: "Modernizing of the Seattle Civic Auditorium and Ice Arena by WPA workers will begin January 21 with the aid of $21,539 in Federal funds, it was announced today by Don G. Abel, state Works Progress Administrator. One of the important features of...

The W.P.A. constructed a Civic Center in Billings, Montana, ca. 1935-8. The exact location and status of this facility is unknown to Living New Deal. Official Project Number 65‐91‐6550

Clean lines, formal monumental openings, and restrained revival details mark the 1939 Great Falls Civic Center as a municipal Art Deco style building. The Works Projects Administration provided most of the funding for the building. The Depression-era federal jobs program employed people doing everything from local history research to public works projects. Since WPA funds could not be used to purchase land, the city situated the Civic Center on parkland, angering residents who wanted to preserve Great Falls’ beloved Gibson Circle at the end of Central Avenue. A lawsuit that went all the way to the state supreme court failed...

"This structure stands in a 37-acre tract of land which includes a park, a high-school site, fields for baseball, football, and tennis, and extensive automobile parking space. The building contains a gymnasium-auditorium with 3,156 permanent balcony seats and 2,200 additional removable seats, Boy and Girl Scout headquarters, camera clubs, practice rooms for drama, offices for the recreational director, and a complete lay-out for exercise and minor sports, including a swimming pool. It is fireproof throughout, faced with brick, trimmed with limestone. Its volume is 2,250,000 cubic feet. It was completed in May 1938 at a construction...

Originally constructed as the Neosho Auditorium and City Hall, this is now known as "The Civic." It was built by the WPA in 1938. Like the nearby Newton County Courthouse, the civic center was constructed out of Carthage Stone in an Art Deco style. It was extensively renovated in 2008, but the Art Deco elements were preserved.

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) and Temporary Emergency Relief Administration (TERA) constructed the historic Potsdam civic center. NRHP nomination form: "The Potsdam Civic Center shares salient associations with Depression-era New Deal programs and politics, particularly as manifested in the process that led to its construction. It is representative of local community planning efforts by those who endeavored to build it, and remains an important social history document given its use for a wide range of social gatherings since its completion in the mid-1930s. The building is additionally significant as an example of Neoclassical-style civic design, and one which incorporated an existing...

The W.P.A. constructed an armory in Lewistown, Montana in 1936. "The history of the Civic Center starts with its construction in 1936, just prior to World War II. It was built under the Works Progress Administration (WPA) with the understanding that it would serve Lewistown as their new armory. It had a rifle range in the basement and a built-in vault (room) to be a safe storage for arms, ammunition, and other sensitive items belonging to the Lewistown National Guard. Being a civic center, it was not solely for the exclusive use of the National Guard. The large room, upstairs, with a...

The $100,000 civic center and armory in Livingston, MT was constructed by the WPA. The facility is still open for public recreational use today. W.P.A. Official Project Number: 65‐91‐6554

The Art Deco civic center and armory was Public Works Administration (PWA) project W1206. Designed by Edgar Lucian Malvaney, it was approved 10/24/1036 and completed 11/10/1937. The PWA allotted a grant of $51,226 toward the completion cost of $110,575. A bond sale was held to raise funds for the city's share of the project. The building was demolished in 1975.

This Fair Barn/Civic Center in Horton, Kansas was constructed by the WPA in 1937-39. W.O. "Tutes" Thomas was the designer and head of construction. The building is still in use for municipal functions and celebrations.

The Federal Emergency Relief Administration built a lily pond in the Civic Center in Downtown Gadsden, circa 1937.

In 1933-34, a large number of civil improvements were made to Twin Falls, Idaho by the Civil Works Administration (CWA) and Idaho Emergency Relief Administration (IERA). The works were done by relief workers hired from local jobless rolls in the depths of the Great Depression. Both CWA and IERA were funded by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), to the tune of around $250,000. The civic improvements included the City Park band shell, work at the water treatment plant, tennis court at Harmon Park, painting Shoshone Street bridge, grading over 200 blocks of city streets, and graveling 95 blocks of streets.

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 no-longer-extant Civil Prison at the southeast corner of Willoughby Ave. and Raymond Ave. (now Ashland Pl.). The land is now occupied by The Brooklyn Hospital Center.

Members of the Clackamas County Planning Board announced during the summer of 1935 that the fifty-one-year old Courthouse represented a fire hazard as well as no longer being adequate for the county's business. Citing the possibility of obtaining PWA funds for the construction of a new courthouse, they encouraged architects to submit plans for the proposed structure. By the fall, the Planning Board had selected the drawings of Francis Marion Stokes, a well-known Portland architect, requested an outright grant of $90,000 from the Public Works Administration, and proposed a means of raising the county's fifty-five percent contribution to the project....

The armory was built by the WPA in 1935: "This armory is a single-story, rectangular...structure constructed of cut, course, and rusticated native stone of buff color. The central portion of the roof is arched, while the remainder of it is flat... As a WPA building this armory is exceptional for its quality of workmanship that reaches the level of artistic expression. It is unique within the city of Claremore in terms of type, materials, style, and most notably workmanship."   (www.okhistory.org) Since its addition to the Oklahoma Landmarks Inventory Nomination in 1985, the armory has unfortunately been demolished.

