Athletic Courts and Fields Sites

The Public Works Administration funded the construction of the Oakes Field House (former Recreation Building) in South Charleston in 1939. The Recreation Building, as it was called in 1939, is a two-story brick building with gable and seven bays facing 3rd street. The central three bays have arched doorways evocative of Palladian windows. The building is about 72 feet wide and 115 feet long with a small one-story raised brick structure extending towards the Oakes Field. An addition (possibly original, date is unknown) of approximately 12 x 22 feet is on the northwest corner. There are ten large two-story windows running along the...

Although the history of this park is difficult to pin down, researcher Frank da Cruz makes a compelling argument that this is one of many WPA playgrounds built during the New Deal. First, it is located at the North end of Bronx Park, where all the development was done by the WPA. As da Cruz explains, "The timing is right too; the Parks Department says, 'Parks obtained the land for Olinville Playground in conjunction with the construction of the Bronx River Parkway extension in 1938'" - a period in which literally hundreds of municipal parks were developed by the WPA....

In 1934, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) installed exercise equipment on Ocean Front Walk in Santa Monica, CA, immediately south of the Santa Monica Pier. Known today as Original Muscle Beach, the recreation area—which includes ropes, bars, swings, etc.—is considered the "birthplace of the physical fitness boom of the twentieth century." According to the City of Santa Monica's travel and tourism website, "What began as a venue for people in Santa Monica to watch acrobats, gymnasts, wrestlers, and stunt performers practice their fantastical acts for films being shot during the Great Depression (to distract people’s attention from their own financial crises),...

The Works Progress Administration built additions and made improvements to the Rash Stadium in Owensboro. The current home side was built in 1940 as one of the WPA programs in Owensboro, KY. In 1940, the WPA appropriated $30,926 for the construction of additions to the Rash Stadium. An additional $10,016 was approved in July 1941 for additional improvements carried out by the WPA. The improvements consisted of, "a drainage system, a running track, repairing the seats in the old stadium, and a concrete wall round the football field." (Brown Heflin 1984)

The New York Times reported in 1941 that, as part of WPA efforts, Brooklyn would receive six new playgrounds, located at: "Third Avenue and Thirty-fourth Street, Second Avenue and Fifty-fifth Street, Fort Hamilton Parkway and Fifty-second Street, Albany and Foster Avenues, Park and Nostrand Avenues and Eastern Parkway Extension and Fulton Street." Paerdegat Park is the fourth site described. New York City's Parks Department website writes: "The land for Paerdegat Park was acquired by purchase and condemnation in 1941 and became a park that same year." Construction on the park was completed in January 1943. A press release announcing the opening...

Palisades Playground and Park was developed by New Deal agencies in the mid-1930s. The field house was built with Public Works Administration (PWA) funds in 1936. That same year, the Washington Post reported that Works Progress Administration (WPA) workers had been hired by the District for rehabilitation and improvement of the park. In addition, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) also did work on Palisades Playground, according tothe Historic American Buildings Survey of CCC activity around Washington.  Palisades Playground and Park contains tennis courts, a soccer field, basketball court, skate spot, baseball field, and play areas, plus a notable field house on the...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) conducted improvement work at an athletic field and park in Beatrice, Nebraska. Beatrice Daily Sun: "A recently completed WPA project at the park resulted in major improvements. The north bank was landscaped, the cinder running track was widened, rest rooms were constructed, and the seating capacity of the concrete bleachers was doubled." The location and status of this project is currently unknown to Living New Deal.

The Park Point Beach House and adjacent recreation field, located in Park Point on Minnesota Point, were constructed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA).

The National Youth Administration built a running track for the Parkersburg High School in Parkersburg. At the time of its construction this was the only half-mile track in West Virginia.

According to the NYC Parks website: "The site of this ballfield was acquired by the City of New York for the construction of the Independent Subway whose line curves from the Avenue of the Americas to West Houston Street. In May 1934 the Board of Transportation granted the Department of Parks a permit to develop for playground purposes four parcels on West Houston Street. The park at the northeast corner of West Houston Street and the Avenue of the Americas was one of thirty-eight new playgrounds added to the Park system in the first four months of Robert Moses’s twenty-six...

Wikipedia: "In 1938, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the football stadium limestone bleachers, west and north walls, picnic tables, fire pits, and various items in the park."

