Civic Facilities Sites

"... three outbuildings: two pit toilets and a storage building that were constructed by workers associated with the Work Projects Administration."

Buffalo, New York's Minucipal Auditorium was a $2.7 million New Deal-funded project. Ground was broken on November 30, 1939 and the auditorium opened October 14, 1940. Sources differ with regard to the source of the New Deal funding -- an AP article claims it was the PWA while others claim the WPA constructed the building. The Municipal Auditorium was demolished in early 2009.

"The Lee Bunch Post #22 was formed in Clarksville in February 1919 when fifteen veterans applied to form a Johnson County post. It was named for Bunch, a resident of Batson who was the first Johnson Countian to die in World War I. The group initially met in local homes, churches and clubs, but in February 1932 the Civic Club sold the post for one dollar an island between the main stream and west fork of Spadra Creek near downtown Clarksville. In 1934, the Civil Works Administration, which helped build Legion huts across the state, approved Project No. 36- 34 T...

"The new courthouse is 114 by 109 feet in plan. It encloses and makes use of the walls of the old courthouse which was 56 by 92 feet and provided space for the courtroom ad accessory quarters. The new building provides space for the county clerk, county treasurer, county court, circuit court clerk, State attorney, board of supervisors, county superintendent of schools, highway commissioners, tuberculosis clinic, old-age pension board, police, work-relief agencies, and rooms for the grand jury and petit jury. The structure is fireproof throughout, including the old building where the wood floors were replaced...

Newspaper articles from the 1930s report that a mixture of New Deal funds and private spending in the amount of $975,000 were used to construct the Bureau of Public Roads Research Center.  According to the Bureau of Public Roads annual reports, 1937-1939, the new research facilities were constructed on the "Abingdon Plantation," also known as "the old Custis Estate near Gravelly Point."  This area today is roughly where the Washington National Airport parking garages are situated.  A small green area between the two garages is a remnant of the plantation  (the CCC did historic preservation work here). A 1939 Evening Star article says...

Burgaw Community House was constructed as a federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) project in 1939.

Burglund Heights, a public low-income housing complex for African Americans, was begun January 17, 1940. Thirteen buildings were planned to house 76 families, at a projected cost of $231,670. M. T. Reed Construction Company built the units. Work crew included 300 mechanics and laborers. The units were proposed to address inadequate living conditions for both black and white families in McComb, including lack of indoor toilets, running water, and houses in dilapidated condition. Construction was scheduled for completion August 1, 1940 and occupancy began September 1 with an average monthly rental of $11.00 including rent and utilities. The two-story brick units...

"The rectangular-plan gymnasium measures 137 x 70. The gymnasium is two-stories tall, with a balcony level above the main gym floor. There is a full basement. The building has a reinforced concrete footing, foundation, and skeleton. WPA-made concrete blocks form the curtain walls and partitions. Adobe blocks are used for some of the basement partition walls. Stucco covers the exterior walls. The gymnasium is covered with a wood truss barrel roof; it is covered with asphalt roll roofing. Flat roofs cover the west and east ends of the building where the lobby and stage are located. The concrete exterior is demarcated...

In 1935 the Burnet County Commissioners’ Court requested a grant from the Public Works Administration for the construction of a new courthouse. On November 18th of that year, the PWA made available a loan of $74,000 and a grant of $61,000 for the project. An election for bonds to cover the loan was called and passed. The Commissioners then accepted the grant. Construction began February 10, 1936, and finished on August 1, 1937. The courthouse was built of the same type of granite that was used in the construction of the Texas State Capitol in Austin.

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) built the American Legion meeting place, a log construction building with a brick fireplace.

Butler Place Public Housing Complex in Fort Worth was built with PWA U.S. Housing Authority funds in 1939-40 . It is still in use and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2011. It was one of two PWA New Deal housing projects in Fort Worth. Ripley Arnold was for whites and Butler Place was for blacks. Ripley Arnold has been demolished. The National Register nomination describes the design and significance of the project: "The Butler Place Public Housing Project was one of fifty‐two Public Works Administration low‐income housing projects built in the United States. The complex is significant...

Works Progress Administration (WPA) records in the National Archives report that in 1937 WPA workers were used to "Remodel, renovate, and paint buildings located at 460-476 C Street NW, together with other small supplementary buildings." The work included, "installation of plumbing and electrical facilities… demolishing and removing partitions, structures, equipment, etc., salvaging usable materials...". The purpose of the work was to render the buildings usable as offices and storage space by various departments of the District government. Exact location of the buildings in question was not given, but they have almost surely been demolished for subsequent federal office buildings, court houses and...

