Civic Facilities Sites

The Bartlett Tribune and News reported in 1935 that Taylor, Texas's new $35,000 high school gymnasium was financed in part by a PWA grant and loan. The old high school and gymnasium are now part of the Taylor Resource Center, which serves seniors and other community needs.

High School Park Homes was one of two public housing projects completed in Lake Charles in 1939. High School Park was 73 dwellings constructed by Robert Angelle for $225,556. The brick duplexes were designed by architects G. Lewis Dunn and Gustave G. Quinn.

"This is a one-story rectangular, one-room chapel constructed in 1940 by the WPA. It is built of cut and coursed rusticated native stone and has a gabled roof, currently covered with metal siding. The building is currently used as a maintenance building for the cemetery. A large overhead door has been installed, and the two windows in front and three at the rear have been boarded up. "The end walls are stepped and rise above the roof line. A concrete cross has been built into the stone side wall. The building is approximately 30 by 16 feet. "Documentation of WPA construction and...

"This is a one-story rectangular, one-room chapel constructed in 1940 by the WPA. It is built of cut and coursed rusticated native stone and has a gabled roof, currently covered with metal siding. The building is currently used as a maintenance building for the cemetery. A large overhead door has been installed, and the two windows in front and three at the rear have been boarded up. The end walls are stepped and rise above the roof line. A concrete cross has been built into the stone side wall. The building is approximately 30 by 16 feet."   (www.waymarking.com)

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the Highland Cemetery Entrance in Lawton OK. Contributor note: Highland Cemetery, located on NW Fort Sill Blvd. in northeastern Lawton is a large cemetery with over 20,000 burials. The entrance faces west and consists of a randomly laid native stone arch. A granite plaque above the arch reads "HIGHLAND CEMETERY" and above that a small stone reads "WPA". At the top of each of the two stone pillars supporting the arch is the date: "19" and "36".

The Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) constructed a wall around Highland Cemetery from 1935-6.

The Alley Dwelling Authority (ADA) and the Federal Works Agency (FWA) funded the construction of the Highland Dwellings in Washington, DC in 1942. It appears that some or all of the original Highland Dwelling homes still exist. The ADA was one of the earliest New Deal initiatives to provide better housing for low-income Americans. It replaced unsafe alley dwellings in Washington, DC with more modern and affordable houses and apartments. The ADA existed from 1934-1943 as a federally controlled special authority. It then slowly evolved into today’s DC Housing Authority, an independent agency of the DC Government. With the advent of World War II,...

The Alley Dwelling Authority (ADA) funded the construction of a community building for the Highland Dwellings and surrounding area, ca. 1942. It is unknown to the Living New Deal if this building still exists. The ADA was one of the earliest New Deal initiatives to provide better housing for low-income Americans. It replaced unsafe alley dwellings in Washington, DC with more modern and affordable houses and apartments. The ADA existed from 1934-1943 as a federally controlled special authority. It then slowly evolved into today’s DC Housing Authority, an independent agency of the DC Government. The Highland Dwellings Community Building was part of the...

"Highland Hall was a WPA project. This building is still in use as a community building and can be reserved for an event... Located on the north side of Highland Park, Highland Hall was a WPA project. This is a one-story native sandstone building, used today as a community center available for meetings and events. The building has a centered entrance that is an aluminum and glass door with sidelight. There are eight 6/6 double hung windows with stone sills across the facade. The roof is gabled and covered with composition shingles. A kitchen area extends out from the rear of...

Highway Village was built as white public housing. Construction began in December 1939 and was completed January 1941 using United States Housing Authority funding. The triplex units are still extant.

The WPA constructed a stone fence and pavilion of uncut native stone at the Hillcrest Cemetery in Weleetka in 1935. (It is also known as the Crestwood Cemetery). At the time of the 1985 Oklahoma Landmarks Inventory, part of the north side of the wall had collapsed, but as of 2005, the other three sides were still in good shape.

The Public Works Administration funded the construction of the Hillside Homes, one of the first subsidized housing projects in the United States. Located in Williamsbridge, the Bronx, the housing complex spans five city blocks. It was designed by architect and urban planner Clarence Stein. The complex was dedicated on June 29, 1935 by Governor Lehman and officials representing of the Federal, State, city, and borough governments. At the time of its opening, the Hillside complex was owned by the Hillside Housing Corporation with with rents controlled by the Federal Housing Authority and the State Housing Board. The facility is still in service...

