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  • Devil's Punchbowl State Natural Area - Otter Rock OR
    In the 1934, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) developed the Devil's Punchbowl day-use area for public use.  The improvements included picnic tables, fireplaces, restroom, drinking fountain, water supply, a foot trail and steps to the beach. The majority of these improvements have been repaired or changed over the years, but the popularity of this distinctive viewpoint remains. Visitors are drawn for whale watching and views of its distinctive geology.
  • Dockton Park - Vashon WA
    "The Dockton King County Park was created during the Great Depression as a project of the Works Progress Administration. Theo Berry was the local storekeeper and WPA administrator. The original structures, which included a bathhouse, a kitchen building, a bandstand, toilet facilities and a lifeguard residence, have since been replaced."
  • Dolliver Memorial State Park - Lehigh IA
    "C.C.C. Company 2725 established camp DSP-3 (now SP-6) in Dolliver Memorial State Park on August 7, 1934, and immediately set to work constructing a series of barracks (Fig,.10) and a shop (Fig. 11). Aerial photography of Webster County from 1939 by the A.A.A. (Agricultural Adjustment Agency – a New Deal program to pay farmers to reduce their crop production) captured the area of the C.C.C. camp at Dolliver shorly after the barracks were constructed (Fig 12a). It shows the loge, cabins, the mess hall, rest room facilities, shortly after they were constructed and the remains of a baseball diamond. It...
  • Dyker Beach Park - Brooklyn NY
    Dyker Beach Park, located just south of the Dyker Beach Golf Course and north of the Belt Parkway was assembled in eight stages between 1895 and 1934. In 1942, the WPA and the Department of Parks completed extensive work on the park, much of which is still visible today. A press release announcing the completion of a field house and playground described the finished and ongoing work: "The field house, a one story brick structure, approximately 44' x 100' is located at the east end of the athletic field in a paved plaza designed as a focal point for the park...
  • Earl Ruth Park - Parlier CA
    WPA Proj. No. 646-02-2-300, $2,200, June 7, 1938. "Make improvements to the City Park in the city of Parlier, Fresno County, including constructing restroom with utility connections, wading pool, swings, sand boxes, and other recreational facilities; grading and oiling roads; landscaping; removing and transplanting trees; and performing appurtenant and incidental work. City-owned property. In addition to projects specifically approved." Total Federal and sponsor funds $3,100, average employed 19. During a February 2018 site visit, the WPA built toilets appeared to be non functional. Newer toilets were located on the other side of the park. There was no wading pool and swings. Most likely,...
  • Eighth Lake CCC Camp & Campground - Inlet NY
    Eighth Lake is one of the Fulton chain of lakes in the southwestern portion of the Adirondack Park in  upstate New York.  State route 28 passes along the lakes as it crosses the park.  The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) established a camp between 7th and 8th Lakes in 1933 – named Eighth Lake camp (S-58), and started on forest clearance and navigation improvement projects between the lakes. The CCC 'boys' also started work on the 8th Lake Campground (which abuts 7th Lake, in fact) in 1933; but they had to leave for less harsh climes as winter set in. The next...
  • Elmore State Park - Lake Elmore VT
    The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) worked to develop Vermont's Elmore State Park during the 1930s. To this day, a "CCC-built beach house with a community room ... can be rented for group functions."
  • Elysian Park Improvements - Los Angeles CA
    As part of a grant to the Pueblo before it became the City of Los Angeles, Elysian Park is the oldest and second largest park in Los Angeles at 600 acres. A section of the park Montecillo De Leo Politi is a limited use area available by reservation. In 1936, the WPA constructed two tennis courts and two comfort stations there. Under project number 9907, it was sponsored by the City of Los Angeles, the cost was $211,942, and provided 358 men on average per month with employment for 9 months.
