Marinas and Aquatic Parks Sites

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the mile-long Berkeley Aquatic Park on the bay front south of University Avenue in 1935-37.  It was created as a water park for water skiing, canoeing, sculling and model yacht racing, and is still used for practice by collegiate rowers and for water sports. The park lies between the freeway (Interstate 80) and the former Southern Pacific Railroad tracks (now Union Pacific).  Tidal gates under the freeway keep the water level constant and refresh the basin with water from San Francisco Bay.  The aquatic park project grew out of the Eastshore Highway, a feeder road for the...

The Blue Room is one of the original dining areas in the WPA Aquatic Park Bathhouse building, within the Aquatic Park NHL District. Original drawings refer to this circular room on the eastern side of the second level as “restaurant.” There is no known record as to how it became known as the Blue Room, but a matchbook cover from the Aquatic Park Casino (the controversial restaurant in residence at the time of the building’s opening in 1939) invited one to “Dine in the Blue Room.” Lead artist Hilaire Hiler described this room as follows in a document titled “Aquatic Park...

New York City's Parks Department website states: "During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Commissioner Robert Moses (1888-1981) and the Works Progress Administration constructed recreational facilities in the park, including a boat landing, several playgrounds, tennis and handball courts, baseball diamonds, and a football field."

"The actual Berkeley Marina, used by many people who sail on the Bay, was constructed as the Berkeley Yacht Harbor in the late 1930s by the Works Progress Administration in conjunction with its nearby work developing Aquatic Park." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Marina 'The central feature of this park will be a lagoon, large enough for out-board motor races, and with facilities for electric boats, rowboats and canoes. Around the lagoon land areas are being filled in to create a shoreline of bays and peninsulas. Lawns and areas with tables, fireplaces and ample picnic facilities, sheltered from prevailing breezes by shtrub and tree plantings, will...

The National Youth Administration (NYA) constructed the boat house of the Berkeley Yacht Club in 1939.

The waterfront area of Blackstone Park in Providence was a WPA project. However, the photograph below comes from an archive of FERA projects, indicating that agency's potential involvement as well.

Bukolt Park was originally known as Water Works Park: "As with Iverson and Goerke Parks, Water Works Park got its big push during the recovery period of the 1930s when WPA construction was at its peak. Major improvements included landscaping, parkways, fireplaces, beautification of the lagoon including bridges and in 1935 and 1936 construction of the bathhouse, beach area, ramps and a diving tower. A large lodge built in the park was completed in 1940. On May 5, 1936, the council renamed the park the John J. Bukolt Park in honor of the founder of the Automatic Cradle Manufacturing Company, now Lullabye Furniture...

"Canyon Lake Park was developed around the 1890s by the Upper Rapid City Company, who planted the Lombardy poplar trees that still line the roads of the park. Dr. Valentine McGillycuddy was a partner in the company that planned to develop Rapid Creek and Canyon Lake as a resort with a hotel and a railroad from the downtown area. The lake flooded out in 1907, and thirty years later the WPA rebuilt the lake and dam, adding the rock landscaping. Working in conjunction with the WPA, enrollees at the Custer State CCC camp spent two years in a side camp located...

Camp NA-1 was located in the National Arboretum, Washington, DC, and was home to Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Company 1360, an all African-American unit. Many of the enrollees in Company 1360 were young men from the city itself. Company 1360 formed on June 7, 1933 at Fort George Meade, Maryland and, after initial work assignments in Chester, Virginia (Camp P-61) and Williamsburg, Virginia (Camp SP-9), the men settled into Camp NA-1 in November 1934. From then until 1941 these young African American men made the earliest significant developments to the National Arboretum – a project of the Bureau of Plant Industry...

The creation of the Cedars of Lebanon State Park in Tennessee was a multifaceted joint project of the Resettlement Administration, the CCC, the forestry division, NPS and the WPA: "Project development began in the fall of 1935, with forestry personnel, along with RA and CCC workers, planting new seedlings of juniper cedar, black walnut, black locust, ash, yellow poplar, and mulberry trees. The crews introduced erosion controls and built roads and trails... The WPA constructed recreational facilities, including picnic areas, overlook shelters on the Jackson Cave Trail, and the original park lodge. Lebanon Cedar Forest was officially opened in September 1937...

From an Idaho Falls city press release: "In 1934, the city of Idaho Falls purchased land in Tautphaus Park, then called 'City Park,' and in 1935 the first zoo animals were brought to the park. Log buildings were erected throughout the park and financed as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project.  Some of these buildings can still be seen on zoo grounds and now serve as an education center and a storage barn."  

Cove Lake State Park, originally planned as Fort Mountain Park, was the third joint effort of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), and the National Parks Service (NPS). The initial 668-acre park was built along the banks of the lake created by the Caryville Dam (1936). The dam was built to minimize the flooding to Caryville from the Norris Dam (1933-1936) project down stream. Even with the Caryville Dam, some 70 structures including the First Baptist Church and a high school were demolished. In addition, Tennessee Highway 63 and US Highway 25 (Dixie Highway) required relocation....

