Civic Facilities Sites

A $12,000 PWA grant allowed for the construction of a warehouse at the Sacramento Corporation Yard. It is unknown if the building exists after major reconstruction was done at the facility in 2009.

The federal National Youth Administration (NYA) constructed the historic Snow Rogers Community Center in 1939. It is located north of Gardendale, Alabama, across from Snow Rogers Elementary School.

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 Snyder Avenue Court Building at 27-to-31 Snyder Ave. Living New Deal believes the building is no longer extant.

"Socorro County (New Mexico) Court House, located at 200 Church Street (at the foot of Court Street) in Socorro, New Mexico. According to a plaque inside the entrance, the Court House is a Works Progress Administration building erected in 1940." (Wikipedia)

A WPA press release from Dec. 1937 reported that "the Retsil Soldier's Home receive $6,040" in WPA funds for grounds and landscaping improvement work." Multiple similar projects were undertaken at the site. The facility is now known as the Washington Veterans Home in Retsil .

"This building was erected as a memorial to soldiers who lost their lives in the World War. In the center hall on the first floor is a black granite cenotaph bearing the names of the soldiers. On each side is a museum containing World War relics, records, and other data. Surrounding the structure are 38 square columns, 5 by 5 feet, and 35 feet high. The building is one unit of a well-planned civic center, the construction being of steel and reinforced concrete. The walls are faced with limestone. Marble and granite were used extensively. It is 190 by 89 feet,...

This building was built by the WPA circa 1938-1939, and was the high school for Princess Anne, Maryland, for many years. Today, the building still serves the public as the Somerset County Office Building.

During the Great Depression the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (F.E.R.A.) funded the labor for the construction of what is now known as the Somerset Residential Care Center, in Madison, Maine. When constructed, the facility went by a different name: the "town farm." Town farms were once the means by which rural towns in New England cared for or warehoused (depending on the local conditions) the elderly, the mentally handicapped, disabled, transients, etc. The community notes from April 11, 1935 notes that "Work started Friday forenoon on the two weeks' ERA project, painting and repairing the buildings at the Madison town farm. There...

The PWA contributed 45% of costs to a new hospital building in 1937. According to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, construction of this building hinged on approval of the PWA funds.

These retaining walls are adjacent to the first hospital on the property and to the Oak Knoll (tuberculosis) Sanatorium, built 1939. In 1997, its name changed to Norton Psychiatric.

Originally known as Sonoma State Home, Eldridge, all the structures and streets of this place later became Sonoma State Hospital (now Sonoma Valley Hospital). Various WPA projects were undertaken here.

The Sonora City Hall was built with a combination of PWA and bond funds and completed in 1939. According to a Works Progress Administration job card: WPA Project No. 165-3-8511 Approval amount $680 Approval date 10/2/36, Average employed 14, Total funds spent $975 "Demolish City Hall; salvage usable materials and do work incidental thereto in the City of Sonora, Tuolumne County. City owned property." WPA  Project No. 65-3-4664, Approval Amount $14,148, approval date 2-8-36 "Reinforced concrete Municipal Building & Fire Department."

"The Sonora Youth Center on Barretta Street was put into service in 1943 by the National Youth Administration, the Works Progress Administration for youth. It was for people 18 to 25 years old." - The Union Democrat WPA project No. 65-3-4275, $14,442, approval date 1/14/36, "Construction of athletic field, bleachers, retaining wall, tennis court, garage, moving building & surfacing with a truck."

South Cemetery in Wayland, Mass. was improved by Federal Emergency Relief Administration (F.E.R.A.) labor. Work included the rebuilding of cemetery stone walls.

The post office in South Denver was constructed in 1939-40 with funds provided by the Treasury Department. The building is also home to an example of New Deal artwork, viewable in the lobby.

"By the early thirties, the city was outgrowing its municipal buildings, so property for a civic center was acquired. The location was on California Avenue between Firestone and Ardmore Boulevards. The first building was a library, to be leased to the Los Angeles County Library for one of its branches. The building was built with labor provided by the Works Project Act. The work of W.P.A. artists is still in evidence on the interior walls where murals depict events in the history of writing. A beautiful mosaic graced the entrance. When the new library on Tweedy Boulevard was built in 1973,...

