Civic Facilities Sites

The Public Works Administration (PWA) provided a $99,470 grant for construction of the Town Hall for Harrison, New Jersey. The building bears a 1936 cornerstone. Completed in 1937, the total cost of the project was $313,245. PWA Docket No. NJ 1168

"In the mid-1930s, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt created a federal work relief program for the unemployed. Called the Works Progress Administration, it resulted in the construction of public works projects all over the country, including several in Boulder County. Jamestown’s Town Hall—built in 1935 with local materials and labor—was one of the first." "In addition to the Town Board, the building plays host to musicians, school plays, dances, and many other community functions. It is the focal point for community life in this small mountain town."

Johnston, Rhode Island's Town Hall was constructed as a federal Public Works Administration (PWA) project between October 1938 and October 1939. The PWA supplied a $27,000 grant; the total cost of the project was $55,501. (PWA Docket No. RI 1170)

The 1936 town hall building in Marshall, Michigan was constructed with the assistance of Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) funds. The P.W.A. supplied $40,886 for the project, whose total cost was $91,459. PWA Docket No. MI 1079

The Midway Town Hall, originally the Midway Recreation Center, was constructed with Works Progress Administration (WPA) funds and local labor in 1941. The building reflects the popular style of Midway, which early on adopted a Swiss look to go with the combination of the Wasatch Mountains to the west and the main local industry in the Heber Valley, dairy cattle.  It has characteristics of the Arts and Crafts and Tudor Revival Styles with its rustic wooden lintels, brackets on the gable ends, steeply pitched roof, half timbering, and scribed wooden pendants, and it is built of local limestone known as Pot...

"The Rush Town Hall was originally built in 1935 as a Works Projects Administration (WPA) endeavor, during the Depression. The style of architecture chosen for the building was Colonial Revival, a prevalent form of the day. The cornerstone was laid and the dedication of the building was held on September 28, 1935. The newly built town hall was not only used to conduct town business, but it also served as a community center, library and home for the Fire Department. In 1973 the Fire Department moved from the north side of the Town Hall to its current location on Rush-Mendon Road. The...

Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) labor created a new Town Hall in Salisbury, Mass. WPA Bulletin, 1937: Town business in Salisbury for years has been conducted in homes of officials, rented offices and in the Town Hall which is so small it is impossible to gather all of the municipal offices under its roof. WPA is making a new Town Hall for Salisbury which will be adequate for all municipal needs. The new Hall is being remodeled from a three-story former shoe factory located on Beach Street.  

"The new town hall is in the commercial center and opposite the post office. It provides quarters for the town clerk, the tax collector, the selectmen, the nurses, and a record vault on the first floor, and quarters for the police department and a jail in the basement. The building is semifireproof, the first floor being concrete and the ceiling beams and roof of wood. The exterior walls are selected common brick, windows, doors, cornice, and cupola are wood, and the roof is covered with slate. The over-all dimensions in plan are 84 by 38 feet....

This was and remains Smithfield's first permanent town hall building. It is one of the most prominent buildings in Georgiaville, the part of town the building is in. A local historical society report describes the structure: "Smithfield Town Hall 1939: A large, red brick, Colonial Revival GE structure with a 2-story, 5-bay, central pavilion containing a central pedimented entry and fronted by a 2-story pedimented portico. At the sides are 1-story, 2-bay ells, with hipped roofs, set back from the facade of the main block. Other noteworthy architectural details indude a cupola and 12-over-12-paned windows, those in the sides with round heads....

Stoneham's historic town hall building was built with the assistance of the federal Public Works Administration (P.W.A.). The agency supplied a $75,951 grant for the town hall's construction, whose total cost was $161,225. Construction occurred between Nov. 1938 and Oct. 1939. PWA Docket No. MA W1013

"Thorntown acquired a new town hall, built with labor provided by the FERA." The cornerstone was laid July 20, 1935. The building is still in use.

The WPA allocated $2,539 toward construction of what was then the town hall of Three Forks, Montana in August 1938. It is presumed that the site is still active as Three Forks's City Hall.

Veazie ME's Town Hall was built in 1938 with funding from the New Deal, almost surely the Public Works Administration (PWA). Jean Hamilton's local history has this to say:  "The Great Depression hit Veazie about as hard as everywhere else. In response the town allowed residents to work on town projects in lieu of cash to pay taxes. The town voted heavily for Hoover in 1932 and even more heavily for Landon in 1936 yet cashed in on Roosevelt's programs in building the Town Hall in 1938."

