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  • Salt Lake County Branch Library (demolished) - Midvale UT
    The Midvale Branch of the Salt Lake County library was constructed in 1940-41 by the Works Progress Administration (WPA).  The building housed a library in front and the County Library headquarters and book processing department in the back. An auditorium and stack addition was added in 1951. The cost was approximately $70,000, $45,000 of which was from the library budget and the remainder from the WPA.  The building design was single-story Streamline Moderne with a projecting central portion and a curved entrance.  The architects were Ashton and Evans of Salt Lake City, who were employed on several other New Deal projects in the...
  • Sayville Library Assistance and Improvements (demolished) - Sayville NY
    The Sayville Library in 1940 was having staffing problems because of the depression. The National Youth Administration came to their aid when two workers from this group assisted Haff and her secretary with cataloging, processing, repair, and shelving of books. A larger project was undertaken by this same group when twelve of their workers repainted the exterior of the Sayville Library in the summer of 1940. The Trustees were pleased with the work and the local National Youth Administration project supervisor noted that “the job of painting a surface of 9,600 square feet gave the N.Y.Y. boys assigned...
  • South Gate Community Center - South Gate CA
    "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,...
  • South Sioux City Public Library - South Sioux City NE
    The Civil Works Administration (CWA) constructed the South Sioux City Public Library in South Sioux City, Nebraska. The location and status of the building is presently unknown to Living New Deal.
  • Southwestern University, Cody Memorial Library - Georgetown TX
    The combined efforts of Southwestern University and the Georgetown City Council secured the funds to build the Cody Memorial Library. Congressman Lyndon B. Johnson helped Southwestern and the City through the maze of federal agencies to get a grant from the Public Works Administration. The three story building was completed at a cost of approximately $81,000. The building remains intact and well preserved and is the permanent home for the Senator John G. Tower Papers.
  • State Supreme Court and Library - Cheyenne WY
    The Wyoming State Supreme Court building is situated in central Cheyenne, the state capital. It is a restrained example of Art Deco architecture in the neo-classical mode, with elegant bas-relief decorations, inscriptions and brass (-plated?) doorways and surrounding decoration. It was built in 1937 with aid from the Public Works Administration (PWA) and is still in active use. "This structure is immediately opposite the present State Capitol Building and is an important unit of a well-developed plan for the State and municipal group, occupying a square which is landscaped and surrounded by streets.  The building is three stories in height and...
  • Sturtevant Library (former) Improvements - Framingham MA
    Framingham's former Sturtevant Library was improved by federally funded labor during the Great Depression. According to local sources the library was located at the site of the former Framingham Memorial School. The Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) painted the library, cleaned the floors and furniture in 1936.
  • Sullivan Hall (LHU; demolished) - Lock Haven PA
    Lock Haven University's former Sullivan Hall was one of several facilities constructed during the late 1930s with the aid of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. The building was demolished in 2015.
  • Sycamore Hall (UNT) - Denton TX
    The University of North Texas's Marquis Hall was constructed with federal Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) funds. "1936 was also the date when construction started on a new library building. The first library, now known as Curry Hall, had been opened in 1912. The new structure, currently known as Sycamore Hall, was located on Avenue B and opened in 1937. Government funds made it possible for construction to take place and in 1938 a grant from the Carnegie Corporation helped North Texas to purchase books." The building which was dedicated on April 27, 1937.
  • T.J. Day Hall, Linfield University (Northrup Hall; Linfield-McMinnville Library) - McMinnville OR
    In 1935, the City of McMinnville applied for a Public Works Administration (PWA) grant to construct a public library on the grounds of Linfield College. As explained in the region's major newspaper, the Oregonian, the library was to be built by the city with a local bond ($36,000) and the PWA grant ($29,250). In this unusual arrangement, the City leased the library to Linfield, making the college responsible for its maintenance and operation. Initially, the public could use the library by paying the same fee for access required of the students. Located on the northwest edge of campus, the Linfield-McMinnville Library...
