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  • Goldsmith-Schiffman Field - Huntsville AL
    In 1934, the Civil Works Administration started building a modern sports field on January 29 due to the land donated to the city on January 25, 1934, by Oscar Goldsmith, Lawrence B. Goldsmith, Annie Schiffman Goldsmith, Robert L. Schiffman, and Elsie Strauss Schiffman for use as an athletic field or playground for white pupils of the public schools. Due to CWA changes, they could only provide 50 people to begin the project. The area was the first in Huntsville to be lit up for nighttime sporting events, and it cost the city $6,500 to build, thanks to funding from the...
  • Gorman Playground - East Elmhurst NY
    Gorman playground at 84th St. and 25th Ave. in the East Elmhurst neighborhood of Queens was one of five “model playgrounds” designed as templates for further playground development by Robert Moses and his team after Moses assumed control of the New York City Parks Department in 1934. According to a Department press release announcing the opening, when Gorman Playground, then named "Jackson Heights Model Playground," opened in 1934 it contained a: "Recreation building containing a large play room, lavatories, mothers room, directors' room and storage space. The rear wall of the recreation building will be used for 4 handball courts. The...
  • Gravesend Park Playground - Brooklyn NY
    On May 25, 1942 the Parks Department announced the completion of a major reconstruction of the Gravesend Park Playground in Brooklyn. After removing much outdated equipment, the WPA constructed significant new facilities: "The new development permits greater utilization of space by segregation of smaller compact use areas equipped with increased facilities. A central tree shaded bench lined mall extends from the main park gate to the existing comfort station which has been given a new setting of block paving, trees and a flagpole. On both sides of the mall two main fence enclosed sections, approximately 1 acre each, are subdivided into various...
  • Gymnasium, Athletic Field, and Swimming Pool - Fernwood MS
    The Public Works Administration (project W1154) constructed the gymnasium, athletic field, and swimming pool for the Fernwood school. The project was approved on 11/14/1935 with a loan of $16,000 and grant of $13,090. Bids were advertised in November for the gymnasium construction, swimming pool and bath house, "to be constructed under the old PWA plan" (p.1). Contract was awarded 12/16/1935 and construction began 1/22/1936. The project was completed 9/25/1937.
  • Hamilton Metz Field - Brooklyn NY
    In April 1942, the WPA and the Department of Parks completed the reconstruction of Hamilton Metz Field in Brooklyn. After removing an existing football field and other facilities, the WPA constructed extensive new facilities: "The area has been completely enclosed by chain link fence, a portion of which, along the north and south property lines, is set on new concrete retaining walls. These structures have permitted the grading and paving of level play surfaces. Two gate controlled entrance stairways from Lefferts Avenue will provide access to the one and one quarter acre grass surfaced athletic field, at the west end of...
  • Hampton Park Preparation - Piedmont CA
    In the late 1920s, the city of Piedmont was outgrowing its schools and many classes were being held in temporary buildings.  In the 1930s, voters passed a bond issue and the school district undertook a major rebuilding program.  It took the assistance of the New Deal to get the job done, however.   One planned new school, in the St. James neighborhood, was never built.  Instead, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) built retaining walls and leveled the site in anticipation of the new school.   The extensive concrete retaining walls, with Art Moderne touches, are still there at the corner of Hampton...
  • Harmon Field - Greenville OH
    The Works Progress Administration built an athletic stadium and swimming pool in 1937 in Greenville OH. The Athletic field has recently undergone renovations and is still in use by the Greenville High School in Greenville, Ohio. In 2017, the original track and grass playing field were replaced with a new synthetic field turf, while the track was moved to a new track and field complex just to the north of the site. In 2022, a new field house was opened in-between the two playing fields. The original swimming pool was also moved to an adjacent lot north with the original pool...
