Civic Facilities Sites

What is now Palace Apartments started out as Williamson Mill (a cotton mill)—built in 1902. Sometime after that it was bought and plans were made to convert the building into a county multi-use building (basketball, boxing, tennis, indoor track, concerts, dances, etc.). WPA work included removing the upper part of the building, new roof installation, and upgraded utilities. The WPA spent $250,000 dollars on the project, which is about $4 million in 2013 dollars, so the conversion work must have been extensive. In later years, the county building became a popular venue for professional wrestling.

Originally built by the WPA in 1942 as a group of Arvin county office buildings, the adobe complex is now a business incubator and retail complex. A local newspaper of the time had this to say: "Another large project reaching completion this month is the county office building in Arvin, This group of buildings, including a sizable auditorium, will afford the citizens of that community with a central location for the efficient conduct of county business." - Dart The building has had some remodeling recently.

Among the Works Progress Administration (WPA) projects identified as in progress in an El Paso Times article from June 7, 1936 was the "construction of a county warehouse at Fabens." The location and status of this project are presently unknown to Living New Deal.

This Brooklyn courthouse was constructed by the PWA in 1938 and today still houses a New York appellate court. A 1939 PWA publication described the then new courthouse: "This building houses the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, Second Division, State of New York, and is in the Borough Hall section of the city, near other city and State buildings. On the first floor it contains a courtroom 55 by 57 feet which extends through the second story in height. The judge's chambers, court officials' rooms, and a large library, 38 by 58 feet, are also included. The plan is rectangular in...

The Queens County Supreme Court building in Jamaica was constructed as a Public Works Administration (PWA) project. Short and Stanley-Brown: "This structure houses the 23 civil courts of Queens County and provides quarters for the judges, the clerk of the city court, the grand jury, the district attorney, and the county clerk. In addition, it provides offices for the naturalization bureau, the motor-vehicle bureau, the bar association, the supreme-court board, and the law library. The building is fireproof, of steel-frame construction, and the exterior is of limestone. The courtrooms are air-conditioned. It is seven stories in height, with two mezzanine floors, and...

The CWA was involved in repairs to the aging county courthouse which had been built in 1874 to replace an 1836 building. A few years later in 1939, a new county courthouse was built by the PWA in Hope Arkansas when the county seat was moved. Both the original 1836 and 1874 courthouses (which is the visitor center) can be visited at Historic Washington State Park.

"The new Sebastian County Courthouse at Fort Smith has six floors, counting the semi-basement and the central penthouse of two floors devoted entirely to the jail. On the basement floor is a large assembly hall, the police department, miscellaneous offices, and storage space for supplies and for cars. The first, or main floor contains the council room and offices for the mayor, tax collector, assessor, clerk, engineer, and local utilities. The circuit, municipal, and chancery courts are on the second floor with offices for the judges, clerks, and reporters. The third floor has offices for attorneys and officials connected with...

Grenada County was approved for WPA project 40079 for rehabilitation of the 1885 courthouse. The project was allotted $11,308 to include improving the boiler room, plastering, painting, and improving floors along with rearranging office space. The Grenada County Board of Supervisors sponsored the WPA project to repair the county court house. The project began January 13 and used an average 34 WPA workers for six months. The state legislature passed legislation for $6,000 county bonds to cover the sponsor portion of the work. The House passed the measure January 18 for funds to be used in match to the federal...

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) was involved in fixing up the Lake Village County Courthouse, likely repairing the damage from a bad Mississippi River flood in 1927 that had caused massive damage to Arkansas. The original courthouse was constructed in 1857 when the county seat was moved to Lake Village and replaced in 1907 with a neoclassical design building. Foundation problems caused the replacing of the court with the current art deco style of building in 1956.

Located on the ceiling of the courtroom in the former US Post Office and Courthouse (now used by Tennessee Appellate court), von Wicht's unblinded "Goddess of Justice" is reclining atop the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.

The CWA did repairs to the Garland County courthouse in Hot Springs. The Garland County Courthouse is located at Ouachita Avenue and Hawthorne Street in Hot Springs (Garland County). The four-story brick building is recognized by the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program to be both architecturally and historically significant, with one source calling it perhaps the finest example of Renaissance Revival–style architecture in the state. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. The Garland County Courthouse was constructed as a rectangular building with central bays projecting from its northern and southern sides. It featured a domed...

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) was involved in minor repairs and upgrading of the White County courthouse in Searcy. The present White County Courthouse, completed in 1871 and remodeled in 1912, is the oldest Arkansas courthouse still being used for its original purpose. The first story is constructed of cut stone, while brick is used on the second floor. The circuit/chancery courtroom has been restored to its original condition. The large clock tower includes an 1855 bell which resembles the Liberty Bell.

The enormous Cow Palace—or, more formally, the Livestock Exhibition Building—was constructed with federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds.  It was completed in early 1938 at a cost of $701,648. It lies just south of the San Francisco city/county line in what was long rural land, before the suburb of Daly City exploded in size in the 1940s and 1950s. The Cow Palace is approximately 250 by 130 feet is size and the steel truss roof soars 110 feet above the ground.   The arena accommodates 12,000 spectators.   The building is constructed of reinforced concrete. The roof is held up by cantilever...