  • Tarrant City Library - Tarrant AL
    The Works Progress Administration built the  Tarrant City Library in Tarrant AL.  The original construction on the Tarrant City Library began in 1936, and was completed in 1937. Today, the former library is the Tarrant Senior Citizen Center.
  • Teaneck Public Library - Teaneck NJ
    "Teaneck is a rapidly growing residential community in the metropolitan area of New York City. The former library building became inadequate. Alterations were made to the present building and two end wings were added. The old portion is shown in the middle of the photograph. The wing at the left is divided by low shelving into three spaces for delivery, reading, and reference. The lower portion of the walls is covered with continuous book shelving. The wing at the right contains the children's room, document vault, toilets, and the librarian's room, office, and kitchenette. The exterior walls are brick with wood cornices...
  • Temple University: Sullivan Hall - Philadelphia PA
    Temple University's Sullivan Hall was originally built as the university library (Sullivan Memorial Library) during the Great Depression. Its construction was enabled by the federal Public Works Administration, which provided a $550,000 loan for the project (whose final cost was $555,334). Construction occurred between September 1934 and February 1936. (PWA Docket No. 1326.) "Sullivan Memorial Library (PWA Project 1326) opened in 1936 as Temple's first freestanding Library. It was built with a bequest from Thomas D. Sullivan, a local warehouse owner, and with federal funds from the New Deal Emergency Relief Act. During the Christmas holidays in 1935, books and equipment...
  • Thomas Crane Public Library, Coletti Addition - Quincy MA
    Thomas Crane Public Library in Quincy, Massachusetts received a sizable addition as part of a New Deal Public Works Administration (PWA) project. The PWA provided a $89,958 grant for the work, whose final cost was $183,999. Construction occurred between Oct. 1938 and Dec. 1939.
  • Thorson Memorial Library - Elbow Lake MN
    "This building at Elbow Lake houses the public library and also serves as a community building. It is one story and a basement in height and contains the library with a separate entrance on one end, and a community room with a stage and a kitchen, and two clubrooms which are provided with an entrance and a lobby of their own. The clubrooms are separated by a folding partition so that they can be used as one room. The structure is semifireproof with exterior walls of brick trimmed with stone. The project was completed in May 1934 at...
  • Toledo Heights Branch Library - Toledo OH
    "In 1935, this English Tudor style branch was built with the aid of a Public Works Administration (PWA) grant."
  • Tonkawa Public Library - Tonkawa OK
    In 1935 The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), a predecessor to the Federal Works Progress Administration (WPA), constructed a one-story building that houses the Tonkawa Public Library. Years later another building was added to the original one-story building. The addition was constructed in a similar style as the original FERA building. The Library is still in use today. The Waymarking webpage for this site describes the building as "constructed of rusticated and cut native sandstone set in a random ashlar pattern....The original entrance facing West is centered in a projected bay, and is currently a fixed window. Above this original entrance is a stone...
  • Topsfield Library - Topsfield MA
    "The town of Topsfield received a bequest for the purpose of building a public library. The P.W.A. aided in the enterprise with a loan and grant totaling $15,300 which represented about 40 percent of the project cost. The building as constructed is T-shaped in plan and can accommodate the 17,000 volumes already owned with space for expansion. There are adult and children's reading rooms, delivery room, a librarian's office, and 2 stack rooms. The construction is semifireproof. The foundation walls are concrete, the walls above grade are brick with some cast stone and some wood trim,...
  • Torrance Post Library (former) - Torrance CA
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) helped build the Post Library in Torrance, CA in 1936. The federal government contributed $12,691 to the Post Library project. It served as the City of Torrance's central library from 1936 to 1978.  The Post Library closed its doors after the new Katie Geissert Civic Center Library was built. The Post Library has been home to the Torrance Historical Society and Museum since 1979.
  • Tuscarawas County Public Library - New Philadelphia OH
    "The circulation of library books in New Philadelphia doubled in a period of 6 years, reaching 133,000 in the first 6 months of 1935. The public library is also the library for the county schools. The new building, which was badly needed, is 2 stories in height and 104 by 53 feet in over-all dimensions. It houses on the ground floor an auditorium seating 200 with a well-equipped stage and a research reading room, and on the first floor, adult and children's reading rooms, a control room between the two, and the stack room. The structure...