Pelham Bay Park, the largest in the city of New York (three times the size of Central Park), sits on Pelham Bay in the northeast corner of The Bronx. It was established in 1888, when The Bronx was still separate from New York City. The park was greatly improved by Robert Moses and the NY City Parks Department, with the help of federal New Deal funds and workers from the Civil Works Administration (CWA) and Works Progress Administration (WPA). On November 10, 1941, the New York City Department of Parks announced the completion of the massive overhaul of the 60-acre Isaac L. Rice Memorial...

"Peoples Park on Brook Avenue and East 141st Street in the Bronx, June 22, 2015. The New York City Parks Department press release for July 27, 1934, announces the opening of fourteen playgrounds on August 11, including: PLAYGROUND at 141st STREET between BROOKand ST. ANN'S AVENUES, 587 ft. x 175 ft. Facilities: Recreation building, wading pool, handball and basketball courts and playground and gymnasium apparatus.and goes on to say that the 'labor and materials for the construction of these additional playground areas are being supplied thru Work Relief funds.'"  (https://kermitproject.org)

A project involving construction of an athletic field at Perry High School (now Perry Traditional Academy) was undertaken in 1936 as part of a New Deal project, sponsored by the Public Works Administration (PWA). The PWA provided a $17,994 grant for the project, whose total cost was $41,283. PWA Docket No. PA 1151

The property for this playground and the adjacent school (P.S. 108 also known as the Peter Minuit School) were both acquired in 1941. The Board of Education cleared old buildings and constructed the school on the West half of the block, while Parks and the WPA cleared the East half of the block and constructed a playground on the site. In October 1942, Parks announced the opening of this playground: "The shortage of critical war materials which became acute after the construction of the playground was started made it necessary to omit temporarily all chain link fencing and metal goal standards...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) made extensive improvements to Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park on the central California coast, developing it for public recreational use. The state parks commission acquired the land in 1933, but had no funds for development.  The CCC worked in the park from 1933 to 1941, but the sources do not always specify exact dates for each improvement.  Although Engbeck (2002) does not mention it, the softball field next to the Group Picnic Areas must have been built by the CCC enrollees.  It is typical of ball fields built in parks all over the country by the...

"ith federal WPA funds in 1935, a tennis court and shuffle board facilities were erected" at Phoenix Park in Delavan.

Pierce Memorial Field was constructed as a federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) project during the Great Depression. "The site of the athletic field was an abandoned gravel pit ... had gradually been developing into a public dump, ... taking the honor of perhaps the biggest eyesore in East Providence." After acquiring the land the town council "received the approval of the W.P.A. to construct a football field." The total cost of the project was then $300,000.

On September 30, 1941, Parks announced the opening of a new playground behind Public School 119 to be shared by the Department of Parks and the Board of Education. The press release explained that the playground was divided in two sections. In the south section, "A central free play area is flanked by three combination volleyball Legend basketball courts with removable goal posts, and a string, three shuffleboard courts and four paddle tennis courts. This entire section may be used for roller skating and flooded for ice skating." The north section contained benches and trees, a brick comfort station, a...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) developed two parks in El Cerrito, one of which is Poinsett Park in the Mira Vista section at the north end of the town.  The date of the work is unknown to us. Poinsett Park occupies a narrow strip along a small creek running downhill for roughly two blocks.  The upper end is riparian vegetation, after which the creek disappears into a large culvert and the park is made up of a series of leveled areas stepping down the steep hillside.  First comes a lawn; then a children's playground; then a barbecue pit and refreshment stand....

Work on Stayman Field began in December 1932 (before the New Deal) with funding from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC). The initial construction was completed in November 1933. The stadium was named after Joseph W. Stayman, the president of Potomac State College from 1921 to 1936. In December 1933, it was reported that a crew of workers from the New Deal’s Civil Works Administration (CWA) had begun work on the expansion of Stayman Field, from its original “450 feet, by 270, to a long rectangle of 700 feet” (The Pasquino, 12-12-1933). The expansion facilitated better maintenance for the football field, and...