Text from the state historical marker reads: "To create jobs and bring county services nearer to residents of this area, Newton County officials provided materials and the U.S. Work Projects Administration (WPA) the funds to pay laborers to construct this building in 1940-41. Named for Harriet Trotti Cade who donated land for the project, it served as a sub-courthouse and Town Hall. The Cade building and rock wall were built with hand-shaped native sandstone and lumber milled in nearby Wiergate. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1993"

A sign on the community building in Caldwell, Kansas identifies it as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project.

This parish courthouse was undertaken during the Great Depression with the assistance of funds provided by the Public Works Administration (PWA). The two story jail courthouse, "...modern structure to be constructed of concrete, brick, and hollow tile, with stone trimmings" (1937, p. 10) was completed in 1937.

The Works Progress Administration built this courthouse in Grantsville between 1941 and 1942. The building is stone construction with an entrance marked by a portico and a taller central portion. The massing of the rear facade is minimized by a gable roof and the facade is built of similar stone work. Of an interesting side note, Grantsville is named for General and President US Grant who is a distant cousin of FDR with the common ancestor of Philip Delano of 17th century Massachusetts.

The Callahan County Hospital was built by the WPA in 1938-1939 in an Art Deco/Art Moderne style to serve the rural population of Callahan County, Texas. The hospital operated at least through the 1960s, as late as 1966. The building is currently used by the Texas Department of Human Services.

The courthouse has an art deco design and includes light fixtures and the external façade.  The use of a stylized “u” that looks like a “v” was widely panned at the time.  In addition to the plaques for the present courthouse, the plaque for the previous courthouse is included.  It was the site of the controversial trial of Celia, a slave who killed a sexually abusive master in the 1850’s.

The Calliope projects were constructed as the fourth of six housing projects developed for New Orleans, 1939-1941. The original boundaries were South Dorgenois Street, Erato Street, Calliope Street (now Earhart Boulevard), and South Prieur Street. The George A. Fuller Company was awarded the contract for construction of the 690 apartment units. The $2,497,000 bid covered demolition of existing buildings, construction, plumbing, heating, electrical work and site improvement. As with the other pubic housing complexes, the units were demolished with the exception of two residential buildings and the former administration building. The administration building faces Earhart Boulevard and the residential buildings...

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) worked to renovate the old Municipal Building in Pennsauken, New Jersey in 1936. The project was completed with no direct expense to local taxpayers. The exact location of the old building is unknown to Living New Deal; it was demolished in 1986.

The historic Cameron County Courthouse in Cameron, Louisiana was constructed with the aid of Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. "Further testimony to the structures' solidity can be found in Cameron Parish, where its courthouse was one of the few buildings in town to weather Hurricane Audrey in 1957 without serious damage. In 2005 Hurricane Rita leveled almost the entire town, but the courthouse is still standing."

"One public service site that the public rarely sees because of its very private purpose is in the Catoctin Mountain Park recreational area, sixty miles north of Washington, D.C. This site was developed by the New Deal's Works Progress Administration and the CCC and was used first as a camp for crippled children, followed by a few other purposes, until FDR visited it in 1942 and claimed it, naming it his 'Shangri-La.' The cooler mountain climate provided the president and his family a chance to get some relief from the humidity and heat of the capital in those days before...

"Between 1935 and 1940, Massachusetts and the federal government, primarily using Works Project Administration funds, constructed 63 buildings (all but Buildings 102 and the old Williams Hospital have since been demolished) and two, 500-foot (150 m) wide turf runways at Otis Field. The project was the largest WPA project in state history, employing over 600 workmen. In 1938, Governor Charles F. Hurley dedicated Camp Edwards, named after the former commander of the 26th Infantry Division, Major General Clarence Edwards." (Wikipedia) WPA Bulletin: The Bourne WPA Notional Guard Camp Project is the largest undertaking of this kind in the country. It is twenty-three square...

Now the site of the US Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, Camp Upton (near Yaphank, New York), was originally "created in 1917 to house and train soldiers for the United States." Camp Upton and its surroundings was the site of New Deal activity throughout the Great Depression. Four CCC camps based at Camp Upton during the summer of 1934 were involved with, among other things, "the clearing of scrub oak, the planting of trees suited to the type of soil ... the building of fire lines and fire breaks and construction of emergency water holes for fire fighting." (2) The CCC...

The WPA and FERA built the "Hostess House" at the recently opened Camp Williams National Guard training site in 1935. From the National Register of Historic Places: "This public works-sponsored building is an example of the Period Revival/ English Tudor style. It is a 1-story building with a broad steeply pitched gable roof. The plan is basically rectangular and there are two projecting gables placed off-center on the principal elevation. Marking the location of the main entrance, these gables are slightly off-set and serve to emphasize the asymmetry of the English Tudor design. Half-timbering, another trademark of the English Tudor style,...

The Campbell County War Memorial was built by the National Youth Administration in 1938. The monument is shaped as a stone obelisk set on a base of stone infilled with earth. It is flanked by two World War I period cannons. A metal American Eagle rests on top of the memorial. The monument, sponsored by the American Legion and the Spanish-American War Veterans, was dedicated to the Campbell County troops who died in the Spanish American War and World War I.