The mosaic is situated in the entrance to the building (formerly the South Gate Public Library). It has recently been designated a culturally significant landmark. "The tile mosaic entitled Evolution of Writing was created by Stanton MacDonald-Wright during his employ with the Federal Works Progress Administration (WPA). Mr. Wright served as WPA Art Project Director for Southern California and later as technical advisor for seven western states. It was during his position as technical advisor (approximately 1938--1942) that the South Gate mosaic was created. During his affiliation with the WPA (1935--1942), Mr. Wright became interested in new techniques for architectural decoration and...

Built in 1939.

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) rehabilitated police stations in San Francisco during the Great Depression, including the Southern and Mission Stations. The agency: Rehabilitated buildings to meet requirements of department, providing additional cell space, new ventilation and painting.--Healy, p. 70.

Bennington's Southshire courthouse was constructed between 1936 and 1937 as a federal Public Works Administration (PWA) project. It was designed "as a replica of the original Southshire courthouse in Old Bennington that burned in 1869." The PWA provided a $43,293 grant toward the $97,496 total cost of the project. 1036.]

Originally known as Southside House, Ithaca, New York's Southside Community Center was constructed by the federal Work Projects Administration during the 1930s. The WPA reported in 1940: "For many years the only community center was a ramshackle building. This has been replaced with a modern stone and brick structure which serves as a meeting place for the Girl and Boy Scout troops, Cultural Congress (minors), two women's clubs, a home bureau unit, Parent-Teachers Association, Christmas club, which distributes clothing and baskets at Christmastime; Men's forum and other organizations. The center is a fitting contribution by WPA to one of the...

This large armory in downtown Sperry was constructed by the WPA, and is now used for other public purposes: "Guard unit members mustered out to WWII from this store front location in September 1940, but returned to a sprawling new WPA-built armory that had been dedicated in 1941 on the site of the old town baseball field.  The armory building housed various military units until 1990, and in 1991 the complex was deeded to the Town of Sperry by Tulsa County commissioners.  Town offices were immediately moved into the facility, where they have remained.  In 2007, taxpayers funded a $500,000 remodel...

The Works Progress Administration built a community building in Spotted Horse, Campbell County, Wyoming.  

"This building was constructed by the Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) in 1938. It was originally proposed to be a building that could be used as a polling place on election days and as a community recreation hall. The School Board saw the project as an opportunity to rectify certain deficiencies of the Spring Lake School, constructed in 1919, which had no kitchen, lunchroom, or library. Thus it became an undertaking to serve the school as well as the community. This building was constructed by the Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) in 1938. It was originally proposed to be a building that could be...

Now known as the Springer Cultural Center, what was then the main post office for Champaign, Illinois received a New Deal-era addition. Actually, the building received an addition in 1929, though it was razed seven years later to accommodate the larger construction, which effectively doubled the size of the original building, in 1936. A home behind the property was also demolished to make way for the new rear addition. The facility was converted into a what was known as the Springer Federal Building in 1966. Listed to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, the building was deeded to the...

The Works Progress Administration / Work Projects Administration (WPA) conducted improvement work at Springfield National Cemetery in Springfield, Missouri. As detailed in a DoD report: Project description: Improve cemetery; Project No. 165-3-55-51; Cost: $7,300.00; Sponsor: Commanding General, 7th Corps Area, U.S. Army Improve National Cemetery; 365-55-2-10; $3,501.00; Commanding General, 7th Corps Area, U.S. Army

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built and completed improvements at the Springtown Tabernacle in Springtown TX. The Inspection Reports indicate the perimeter stone and wood fence was constructed in 1934. The pavilion (as it is called in the NPS Inspector Reports) was constructed in the latter part of 1937. There was no marker on site indicating that it was constructed by the CCC. There is a marker designating the structure as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark (2017).

"After withdrawing an application to the PWA, St. Augustine's municipal officials initiated the St. Augustine Civic Center project through the CWA. ... In 1935, residents and administrators celebrated the completion of the building under the FERA banner." (NRHP Nomination) The St. Augustine Civic Center is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

St. Bernard Projects were constructed 1940 as one of New Orleans' "Big Four" high-density urban public housing projects. Initially comprised of 744 units in 74 buildings constructed on 30.9 acres, the project was bordered by St. Bernard Avenue to Gibson Street and Senate Street to St. Denis Streets. Architects Herbert A. Benson, George Christy, and William Spink designed the buildings "to echo the brick townhouses of the Vieux Carre" (Historic American Buildings Survey, 1933). Similar to other public housing units in New Orleans, they reflected elements of the period including porches and balconies with metalwork and canopies. Unlike other units,...