The NYC Department of Parks announced the official opening of Pulaski Park (named in honor of Revolutionary War soldier Casimir Pulaski) on October 11, 1939: "The park was named in honor of Pulaski ten years ago. The reconstruction was done by WPA forces under the jurisdiction of the Department of Parks. Included in the development is a small children's playground, equipped with apparatus and shower basin, a sitting area for mothers and children, and a large paved recreation area containing softball diamonds. There are also four handball courts, four horseshoe pitching courts, four shuffleboard courts, a volleyball and basketball court included in...

Parks acquired this land to the West and the South of the WPA's Queensbridge Housing development in 1939. The press release announcing the completion of a WPA playground on the site in July 1941 explained: "The southerly section lying alongside and under the bridge structure has been developed for specialized intensive forms of recreation adapted to the needs of various age groups. Central to this section is a new comfort station located on the line of 10 Street and surrounded by play apparatus for small children: sand pit, wading pool, swings, etc., and extending to the east a series of game...

"The Quimby Athletic Field of Gardiner was enlarged to make a combination baseball and football field at a cost of $17,257.08 of which $1,368.50 was spent for material. There were 11,700 cubic yards of earth moved and 300 cubic yards of ledge had to be taken out. All was done by hand. Two grandstands 50 feet long were constructed from lumber salvaged at the Veteran's Administration Grounds at Togus. They were roofed with metal roofing, painted with a heavy coat of asphalt aluminum paint. These stands will seat 300 people each. A dressing room was built beneath one and a lavatory and...

A WPA project for $21,000 improvements at the Laurel Municipal Stadium included brick seats to accommodate 3,000, a brick stadium house, brick wall at the south end of the stadium, permanent parking space, brick walls, brick ticket booths and replacing wooden curbs with brick curbs. The facility remains in use.

A 1938 report from the Los Angeles Department of Playground and Recreation describes the WPA's role in creating the Rancho Cienega recreation area: "Forerunner of the great regional recreation centers of the future, the Rancho Cienega Playground was the outstanding addition to the Los Angeles recreation system in 1938. The area comprises thirty acres in the southwest section of the city, along Exposition Boulevard near La Brea Avenue. It is the largest municipal playground devoted exclusively to sports and recreation within the city. The site was donated by Mrs. Anita M. Baldwin in response to a request made by the Los...

Randall's Island Park cover more than 400 acres of the 500+ acre island.  It contains dozens of tennis courts, baseball diamonds, soccer fields, playgrounds and other recreational facilities, as well as paths, greenways and a marsh.  Frank da Cruz summarizes the extensive New Deal renovation and expansion of Randall's Island Park: "Randall's Island itself, which (with neighboring Ward's Island, now joined to it) lies in the East River between East Harlem, the South Bronx, and Astoria, Queens... Prior to the New Deal it housed institutions such as an orphanage, a poor house, a reform school, a potters field, a refuge for sick and/or...

The Raymond M. O'Connor Park and the Kennedy Playground within it were developed with federal relief funds in the 1930s. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) completed work on the park in 1935. The NYC Parks site explains that the park "was established as part of the massive expansion of recreational facilities, largely through Federal emergency relief funding, which took place in the 1930s under Parks Commissioner Robert Moses. In 1931 the city purchased property in the Bayside neighborhood of Queens for $95,000 to create a public playground and thoroughfare... the land was landscaped with lawns, shade trees and sidewalks by...

The Works Progress Administration built the Recreation Center Grandstand in Ocala FL.

Montpelier's Recreation Field was developed as a New Deal project in 1938-9. The Public Works Administration (PWA) provided a $45,000 grant for the project, whose total cost was listed as $100,052. PWA Docket No. Vt. 1088-F. The facility was described in Annual Reports of the City of Montpelier. The 1939 report , detailed the park development's progress at that date: The Recreational Field ... is located on the Worcester Branch road, 1 2/5 miles from the corner of Main and State Street. The project consists of a Swimming Pool approximately 350 feet long, 150 feet wide and about 11 1/2 feet deep in the...

Red Hook Park in Brooklyn was one of several major parks and hundreds of playgrounds created in New York City with Federal funds in the New Deal era. In this 1938 text, Robert Moses describes the work accomplished in New York City parks, including Red Hook, by relief workers: "There are today 372 playgrounds, ranging from small neighborhood plots of a quarter acre to large developments such as Macombs Dam Park in The Bronx, Red Hook and McCarren Parks in Brooklyn, and Randall's Island, adjacent to the East Harlem section of Manhattan, all developed to take care of every type of recreation for both children and...