Courtesy the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (F.E.R.A.), Village Hall in Framingham was "repaired and painted, both inside and out. New plastering was installed where necessary..." In 1937 the Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) replaced the electrical wiring, installed a cement concrete floor, and re-shingled the roof. In 1940: "The floor system of the upper Village Hall was reconstructed and strengthened by putting in new steel beams and columns, and a new oak floor was laid over the whole upper hall and entrances. The interior of the building was also painted," by the W.P.A.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the City Park in Hobart, OK. Contributor note: "This large, well-equipped park is bordered on the north by E. Ash, on the south by E. Iris, on the east by N. Lincoln and on the west by N. Jefferson. The park can be accessed from all directions but the original main entrance is on the south and the coordinates shown are for this entrance with its two brick pillars. This entrance, plus a stone wall along the south side of the park were constructed by the WPA. As you enter on the south, the pool and bathhouse...

Hodgenville, Kentucky is the closest town to Abraham Lincoln’s birthplace. The Women’s Club originated in 1919 and still supports social, civic, and art projects in the community. Works Progress Administration labor built a clubhouse for the Hodgenville Women’s Club in 1934. The club is on the site of a 19th century building that was razed except for a one-story brick wing at the rear that is now the club’s kitchen.

Holland, New York's Town Hall was constructed by the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1937-38. The building is still in use today.

During 1934 the F.E.R.A "thoroughly renovated and repaired" Framingham's Hollis Street fire station, in addition to constructing "a new brick fireproof fire alarm signal building" in the rear of the station. Later the W.P.A. sponsored a six-room addition to the building: A brick addition, one story in height for a two-car garage, was constructed on the rear end of the Hollis St. Fire Station. Work was begun in December   on an addition to this building to provide an office for the chief and also three additional rooms for the firemen who are on duty at this station. Work on the additions...

"The 1938 Holly City Hall held the town's police and fire departments, library, and a multi-use community room. The Holly City Hall served effectively for over sixty years as an important center of town life. The WPA used local labor and materials to construct the hall as a town sponsored project. The building typifies the simple but dignified WPA Modernist designs used for city hall and courthouse construction." (https://www.historycolorado.org/content/prowers-county) The building presently stands vacant.

From FoundSF: "Although widely used in European cities throughout the 20th century, publicly funded housing did not seriously penetrate the U.S. landscape until the Great Depression. An effort to create better and cheaper housing, the first subsidized housing program of 1937 wasn't enacted until it could be coupled economically with the more pressing objective of reducing unemployment and thus stabilizing the economy.... Work began quickly on three of the projects, the most prominent of which was Holly Courts, located on the southern side of Bernal Heights between Holly park and Mission. Designed by Arthur Brown Jr. , also the designer of...

The historic Holt County Courthouse in O'Neill, Nebraska was constructed with the aid of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. The PWA provided a $49,909 grant for the project, whose total cost was $114,981. Construction occurred between January 1936 and February 1937. PWA Docket No. NE 1009.

WPA Bulletin, 1937: "A saving from one-half to one-third on electric bills is a saving in anybody's household. The City of Worcester expects to save this amount at the Home Farm, where a new electric generator is being built by WPA. This is but one of many improvements made by WPA at the farm, where poultry houses have been built, new barn additions made, a new kitchen and mess hall facilities installed and a dam constructed to give a greater water supply."

The homestead housing in Bethlehem, St. Croix was built by the Virgin Islands Company with the aid of PWA funding. A partnership program between the Government of the United States and the people of the Virgin Islands, the Virgin Islands Company sought to expand the homesteading and housing programs alongside industrial development on the islands. In Bethlehem, in addition to running the homesteading and housing programs, the Virgin Islands Company took on the reconstruction of the Bethlehem sugar mill, the island’s largest sugar mill. The 1934 Annual Report of the Governor of the Virgin Islands provides details about a homestead housing program funded with...

A homestead housing program funded with the aid of a $45,000 grant from the Housing Commission and a $242,000 loan from Subsistence Homesteads Corporation, sought to improve housing conditions on the Virgin Islands. The program included housing on farm land in the vicinity of Frederiksted on St. Croix. The 1934 Annual Report of the Governor of the Virgin Islands describes the housing conditions on the islands and the details of the new housing program. "A housing survey in October 1933 in St. Croix, where the need is greatest, showed 2,623 one-room houses, with from 1 to 12 persons in each house. Perhaps...

A homestead housing program funded with the aid of a $45,000 grant from the Housing Commission and a $242,000 loan from Subsistence Homesteads Corporation, sought to improve housing conditions on the Virgin Islands. The program included housing on farm land in St. Thomas. The 1934 Annual Report of the Governor of the Virgin Islands describes the housing conditions on the islands and the details of the new housing program. "A housing survey in October 1933 in St. Croix, where the need is greatest, showed 2,623 one-room houses, with from 1 to 12 persons in each house. Perhaps half of them are relics of...

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 old Homicide Court Building at 33-to-35 Snyder Ave. The Homicide Court Building referred to was a 1929 addition to a structure built in 1875 as the Flatbush Town Hall: "When Flatbush and the rest of Brooklyn became part of New York City in 1894, the Town Hall became a police precinct headquarters and the 7th District Magistrate’s Court. In 1929, an addition was built to...

