Offices Sites

The New Deal built the first campus for Boise State University from 1940 to 1942.  Established in 1932, Boise Junior College lacked a permanent home until the the move to the present campus.  The centerpiece of the project was the Administration Building, constructed in 1940 with Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. The building housed almost all academic and administrative functions of the college, including offices, classrooms and library.  Interior spaces have acquired new uses as the campus has grown but much of the interior is intact and the exterior is generally unaltered. The structure is two stories tall, clad in red brick with...

The New Deal built the first campus for Boise State University, which was then still known as Boise Junior College, from 1940 to 1942.  Established in 1932, Boise Junior College lacked a permanent home until the the move to the present campus along the south bank of the Boise River, which had been the city's first airfield. The Public Works Administration (PWA) funded the overall work, which included four structures, along with basic infrastructure and landscaping.  The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the Assembly Hall and  worked on infrastructure and landscaping for the campus. The four new buildings were: Administration Building (1940),...

Central Junior High School in Los Angeles, CA was built with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) in 1936-37. Designed by architect A. C. Zimmerman and built by the Weymouth Crowell Company, the campus included two-story main and home economics buildings; the former included an auditorium. The school was later incorporated into the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) administrative headquarters. It was demolished in 2003 and in 2006 construction began on the site's current occupant: the Ramón C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts. The reconstruction and renovation of Los Angeles schools damaged by the 1933 Long Beach...

In December 1934, the State Emergency Relief Agency (SERA) funded a series of improvements to the La Monica ballroom, originally built in 1924,  on the Santa Monica Pier in Santa Monica, CA. SERA added or improved many notable attractions at the La Monica, including the Santa Monica’s Sailing Club, a valuable amenities to the community. The ballroom featured a number of conference rooms and offices which were styled on different countries and time periods, including Mediterranean, Italian, Swiss, and English. The La Monica also featured a 4,000-pound saltwater aquarium showcasing marine life such as fish and seals. Additionally, SERA constructed...

The Pershing School District Office was constructed with the help of the National Youth Administration (Nevada state office) in 1941, according to a plaque on the building, which still stands.   The building is a modest one-story structure in Moderne Style, with decorative indentations above the windows and a handsome design around the entrance.  It has recently (c. 2020) been repainted from beige to brown and the office name over the entrance is gone or has yet to be reinstalled.

In November 1933, a local relief sewing project was transferred to Civil Works Administration (CWA) oversight and set up in an old organ factory in Santa Monica, CA. By the following month, 450 local women were employed in canning and sewing work. The women worked alongside 50 disabled male veterans engaged in carpentry, for which the Fox Film Corporation provided 35,000 feet of lumber. It appears the structure that housed the relief center on 12th St is still partially extant, but confirmation is needed. On December 13, 1933, the Santa Monica Evening Outlook reported that the women had spent 123,984 hours...

In October 1935, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) opened a “production for use” plant in Glendale, CA. Initially the plant’s workforce consisted of 12 men and women. When operating at full force, 100-150 men and women were employed canning, baking, dehydrating fruits, processing meats and cereals, repairing shoes, and manufacturing clothes. The structure that housed the relief center is extant at 700 Ivy Street.

Three hundred and seventy-three men and women were employed at the Works Progress Administration (WPA) relief center in Santa Monica, CA when it relocated from Twelfth St to the former Lorbeer laundry building on Main St in October 1937. It appears the structure that housed the relief center on Main St is still extant, but confirmation is needed. When the state refused to continue providing materials in early 1938, Los Angeles County suspended WPA sewing projects and discharged 5,000 women. Santa Monica proposed to take over, with the mayor claiming, “We will continue operation of the sewing room for Santa Monica...

As of January 1938, 60 women were employed at the Works Progress Administration (WPA) sewing room in Los Angeles, CA located at the Sawtelle barracks (today's West Los Angeles VA Medical Center). The precise location of the sewing room is unknown. When the state refused to continue providing materials in early 1938, Los Angeles County suspended WPA sewing projects and discharged 5,000 women.

As of January 1938, 94 women were employed at the Works Progress Administration (WPA) sewing room in Venice, CA. When the state refused to continue providing materials in early 1938, Los Angeles County suspended WPA sewing projects and discharged 5,000 women. It appears the structure that housed the sewing room is still extant, but confirmation is needed.

The Works Program Administration (WPA) operated one of the largest shoe repair shops in Los Angeles, CA in 1936. The shoes were repaired at an average cost of 34 cents with eighty-five men and women working in two shifts, repairing 150 to 350 shoes a day. The shop only repaired the shoes of those on public relief, so this project did not interfere with private industry. The Los Angeles Times reported that upwards of 13,000 pairs of shoes had already been repaired in the shop by February, 1936.