Parks and Recreation Sites

"The first All-American race was held in Dayton in 1934. The following year, the race was moved to Akron because of its central location and hilly terrain. In 1936, Akron civic leaders recognized the need for a permanent track site for the youth racing classic and, through the efforts of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), Derby Downs became a reality."    (https://www.aasbd.org)

“Established in 1936, the Desert National Wildlife Range was created to protect the shrinking herds of desert bighorn sheep whose population had dipped to a record low of three hundred by the 1930s. The wildlife range is the largest in the county, subsuming 1.5 million acres of rugged mountain ranges and desert basins in the southern part of the state. The Fish and Wildlife Service purchased the old Corn Creek Spring Ranch in 1939 for this purpose. Compared to the permanent CCC programs at Ruby Lake and Sheldon NWRs, this FWS program was short-lived. CCC camp rosters show that Camp...

Seven CCC camps began planting slash and long leaf seedings in half of the DeSoto National Forest. Each camp of 115 men were planting 50,000 seedlings per day, anticipated to take three months to complete. The camps included Camps F-16 at Ramsey Springs, F-4 at Laurel, 5 at New Augusta, 7 at New Augusta, 8 at Richton, 12 at Biloxi, and 24 at Richton. The state nursery at Ramsey Springs supplied about 1,000,000 of the seedlings and the remainder came from Alexandria, Louisiana. Bridge construction began in the Bienville Ranger District of the DeSoto National Forest in May 1936. Bridges...

"DeSoto State Park is located in northeast Alabama, near Fort Payne. Named after Hernando de Soto, it was developed in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps after the Great Depression. The park's natural scenery includes more than 3,000 acres (12 km2) of forest, rivers, waterfalls, and beautiful mountain terrain. Its services include a lodge, cabins, a restaurant, modern chalets and campsites, a picnic area, a swimming pool, tennis courts, a nature center and miles of hiking trails."

It was known as the "Contact House" when originally constructed by the members of Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Company 472 of Ft. Payne, Alabama. Today it is a CCC museum within DeSoto State Park.

Formerly known as Liberty Park, this site was acquired by the City in late 1936. In July 1937, Parks announced that "the new playground...is the first section of a large recreational area which is being constructed to be completed. It is for small children and has slides, swings, see-saws, sand tables, play houses and a rectangular wading pool which can be used for volleyball when not in use as a pool. Benches and shade trees are also provided. When the entire area is completed, it will have facilities for baseball, football, tennis, roller-skating, basketball, horseshoe pitching and paddle tennis, as...

New Deal agencies undertook a variety of improvements at the Detroit Zoological Park in Royal Oak, Michigan. Between 1933 and 1937, the Civil Works Administration (CWA), the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) funded and built exhibits, service facilities, and buildings at the park. “The Federal Government, as means of alleviating the distressful unemployment condition in Detroit, appropriated funds in 1933-1934 under the CWA and the FERA for construction work at the Detroit Zoological Park. As a result, an extensive program was carried out which practically completed the western end of the park and comprised the...

New Deal agencies undertook a variety of improvements at the Detroit Zoological Park in Royal Oak, Michigan. Between 1933 and 1937, the Civil Works Administration (CWA), the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) funded and built exhibits, service facilities, and buildings at the park. The WPA carried out construction and landscaping in the park between 1935 and 1937. This investment resulted in the completion of an animal hospital and administration building.  (Detroit Zoo website)  

"Devil’s Den State Park in the Boston Mountains of northwest Arkansas is one of the best-preserved Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) park developments in the United States and contains the largest sandstone crevice cave area in the country. The park is popular for a variety of recreational opportunities and was designated a Natural Area by the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission. "The Arkansas Archeological Survey in 1979 recorded eleven archaeological sites at the park. Six sites are prehistoric and indicate the presence of Native Americans as far back as 8,000 years. Archaeological evidence of European-American settlement indicates that whites probably settled in the...

"Founded in 1911, Devil's Lake is the third oldest state park in Wisconsin, the largest, and the most visited. Devil's Lake offers magnificent views from 500-foot quartzite bluffs overlooking a 360-acre lake. Enjoy lakeshore picnic areas, sandy swimming beaches, 29 miles of hiking trails, or ease into the backcountry solitude. Devil's Lake is a beautiful year-round park with an intriguing natural history along the 1,000-mile Ice Age National Scenic Trail... The quarries were last put to use in the 1930s when the Civilian Conservation Corp used quartzite stone to build the park headquarters, the Rock Elm shelter, and the ranger headquarters. During...