"The Hominy Armory is a single story building measuring 257 feet x 141 feet. It was constructed between 1935 and 1937 by the Works Progress Administration. It originally housed the Hominy National Guard."   (wikipedia) As of 1994 it was still in use as a National Guard Armory, but it now houses the town's police and fire departments.

Originally constructed in 1921, the Hoosier Gym (best known for its role in the 1986 basketball movie Hoosiers) was improved and expanded the gym in 1936. "The project included an exterior facelift with a new front entrance and lobby, and the creation of basement dressing rooms." No longer used regularly as a gym, the building has been turned into a museum and community center.

The fire station, designed in a mission-style building resembling a residence, was built by the PWA at a cost of $26,681.

Seawall constructed on Hope St. Built by the Works Progress Administration between 1935 and 1939.

In 1935-36, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) undertook a large housing clearance, replacement, and rehabilitation project at London Court. As part of that project, the Alley Dwelling Authority (ADA) constructed Hopkins Place, which consisted of 12 new units located in the block bounded by K, L, 12th, and 13th streets. The 1934 Alley Dwelling Act funded housing rehabilitation efforts in the District of Columbia. Because the ADA was initially underfunded, the WPA was called upon for assistance in this case. London Court had been a cluster of informal housing in the district's southeastern quadrant, an area originally settled in the postbellum period...

Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) workers constructed an infirmary in Chicopee, Massachusetts. From a W.P.A. Bulletin: One hundred and fifty-two patients will be accommodated in the new Chicopee WPA City Infirmary Project now under construction. Plans include a two-story central building with one story wings on either side and the building of a two-story cottage for the hospital superintendent. The location and status of the facility is unknown to Living New Deal.

Grants from the Federal Government helped build healthcare facilities across the island. “The outstanding achievement in the field of public-health this year was the extension, after twelve years of endeavor, of health services to every municipality in the Island. Twenty-four new buildings, made possible by grants from the Federal Government, have been completed and occupied by health units in twenty-three municipalities. These buildings have not only improved conditions under which the work is done but will mean a substantial saving in rentals, which may now he used for further expansion of the service. Four District General Hospitals, with a capacity of...

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) provided labor to undertake numerous municipal improvements in Amherst, Ohio, among which was painting the community's historic hospital building. Living New Deal believes it to be located at 254 Cleveland Ave., also the site of the current hospital.

Thermopolis, Wyoming's Hot Springs County Courthouse (and jail) was constructed in 1937 with federal Public Works Administration funds (PWA Docket No. WY 1014 DS). The building received an addition in 1982 and it is still in use today.

13 "small bungalows are being constructed by WPA outside Millville on the Port Elizabeth Road. These will be rented at a nominal fee by old age pensioners. Project No. 9-70." What was then known as Port Elizabeth Road is now South 2nd St. The project is located in what is known as Roosevelt Park along Myrtle St. The homes were completed in August 1936 and each was occupied by one or two seniors (65 years or older). Each had a living room, bedroom, kitchen, bath, and front and back porches.

An early New Deal Federal public works project involved the construction of "family quarters" in Ancón, Panama, at the Pacific terminus of what was then the U.S.-managed Panama Canal Zone. A photograph of the completed project (shown on this page) calls this Federal Project No. 3. The Annual Report of the Governor of Panama, 1934 likely contains reference to this project in this passage: "The principal projects of building construction completed during the year consisted of 10 two-family houses, Gorgas Hospital area, Ancon ..." However, this subsequent passage in the report could also refer to the project: "The principal projects under construction at the...

The WPA was involved in housing construction in Hayward.

The PRRA carried out slum clearance work and built hurricane-proof housing developments in Arecibo and Ponce. “The PRRA located nine parcels of land available to purchase in Ponce, and two in Ponce Playa, and began construction on 4,290 concrete houses in Ponce and Ponce Playa. Built to house over 21,000 people, the PRRA also constructed an nearby incinerating plant, concrete storm sewers, new water supply system, and temporary workingmen's residencies (for PRRA construction workers) as part of the Ponce slum clearance project.”1 The PRRA created housing programs across the Island, as described in the 1938 Annual Report of the Department of the Interior: “The development...

In early 1938, the Houston County commissioners court began making plans for construction of the county's fifth courthouse. Community leaders led a successful campaign for a bond election of $120,000 to qualify for a Public Works Administration grant. In November 1938, the 1883 Victorian style courthouse was razed. Finished in 1939, the new courthouse was designed by Houston County native Blum Hester and constructed by Eckert-Fair Construction Co. of Dallas. The Moderne style building with Art Deco features is a reflection of popular architectural trends of the 1930s and is still in use for county government. The courthouse was designated a Recorded...

According to the National Register of Historic Places, the Howard County Courthouse was built with $29,000 in funding assistance from the Works Progress Administration between 1936 and 1937.