Civic Facilities Sites

Constructed of a “restrained Art Deco style”, it has a limestone façade with terra cotta decorative elements, similar to though smaller than those on the adjacent Homer G. Phillips Hospital. Upstairs, there is a gymnasium, the basement being a swimming pool and locker rooms. The center was named after a black Civil War hero and politician.

The accompanying photograph is of a view of the town in the 1930s. Tanner Hall is seen on the center-left side of the picture. The WPA building was initially used as a gymnasium and was later extensively remodeled. It is now a Community Center. Other buildings that are seen in the photograph are Farnsworth Pool, Little Hall, yacht basins with covered boathouses, the city dock, sea walls and Trailer City, among the public building and lakefront beautification projects funded by the Works Progress Administration and directed by Mayor George Walker in the 1930s. In his seven-year tenure as mayor, Walker secured more...

"On May 9, 1932, the Taos County Courthouse, along with the other buildings on the north side of the Plaza, was destroyed by one of a series of fires in the early thirties. This led eventually to the incorporation of the Town of Taos in 1939 and the establishment of a fire department and public water system. The current Spanish-Pueblo style courthouse was built with partial funding from the W.P.A. in 1934. Between 1934 and 1935, interior murals depicting social justice were commissioned by the Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) Public Works of Art Project for the courtroom on the second floor....

The Atlas of Historic New Mexico Maps, produced with assistance from the New Mexico Humanities Council and the New Mexico Chapter of the National New Deal Preservation Association, lists a number of New Deal buildings in Taos County. These include: The old high school (now part of the middle school); Taos Valley School on Randall Street; the fire station; the fish hatchery; the old Post Office, and over a dozen schools.

The Works Progress Administration built the Taylor County Agriculture Building in Abilene, Texas between 1938 and 1939. The building then became the Taylor County Welfare Office for a number of years. The building's current use is unknown. Anecdotes tell that the stone in the building came from Abilene's 1895 jail. The jail was demolished as another WPA project.

The Techwood Homes public housing project in Atlanta was a whites-only complex constructed between 1935 and 1936 with federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. It has since been demolished. "Techwood Homes was the first public housing project in the United States, opened just before the First Houses. Located in Atlanta, Georgia, it replaced a shantytown known as Tanyard Bottom or Tech Flats. It was completed on August 15, 1936, but was dedicated on November 29 of the previous year by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The apartments included bathtubs and electric ranges in each unit, 189 of which had garages. Central...

WPA built adobe city hall with red tile roofs. Adjacent to the WPA Veterans Memorial Hall and the old WPA firehouse.

WPA funded Fire Station, adjacent to WPA city hall and WPA memorial hall. Current status of building unknown.

WPA funded Memorial Hall, adjacent to WPA city hall and old WPA fire house.

As early as July 1935, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Tekamah Fire Association investigated the possibility of constructing an auditorium in Tekamah that would also house the town’s fire-fighting apparatus. An application was submitted to the WPA requesting the erection of a $25,000 building, requiring a local outlay of only $6,000. The project was approved by the WPA within the next calendar year, and plans began to proceed. The community was “liberal with praise for the firemen who sponsoring the long-needed improvement.” By the end of October 1936, the foundation was being excavated by unskilled WPA labor. Plans...

As part of general improvements at Lake Temescal Park, Works Progress Administration (WPA) relief workers created a lovely stone cascade and waterfall alongside the elegant stone beach house.  The park is now known as Temescal Regional Recreation Area and is part of the East Bay Regional Parks District.  The cascade starts about 50 feet above the waterfall, which is on the main path along the lake. There is a small waterfall and pool at the top, then a lovely little stream about a yard wide, another pool above the falls and then the final waterfall into a basin.   To see the full...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) improved Lake Temescal Park, now known as Temescal Regional Recreation Area, one of the original units of the East Bay Regional Parks District (EBRPD). When the EBRPD was created in 1934, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and WPA were called upon to make the first parks of the system ready for public use.  Temescal Park opened to the public in 1936. Along with the well-known beach house and cascade (see separate pages) at Lake Temescal, WPA workers made several other improvements to the park – not all of which can be pin-pointed.  They created a large...

The Public Works Administration (PWA) paid for construction of Tennessee's Supreme Court building in 1937-38.  The state's highest court had not previously had its own building, having been housed in the state capitol.  The structure also contains the....  Short and Stanley-Brown recorded in their 1939 report on PWA projects that: "Before the erection of this building the supreme court was housed in the State capitol and its offices were located in rented quarters in various parts of the city. The new structure houses the Tennessee Supreme Court, the Tennessee Court of Appeals, the legal department of the State government, the attorney general...

The historic Terminal Annex Federal Building in Dallas, Texas was constructed during the Great Depression with federal Treasury Department funds. The building, which houses examples of New Deal artwork inside, was constructed in 1936 and is still in use today.