  • Harry Thomas Sr. Recreation Center Improvements - Washington DC
    In 1942, the Washington Post reported the allocation of $21,390 to the Federal Works Agency (FWA) for new construction and/or improvements to what was then the Eckington Recreation Center, now known as the Harry Thomas Sr. Recreation Center, in the Eckington neighborhood of NE Washington. As part of the District's new PlayDC initiative, the site was renovated in 2013. It is unclear what FWA work may still be visible at the site.
  • Harvey Park - Whitestone NY
    Today's NYC Parks website explains that the village of Whitestone (now the neighborhood of Whitestone in Queens) acquired this land in 1892.  Parks took over the 21 acre site in 1936 in conjunction with the construction of the Whitestone Parkway.  This site says that a children's playground opened on the site in 1939. However, the official opening of the playground was announced by the Parks Department on April 25, 1940: "Here recreation facilities nave been provided for all age groups. There are three separate children's completely equipped playgrounds, handball, horseshoe pitching, shuffleboard and basketball courts, a full-sized hard ball and a...
  • Healdsburg High School Athletic Field - Healdsburg CA
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) developed athletic fields for Healdsburg High School in Healdsburg, California.   They lie on the east side of the school, which is still in its original location. Much of the original baseball field appeared intact in 2018 but a fancy new soccer field has been built on the west portion of the fields and we could not verify that the baseball diamond is still there.
  • Helen Wills Park Improvements - San Francisco CA
    Helen Wills Park was improved by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1935-36. The WPA relief workers regraded the park, paved the tennis courts and playground area, and repainted the recreation center. The park was established in 1915 as the Spring Valley Playground and renamed the Helen Wills Playground in 1929, in honor of local tennis pioneer, Helen Wills. The park was thoroughly overhauled in the 2000s and the recreation building and playground are completely new.  The tennis court and basketball court could well go back to the WPA era, with new surfaces.  The concrete support wall that levels up the whole...
  • High School (demolished) - Auburn MA
    The former high school in Auburn, Massachusetts was constructed with the assistance of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. "For the past two decades, the increasing cost of tuition and transportation of pupils to Worcester caused agitation for an Auburn high school, and while land had been acquired on the Dunn property on Auburn Street in 1926 for such a school, it was not until a special town meeting held August 29, 1933, that $250,000 was appropriated. Federal aid was sought under the provisions of the Public Works Administration and on March 5, 1935, the plans drawn by Lucius W. Briggs,...
  • High School (demolished) Athletic Field - Sheridan WY
    The Civil Works Administration (CWA) "added a practice field newly leveled and landscaped" at the since-demolished high school in Sheridan, Wyoming in 1933/4. The school, which was dedicated in 1926, served as the high school until 1987. It later became a junior high school and has since been demolished. The current Sheridan Junior High School occupies the site, which was on the south side of Lewis Street between Bellevue Ave. and Adair Ave.
  • High School and Athletic Field - Griswold CT
    The Works Progress Administration built a new high school and athletic field in Griswold CT. The school was built in Moderne style with brick veneer walls. Pictured is a football game in progress, circa 1937. The exact location and condition of this structure are unknown to the Living New Deal.
  • High School Athletic Field - West Rutland VT
    The WPA photo pictured here shows an athletic field constructed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) for West Rutland High School. The photo is dated to 1937. The Living New Deal does not know the current status of the athletic field.  
  • High School Athletic Field - Worland WY
    The Works Progress Administration built a high school athletic field and grandstand in Worland, Washakie County. The exact location and condition of this facility are unknown to the Living New Deal.
  • High School Athletic Field Improvements - Greenville MS
    The city of Greenville sponsored the Works Progress Administration project to improve the high school athletic field. The field was graded and bleachers added with a capacity to seat 2,000. The cost of the project was $2,122 and employed fifteen men. The field is not extant.