  • Emigrant Springs State Heritage Area (Emigrant Springs State Park) - Pendleton OR
    Located between Pendleton and La Grande, Oregon, near the summit of the Blue Mountains along Interstate -84, Emigrant Springs State Heritage Area offers an interpretation of the significance of this location on the Oregon Trail as it provides camping, picnicking, and hiking opportunities. While land acquisition for the park area began in 1925 and continued for nearly fifty years, significant improvement of the park for day use activities took place in the mid-1930s. A Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp was located at the site and assigned to the State Park Commission. From 1935 to 1937, CCC enrollees improved the area...
  • Ethan Allen Park Comfort Station - Burlington VT
    Photo caption, UVM: "This is a view of the building built under WPA Project No. 65-12-344 at Ethan Allen Park to be used as a combination tool house and toilet for ladies and gentlemen. Modern plumbing has been installed in the toilets with a large cesspool for sewage disposal which can later be connected with the proposed sewer to be built on Bradley Road . This building is erected near the picnic grounds in the Pine Grove." The exact location and status of this facility is presently unknown to Living New Deal.
  • Evergreen Park - Ridgewood NY
    Today's NYC Parks website explains: "The City of New York acquired the property for this park in January 1941. At that time, the park was divided by 60th Street, which cut through the property. The City then assigned Evergreen Park to the Board of Education and Parks in the spring of 1942. In order to expand the parkland and unify the two sections, the City closed 60th Street and gave the area to Parks. Part of the park is jointly operated with the adjacent P.S. 68. The playground opened officially on January 11, 1943." A 1943 press release announcing the park's...
  • Ferry Point Park - Bronx NY
    Ferry Point Park is a large park in the Bronx located at the site of the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge on the East River. New York City acquired the land in 1937. It was planned under Robert Moses and constructed by the WPA. A NYC Parks Department press release from August 11, 1941, announced that the park had been completed. The release describes several of the features constructed by the WPA, including: an overlook above the water, "a combination comfort station and storage building," "two baseball diamonds," picnic areas, tree plantings and more. Unfortunately the large portion of the park West of the...
  • Forest Park - St. Louis MO
    Forest Park is one of the largest municipal parks in the nation, just larger than Central Park in NYC. It was the site of the 1904 Worlds Fair and the WPA projects in the park transformed it and brought it up to date, including much clearing of brush in places where it had become overgrown. In places, it truly was and still is a forest. Projects included: roads through-out the park, handball courts, tennis courts (now the Davis Tennis Center), draining lakes that had been constructed for the World's Fair and which had filled in and had debris-filled to an...
  • Fort Greene Park - Brooklyn NY
    This large, lush Brooklyn park dates back 150 years. NYC Parks explains that "Another series of renovations made in the 1930s further enhanced the classical design of the park. Parks architect Gilmore D. Clarke regraded the grounds, added new trees and shrubs, replaced the winding paths with more formal walks, remodeled the playgrounds, and created new spaces for athletic activities." These and other activities were announced in several Department of Parks press releases at the time. In May 1936, a new playground was opened in the northwest corner of the park. In October of the same year, the children's garden in...
  • Francis Lewis Park - Flushing NY
    Francis Lewis Park sits at the base of the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge in Queens. The park was named after an American "merchant, patriot, and signer of the Declaration of Independence"(nycgovparks). Researcher Frank Da Cruz has compiled evidence of the WPA's key role in developing this park: Like Ferry Point park, Francis Lewis Park was part of the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge construction project, 1937-41. A New York Parks City Department press release on April 25, 1940, confirms that it was built by the WPA: The Department of Parks announces that exercises in connection with the dedication of Francis Lewis Park, Third Avenue and 147...
  • Fred Samuel Playground - New York NY
    The Department of Parks announced the opening of what is now the Fred Samuel Playground on March 31, 1939. The press release explained: "The area located on the west side of Lenox Avenue between 139 and 140 Streets is adjacent to Public School 139, Manhattan and was the first parcel of ground purchased jointly by the Park Department and the Board of Education and developed in collaboration to the advantage of both departments. Besides being completely equipped with play apparatus the area also provides facilities for handball, basketball, paddle tennis, roller skating hockey and ice skating in the winter when subfreezing...