The WPA constructed this annex to the 1920s Craig County Courthouse in the early 1940s, but it didn't remain connected to the courthouse for long. After WWII, the building housed a candy factory. The rear of the building was destroyed due to an electrical fire in 2012, but the remainder of the building, now privately owned, is still in use.

The Craighead County Courthouse, an Art Deco style building located in Jonesboro, Arkansas, was constructed in 1934-1935 with the aid of funds provided by the federal Public Works Administration (PWA). The Arkansas General Assembly established Craighead County and established Jonesboro as the seat in 1859. For nearly thirty years, three different buildings served as the county courthouse. In 1885, a two-story brick building with a four-story clock tower was constructed after a fire. By 1933, the building was razed and the stage was set for the new courthouse to be constructed. Elmer Stuck, a prominent local architect, designed the Depression-era...

This utilitarian yellow brick structure with subtle Art-Deco touches was a Public Works Administration project. Completed in 1939, the jail replaced the old Jonesboro jail located at Madison and Monroe streets. This building remained in use as Craighead County's jail until a new state of the art detention facility was built on the western outskirts of Jonesboro in 1989. Afterward, the old jail became a part of the Craighead County Courthouse Annex, and is now used for storage of county records and as office space for an appraisal company that works with the county assessors office.

"Crescent City Hall is located at 114 W. Monroe in downtown Crescent, OK. This is a city with a population of approximately 1400, about 30 miles northwest of Oklahoma City. This is a red sandstone building, constructed in 1939, during the heyday of the Work Projects Administration. During the period 1935 to 1943, the WPA employed over 8 million people in the constructing of buildings, bridges and other structures across the United States. Most of these structures still exist today."   (https://www.waymarking.com)

The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) provided labor to improve Crownhill Cemetery in Amherst, Ohio in 1934.

"During the 1930s, the cemetery was improved through several Depression-era federal make-work programs. In 1934, the original tool house was demolished and replaced by a new brick garage-tool-comfort station erected by the Civil Works Administration (CWA) at a cost of $8,000. Another CWA project in May 1934 included repairs to the lodge, raising and realigning 912 headstones, and constructing a concrete driveway and walk. In 1936, a Works Project Administration project accomplished the realignment and re-setting of 402 headstones. The old flagstaff was removed and replaced with a new one in 1938 and in December 1939 a brick and slate-roof...

The historic Curry County Courthouse (and jail) in Clovis, New Mexico was developed as a New Deal project in 1936. The Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) provided a $73,507 grant for the project, whose total cost was $163,388. P.W.A. Docket No. N.M. 1015

The WPA undertook work during the 1930s to improve Brooklyn, New York's Cypress Hills National Cemetery (the only National Cemetery in New York City). One $110,000 project entailed: "ehabilitate grounds and buildings which includes tree surgery, aligning, setting and resetting headstones, improvement to iron and chain link fences, laying concrete curb and other improvements to grounds and buildings ..." WPA Official Project No. 266-97-8000.

The Public Works Administration funded the construction of the Dade County Courthouse in Greenfield. The courthouse was designed in Classical Revival Style by the architectural firm of Fred C. Bonsack and Harvey J. Pearce, from St. Louis. The contractor was C F Rinehart Construction Company of St. Louis. "The Public Works Administration (PWA) provided a $32,108 grant for construction of the Date County courthouse in Greenfield, Missouri. Total cost of the project was $117,960. Construction occurred between 1934 and 1936. PWA Docket No. MO 4610"  

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed barns at the dairy research installation in Willard, North Carolina. The exact location and present status of the facility is presently unknown to Living New Deal.

The Henry J. Daly Building is the former District of Columbia Municipal Center, built in 1939-41 with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) (which was incorporated into the Federal Works Administration in 1939 in a major government reorganization).  The Municipal Building was meant to replace the old City Hall and consolidate the District's local government functions, but has mostly been used as the DC police headquarters. The PWA made an initial allocation of $5.7 million in 1938 (Evening Star 1938) , but the final allocation was evidently $7.75 million (National Archives).  Sources differ over whether this was a grant or...

Work had been done on the Alamo grounds in 1934 under the Texas Relief Commission which had been established in 1933 by Governor M.A. (Ma) Ferguson and used Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) funds. A marker confirming this work is on the wall facing Crocket Street that connects the DRT meeting hall and their Library was relocated there from another lower wall that was present in the 1930's. Lewis Fisher writes in Saving San Antonio The Precarious Preservation of a Heritage that the City agreed to donate the fire station in the fall of 1936 and references an article in the...