  • High School Athletic Field Improvements - Natchez MS
    An application for the erection of a stadium grandstand at the Natchez High School was submitted September 7, 1935 to the Brookhaven WPA office. City bonds were used in addition to WPA labor to construct the grandstand on the west side of the football field, completed in summer of 1936. It accommodated 900 spectators. A new high school was constructed in 1963, however old high school field remained in use for a period of time afterwards. The stadium has since been demolished.
  • Horseshoe Court - San Francisco CA
    Work consisted of excavation and building masonry rubble walls, 3,000 feet of red rock paths, 600 lineal feet of sewer, a standard convenience station and general renovation of an existing court surrounded by walls of natural floral beauty. This improvement is much appreciated by those who have enjoyed the popular spot for many years in Golden Gate Park. It is suitable for tournaments and competing groups.--Healy, p. 53.
  • Houghton's Pond Ball Area - Milton MA
    Description of a 1937 W.P.A. project: "Blue Hills Reservation; two baseball diamonds and four tennis courts were built in the sports area south of Hoosicwhisick Pond in Milton." Hoosicwhisick Pond is also known as Houghton's Pond.
  • Huber Park - El Cerrito CA
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) developed two parks in El Cerrito, Poinsett and Huber.  WPA improvements at 2.6-acre Huber park include leveling portions of the hillside site, building extensive rubble stone support walls, and constructing recreational facilities.  The latter include a lower area with paved basketball and kickball courts, a large cement slide, a play area with swings for children, and a picnic area with a large brick fireplace.  There is also a small clubhouse (apparently closed), bathrooms, and trails. The date May 1939 is inscribed on the brick fireplace, which is probably the year when the WPA worked at the park.
  • Hulen Park Bleachers - Cleburne TX
    The Works Progress Administration built bleachers for a baseball diamond in Cleburne. Corsicana Daily Sun mentioned the construction of the bleaches in 1938: "Cleburne, Johnson county—Con- truct soft ball field, bleachers, bowling green, walks and parkway and landscape in city park; federal funds $6,381; sponsor's funds $2,773; workers 59." They are now in front of tennis courts. Five tiers of rock bleachers with cement seating on lower four. Bleachers are on the corner of Hillsboro Street and Country Club Road.  
  • Inwood Hill Park Improvements - New York NY
    During the Great Depression, the WPA radically transformed this large park at the Northwest tip of Manhattan, making accessible what is now the only largely non-landscaped park in all of Manhattan. WPA workers built roads, trails and overlooks throughout the hilly park. A Department of Parks press release from January 26, 1939 summed up the ongoing work: "The fine native woodland will be made thoroughly accessible by means of a network of footpaths with many benches for strollers... The Authority provided a further sponsors' contribution to the WPA for toilet facilities, benches, drinking fountains and overlooks along the high...
  • Inwood Hill Park: Boat Basin and Seaman Ave. Fields - New York NY
    A January 26, 1939 press release by the Department of Parks announced that, "The WPA is at present constructing a boat basin in the Harlem Ship Canal which utilizes the old channel bordering Inwood Hill and Isham Parks  no longer used since the cutoff through the old Johnson Iron Works was completed by Army engineers early this year. This basin will house small boats of every description from canoes and outboards to cabin cruisers. It is scheduled to be completed in April 1939 and before that time work will have been started on the reconstruction of 10 acres of existing...
  • Inwood Hill Park: Dyckman Fields - New York NY
    Before the 1930s, the large area of Inwood Hill Park north of Dyckman Street, between the New York Central Railroad tracks and the Hudson River was a literally a dump. Through the efforts of the Henry Hudson Parkway Authority, the Department of Parks and the Works Progress Administration, this area was transformed into an extensive landscaped area full of baseball and soccer fields, archery ranges and more. A January 1939 Parks press release explained that the Henry Hudson Parkway Authority contributed to this not only through landscaping the new Henry Hudson Parkway and providing foot-bridges between the waterfront area and...