Wareham Town Hall was constructed as a New Deal Public Works Administration (PWA) project. The PWA provided a grant of $72,000 to the town for the project, whose total cost was $194,982. Construction occurred between Feb. 1938 and Jan. 1939. PWA Docket No. MA W1360

"The new municipal building replaces an old and obsolete structure which was inadequate in size and had no proper facilities for the storage of records. Some of the municipal offices were in temporary buildings, some in rented quarters and there were no garage facilities with the result that the city-owned automobiles had to be stored in public garages. The new building houses all of the city departments. The basement contains a garage, storage space, and a block of six cells. On the first floor are the police headquarters, courtroom, and offices for the mayor, clerk, treasurer, and others. The second...

Westover Hills is an independent community but many people who live there use "Fort Worth" in their address (Westover Hills shares the 76107 zip code with a portion of west Fort Worth). The town hall was constructed by the WPA in 1940 and was designed by Patterson and Teague, architects. The site includes a brick stairway down to the park in front of the hall as well as two bridges, all built by the WPA.

Yorktown, New York's town hall was built during the Great Depression with the aid of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. The PWA supplied a $20,000 loan and $7,200 grant; the total cost of the project was $26,620. Work occurred between August 1935 and March 1936. The building is still in use today, though the original structure has had wings added to either side. (PWA Docket No. NY 7262)

The historic former Town Hall building in Georgia , Vermont was constructed as the Baptist Church in 1800. The building was renovated and re-landscaped as part of a federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) project. The building is no longer extant.

The former Town Hall in Blackstone, Massachusetts was developed with the assistance of federal funds during the New Deal. While documentation is not entirely clear, writing suggests that multiple New Deal agencies were involved in the town hall building's initial conversion to municipal use and its subsequent expansion, including the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, the Public Works Administration, and the Works Progress Administration. The building has since been demolished and a new municipal complex built in its stead. PWA Docket No. MA X 1447.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed the former town hall building in Española, New Mexico. The location and status of the structure are unknown to Living New Deal.

"According to a bronze plaque located on the east side of the building, the original town hall was built from 1936-1937 by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The two-story brick structure was one of the earliest projects in Morgan County. The building's cornerstone lists mayor E.L.Drinkard and Alsermen L.E.Brown, J.L.Rowe, D.S.Sivley, and J.W.Tomlinson. The town clerk was V.O.Clark and the town policeman was Dan P.Ryan. The first floor housed the town jail and the town's Fire Fighting equipment. Located on the second floor was the mayor's office and the police station. Currently, the building is home to the Falkville Public...

Fillmore, Utah's historic former town hall was constructed as a federal New Deal project with the assistance of Works Progress Administration (WPA) labor. The building is now privately owned (home for years to Deano's Pizza).

Historic plaque: "This Art Moderne Red Brick Building built by the WPA (Works Progress Administration) served as the Town Hall and Community Center . Mac Hanisch Sr., architect with Unit Structures, used massive arched, glued & laminated (glulam) wood beams. Carl Anderson was the local project supervisor. The building cost Florence $9000, the WPA $21,000, and the first activities were the County Fair and Elections." The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

"The two-story former town hall was built in the early 1930s by the Works Progress Administration, and served as Greenwood's meeting place until 1998. ... The hall includes "a large upstairs meeting hall and stage, an entrance vestibule and stairhall, and varnished pine wainscoting and fiberboard sheathing on the walls."

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed a then-town hall for Layton, Utah during the Great Depression. The exact location and status of the building is presently unknown to Living New Deal.

WPA crews built the Milaca town hall in 1938. It is now the location of the Milaca Area Historical Society and the Milaca Museum.    

"This Town-owned building of Colonial Revival design is located on the east side of South Main Street and was constructed in 1939 as a Work s Progress Administration (WPA) project with local labor and native materials."

The WPA constructed a small stone town hall for the town of Porum in 1940. A 1985 Oklahoma Landmarks Survey described the building: "This town hall is a single-story, rectangular (47' x 34') structure constructed of uncut native stone of auburn and buff colors. Lighter colored stones serve as quoins at the corners. The roof is both gabled and hipped with intersecting valleys. The front and rear entrances are single door and have stoops; only the front entrance is protected with a small lean-to like covering..." In 1985, it was still being used by the local government. A sign visible on google...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed a town hall in Hemp, North Carolina—since renamed Robbins. The location and status of the building, which was dedicated on July 24, 1937, is unknown to Living New Deal.