The Clarence T. Jones Observatory was designed by its namesake, who was both and architect and amateur astronomer. Jones presented city officials with plans for an observatory and a telescope, which would be constructed almost exclusively through volunteer labor. Built on donated land, construction was mostly funded by $17,000, divided about equally between a United States Public Works Administration (PWA) grant and the City of Chattanooga. The building was completed in 1936 while the telescope was still being assembled. The observatory was officially dedicated in 1938. The 20.5-inch telescope was the largest amateur-built telescope in the world when it was...

"There were nine PWA-financed courthouses constructed in South Dakota during the Depression era. Although designs were not standardized, most were three or four story buildings designed in variations of the Moderne styles. Building materials and finishes included brick, stone, concrete, terra cotta, terrazzo floors, marble, wood, steel casement windows, and cast metal ornamentation. Most courthouses from this era are distinguished by their massing and form. Typically larger, block-like buildings on elevated bases, courthouses usually display symmetry with a central entrance and uniformly placed window bays. Detailed surrounds and/or projecting bays often emphasize the central entrance. Interior character-defining features generally include...

This building is currently listed under the National Historic Registry. Built in 1936 as the Fifth Street School, it replaced a school that had burned down in 1934. It was remodeled as an annex to the Clark Country Courthouse and is currently used as an arts and culture center, with a gallery. Funding for construction of the school, also known as Las Vegas Grammar School, at 400 Las Vegas Blvd. South was provided by the federal Public Works Administration (PWA). According to a local historic district nomination: "Then, following a major fire in May 1934 which gutted the city's old high school (which...

The Clarksdale Civic Auditorium was designed by Jackson architect E. L. Malvaney and built as a WPA project in 1939. The auditorium is a 1500 seating capacity designed in the Art Moderne style. A rear addition for the National Guard Armory was added in 1944. The walls are "poured concrete" and the front facade includes a bas relief "above a ribbon of 2/2 horizontal awning metal windows (Wright, Baughn, & Gatline, 2009). The two front entrances (one at each end of the building) are on canted walls, have rounded corners and fluted columns typical of Art Moderne. A band of glass...

"The site of the Clay County Courthouse is bounded by four important city streets allowing a wide main entrance approach, an entrance to the first floor from the rear, and an entrance to the ground floor on one side. The building is rectangular in plan and three stories in height. On the ground floor are offices for the superintendent of schools, the welfare department, the coroner, the county engineer, the supervisor, the county agricultural agent, an assembly room with a platform, a women's lounge, and the necessary utility rooms. The first floor is occupied by the probate and county court rooms,...

The historic Clearwater County Courthouse was constructed in 1937-8 with the assistance of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. The PWA provided a grant of $29,250 for the project, whose total cost was $90,358. Foss and Company of Fargo, N.D. designed the building, which was built by Hendenburg and Company. The PWA Moderne-style building has since been remodeled and added to. PWA Project Minn. 1196

The felony division courthouse for Clermont County, Ohio, was constructed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) between 1935 and 1936. The original Clermont County courthouse was built in 1829 by Arch/Contr- Ezekiel Dimmit. The new one that still stands today was built 1936 by Arch-Hunt & Allen. It was dedicated on December 19, 1936 at a Erected cost of $115,000. It replaced the oldest court building in State of Ohio.

"In 1938 the PWA officials approved a $94,000 grant for a new courthouse and jail, with the remaining funds to be secured by a county bond issue. Noted OKC architect Walter T. Vahlgert designed the new courthouse directly in front of the existing courthouse which continued to function while the new courthouse was being built. Tankersley Construction Company of Oklahoma City constructed the courthouse at a total cost of $209,090. The combination of the Classical Revival form with Art Deco ornamentation was popular for public construction projects in the late 1930's and early 1940's, particularly for projects funded by the PWA....

Lock Haven, Pennsylvania's historic Clinton County Courthouse was built in 1867. It was expanded during the Great Depression with the aid of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. The PWA provided a $44,730 grant for the project, whose total cost was $115,651. Construction occurred between May 1936 and May 1937. PWA Docket No. PA W1094

The Clinton-Peabody public housing complex was a 2 and 3-story Apartment complex on the near south side of St. Louis which at the time was a predominately white neighborhood. It was the white public housing complex that was built at the same time as Carr Square Village. It is more wide open than either the Carr Square village and Neighborhood Gardens. All 3 remain in use, surrounded to varying degrees by urban desolation.

The W.P.A. conducted improvement work to the former Cochituate fire station. Work included interior and exterior repainting.

Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the Colby City Hall in Colby KS in 1935-1936. The limestone building has always served as the City Hall for Colby, KS. The library was housed in the same structure for a time as well, and the Fire Department had an annex attached to this building. The building continues to serve as an office building for city offices.

"In the early 20th century, service structures including tool, well and oil houses were built and rebuilt. Civil Works Administration laborers did much of this construction during the 1930s."