  • J. Hood Wright Park - New York NY
    This sizable park on Manhattan's west side includes vistas of the Hudson River and of the George Washington Bridge. It was acquired by the city in 1925, and opened by the Department of Parks in 1935. The press release announcing the opening listed the park's facilities as including "slides, swings, jungle gym, see-saws, horizontal ladders and bars, soft ball diamond, wading pool and two handball courts. The recreation building will include a playroom and two loggias. Floodlights will be installed for night use. Ten playground directors will supervise this three-acre playground." The recreation building referred to was completed in 1937,...
  • J. J. Byrne Playground - Brooklyn NY
    Now known as the J. J. Byrne Playground, this was one of five "model playgrounds" designed as templates for further playground development by Robert Moses and his team after Moses assumed control of the New York City Parks Department in 1934. J. J. Byrne Playground is located within Washington Park in Brooklyn. When it opened in August 1934, the playground contained handball courts, two "bo-uijo courts," and a wading pool and play area for small children. It also contained a unique recreation building now known as the the Old Stone House of Gowanus. The NYC Parks website describes the structure as...
  • Jackie Robinson Park - New York NY
    The spacious Jackie Robinson Park in Harlem, originally called Colonial Park and known for many years as Bradhurst Park, first opened in 1911, but was only fully developed under the New Deal. When the Department of Parks announced the planned reconstruction in August 1935, they gave an unusual level of detail about this important project: "The Department of Parks has determined the location and completed the development plan of a major recreational center in Harlem. For over a year the Department has been searching this section of the city for an area large enough to provide space for the active play...
  • Jackson Park Improvements - San Francisco CA
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) gave Jackson Park a facelift during the 1930s, or what the City Engineer called "General repairs and dressing up" (Healy, p. 58). We have no evidence on what, if any, traces remain of the WPA work. The park's recreation hall and ballfields were created by the SF Parks and Recreation Commission many year earlier and Jackson Park is where Major League baseball star Tony Lazzeri practiced as a kid. The WPA worked on many of the city's parks and playgrounds during the New Deal.
  • Jacob Riis Park - Queens NY
    The New York City Parks Department website provides a brief history of Jacob Riis Park: "260-acre Riis Park, stretching over a mile on the western section of the Rockaway Peninsula, was acquired by the city in 1913. In 1914, the beach was named for Danish-born photo journalist and social reformer Jacob August Riis, once a Queens resident. The original bathing pavilion was built in 1932 and could handle up to 8,000 users. In 1934, Commissioner Moses announced plans to upgrade Riis Park with a $1.7 million investment, including a new bathing pavilion, parking field, pitch-'n-put golf course, and a 40–foot wide...
  • Jamaica Playground - Jamaica NY
    In early 1942, the WPA began work on a new park and playground to be operated jointly by the adjacent P.S. 40 (Samuel Huntington School) and the Department of Parks. A press release announcing the start of construction described the work to be accomplished: "Twenty-three one to two and a half story frame buildings are being demolished in preparation for the new development which will provide the following facilities: eight concrete surfaced handball courts, wading pool, brick comfort station, irrigated sand Pit and sitting area, seesaws, slides and swings for pre-school and older children, a pipe frame exercise unit, two large open...
  • Jefferson Field - Washington DC
    In October 1942, the Washington Post reported the allocation of $19,627 to the Federal Works Agency (FWA) for new construction and improvements at the Jefferson Recreation Center adjacent to Jefferson Middle School in the city's southwest quadrant.  In a previous article in July 1942, the paper reported the allocation of five acres for a Southwest Sports Area at the same site, which must have become the Jefferson Recreation Center.  The site is now called simply "Jefferson Field".  Jefferson Field includes a baseball diamond, soccer field and tennis courts, plus what appears to be the original field house (with a modern ramp).  The Jefferson...
