Lighting Sites

The New Deal made major improvements to the former Alvarado Park on the east side of Richmond CA, where Wildcat Creek tumbles out of the East Bay hills. Alvarado Park was transferred by the city of Richmond to the East Bay Regional Park District in 1985 and is now the "Alvarado Area" of Wildcat Canyon Park.     The park is known for its New Deal stonework, done chiefly by Italian immigrant masons, including a stone bridge across Wildcat Creek, stone light standards along roads and paths, and picnic facilities and stone stoves. The stonework is remarkable enough for the park to have...

The New Deal made major improvements to the former Alvarado Park on the east side of Richmond CA, where Wildcat Creek tumbles out of the East Bay hills. Alvarado Park was transferred by the city of Richmond to the East Bay Regional Park District in 1985 and is now the "Alvarado Area" of Wildcat Canyon Park.     The park is known for its New Deal stonework, done chiefly by Italian immigrant masons, including a massive stone arch bridge across Wildcat Creek, stone light standards along roads and paths, and picnic facilities and stone stoves. The stonework is remarkable enough for the park...

A 1940 report identifies the Works Progress Administration (WPA) as having worked on lighting for the Golden Gate bridge, but provides no further details. The work was probably done in 1939-40.  Since no federal agencies were involved in the construction of the Golden Gate bridge itself, and the WPA and Public Works Administration (PWA) were involved in building all the approach roads to the bridge, it is most likely that this report is referring to lighting along the approaches not on the bridge itself.  Further confirmation is needed.      

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) installed new equipment and conducted repairs at the light plant in Cherokee, Oklahoma. They also improved city electrical lines. The status and location of this $54,733.08 project is unknown to Living New Deal.

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 heart of today's Greenbelt, Maryland – popularly known as "Old Greenbelt" – is a large, planned community laid out and constructed during the New Deal. It features community facilities such as a school, theater and community center, a large number and variety of housing, basic infrastructure of roads, water and sewers, and extensive landscaping and an attached forest.  Almost all of the original facilities are still intact. Greenbelt was one of four greenbelt towns initiated by Rex Tugwell, head of the Resettlement Administration (RA). Greendale, Wisconsin, near Milwaukee, and Greenhills, Ohio, near Cincinnati, are other surviving greenbelt towns; a fourth,...