Water Supply Sites

The Works Progress Administration built a new cistern and carried out the repairs and extension of the water and sewer systems, at Frederiksted Hospital. The plaque placed in 2004 by the St. Croix Historic Preservation Commission at the site of the former hospital reads: "Frederiksted Hospital - Erected as a 2-story town house in 1803 by the DaCosta family, this sturdy building has been greatly modified over the years. Major alterations occurred in the 1930's, when the residence was converted into Frederiksted's main hospital."

The Fresno Bee of 12/22/40 reported that $52,416 to be spent improving streets, alleyways, sidewalks, municipal waterworks, and bridge across Tule River at Porterville.

"Chain Lakes Project - Montana - Contract for the construction of Fresno Dam across the Milk River has been awarded but no work will be done until the spring of 1937. The dam, for storage and flood control purposes, is of the earth and rock fill type. It will be about 80 feet high and 2,000 feet long, and will contain 1,870,000 cubic yards of material. The storage capacity will be 126,000 acre feet."

Fresno received $90,000 from the federal government for sewers, water system, and street drainage. The WPA storm sewer project pictured below cost $55,000.

  This Fresno water tower was constructed by the PWA: "Curved lines and columns form an unusual composition in the modern water tower on the Fresno, California skyline." The tower was located at the corners of Clinton and Del Mar Avenues but was demolished in 1994-95 and replaced with an electrical pump house.

The Friant Dam is one of three major dams in the giant Central Valley Project in Northern California, along with Shasta and Folsom, built by the federal Bureau of Reclamation. Initial funding for the CVP came through the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935. Friant was aided by funds from the Public Works Administratin (PWA).  The concrete dam, which impounds the San Joaquin River, is 320 feet high and 3,500 feet long at the crest.  The reservoir, Millerton Lake, holds about one-half million acre-feet of water at capacity. The chief purpose of the dam is irrigation water supply.  Water from Millerton Reservoir is shipped...

The Works Progress Administration installed new water lines on General Gade in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas.

In the winter of 1935, the Works Progress Administration started doing work throughout Wrentham, Massachusetts. In 1936, the WPA helped to develop the land for the town's new elementary school, which the town was in dire need of. The WPA workers took part in drainage and grading work. They laid a water pipe for the new school and lined the nearby brook with rocks.

The federal Public Works Administration (PWA) provided a $124,400 loan and $30,714 grant toward a reservoir development project for Goshen, New York. Work occurred between June and December 1934. It is probable that the current Goshen Reservoir, located south of the community, is what was constructed as part of this project, though further confirmation is needed. (PWA Docket No. NY 1428)

The idea for the dam was originally proposed by William M. Clapp in 1917. Feasibility studies were performed in the 1920s, and a final report in favor of the dam was presented to Congress in 1931, but work on the dam did not begin until President Franklin D. Roosevelt promised federal support in 1933. The Public Works Administration began work on the dam in 1934. "Grand Coulee Dam is a gravity dam on the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington built to produce hydroelectric power and provide irrigation. It was constructed between 1933 and 1942, originally with two power...

"Camps were set up at several locations in the valley, at Leigh Lake, Lizard Point, and "Hot Springs" near Colter Bay. In 1934, Camp NP-4, the most prominent camp, was built at the south end of Jenny Lake. CCC crews manned this camp through 1942. Civilian Conservation Corps laborers worked on a variety of projects. The Superintendent's Report for August 1936 listed the following: landscaping headquarters; improvement and development of a campground at Jenny Lake; construction of fireplaces; construction of barriers at Jenny Lake campground; construction of table and bench combinations at Jenny Lake; construction of permanent employees' dwellings headquarters; extension...

“One of the big projects accomplished during the CWA program in Morris County and now nearly completed is the creation of a storage reservoir on top of Green Pond Mountain and within the Picatinny arsenal limits. This will cut out considerable pumping costs and prove a real economy in the future. Atop of Green Pond Mountain…lies a swamp….This natural basin of several acres in extent collects many thousand gallons of water from the nearby slopes….The basin is surrounded by many drainage slopes leading thereto which act as natural feeders to it. Consideration has frequently been given to a contemplated dam...

Starting in 1933, the R.F.C, CCC, and W.P.A. initiated efforts at constructing a sprinkler system that would cover the hillsides in the park and turn on in case of wild fires. In part, the project was as a result of the death of 29 county relief workers that perished in a fire Oct. 3rd 1933. Over time, the system has broken down and is completely non functional. According to National Archives records, the W.P.A. also built a fire break as part of its efforts in Griffith Park.