The Terrebonne Parish Courthouse in Houma, LA was one of 11 in the state attributable to the PWA. KnowLA writes that the parishes that received new courthouses are: Caldwell, Cameron, East Carroll, Iberia, Jackson, Madison, Natchitoches, Rapides, St. Bernard, St. Landry, and Terrebonne. As of 2014 each of the courthouses is in active use. A supplemental courthouse has been constructed opposite School Street to the 1937 building. The 1937 courthouse's cornerstone reads: Terrebonne Parish Court House Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works Project No. LA. 1053-D -------- Erected by the police jury of the Parish of Terrebonne Dr. M. V. Marmande, President 1937

"Graceful and handsomely proportioned, the Territorial Circuit Court Building (1938) in Lihu'e was designed by Harry K. Stewart. This PWA project beautifully integrates the Hawaiian and Spanish Mission revival styles."

Between 1937 and 1938, the National Youth Administration (NYA) built a stone structure on the east side of Santa Anna, Texas for a Texas Ranger memorial museum and reunion hall. Funded by the citizens of Santa Anna, the complex was dedicated at a Texas Ranger reunion in August 1939. Texas Rangers operated in the Santa Anna area as early as the 1870s, with many of the Rangers settling in the area after their term of service ended. Former Rangers founded the Texas Ex-Rangers Association and held annual reunions around the state. Santa Anna hosted a reunion in 1935 and became a permanent...

The cannery was an integral part of the large WPA resettlement community, known as Dyess Colony, located in northeastern Arkansas. It was located in the town's central hub along with other buildings like the commissary, the administration building, and various shops. The cannery, or canning plant, enabled colonists to process their own produce, as well as sell canned products, cooperatively. This allowed for self sufficiency but also for cooperative income. In Dyess Colony, every family was required to plant a garden that was adequate for feeding their whole family. Home demonstration clubs were also a part of the colony's support...

The Fort was built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Kern County in 1938-40. This unusual New Deal site is a replica of the pre-Gold Rush Sutter's Fort in Sacramento, designed by W. Francis Parsons. It was constructed of native adobe mud bricks made on site and took 83 relief workers 18 months to build.    The Fort covers nearly three acres and measures 360 feet by 200 feet, over 1,000 feet around the outside walls. The walls are 14 feet high. There are two interior courtyards with shade trees and many small offices arranged along the side walkways, which are roofed...

The Thirteenth Avenue Retail Market in Borough Park was constructed in the 1930s as a Public Works Administration (PWA) project. Much of the structure's visual presence is still intact.

The Jefferson Memorial was built to honor the author of the Declaration of Independence and third President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. Such a memorial had long been proposed, but it was only realized under the New Deal, 1939-1943.  It remains one of America's most beloved monuments to this day.   The design is based on the Roman Pantheon and Jefferson's own love of classical architecture, as shown in his design of the Rotunda at the University of Virginia. It is built of white Danby marble from Vermont and is elevated on a circular platform of granite and marble, with steps...

Government-run migrant farm labor camp located at Thornton, CA. Four metal shelters still exist on their original sites. They housed single men and families. Today the structures are used for occasional storage by firemen, otherwise they sit empty

The Throckmorton Fire Department was built with locally quarried limestone.

The Timothy Ahearn Memorial in New Haven, Connecticut was created under the auspices of the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project in 1937.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) joined the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in making improvements to Timpanogos Cave National Monument in the 1930s. They worked under the supervision of the National Park Service (NPS). A notable contribution of the WPA was to build a lovely stone arch bridge over the American Fork river in 1935.  The bridge gives access to the Superintendent's Residence, built by the WPA in 1941.  The WPA relief workers also faced both sides of the river with 6-10 foot high stone walls for a distance of about 100 feet on each side of the bridge. The stonework is...

In 1938, the Works Progress Administration completed the tunnel and stonework entrance into the Todd County Courthouse.

"In 1866, soon after Congress authorized the establishment of a National Asylum for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, the Eastern Branch opened on the site of a former heath resort for the wealthy built by investor Horace Beals that had gone bankrupt during the Civil War. In response to an influx of returning veterans after World War I, Congress created the Veterans Bureau in 1921, followed by the Veterans Administration in 1930. The Eastern Branch and the other National Home branches were expanded to accommodate a new generation of veterans; the campus experienced a major building campaign. In the early 1930's, the new...

“By the spring of 1936, the CCC continued where they left off in 1934. Crews built a water system for the Kyle Canyon Campground, the Rainbow Canyon summer-home area, the Kyle Canyon Guard Station, and the Air Force Base Rest Camp. Considerable time was also spent cleaning up collapsed CCC barracks destroyed by devastating storms during the previous winter…Once the camp was operational, the CCC began constructing Deer Creek Road into Lee Canyon and building trails to Little Falls and Mount Baldy.” --The Civilian Conservation Corps in Nevada

New York State's Office of Children and Family Services website states: "he Tonawanda Indian Community House (TICH) located in Akron, New York ... a two-story cypress log structure, was erected by Native Americans under the Works Progress Administration and dedicated on May 13, 1939. It was built to meet the social, cultural, recreational and health needs of the Tonawanda Reservation. In addition to a gymnasium/auditorium, locker room area, kitchen and various meeting rooms, TICH houses a library and medical clinic funded by the New York State Department of Health. Genesee County and the New York State Office for the Aging...