"Davenport Cemetery is a Town-operated cemetery, 1.25 miles west of town off Route 66, on 3490 Road. The cemetery has graveled driveways forming a circle with north-south and east-west bisecting drives. At the center of the cemetery, at the intersection of these crossed drives stands a rock chapel, constructed by the WPA in 1939. This is a one-room chapel which contains wooden benches and an altar. An old upright piano stands at the front. The chapel has a north-south running gabled roof, with a rock gabled, recessed entrance. There are two wood doors. A chimney is constructed at the northwest corner. The...

The Davidson County Public Building and Courthouse on the Public Square in Nashville was constructed in 1936 to 1938 with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA).  This enormous, 8-story building covers an entire city block and was built to house county and municipal offices, plus several courtrooms.  The county jail was originally on the 7th floor.  Short & Stanley-Brown (1939) put the cost of the project at $2,167,000 but no not give the share provided by the PWA.  Paine (1984) says the project cost $1,595,000 and that the city raised $400,000 for it in a public bond issue.  We have...

Built by the WPA as the Davis City Hall in 1938, this building has since served as a fire station, a police station and now, a restaurant.

"The Davison County Courthouse is a flat-roofed, rectangular, four-story, reinforced concrete building with a Minnesota Sandstone veneer constructed in the Art Deco style. The front and sides are symmetrical. A stone foundation rises to just below the level of the first floor windows. On each corner there is a one story projecting bay. The projecting areas and the lack of decorative elements on the first floor create the appearance of a podium upon which the upper three stories rest. The facade contains seven vertical rows of windows separated by piers which rise from the...

The historic Dawes County Courthouse in Chadron, Nebraska was constructed with the aid of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. The PWA provided a $44,893 grant for the project, whose total cost was $99,771. Construction occurred between January 1936 and January 1937. PWA Docket No. NE 1013.

"The Dayton Community Hall is a community building located at 410 Bridge St. in Dayton, Wyoming. The hall was built in 1936 by the Works Progress Administration. The people of Dayton used the hall for community gatherings, as their previous community hall was no longer safe for activities. The hall was the largest such hall in the county, and the dances it hosted each Saturday night drew visitors from up to 50 miles (80 km) away. In addition to dances, the hall also hosted basketball games, Dayton Benefit Club meetings, local school events, and political functions. The hall continues to...

"Established in 1867, the Central Branch, National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in Dayton, Ohio (now the Dayton Veterans Affairs Medical Center) was one of the three original branches in the National Home system, which provided medical and rehabilitative care to Union veterans after the Civil War. The Central Branch was the first branch laid out using a decentralized plan with a grid pattern for the streets and a Picturesque style landscape for the parks and gardens surrounding the campus core. This campus plan served as a model for the remaining National Home branches and later VA hospitals. The early Veterans...

In 1938, the Public Works Administration (PWA) allotted $200,000 for the construction of a large garage for the garbage trucks of the District of Columbia’s Refuse Division. The garage was completed in September 1939.  It is a flat-roofed, single-story, brick Moderne building with bas-relief pilasters between the bays and a white fringe around the top. The DC government described the garage in its fiscal year 1939 report:  “Plans and specifications for this project were prepared by the City Refuse Division under the supervision of the Municipal Architect’s Office. The building will be capable of housing from 80-100 trucks of the division’s fleet...

"The Deerwood Auditorium is a community center in Deerwood, Minnesota, United States, built as a Works Progress Administration project. The auditorium, built in 1935, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, a rare surviving example of federal relief architecture in Minnesota. ...The town first received funding for the auditorium in 1935 through the State Emergency Relief Administration, but the SERA's function was later subsumed by the Works Progress Administration. ...Despite shortages of money during the construction, the building was substantially completed in time for its first event, a lutefisk supper held on October 29, 1936. Final touches were completed in...

Constructed by the PWA in 1939.

"When the Great Depression hit in the 1930s, Franklin Delano Roosevelt used landscape and park projects to provide relief and hope for America. The second great period of park building occurred during this ten year period when the CWA and WPA work teams focused much of their attention on our "City Park" building the Rose Garden, bathhouse, wading pool, bandstand, and the stone armory, now known as Fort Decatur Recreation Center." (decaturparks.com)

This courthouse was built by the WPA in 1941. "This is a rectangular structure consisting of a central three-story unit and two single story wing units. It is constructed of rusticated and coursed native limestone... A concrete frieze along the top portion of the central unit adds decorative detail to the building. Unfortunately the building has been altered. A third story has been added the south wing... Seldom did the WPA undertake projects of this magnitude... Surely the structure is the most distinctively beautiful of any county courthouse built by the WPA in Oklahoma."   (Oklahoma Landmarks Inventory)

Starting in 1938, the Work Projects Administration (WPA) demolished the 1900 Delta County Courthouse in Cooper and built a new $110,450 four-story courthouse that was finished in 1940. The architect of record was Hoke Smith (1896-1943).

Constructed by the WPA in 1939-1940. It was used as the city hall until the 1980s. The building was restored and rededicated in 2008 and now serves as a tourism office.

Across West Virginia, the Department of Highways sponsored district headquarters and garages constructed by the Works Progress Administration. All utilized a similar airfoil design, a variation on the Quonset hut design. Built of stone.