The St. Cloud Historical Marker in St. Cloud MN is a site that was constructed in 1937, by the NYA, a sub-unit of the WPA. The site was designed by A. R. Nichols and is a historical marker that commemorates the first commercial granite quarry in Minnesota, opened by Breen and Young in 1868, that was very important for the growth of St. Cloud. It was built from granite stones from the quarries located nearby, with rough and pointed rocks, unlike other markers and monuments with their more formal designs. It was placed on the side of highway 10 just...

The St. Helena Parish Courthouse was undertaken in Greensburg, Louisiana during the Great Depression with assistance of funds provided by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The Greensburg courthouse was one of two Louisiana courthouses built with WPA funds instead of support from the Public Works Administration (PWA) (Leighninger, 2001).

The Public Works Administration completed this expansion of St. James High School in 1940. The building's cornerstone was laid on October 11, 1940 by the Grand Masonic Lodge of Missouri, of which U.S. Senator and future President Harry S. Truman was Grand Master.

The St. Landry Parish Courthouse was undertaken in Opelousas, Louisiana during the Great Depression with the assistance of funds provided by the Public Works Administration (PWA). The facilities were part of the largest wave of courthouse construction in Louisiana history, with eleven total courthouses erected in the period of  1936-1940. Constructed with "Mayan setbacks at the top" and "deco light fixtures" (Leighninger, 2007), the courthouse cost $481,794.

The Alley Dwelling Authority funded the construction of the St. Mary’s Court Apartments in Washington DC between 1935 and 1938. Those Modernist structures have since been demolished and replaced by a newer apartment block of the same name. 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.

Established in 1875, in a Creole neighborhood northeast of the French Quarter, St. Roch Market is one of several public markets improved by the WPA in New Orleans in the late 1930s. By that time, the city supported 19 public grocery markets, many of which had fallen into disrepair and were threatened by demolition. The city turned to the WPA, which financed the improvement of eight public markets under the Market Rehabilitation program. This included making interior and exterior upgrades to six neighborhood markets and building two new ones. For the St. Roch Market, the WPA gutted the interior, replacing...

St. Thomas was one of six public housing projects constructed under the Housing Act of 1937. It was constructed 1938-1941 and contained 920 units of two or three story brick buildings. The architect's rendering for the St. Thomas Street project was "planned to provide maximum light, space and air; buildings about a central court, with cool porches" (Slum Clearance, 1938, p. 68). The housing authority began demolition and redevelopment in the late 1990s, but five or the original buildings were saved "for historical purposes" (St. Thomas Development Neighborhood). The buildings are on the corner of Felicity and St. Thomas streets...

The Stanislaus County Hall of Records in downtown Modesto, California, was constructed in 1938 with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA).  It stands directly across from the old Modesto Post Office (now the El Viejo Building). The building has a central 5-story highrise section and one long, 3-story wing. The design is strikingly Modern, looking more like a structure built in the 1950s than the 1930s.  It remains in fine condition, serving its original purpose.

Stanley Holmes Village (a.k.a. Stanley Village) is a 420-unit low income housing project on Adriatic Avenue that was built in 1937 and expanded in 1951. Its the oldest public housing complex in New Jersey. Atlantic City was the first municipality in New Jersey to provide public housing to its constituents. The movement to establish public housing was initiated in 1933 with the organization of the Civic Committee for Better Housing – headed by Walter J. Buzby; Mrs. Warren Somers, Commissioner of the State Housing Authority; Naomi Craighead; Robert A. Watson, Manager of the Southern Division of the State Housing Authority; B.J....

The Works Progress Administration built the Stanton County Museum in Johnson KS in 1935. The structure is built of native stone.

The Alley Dwelling Authority (ADA) funded the construction of the Stanton Court Garages in Washington, DC between 1935 and 1936. This project consisted of seven 1-car garages located in the area bounded by L, M, 23rd, and 24th streets NW, probably in the alley that runs between today’s West End Neighborhood Library and the Gibson Condominiums. It is unknown to the Living New Deal if any remnants of the original Stanton Court Garages still exist, but it is unlikely. 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,...