Cal Poly Humboldt (formerly California State University Humboldt) began as Humboldt Teachers' (or Normal) College in 1913 and moved to its present location on a hill northeast of Arcata, California, in 1921.  Founders' Hall was built at the top of the hill in the 1920s and the campus has filled in below over time. During the New Deal, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the athletic fields and bleachers at what is now known as Redwood Bowl, just east of Founders Hall. The facilities have been greatly enlarged and upgraded over the years, but the roofed bleachers on the west side...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) helped construct Salem-Winston’s Reynolds Park and Recreation Center between 1939 and 1940. “A $300,000 proposed municipal park and recreation center at Winston-Salem, N.C., has received final approval in Washington,” a journalist for Park & Recreation magazine reported. “The development, to be known as Reynolds Park, will be located two miles east of the courthouse square…Within the area will be an 18-hole golf course, a large swimming pool, tennis courts, an athletic field and wooded area for walking and picnicking.” The fruits of this WPA-funded project can still be enjoyed today.

On December 4, 1941, the NYC Department of Parks announced the start of construction on two new playgrounds in the Bronx, including what is now known as Rienzi Playground. The release explains that the WPA was removing sixteen 1-3 story brick buildings in preparation for the WPA construction of the play area, which would include: volleyball, basketball, tennis, handball and shuffleboard courts; a wading pool; a brick comfort station; slides, swings, seesaws, a sandpit and an exercise unit; and a softball diamond. Though begun by the WPA, however, the work was only completed later. The NYC Parks Department website, as well...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) conducted numerous projects at Riverside Park in Iola, Kansas. "It wasn't until the WPA projects were built that Riverside Park received the beautiful football stadium, pool, pool building, community building, shelters, and one baseball diamond."

Riverside Park is a 6.7-mile long waterside public park in Manhattan's Upper West Side, running between the Hudson River and Riverside Drive. Its origins go back to Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux,  the designers of Central Park in the 19th century.  In the 1930s the park was completely redeveloped and expanded, in part in conjunction with the Henry Hudson Parkway, with the help of the New Deal. Researcher Frank da Cruz describes New Deal involvement in the park: "By 1934, the park was in terrible shape; Robert Moses and the NY City Parks Department, using New Deal funding, designers, and labor completely...

Researcher Frank da Cruz explains that: “By 1934, the park was in terrible shape; Robert Moses and the NY City Parks Department, using New Deal funding, designers, and labor completely leveled the original park and replaced it with a new one in which the railroad ran beneath ground level and which, unlike the original park, was full of playgrounds, ball fields, and game courts… The construction of Riverside Park…was a mammoth undertaking supported mainly by PWA, CWA, and WPA from 1934 to 1941, such a huge undertaking that the records don’t even bother to mention individual features like specific playgrounds, ballfields,...

The New Deal contributed substantially to the betterment of Rock Creek Park in the 1930s.  This involved a number of federal agencies. Rock Creek Park is a key greenway in the District of Columbia and, at 1750 acres, is almost twice the size of Central Park in New York.  It was established by Congress in 1890, making it officially a National Park at the time.  It featured prominently in the far-reaching plans for the District of Columbia by the McMillan Commission in 1901-02 and the Olmsted Brothers report of 1918, which envisioned a major park with a scenic parkway running through it. In...

In 1940, the Works Progress Administration (WPA), in concert with the city, developed the Municipal Park of Fortuna – now known as Rohner Park.  By 1940, the WPA was part of the reorganized Federal Works Agency (later to become the General Services Administration). The WPA project card indicates that relief workers were supposed to build baseball dugouts, restrooms, picnic tables and fireplaces, as well as a water and sewer system and hiking trails. A plaque in the park credits the WPA and city with developing the entire park.   There have been many additions and renovations since 1940. The restrooms, picnic area...

Roosevelt, later renamed to Ron Stephens after the second Oklahoma Works Progress Administration (WPA) director, located between 13th and 14th street in Lawton Oklahoma was completed in 1936 by the WPA. Using funds of $72,332 it became the pet project of Ron Stephens who in 1936 was the Assistant WPA Director. Surrounded by high granite walls, with granite and concrete stadium seating for each side of the football field. The press boxes on either side was a second project in 1939. The main entrance is located a 1398 NE Dearborn and 14th street and consists of a high stone arch...