  • Frederick Johnson Park - New York NY
    The Department of Parks announced the opening of what is now the Frederick Johnson Park on March 31, 1939. The press release explained: "The 150 Street and Seventh Avenue area obtained by the Department of Parks from the Board of Transportation for an indefinite period has been developed to include 8 tennis courts, 9 handball courts, a volley ball court as well as a sitting area for mothers and guardians of small children. The sitting area is surrounded by continuous rows of benches under shade trees with two separate sand pits for youngsters to play in. This area is adjacent to...
  • Garibaldi Playground - Brooklyn NY
    This property in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn, just next to Milestone Park, was acquired by Parks in 1937. In March, 1939, Parks announced the completion of a new playground on the site "equipped with swings, see-saws, jungle gym, slides and a shower basin which can also be used as a roller skating rink." The new playground also contained a "brick comfort station" and "concrete benches and shade trees." The work "was performed by the Works Progress Administration but planned and inspected by the Department of Parks." The site remains a functioning playground today.
  • Gifford Woods State Park - Killington VT
    The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) developed Vermont's Gifford Woods State Park during the 1930s. "Development of Gifford Woods State Park began in 1933 by the Civilian Conservation Corps ...  In 1933 and 1934, CCC crews constructed the park office and ranger’s quarters, picnic area, stone restroom building, trails, the park entrance and parking area. In 1939 the CCC constructed a camping area."
  • Golden Beach Campground - Raquette Lake NY
    Raquette Lake is the largest lake in the southwestern portion of the Adirondack Park in  upstate New York.  It is famous as the site of some of the earliest and grandest of the "Camps" established by wealthy New Yorkers in the Gilded Age of the 19th century – which were, in fact, grand summer homes owned by families like the Durants, Vanderbilts, and Morgans). The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Eighth Lake Camp, established in  1933, did improvements to the state campground at Golden Beach on the southeastern flank of Raquette Lake, which the Department of Conservation had created in 1929 (on...
  • 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...
  • Great Smoky Mountains National Park Development - Gatlinburg TN
    Great Smoky Mountains National Park occupies large areas of western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. The park’s creation was a decades-long process, including advocacy in the late 19th century; legislation signed by President Calvin Coolidge in 1926; and donations and land acquisitions from small donors, the governments of North Carolina and Tennessee, and charitable organizations, such as the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Fund. Once the park’s existence was firmly established, funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) and labor from the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) made it both accessible and accommodating to the public. President Franklin Roosevelt dedicated the park on...
  • Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Chimneys Picnic Area - Gatlinburg TN
    The CCC built comfort stations out of rustic stone at the Chimneys Picnic Area.
  • Guernsey State Park Development - Guernsey WY
    Guernsey State Park is built around the Guernsey Dam and Reservoir, constructed in the 1920s as a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation project along the North Platte River in  southeastern Wyoming. In the 1930s, the Bureau worked with the National Park Service and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to develop the area around the reservoir as a recreational park. The land is owned by the Bureau and managed by the state of Wyoming. The CCC developed the park's recreational facilities from 1934 to 1937, working out of two camps: Camp BR-9, on a bluff north of Guernsey Dam, and Camp BR-10, about a...
  • 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...
  • Hard Labor Creek State Park - Rutledge GA
    An onsite marker commemorates the extensive work of the CCC at this site, reading in part: "This park was built in 1934 by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a New Deal program sponsored by President Roosevelt. It was administered as a division of the U.S. Army to reclaim unusable farm land, create recreational areas, and teach young men a skill or trade. Enlistees of the CCC were paid about $30 for a six-month enlistment, $25 of which was automatically sent to the enlistee’s family. There were two CCC camps housed at the Park. The first camp, District “B” Company 450 Ga. SP-8,...
  • Hawks Nest State Park - Ansted WV
    "The state bought the park lands in 1935, and the Civilian Conservation Corps made improvements including a picnic shelter, snack and souvenir shop, museum, and restrooms. The museum, which holds pioneer artifacts, features a glassed observation room offering a view of the gorge...The stone restroom, built by the CCC and shaped like a round tower, is unique."   (https://www.wvencyclopedia.org) The park's main overlook complex was also built by the CCC.