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.

Devils Tower is a dramatic igneous rock formation rising 1,267 feet above the surrounding area. It and the surrounding area were declared a national monument in 1906. "From 1935-1938 a CCC camp was located there. Practically all the improvements on the area at the present time are the results of their efforts. New roads were built, modern water and electrical systems installed, footpaths were laid out, picnic areas were established with tables and comfortable benches, and trailer and overnight camping areas were provided the visitors. Residences for employees, workshops and machine shops were erected. In 1938 a museum of sturdy log...

Devoe Park "dates from 1915, but the playgrounds and athletic facilities were added by the Parks Department and WPA in 1935. This is one of seven NYC parks opened (or re-opened) on Friday, November 22, 1935, in a ceremony where the speakers were WPA Administrator Harry L. Hopkins, Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, Park Commissioner Robert Moses, and some other officials, as indicated in the NYC Parks Department Press Release for November 21 of that year. Playgrounds were added at each end of the park (that have been renovated since then), and then in 1941 the 'free play area' including...

Devou Park Band Shell was constructed by the Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.), as part of a $97,251 grant to the city for park improvements. The band shell was completed in the summer of 1939. "The Devou Park band shell was built as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project during the Great Depression and opened in 1939 to enthusiastic crowds. It continues to host great events and is home to the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra's Summer Concert Series."

The Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) worked to develop Devou Park, supplying a $97,251 grant to the city for park improvements. In addition to a band shell and shelter house, the W.P.A. constructed swimming pools at the park.

Also known as Stone Shelter, the Devou Park shelter house was constructed by the Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.), as part of a $97,251 grant to the city for park improvements. The shelter house, constructed of native fieldstone and containing a large fireplace, was ready for use by spring 1939."

Kagel Canyon is a "populated place" located within the boundaries of Angeles National Forest. In 1934, the Canyon acquired the land for Dexter Park. Between 1936 and 1939, the WPA helped install a water system in the canyon including two wells that served sufficiently until after World War II. By 1937, the WPA had constructed stone and masonry retaining walls and stairways. There is still a WPA plaque in one of the park walls, though some of the buildings were recently destroyed in an earthquake.    

The large gymnasium is standing by itself in a residential part of town, built on donated land that at the time was outside of the town proper. It has been in use since it was built and has been used for athletic events as well as for entertainment events by the community. Photographs were taken in a torrential downpour.

The Dey Mansion was originally constructed in the mid-18th century and was inhabited by the Dey family until 1801, when it was sold to a private owner. According the Dey Mansion official website, "In 1930, the now defunct Passaic County Park Commission purchased the Dey Mansion, together with several barns and 55 acres of land. A plan of restoration was developed under the direction of Charles OverCornelius who was a former Associate Curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a recognized authority on early American architecture" (passaiccountynj.org). The restoration was undertaken by the Civil Works Administration (CWA), which restored...

The visitor center at Diamond Lake, across from the campground, was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1938. It is a typical rustic-style building of the northwest forests, with stone foundation and stairs, wood siding, and tree designs cut into the shutters. It was probably originally built as a Forest Service ranger station or office. The whole Diamond Lake recreation area was still closed for winter when we visited in May 2022.  That meant that the sign and all information panels were still covered in black plastic and we could not see if the site is marked as CCC.

The Works Progress Administration built the band shell in Riverside Park, Findlay, Ohio. It was named in honor of a long-time musician and master of ceremonies, June 23, 2004.

The zoo was established in 1922, but was only developed with the help of the WPA for both labor and funds in the 1930s.  The walkways, stone bridges, stone walls, and stone buildings date from the WPA development.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the impressive Recreation Area in Dimond Park at the foot of the Sausal Creek canyon in East Oakland in 1936. In late 1935, the WPA approved $38,000 in grants for this project out of over $1 million allotted for various works in the city of Oakland. WPA workers laid out a recreation area where the Sausal Creek flood plain widens as it exits the canyon, laying out fields, picnic areas, amphitheater seating, benches and retaining walls.   There is a lovely redwood grove where the two main picnic clusters (with BBQ pits) are located, and...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) prepared the way for Dimond Park in 1936, in coordination with the Oakland Parks Department.  The relief workers cleared trees and brush from the steep Sausal Creek Canyon before constructing the Recreation Area, reworking the creek bed and building trails. In late 1935, the WPA approved $38,000 for this project out of over $1 million allotted for various works in the city of Oakland. There are trails running up the canyon on both sides of Sausal Creek from the Recreation Area to just beyond the Leimert Street bridge, which then join and soon climb up the south...