The park existed before the Depression, but was completely rebuilt in 1934-41 by the WPA: "As ice skating grew popular in the Bronx around the turn of the century, Parks paved the perimeter of Indian Pond and installed a warming hut and concession stand for skaters. In the 1930s, Works Progress Administration (WPA) employees built the boathouse on the east side of the pond and entirely rebuilt the area around the lake. Other projects in Crotona Park completed during the tenure of Parks Commissioner Robert Moses (1888-1981) included the construction or renovation of five baseball diamonds, twenty tennis courts, twenty-six handball...

"Indian Pond and boathouse at Crotona Park, June 2014. The boat house was built by the WPA as part of the massive reconstruction of Crotona that was completed in 1941. The pond is covered with algae and choked with vegetation; it was restored in 2009 but then there was a problem with pond scum that has not yet been addressed... According to the Parks Department, the boathouse rented boats until the the 1970s. In 1984 it was briefly a nature center for Urban Park Rangers, and as of 2001, it's a nature center again."   (https://www.kermitproject.org)

Daingerfield State Park, located in Morris County, Texas, is a 506.913-acre recreational area (including an 80-surface-acre lake), deeded in 1935 by private owners and opened in 1938. The park offers picnicking, camping, boating, fishing, swimming, hiking and nature study. The original improvements were made by two companies of the Civilian Conservation Corps. Company 2891 and Company 1801(C) developed the park from 1935 to 1939. Both companies used local timber and stone as well as concrete to construct distinctive features. The companies built the entrance sign, boat house, fisherman’s barracks, combination building, Lake Daingerfield, retaining walls, culverts, steps, trails, two cabins and Park...

The boathouse on the east side of Echo Park Lake was constructed in 1932 with unemployment relief bonds that predated the New Deal program. With the reopening of Echo Park in 2013, after a $45 million renovation, the boathouse now contains a cafe and a boat rental kiosk.

In 1939-40, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) made substantial improvements to Ellis Lake Park, which was originally designed by landscape architect John McLaren in 1924 on an old slough of the Yuba River.  It is not clear how much of the park had been developed before the WPA came in to assist the city of Marysville.  The WPA workers dredged the lake, put cobblestone rip-rap on the banks, built rock lampposts for night illumination, and installed an ornamental fountain. They also added two tennis courts, a judging stand, a 20-ft. concrete and stone bridge to an island in the lake, and a...

In the early 1930s, the City of Austin acquired about 1008 acres of ash and juniper woodland west of the city with a mile of lake front on Lake Austin. In December 1939, Civilian Conservation Corps Company 1805 arrived at the site to develop the tract of land into a municipal park. The company's primary work included seeding and sodding grass, planting trees, and protecting the bank of the lake from erosion. They also cleared brush, built roads and developed permanent improvements to the site such as a bathhouse and concession stand. These wooden structures later burned and were replaced...

Waymarking: "The Yacht Basin was an undertaking of the WPA (Works Project Administration) that took two years to complete, employing local workers during the Depression. ... Located at Mile Marker 135 on the Okeechobee Waterway, 15 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico, Fort Myers Yacht Basin is a well designed and protected marina. It is owned and operated by the City of Fort Myers."

In 1933, a troop of men from the Civilian Conservation Corps troop V-1668, made up of veterans, started building what would become the Fullersburg Forest Preserve. The men built a caretakers cottage (Old Water Mill), a boathouse, bridges, and picnic shelters at the site. They also renovated a mill located at the site. The work in the park was largely finished by 1936 (Du Page Clerk), and by 1937 the historic Graue Mill, originally built in 1852, was functioning as an educational facility for the community (Sweet). The oldest standing part of the Fullersburg Forest Preserve is the Graue Mill. The...

The Seattle Park Department utilized funds and labor from the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to complete a series of improvement projects at Golden Gardens Park. Much of the work aimed at stabilizing the steep hillsides in the eastern section of the park. Between 1935 and 1936, WPA workers excavated more than 7500 cubic yards of earth from a landslide-prone area along Golden Gardens Drive and used it to fill in a low area north of the park bathhouse, adding two acres of usable beachfront to the park. During this period, workers also cleared timber and removed tree stumps throughout the eastern...

Miami and the surrounding Dade County were effectively without city or county parks until the 1930s.  The city got its first park in 1925, after which the city was devastated by a hurricane the following year. The county received its first donation of land for a park in 1929, which became Matheson Hammock Park.  In 1930, the park system got its own director and a beach park, Surfside, was added in 1932. The county began improvements on the parks using mostly convict labor and men sent by the Charity Office once the Depression hit, as well as starting a Roadside...

"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...

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,...

In the early 1930s, at a meeting of the Huntsville-Walker County Chamber of Commerce, it was suggested that a park be built around Huntsville. The Chamber of Commerce took the proposal to the Texas State Parks Board. The board required that the community provide the land for the park. Twenty thousand dollars in bonds would have to be sold by Walker County to pay for the land needed. In early 1936, the bond issue passed with more than four to one in favor of selling the bonds. From 1937 to 1942, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Company 1823(CV), an experienced company of...