The federal Public Works Administration (PWA) sponsored the construction of a new town hall for West Hartford during the Great Depression. The PWA provided a $134,782 grant for the project, whose total cost was $321,176. Construction occurred between Dec. 1935 and Feb. 1937. The building has since been ceded to private hands, where the old building makes up part of Blue Back Square. PWA Docket No. CT W1218.

Improvements, including building painting, were made to the old Millbury, Massachusetts town hall (destroyed by fire in 1971) with Federal Emergency Relief Act funds in 1933. 282 Millbury locals were given employment in 1933 as a result of the federal E.R.A.

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) conducted improvement and repair work at the then-Town Hall in Mills, Wyoming. The location of the structure is unknown to Living New Deal. Cassity: "The CWA repaired and remodeled the city hall in Mills, reworking virtually everything from reshingling the roof to replastering the jail in the basement ..."

"City officials of the town of Monroe, were today advised that the Town Hall and the Library were due for remodeling to the extent of $2,400, it was learned from the office of Don G. Abel, State Administrator of the Works Progress Administration, through whose approval the city fathers were granted $1,822 of federal funds for this work. The city of Monroe is supplying an additional $578. The project is slated to begin on November 11 and will supply work for 15 men, taken from WPA rolls, for about two months. The improvements. will bring the public library and city hall...

Ipswich's historic town hall building was originally constructed as the community's high school between 1935 and 1937. The Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) supplied a $105,075 grant for the school's construction, whose total cost was $265,575. Construction occurred between Dec. 1935 and Feb. 1937. PWA Docket No. MA W1068

The historic Wayland Town Hall building was constructed as the town's high school during the Great Depression. It was built as a New Deal project, undertaken with federal Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) funds. The P.W.A. supplied a $30,025 grant for the project, whose total cost was $105,871. Construction occurred between Nov. 1934 and Nov. 1935. The school, designed in Colonial Revival style, was occupied in Sept. 1936. Our primary photo, on display at Wayland Town Hall, shows the building amid extraordinary flooding of the Sudbury River after a historic hurricane in Sept. 1938. (The W.P.A. conducted extensive work helping this region...

The former high school in Northborough, Massachusetts, received a large addition as part of a New Deal Public Works Administration (PWA) project. Construction occurred in 1935. "Without the Public Works Administration's contribution of 45% of the cost, Northborough had little chance of replacing the high-school building destroyed by the 1938 fire." (Northborough website) The former school now houses Northborough Town Hall. PWA Docket No. MA 1412 D S

The historic one-room Roosevelt School in Hamlin, Maine—now the community's town hall—was constructed in 1933. Sources suggest that the building was affiliated with the New Deal. It was likely constructed with federal Civil Works Administration (C.W.A.) labor. The building has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

This PWA building was used as a fire station until the 1960s, when Company 19 moved into a new fire station on the same block. The original building still seems to be standing next door to the new station, and may be what is now the Olde Friends Antique Show. According to the Bowie Fire Department's history page: "In 1936, after much discussion, site searching and deliberating, Mr. Isaac Kimmel sold his vegetable garden plot on 9th Street, adjoining his store to the Fire Department for $700.00. Again progress and plans were under way to get financing for the construction of...

The Scotland Neck Historic District contains multiple buildings constructed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). "A one-and-one-half-story brick Colonial Revival-style building was constructed in 1939 on East Eleventh Street through the cooperative efforts of the Town of Scotland Neck and the WPA to serve as the town hall and fire station (#198). The building was utilized in this capacity until the early 1980s."

An online history of Monson reports about the former town hall: "Destroyed in the fire of December 28, 1888. Rebuilt. The annex built in the 1930's by W.P.A. men. The GAR turned the building over to the Town of Monson in the early 1940's. When the town owned it they housed the Town Office, Fire Dept. and Public Library on the first floor. Second floor was used for many activities. In 1972, the town deeded it to the Tisbury Manor Chapter D.A.R. and it presently houses Monson's Historical Museum."   (www.monsonmaine.org)