  • Twin Falls Public Library - Twin Falls ID
    The Public Works Administration funded construction of the public Library in Twin Falls, Idaho, in 1939.   The library still stands and is in use.  An addition has been made to the west wing of the building and a new entrance built on the east end.  
  • Ulysses Township Library - Ulysses NE
    The concept of a library in Ulysses was started by the Womans Club in 1914, when Mrs. Beatty suggested the idea. A committee formed to find a location to house the collection of books, and another to form rules and regulations. It formally opened in 1916 in Mr. Hardin’s Drug Store, and was open on Tuesdays and Saturdays. It moved around to various businesses a great deal, and books had to be locked up by necessity. In 1919, the library applied to the township for an appropriation to help defray costs of the operation of the library, and received a...
  • University of Alabama: Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library - Tuscaloosa AL
    The University of Alabama's Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library was built in 1939 with the aid of funding provided by the Public Works Administration (PWA). It is located on the site of the first library on campus. The first university library, known as the Rotunda, was destroyed during the Civil War and its ruins can be found underneath the semi-circular plaza in front of the building. Gorgas Library supports teaching and research needs in humanities, social sciences, and government information as the campus’ main library. Among the research libraries in the state of Alabama, Gorgas Library provides the latest technology-driven services...
  • University of California Davis: Shields Library - Davis CA
    Though the original library dates from the early 20th century, the old building was condemned in 1938 and replaced with this PWA building in 1940. Unfortunately, later additions obscure some of the underlying geometry visible in the archive photo below: "Shields was built in three parts/stages, and if you circle the building completely, you can see the three distinct architectural styles. The north wing facing the Quad (where the 24 Hour Reading Room and the Main Reading Room are) is the oldest wing of the library, completed in 1940 as the library and administration building. The main entrance at this time...
  • University of Colorado: Norlin Library - Boulder CO
    The library of the University of Colorado was built with financial aid from the Public Works Administration (PWA) in 1939.  It is still actively in use.
  • University of Idaho: Administration Building South Wing Extension - Moscow ID
    The PWA built an addition to the south wing of the Administration Building in 1936 to accommodate the library, which remained there until 1957 when a new library was built.
  • University of New Mexico, Zimmerman Library - Albuquerque NM
      The Public Works Administration funded the construction of the Zimmerman Library at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. The Zimmerman Library website describes the history of the New Deal structure: "Library collections continued to grow and in 1936 UNM James Fulton Zimmerman secured Public Works Administration funding for campus construction that included $370,000 for a new library building. The impressive facility was designed in the Pueblo Revival Style by John Gaw Meem. Miss Shelton turned the first shovelful of earth at the building site on December 2, 1936 and the new library was opened on April 1, 1938. As before, students, faculty, and...
  • University of Oregon, Knight Library - Eugene OR
    "By the mid-1920s, the "Old Libe" (now Fenton Hall) had inadequate space to hold library materials even with its 1916 addition. Library collections were stored in several campus locations, including the second floor of Condon Hall. As a consequence of the Depression, Librarian Matthew Douglass with the strong support of Senator Fred Steiwer as able to obtain funding for a new library as a Public Works Administration project. The cost of the library, approximately $460,000, was paid through US gifts and loans and support from alumni and friends -- no state funds were expended for construction. Construction began on September...
  • University of Rhode Island: Green Hall - Kingston RI
    A substantial building, built to house the library and administration offices of what was then Rhode Island State College. It was that school's first full-scale library. The architects were Jackson, Robertson & Adams of Providence, then the state's most prominent architects. This building is a conservative, well-proportioned Colonial Revival structure. Like most of the school's buildings, it was built of Westerly Granite. This is one of three buildings on campus built under the auspices of the PWA. It is the school's most well-known building, and is on the URI Logo.