The historic former Town Hall building for Tooele, Utah was constructed as part of a New Deal project with Works Progress Administration (WPA) labor. The building is presently serves as part of the Tooele Pioneer Museum, which is "operated by the Daughters of Utah Pioneers located on Vine Street in the old Tooele City Hall."

The 1934 Toole County Courthouse in Shelby, MT was constructed with the assistance of $75,000 in PWA funds.

The Tornillo-Guadalupe International Bridge, known locally as the Fabens-Caseta Bridge, encouraged trade and commerce between the United States and Mexico for seventy-eight years (1938-2016), providing a symbolic and physical connection between the American and Mexican cultures. It was constructed a half mile southwest of this location in 1938 as part of the Rio Grande rectification project of the International Boundary Commission. It was demolished in 2016. This bridge, along with its sister bridge linking Fort Hancock, Texas, with El Porvenir, Chihuahua, were cornerstones of the rectification project stretching from El Paso, Texas, to Little Box Canyon south of Fort Quitman,...

In 1936, Public Works Administration (PWA) helped to fund the Torrance City Hall (former). The former city hall cost $48,000 to build and was part of a larger Torrance Civic Center project. The Civic Center project also included a new library and auditorium building. A much larger City Hall was built in the 1970s. Since then, the former city hall building has been repurposed and has housed a Home Savings, Time Warner Cable, and most recently, the Torrance Community Credit Union. Although most of the original building remains, the original center seal, lamp posts, flower pots, flag pole, a decorative eagle sculpture...

Oxford, Massachusetts's old town garage was constructed with the assistance of the federal Work Projects Administration (WPA) ca. 1940. The exact location and present status of the project is unknown to Living New Deal, but it is believed that the structure is no longer extant.

"A bequest of securities was made to the town which was intended to provide funds for the building. Due to a decrease in the value of these securities it was necessary to obtain P.W.A. aid, and even with this aid a smaller building was constructed than the one originally contemplated. The over-all dimensions of the building are 117 by 77 feet and it is two stories high with a basement. It houses all of the town offices, the fire department, a library, an auditorium, a kitchen, and a social room. It has a steel frame, concrete floors, and wood roof. The exterior...

The historic Chester Town Hall was constructed during the Great Depression with the assistance of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. The PWA supplied a grant of $16,830 for the project, whose total cost was $39,713. Construction occurred March 1936 and Feb. 1937. PWA Docket No. MA W1031

Chester, Massachusetts is located along Route 20 in western Massachusetts, about 15 miles west of Westfield State University. It was a site along the Boston and Albany Railroad (B&A) from the mid 1800s due to the presence of quarries in the area and the town had a few small factories in the early 1900s. The population of Chester was approximately 1,400 in the early 1900s and remains almost exactly the same today. In 1935 a fire broke out in the Chester Town Hall and engulfed the entire building. The federal Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) contributed funds toward the rebuilding of the...

Eads' town hall was a 1938 WPA project. From Canyons and Plains of Southeast Colorado: On October 7, 1938 the Town of Eads held a huge celebration around the dedication of three buildings completed by WPA workers: the town hall, hospital, and the American Legion fairgrounds pavilion. To build the town hall native stone was hauled by truck from the Bristol/Granada area, some 50 miles away. Originally the building held both the town hall and library, with the upstairs rented to the Masons and Oddfellows lodges. The craftsmanship and sheer volume of stone used to construct the town hall and hospital...

Situated on a grassy square, the Elida Town Hall was constructed in 1939 with WPA financing. The community applied for the project on September 12, 1938, requesting $3,820.49. It was built as a combination village office and fire station. The WPA financed similar consolidated town hall plans in communities throughout New Mexico, including Espanola, Melrose, Belen, Roy, Lovington, Socorro and Taos. It historically had two vehicular bays, of which a third was added to the south later. In 2007, the town hall experienced a major renovation, which changed its roof height and the parapet design of the front facade. Other...

"Friday Harbor’s Town Hall was built in 1936 using Works Progress Administration (WPA) funding. The project was developed to house a new town government building and the  public library. The Town’s attorney, Elmond Genest and Mrs. Leon (Minnie) Little had less than a year to plan, propose and build the new building before the federal program ended. It was constructed locally of pressed concrete, known as Boede block, from the Boede Cement and Tile Company – this building survives today on Nichols Street."   (https://historicfridayharbor.org)