"With its dependable water source, abundant fish and game, and natural beauty, the region of Central Texas around the Colorado River and present Inks Lake has been an inviting location for centuries, attracting Native American and German and Anglo settlers. In 1937 while running as a candidate for the surrounding Congressional district, Lyndon Baines Johnson promised voters that he would create a “Tennessee Valley Authority” type of transformation for the Colorado River, including dams for flood control and electricity, bridges and highways, and recreational facilities along the river. Johnson’s victory soon brought into being the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA)...

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...

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...

Kabetogama Lake CCC Camp number S-81, Company 724 was active in the Kabetogama State Forest from 1933-37. A marker at the site today describes CCC activity in the forest: "In 1934 a CCC camp of 400 men was established a mile south of Lake Kabetogama. This most northerly camp in the US had all its facilities under one roof and the lowest sickness rate.The CCC boys worked on forest and building projects in Kabetogama State Forest. In 1936 they fought and 18,100 acre forest fire saving the Kettle Falls Hotel from destruction. A few structures remain to memorialize this depression era program....

The CWA built the famous Key West Aquarium in 1934, amid a flurry of relief work by the FERA and the WPA on the island.

Constructed by the Public Works Administration (PWA) in 1938. Four large stone rings and elaborate stone entrance for walk in entry only; picnic area, playground and boat ramp. Memorial to Civil War Veterans. Concrete wall high on east side of Levee that becomes and 8' wall at entrance (all of concrete). Each stone circle has 2 built in fireplace/grills, built in bench a concrete table, a shield with a name and "1938." Each could accommodate about 100 people. The entry gates (pedestrian) open into a round plaza with a flag pole and have 2 relief panels each. The bath house...

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...

Pecan Bayou flooded the city of Brownwood in late September of 1900 causing considerable damage to the business district and washing away the train track that served the city. The citizens of Brown County looked for a way to control Pecan Bayou. They voted in 1926 to create the Brown County Water Improvement District. The water district acquired seven tracts of land for the purpose of building a dam on Pecan Bayou. The water district completed the dam in 1932 just before another flood swept down the Bayou quickly filling the reservoir. The Texas State Parks Board acquired 538 acres of...

This WPA boathouse was built in 1938, and is still standing: "This boathouse is a two-story, rectangular (34' x 68') structure constructed of cut, course, and rusticated native stone. It has a parapet roof... The lower level where boats dock, contains a small room that Claremore policemen once used as a jail. The roof is now made of tin and the doorway has a partial insert of wood attached, but these alterations do not impeach the integrity of the building. This structure is now designated for boat storage."   (Oklahoma Landmarks Inventory Nomination) Additional contributor note: "Lake Claremore is located on the northeast side...

Lake Corpus Christi State Park is situated along Lake Corpus Christi southwest of Mathis, Texas. The land was leased from the City of Corpus Christi in 1934 and the 356-acre park was opened the same year. The park is currently administered by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Lake Corpus Christi State Park was developed by Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Company 886. In 1934, the company formed Camp Kleberg, named for local Congressman Richard Mifflin Kleberg, a supporter of early New Deal programs including the CCC. The enrollees worked at Lake Corpus Christi until their transfer to Palmetto State Park in...

“To accommodate the influx of tourists, new park facilities were in demand. With CCC labor, the NPS developed beaches and outdoor facilities in three different areas of the Boulder Dam Recreational Area (later subsumed by Lake Mead National Recreation Area): Hemenway Wash near Boulder City, Overton Beach, and Pierce Ferry in Arizona. The park service’s CCC program accomplished its goals. NPS director Arno Cammerer was pleased with the ‘fine cooperation from the Civilian Conservation Corps.’ Enrollees and staff from the Boulder City and Overton camps provided the main labor force for the new recreation area. In addition to building campgrounds, other...

“To accommodate the influx of tourists, new park facilities were in demand. With CCC labor, the NPS developed beaches and outdoor facilities in three different areas of the Boulder Dam Recreational Area (later subsumed by Lake Mead National Recreation Area): Hemenway Wash near Boulder City, Overton Beach, and Pierce Ferry in Arizona. The park service’s CCC program accomplished its goals. NPS director Arno Cammerer was pleased with the ‘fine cooperation from the Civilian Conservation Corps.’ Enrollees and staff from the Boulder City and Overton camps provided the main labor force for the new recreation area. In addition to building campgrounds, other...

Construction on the man-made lake itself began in 1932 and was completed with help from the CCC: "In April of 1933, reforestation camps (Civilian Conservation Corps) were located in Iowa.  Camp #773, Camp Roosevelt Civilian Reforestation Army, was stationed at Lake Wapello.  George W. Vaughn was the army officer in charge of the men.  The 187 recruits assigned to Camp Roosevelt arrived on May 30th, the additional 25 men who completed the camp's enrollment were mustered from local unemployed men.  These men were assigned to gully erosion work, because erosion might dump crumbling tons of shore into the newly formed body...

"Psychological Color Chart; Dr. Oswald's Color Solid" (1940), oil on canvas, is in the west wing.

Beniamino Bufano created two sculptures for the Maritime Museum in 1942 with funding from the WPA Federal Art Project. "Seal" is a red granite sculpture, and "Animal" a black one.