This brick fire hall was constructed as Colden's Fire Station #1 by the WPA: "In the 1930’s plans were drawn for a new Station #1 to be located across the street from the hall of the time next to Cazenovia Creek. Near the end of the Great Depression Colden managed to have this hall built through the Works Progress Administration. This hall included one truck bay, a downstairs meeting room and an upstairs gymnasium that was used for basketball games, dances, and other social events. In the 1940’s two additional truck bays were built on the side of the original hall."  ...

In 1972 the U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service approved the nomination of the Cole County Jail-Sheriff’s House to the National Register of Historic Places. The areas of significance were identified as architecture, political and jurisprudence. The nomination form described the Jail-Sheriff’s house as compatible in style and stonework pattern with the courthouse. The square-plan building is three bays wide on each façade, with the front entrance centered on the northwest façade in a projected, gabled bay. The rectangular-plan, three-story jail is joined to the sheriff’s house along the southeast façade of the sheriff’s house. The jail is...

The historic Colfax County Courthouse was constructed with the assistance of the federal Public Works Administration (P.W.A.). The P.W.A. provided a $110,455 grant for the project, whose total cost was $272,377. Construction occurred between 1936 and 1937. Santa Fe Trail: The Colfax County Courthouse is a five-story blond brick building typical of the 1936 Art Deco style architecture. Embellishments include glazed tile cornices, bas-reliefs depicting local farming, mining & cattle raising, art deco light fixtures and local cattlebrands are bronzed over exterior doors. Terrazzo floors, tile wainscoating, chipped-tile roof on top story and flat roofs on lower areas make for quite an...

"The Colfax Grammar School (shown below) was built in 1940 as a Administration (WPA) building. Later it became the Colfax Elementary School. In 1986, it was acquired by the Sierra Vista Community Center, which offers classes, programs, and community events." The school has been substantially altered since its original construction and bears no direct indication of WPA involvement. However, sidewalks and retaining walls on the grounds bear at least five separate instances of WPA imprint stamps.

The College Hill Courts public housing complex was undertaken during the Great Depression in Chattanooga, Tennessee with the assistance of funds provided by the United States Housing Authority (USHA). College Hill Courts (black only), 497 units on 20 acres, was constructed in the "restrained Colonial Revival style" (Van West, p. 138) at the same time as nearby East Lake Courts (white only). Combined cost for both projects was $3.8 million. College Hill Courts remained in use until at least September 2014 when the housing authority announced plans to demolish or close the project.

Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, South Carolina was constructed in 1823 with additions constructed in 1936 and 1939. Short and Stanley-Brown: "This project consisted of additions to the courthouse and the construction of two-story reinforced-concrete jail."

"This project consisted of additions to the courthouse and the construction of this two-story reinforced-concrete jail. The jail contains the warden's quarters, dayroom and two cells each for white and colored women, two day rooms and four felony cages for men, isolation wards, and two juvenile cells. It was completed in November 1937 at a construction cost of $43,776 and a project cost of $46,864." The exact location and current status of this project are presently unknown to Living New Deal.

Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration (PRRA) work relief division efforts included the reconstruction of an 1893 monument commemorating the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's landing, at the site where he landed in 1493. The PRRA made improvements to what is now known as Colón Park, an area that lies just inside Municipio de Aguada, just outside Aguadilla. The monument resides inside a traffic circle within the park. A plaque faces north, and says the following (in Spanish as well as English): To Commemorate the Landing of Christopher Columbus on November 19, 1493. This monument was erected on November 19, 1893 by the Board of...

Oxford, Massachusetts's old Colonel DeWitt Fire Station, located on Barton Street, received modest assistance from Federal Emergency Relief Administration funds in 1934. The current status of the building is unknown to Living New Deal.

The current Colorado County Courthouse was built between 1889 and 1891. In 1939, the Works Progress Administration was involved in excavating a basement for the courthouse for more office space. The WPA also coated the building with a cement mixture to seal the bricks against moisture. The workers applied cream colored paint to the exterior, green to the window frames and white to the dome cornices. The dome was given a coat of aluminum paint in order to make it appear silver, and the clock was repaired.

"This project for the State Hospital for the Insane at Pueblo included the construction of 3 dormitories, a dining hall, and an addition to the nurses' home. The dormitories are 2 stories in height and will accommodate approximately 300 patients. The dining hall (shown in the upper illustration) is T-shaped in plan with over-all dimensions of 131 by 135 feet and contains separate dining halls for men and women. The nurses' home addition provides 38 bedrooms, lounges, administrative offices, and sitting rooms. All of these buildings are fireproof with concrete floor slabs, exterior walls of brick, and roofs either of...

"Station 211, located at 303 East "E" St, was constructed in 1936 by the City of Colton and the Works Progress Administration. It is considered a historical landmark by the Historical Preservation Commission, and is Landmark No. 10. Station 211 also serves as administrative headquarters. The Fire Chief and five administrative support staff, along with six suppression personnel, work at 211. One Battallion Chief, Captain, Engineer, Firefighter, and two Paramedics respond from this station on Truck 211, and Squad 211." - City of Colton Fired Department Website