Fountains Sites

Folger Park on the south side of Capitol Hill was named for Charles J. Folger, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury from 1881 to 1884. Part of the original L'Enfant plan of Washington DC, the park was significantly improved in the late 19th century – probably at the same time it was renamed. Folger Park was substantially redeveloped under the New Deal, with funds provided by the Public Works Administration (PWA) in 1935 and work carried out by Works Progress Administration (WPA) relief labor in 1936.  This was part of a sweeping program of parks and playground renewal across Washington undertaken by...

Meridian Hill Park is a formal, landscaped park in the Columbia Heights neighborhood, with terraces, pools, balustrades and a large cascade in the Italian baroque style. It is, in many people's estimation, the jewel of the District parks system.   Land for the park was purchased in 1910 and construction began in 1912, but was never completed.  In 1935-36, the PWA stepped in to fund completion of the park by providing a grant of $145,000. A 1936 article in the Washington Daily News described the work being done: “Cascades completed and placed in operation. South terraces graded; top soiled and seeded; shrubs and...

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) – an emergency job-creation arm of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) – reconstructed the bathhouse for two  recreational swimming pools near the Washington Monument in the National Mall during the winter of 1933-34. The work consisted of the following (in the terse format of an annual report of the DC government):  “Graded, fenced, wrecked 45 percent of existing locker-house, remodeled remainder with check-rooms, increased toilet facilities.”  The swimming pools and the bathhouse were soon removed, however, during a complete reconstruction of the Washington Monument grounds, and the area was graded and landscaped. (Daily News 1936).  The...

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...

An inventive Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollee came up with the idea of making a glacial boulder into a drinking fountain by drilling a hole through the boulder and piping in water from a nearby creek. The Water-In-A-Rock fountain is situated along the East Mendenhall Glacier Trail. It no longer functions, but the holes for the pipe and a sign are still visible and it is marked with an information panel.  

Woodminster Amphitheater and Cascade is an astonishing feature of Joaquin Miller Park in the Oakland hills and one of the largest New Deal projects in the San Francisco Bay Area. Woodminster lies just off Joaquin Miller Road above Highway 13.  The large complex was constructed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) from 1935 to 1940. Initial work began in late 1935 after $128,000 in federal funding was approved for Woodminster stairway and amphiteather, as part of a million dollars WPA effort across the city of Oakland (Chronicle 1935).  Further funds and more work came with a larger disbursement of almost $700,000 for "a master...