  • University of Texas at Austin: Main Building and Library - Austin TX
    The University of Texas opened on September 15, 1883 with the completion of its Victorian style main building. The university was funded by a combination of state appropriations and annual distributions from the Permanent University Fund (PUF), an endowment of 2.1 million acres of land in West Texas. Initially, the PUF provided minimal income from leasing the land for grazing cattle, but when the first oil was discovered on the land on May 28, 1923, the university was set to receive a windfall. However, it was not until 1930, that all the details were worked out on how the money...
  • University of Utah: Thomas Library (Crocker Science Center) - Salt Lake City UT
    The building was designed by the firm of Ashton & Evans and constructed as a PWA project in 1935. In 1969, a new library was built on campus and the Thomas Building was converted into the Utah Museum of Natural History, which recently moved to a new home on the eastern flank of the university. The structure was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. The former George Thomas Library is being converted to the Crocker Science Center (with major additions) as of 2016-17. Of the $20,000,000 spent in Utah by the Public Works Administration (PWA) for public works projects, the "most imposing" of...
  • University of Virginia: Alderman Library - Charlottesville VA
    "The attendance at the University of Virginia had risen to 2,700 students and the accommodations for the library in the rotunda building had become entirely inadequate. The university, accordingly, secured a loan and grant from the P.W.A. and erected the new 'Alderman Library' building. Due to great differences of level on the site, the building is two stories high on the front and five stories in the rear. The basement contains a receiving room and general storage. On the first floor are offices, archives, and stack space. The second floor is occupied by reserve book rooms, rooms for public documents, and...
  • Wakefield Public Library - Wakefield KS
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the Wakefield Public Library in Wakefield, Kansas in 1938. The library is still in use.
  • Walker County Library (demolished) - Jasper AL
    The Works Progress Administration built the Walker County Library, adjacent to the WPA-built Walker County Courthouse in Jasper.
  • Watauga County Office Annex - Boone NC
    The Watauga County Courthouse complex in Boone, North Carolina "includes a Works Projects Administration funded building as part of its annex." The striking stone building "was completed in 1939 and housed the Watauga County Library from 1946 through 1997." The building is located at the southwest corner of Queen Street and North Water Street. The News and Observer explained: With county functions becoming greater, Watauga found itself with insufficient space in which to house the public health officer, the county agent, the home demonstration agent, the public welfare department, school superintendent and other governmental agencies. The new county native stone structure now provides...
  • Wells County Public Library Improvements - Blufton IN
    This neoclassical building was first constructed in 1903, and was redecorated by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the 1930s.
  • Wells Hall, Northwest Missouri State University - Maryville MO
    Wells Hall was built by the PWA in 1938 to house the library, and is named after the university's first librarian, Edwin C. Wells.  Currently, it houses offices for Communication, Theatre, Modern Languages, Mass Communication, and TV and radio stations.  It has a brick façade with concrete elements that blend with the buildings throughout the campus.
  • West End Public Library - Alameda CA
    The Public Works Administration (PWA) funded the construction of the Free Public Library building on Santa Clara Street, near Webster, in the city of Alameda. The project cost a total of $32,826 and was completed in July 1936.  There is a cornerstone with the date 1936 but not credit to the PWA (but there may be a plaque inside). The building is reinforced concrete, designed to withstand earthquakes, and the design, by Carl Werner, is Renaissance Revival, which was quite popular in the early 20th century – though the red tile roof evokes Mission Revival architecture of the interwar period.  The interior...
  • West Falls Branch Library - West Falls NY
    The caption of the National Archives and Records Administration WPA photo shown here states that this West Falls library was constructed to "provide for the recreational and educational needs of the Village of West Falls." The building is still in use as a library today.
  • West Nebraska Arts Center (former Library) Addition - Scottsbluff NE
    Scottsbluff's historic former Carnegie Library—now the West Nebraska Arts Center—received an addition constructed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1936. "The 62-foot addition, built in 1936 by the W.P.A., was designed by architect O. J. Hehnke of Scottsbluff. The addition maintains the original material, parapet, cornice, basement, and window lines." The addition projected from the east end of the building.
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