"HAMLIN BEACH PARK is one of the largest county parks of Monroe. It has an area of 600 acres and includes a mile and a quarter of lake frontage with an excellent bathing beach. Extensive road building and other improvements are in progress, carried on by the Civilian Conservation Corps, which maintains a camp near the park. This project includes the construction of a concrete sea wall and promenade along the entire lake front, six long stone and concrete jetties to hold sand for bathing beaches, 3 miles of macadam and 2 miles of hard-surfaced roads, 2 miles of concrete...

"The Hampton Watervorks is located on the north side of Hunt Street west of Lee Street in downtown Hampton, the seat of Calhoun County in southwest Arkansas. The metaI water tower and associated well house were built by the Pittsburgh-Des Moines Steel Co. for the Public Works Administration in 1937." "By the 1930s, Hampton was in need of a good public water supply. The city applied to the Public Works Administration for a waterworks and on July 21, 1936, the PWA awarded a $15,000 loan and a $12,191 grant for the project. A contract for $24,047 was awarded on September 18,...

New Deal water tower in Hanford, CA.

The Hartford Water Tower "is a historic elevated steel water tower located in Hartford, Arkansas. It was built in 1936 by the Chicago Bridge & Iron Company in conjunction with the Public Works Administration as part of a project to improve the local water supply. The project was one of 124 similar projects in the state funded by the PWA. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2008, as part of a multiple-property listing that included numerous other New Deal-era projects throughout Arkansas."

The Public Works Administration (PWA) funded a major increase in the height of the O'Shaughnessy Dam, which creates Hetch Hetchy Reservoir.  The dam had been completed by the city of San Francisco in 1923, after years of controversy over flooding the magnificent Hetch Hetchy Valley, the smaller twin of Yosemite Valley.  This was the height of the dam-building era in America. When San Francisco sought to expand the reservoir's capacity, the PWA provide funding for the project, which was completed in 1937-38. The dam was raised by 86 feet and the width of the dam enlarged at the same time.   "In...

"San Franciscos Hetch Hetchy water system, completed in 1934, is a 167-mile, gravity-driven network of dams, reservoirs, tunnels, pump stations, aqueducts and pipelines that collects Tuolumne River runoff on federal land near the Yosemite Valley and transports it to the San Francisco Bay Area."

The Hibbing Disposal Plant, later named North Wastewater Treatment Plant, was built 1938-1939 in part with funding by the Public Works Administration (PWA). It was known for having two of the world's largest concrete self-supporting domes. The facility was demolished between 2013 and 2018.

Hoover Dam, originally called "Boulder Dam", is the anchor of the entire Colorado River water storage and management system.  It lies in Black Canyon (not Boulder Canyon) at the southern tip of Nevada, on the Arizona border, and creates the massive Lake Meade reservoir, the largest in the United States.  It was the first high-arch concrete dam in history, becoming the model for thousands of dams built round the world.  It was constructed under the US Bureau of Reclamation by a joint venture of 8 construction companies (called "The Six Companies"), led by Henry Kaiser and including Bechtel Corporation, Utah...

Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) conducted the following work in Woburn, Massachusetts. WPA Bulletin: Reforestation, terracing and landscaping of 100 acres of land, including Horn Pond, Woburn's major water shed, has been completed by the Woburn WPA. More than 100 men were employed.

The Works Progress Administration installed new water and sewer lines on Hospital Gade in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas.

Imperial Dam was built by the Bureau of Reclamation during the New Deal as a feature of the Boulder Canyon Project, along with Hoover Dam and Parker Dam, on the lower Colorado River.  It lies 17 miles above Yuma, Arizona. It is the diversion structure for the All-American Canal, which serves the Imperial Valley and Coachella Valley in Southern California and for the Gila Project in Arizona. The dam is 3500 feet along the crest and 41 feet high at overflow point. The All American Canal headworks has a maximum diversion capacity of 15,000 cfs. The length of the All American canal – so-named because it did not...

Indian Island is an island in the Penobscot River in Penobscot County that is the main reservation for the Penobscot Indian tribe. The WPA was involved in bringing electricity to the island under the Rural Electrification Administration, paving some roads, installing a few street lights, and building a sewer system and water mains that were connected to the neighboring town of Old Town. 30 local men were employed in the work.