The Alley Dwelling Authority (ADA) and the Federal Works Agency (FWA) funded the construction of the Canal Street Houses in Washington, DC in 1943. This development of 20 living units was built for white national defense workers (Washington, DC was highly segregated at the time). It is unknown to the Living New Deal if any of the structures still exist, but it is not likely since these homes were classified as “demountable,” i.e., intended to be taken down and salvaged sometime after the war. The ADA was one of the earliest New Deal initiatives to provide better housing for low-income Americans. It replaced...

"The Canfield WPA Memorial Building was constructed by the Works Progress Administration, a federal government program instituted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as an effort to aid the United States in its recovery from the Great Depression of the late 1920s and 1930s. Local merchant Arron Weisner donated lands on the west side of Broad Street for the proposed project. A six member committee, comprised of two persons each representing the Argus Masonic Lodge, the American Legion, and the Village of Canfield, determined that the building be "a community building built around community projects." Through local subscription and $60,000 in...

"he historic Kirkland Cannery building built during the Great Depression by the Works Progress Administration, or WPA. ... The 11,000-square-foot wooden structure was built beginning in 1935 and opened as a free public cannery in 1936." Washington State operated four cooperative canneries, all funded by the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA). Canneries at Kirkland and Kent served families from as far away as Everett and Tacoma. Any family with an income of less than $100 a month could bring fruit, vegetables and meat to the cannery to preserve them for the winter. The cannery kept one third of the canned...

The Federal Emergency Relief Administration funded improvement work to the Capitol Building in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The Civil Works Administration and the Puerto Rico Emergency Relief Administration carried out grounds landscaping work at the Capitol Building in San Juan.

The Carbon County Courthouse is located in downtown Rawlins, Wyoming.  The Public Works Administration (PWA) provided $130,500 for the financing in 1938 and the building was completed in 1940.  The building is still in use today as the county courthouse.

Philadelphia's first public housing project, the Carl Mackley Houses (also known as Juniata Park Housing), was financed by the Housing Division of the federal Public Works Administration (PWA). The PWA supplied a $1,030,000 loan for the project, whose eventual total cost was $905,379. Construction occurred between February 1934 and June 1935.

The NYC Parks Department website explains: "This impressive monument to soldier, statesman and journalist Carl Schurz is the result of a collaboration between the distinguished sculptor Karl Bitter (1867–1915) and renowned architect Henry Bacon (1866–1924). Built in 1913, the monument consists of a full standing bronze portrait of Schurz in the center of a granite exedra (curved bench) with carved reliefs framed by two ornamental bronze luminaries. The entire monument is located within a large brick-paved plaza projecting from the promontory at Morningside Drive and West 116th Street. Other studio assistants and associates of Bitter may have worked on the side...

The WPA allocated $3,161 for "cemetery improvement" near Carlton, Montana in August 1938. It is presumed that this site is what's presently known as Carlton Cemetery, which is located behind the Florence Carlton Church along Old U.S. 93.

Large development of 2 and 3-story apartments just west of downtown St. Louis, interestingly just east of the up-coming and infamous Pruitt –Igoe public housing complex. Carr-Square Village is still in use, a testament to its forethought and sound construction. Although it is 80 years old and has been through a tumultuous time, the units are in good condition and the area seems to be relatively safe. It is in a muti-block area of the city of St. Louis and when constructed was the black public housing complex (the white being Clinton-Peabody). It was developed at the time that the...

Now: New Mexico Veterans' Center "The New Mexico Veterans' Center (formerly Carrie Tingley Hospital) was partially funded with WPA funds in 1937. The buildings were left vacant in 1981 when the Hospital moved to Albuquerque. In 1983 the Veterans' Administration and the New Mexico Legislature provided funds for renovation of the buildings and the establishment of the New Mexico Veterans' Center." -Phyllis Eileen Banks The "Turtle Pond" outdoor sculpture was commissioned from artist Eugenie Shonnard in 1937.

"The Carrizozo Womans Club, founded in 1920, is a community service organization open to all women who enjoy volunteering their time for worthy causes. ... The Womans Club building is an outstanding example of Pueblo Revival Architecture built of adobe. The ceiling in the unique round room, which is completely free standing, contains viga logs in an intricate wagon wheel pattern. Built in 1939 by the WPA, the building is one of the showplaces in Carrizozo and is included on the State and Federal Registers of historic buildings." -Carrizozo Historic Sites

The Alley Dwelling Authority (ADA) and the United States Housing Authority (USHA) funded the construction of the Carrollsburg Dwellings in Washington, DC between 1940 and 1941. Carrollsburg Dwellings continue as public housing today, but it appears that only a few of the original structures 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...

Stone courthouse constructed by the WPA in 1936.