  • John Allen Payne Park - Brooklyn NY
    The land for what is now the John Allen Payne Park was acquired in 1940. "It is one of more than a dozen parks and playgrounds that line the highway now known as the Gowanus Expressway" (NYC Parks). The WPA and the Department of Parks announced the beginning of work on a playground at the site in October 1941. The press release explained that, when completed, the playground would contain: Irrigated sand pit Seesaws Slides 1 pipe frame exercise unit 4 shuffleboard courts Brick comfort station Concrete wading pool 1 combination volleyball and basketball court 3 paddle tennis courts with removable posts and nets Roller skating area 6 concrete surfaced handball courts The...
  • Josephine Caminiti Playground - Flushing NY
    The sign on this park says Josephine Caminiti Playground. The NYC Parks website also refers to it as Alstyne Playground and notes that it was formerly known as Corona Playground. The land for this park was purchased by the City in 1930. The press release announcing its opening in October 1934 described the new facilities: "A new playground for small children will be opened at Corona Avenue and 102nd Street in the Borough of Queens. The area includes a recreational building outdoor play apparatus. A unique feature of this playground is its oval, concrete surfaced roller skating rink around the...
  • Juniper Valley Park - Middle Village NY
    This large park in the Middle Village neighborhood of Queens provides a wealth of leisure and recreational attractions to local residents. Before it became a park, "it was used variously as a farm, a cemetery, a source for peat moss, the property of a racketeer, and a garbage dump...In the early 1930s the City of New York acquired the bog to settle a $225,000 claim in back taxes against the estate of the infamous Arnold Rothstein (1882-1928), who had been accused of fixing the 1919 World Series" (nycgovparks). The WPA greatly transformed the park, first in 1936 and again in...
  • Kaiser Park - Brooklyn NY
    NYC Parks describes the history of this park: "The property on which the park is located was acquired by Parks from the Sinking Fund in two parcels. The first parcel was assigned on July 11, 1934, the second on June 23, 1937. Kaiser Park was formerly known as the Coney Island Lots because the northwestern corner of the park is situated on Coney Island." A Department of Parks press release from November 1936 announced the completion of new facilities at the site, including "a wading pool 54' x 96', two hard ball diamonds for older boys and see-saws, swings, jungle gym,...
  • Kelly Park and Playground - Brooklyn NY
    This park area consists of Kelly Park to the West of the BMT Brighton Beach transit line and the smaller Kelly Playground to the East of the line. Both were developed by the WPA in 1940. Kelly Park was first acquired by Parks in 1924, but expanded and improved by the WPA in 1940 to include "new baseball diamonds and tennis courts (adaptable for ice-skating after flooding and freezing), shuffleboard and volleyball courts, game tables, horseshoe pits, and children’s play structures" (NYC Parks). Kelly Playground, just east of the tracks was first acquired in 1937 and developed as part of...
  • Ken Lindley Park Improvements - Prescott AZ
    The former City Park and Athletic Field (now the Ken Lindley Park) originated in 1908, but major improvements were made with relief labor provided by the Civil Works Administration (CWA) in the winter of 1933-34.  It is likely that after the CWA was discontinued in early 1934, the stone work was completed under the auspices of the Arizona Emergency Relief Administration and largely funded by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA).   The main work done by the New Deal crews was to build the elegant stone walls that enclose the entire square block, and which serve as retaining walls on...
  • Ken Locke Athletic Field - Knoxville IA
    The Works Progress Administration built the Ken Locke Athletic Field (previously called the called Knoxville WPA Athletic Field) in Knoxville IA.  
  • Kissena Park - Flushing NY
    The extensive Kissena Park was first established in the early 1900s and now forms part of the "Queens Corridor" park system. In addition to building a golf course at the east end of the park in the mid 1930s, in 1941, the WPA completed extensive work on the main section of the park surrounding Kissena Lake in 1941: "Included in the new improvement is a new modern one story brick boat house and boat landing constructed on the east shore of the lake replacing the old outmoded frame boat house and dock formerly located on the south bank adjacent to the...
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