  • Hetch Hetchy Comfort Station - Yosemite National Park CA
    A comfort station at the end of Evergreen Road above O'Shaughnessy Dam and Hetch Hetchy reservoir was almost surely built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the 1930s, judging by the construction.  The building is done in classic National Park rustic style, with walls constructed of large boulders. Comfort station is the name used at the time for restrooms with additional washing facilities, which this one does not appear to have; hence, it is literally just a 'restroom'. There is no written record we can find of this structure, perhaps because of the poor relations between the National Park Service and...
  • High Point State Park - Sussex County NJ
    The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) drastically impacted New Jersey's High Point State Park. In 1933, when "the CCC boys first arrived at High Point Park, they found a relatively undeveloped 11,000-acre parcel of land. ... By the time the CCC boys were done working eight years later, they had built 25 miles of roads, two lakes, repaired the badly damaged forest, fought forest fires, cleared trails, built campgrounds and shelters, and partially completed an athletic complex. The park, as visitors enjoy it today, is largely the fruition of their efforts."
  • Hillcrest Park - Clovis NM
    "In Clovis, the Curry County Court House is listed as one of the buildings built in 1936. Twila Ky Rutter, Grant Facilitator and Procurement Clerk, unable to locate a photograph of the building as it was originally, referred me to Don McAlavy, a local historian. He didn't have the photo I was chasing but he gave me other valuable information: i.e., the sunken garden and the arch over Hillcrest Park as WPA projects. The City provided materials, much of which were found in the area, and WPA provided manpower. There are other evidences of WPA work in Clovis but remodeling...
  • Howard Von Dohlen Playground - Jamaica NY
    From NYC Parks: "Howard Von Dohlen Playground opened on July 15, 1934, and is one of nine playgrounds built by Parks through the War Memorial Fund. The fund was established in 1921 with $250,000 collected by the New York City Police Department. Until 1934, the money had remained untouched, during which time it had grown in value to $350,000. Seeking additional open spaces for children, Parks Commissioner Robert Moses obtained a legal ruling that permitted the Fund to be spent on several playground developments. The properties were intended to honor the memories of individual soldiers who had given their lives in...
  • Improvements - Dixie National Forest UT
    The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) made various improvements in the Dixie National Forest in 1935, including lookout shelters, roads, trails and comfort stations (restrooms) at Blow Hard Mountain and Brian Head Peak. A CCC camp had been established at Zion National Park in 1933, and in 1934 the CCC set up a ‘stub camp’ (closed in the winter months) at Cedar Breaks National Monument. In 1935, CCC works teams were sent into nearby Dixie National Forest to carry out various building projects.    
  • International Peace Garden - Dunseith ND
    The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) developed the International Peace Garden during the 1930s.
  • 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: Payson Playground - New York NY
    Payson Playground, in the Southeast corner of Inwood Hill Park, is one of three playgrounds in the park. The current Department of Parks website says the playground was built by Robert Moses in 1939, but Parks Department press releases from the New Deal period show that the park was originally built in 1934 and completed in 1941. A 1934 press release announced the opening of the playground in August of that year. The release describes the new playground as containing a "Field house, comfort station, play area, basketball courts and the usual playground equipment for children." The labor and materials...
  • 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...
  • 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...
  • James J. Walker Park Improvements - New York NY
    James J. Walker Park was improved and extended circa 1935 with the help of the New Deal. The agency involved in funding and completing the work is unknown to the Living New Deal. During the 1930s Robert Moses used New Deal funding and labor, yet he  rarely credited New Deal agencies. New Deal plaques in New York parks are rare. For a detailed discussion see, Kermit Project, New Deal Assistance in NYC Parks Department Projects, 1934-43. The NYC Parks site describes the origins of the park: "Bordered by Hudson Street, Clarkson Street, St. Luke’s Place, and the Carmine Street Recreation Center,...
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