"In Attleboro, crews labored to install curbings, dig trenches for sewer and water lines and drained a wet area near the current Willett School ..."

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) conducted miles of street improvement work as well as constructing and improving curbs and sidewalks in Grant and Elsie, Nebraska. The WPA also installed new water mains and sewers in the communities.

A street improvement project in Grant, Nebraska was undertaken with the assistance of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. The PWA provided a grant of $17,775 for the project, whose total cost was $68,151. PWA Docket No. 1044 The Works Progress Administration (WPA) conducted miles of street improvement work as well as constructing and improving curbs and sidewalks in Grant and Elsie, Nebraska. The WPA also installed new water mains and sewers in the communities.

W.P.A. Bulletin, 1937: "These are only a few of the many WPA projects in Winthrop which have given material benefits to the town in addition to providing unemployed men and women with work. Winthrop also has had its share of street, sewer and water main projects. Space does not permit mention of the many projects which have been completed and are in progress at Fort Banks."

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) provided labor for the improvement of Beacon's waterworks, roads, and sewers.

The WPA installed water mains in the city in 1935.

The Works Progress Administration built an irrigation system, part of the Federal Reclamation Project in Casper, Alcoa. This work was funded by the Public Works Administration. The exact location and condition of the irrigation system are unknown to the Living New Deal.

The WPA constructed or conducted improvements to this irrigation aqueduct in Elmore County near Mountain Home. A 2016 article in the Mountain Home News suggests that the canal and aqueduct indicated on the map dates to the 1890s, so the WPA work may have been repairs or improvements. However, no wooden structures such as that pictured are visible from satellite imagery of the canal, so the site may we be elsewhere in the Mountain Home vicinity.

"The Bureau of Reclamation utilized the manpower of two Civilian Conservation Corps camps, BR13A and BR74A, to create a system of irrigation canals for the farming community of Yuma. Between 1939 and 1941 enrollees cleared 59 miles of right-of-way, constructed canals, laterals, and headgates, and performed rodent control and landscaping. Today Ferguson Lateral is a tangible example of CCC work that still enables water managers to direct water. Although the farms have moved to the outskirts of Yuma, the canals, laterals, and headgates remain. Homeowners may still access the laterals to water their yards. The canals are stocked with fish...

The PWA contributed to an irrigation project around Big Dry in Garfield County, Montana, with the purchase of $50,000 in bonds and through a $44,000 grant.

As researcher Frank da Cruz explains, "Jerome Park Reservoir has seven gatehouses: three offsite and four onsite such as the two shown here, the darker brick Gatehouse No.7 at left and the lighter brick Gatehouse No.5 at right. Gatehouses control the flow of water into and out of the reservoir via gates, sluices, and pumps and may also perform other functions such as filtering and chlorination. The original 1906 reservoir had gates and sluices but the buildings to contain them were not built as planned for lack of funds, which did not appear until the New Deal. The above-grade...

The reservoir itself dates to 1906, but, this report at nyc.gov describing the history of the reservoir and its surroundings explains that: ”The WPA funded a significant number of New York City projects relating to the water system, including surveys, water main installations, and the alteration, repair, and construction of buildings ... WPA work force moved into the area to complete many Reservoir repairs and new construction.“ As researcher Frank da Cruz documents here, in addition to repairs to the reservoir itself, "New construction included at least three, and possibly all seven, of the red brick and stone gate...

In 1938-1939, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) installed a new Water Main on K Street, between 27th and 29th Streets NW.  The Annual Report of the DC government provide details:  “A 24-inch steel main, totaling 530 linear feet in K Street between Twenty-seventh and Twenty-ninth Streets NW. This main, under taken as a W. P. A. project, is an extension of the Washington Circle contract, and is a major link in the work necessary to change the 30-inch main in M Street from gravity to first high service.”  The main may still be in place, but would be invisible to everyone but the...

This maintenance access portal for the Honolulu waterworks system was built with Public Works Administration funds in 1936.

"The Keiser Water Tower is a historic waterworks facility at Water and East Main Street in Keiser, Arkansas. It is an open metal structure, several stories high, with a roughly cylindrical tank at the top, and a rising through the center to provide water to the tank. A ladder providing access to the tank is fixed to one of the legs, and there is a circular catwalk with railing around the tank. The structure was built in 1936 with funding from the Public Works Administration, and is one of the few Depression-era structures left in the small community. The water tower...