The availability of was key in reshaping the Dinkey Creek area. Fresno County was realigning State Route 168, and subsequently the Sierra National Forest would reconstruct the Dinkey Road from Shaver Lake with CCC labor. By 1936 the road was extended beyond Dinkey Creek. This reconstruction required a new motor vehicle bridge and by 1938, the new Dinkey Creek Bridge was built by the , and the pattern of traffic had changed from the earlier days. With the change in the road, a change in location of the Forest Service site made sense, and a new ranger station was built...

In 1909, an abundance of dinosaur fossils were discovered  by a team of paleontologists collecting for the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, near Jensen, Utah. It was one of the most important dinosaur excavation sites in the United States at the time. In 1915, President Woodrow Wilson set aside 80 acres around the fossil discovery site as a National Monument. President Franklin Roosevelt expanded the monument to its present size of nearly 200,000 acres in 1938. About 3/4th of the enlarged monument lies in Colorado, making this one of the few bi-state national parks or monuments.  It is administered by the...

"R. L. Bronson, secretary of the Rapid City Chamber of Commerce, first propositioned the idea of a Dinosaur Park to federal agencies after visiting the Chicago Century of Progress Exposition and viewed a mechanically operated reproduction of a brontosaurus. The government approved the five prehistoric sculptures, Triceratops, Triconodon, Brontosaurus, Stegosaurus, and Tyrannosaurus Rex, allowing WPA Project 960 to begin excavation work in March, 1936. An engineer, H. H. Babcock, initially supervised twenty workers as they prepared an area south of Hangmans Hill for the life-size reproductions. An office building that sat on the rim of the Stratobowl during the Stratosphere...

The Distin Lake Shelter Cabin is a cabin on the Admiralty Island Canoe Route. The Civilian Conservation Corps built the structure in 1936 as a three-sided Adirondack style log shelter cabin. “The addition of a fourth wall, floor, wood stove, and bunks in 1960 did not alter the Adirondack style of the three original walls and roof. It is, however, only nominated for its association with the canoe route and not for its architectural style. The natural setting is unchanged from its appearance during the 1930s except for the addition of a wood shed and an outhouse. The shelter cabin continues...

Works Progress Administration (WPA) laborers worked to clear land in preparation for the creation of a seven-mile diversion canal that would connect Lake Marion and Lake Moultrie, part of the Santee Cooper Project. South Carolina Encyclopedia: "Following a four-year court battle, construction began in 1939. At its peak, the project employed nearly fifteen thousand workers, most of whom came from Depression relief rolls. Living in military-style camps scattered throughout the Santee and Pinopolis basins, the laborers cleared more than 160,000 acres with handsaws and mule-drawn wagons. They hauled dirt and clay to dam sites, built railroads, relocated cemeteries, and aided in...

The Dixie Springs Lake was one of the first projects initiated in Pike County by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Work began in early November 1935 when 20 men began clearing the site. Efforts were made for early completion of the Dixie Springs Lake project, which was also sponsored by the State Game and Fish Commission and would serve as a refuge for waterfowl and for fish breeding. Engineer J. Wesley Brown completed the survey and plans for the Dixie Springs dam and lake project. After a number of delays, the spillway was almost completed by 1939. Dixie Springs Lake...

"n May 1934, CCC Company 917 was transferred from Camp San Pablo in Contra Costa County to Camp Rubicon Point in D.L. Bliss State Park. The camp was located south of Balancing Rock and east of Highway 89. The approved development plan for the park called for construction of a two-mile-long entrance road from the highway down to the beach. Other shorter roads were also built to serve a campground and other points of interest." "A fully furnished campground and picnic areas were also developed, complete with a water supply and distribution system for the whole park....

A chain of lakes for the hill counties of Mississippi was proposed in 1936 by Si Corley, director of conservation of the State Game and Fish commission. Funds from the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in concert with the sponsorship of the Game and Fish commission began the construction of a series of lakes adjacent to cities including Dockery Lake near Byram. Dockery Lake completed an earthen dam by April 1937 and began sodding it. Corley pointed out that in addition to providing sites for outdoor sports, when fully stocked, the lakes could produce 2,000 pounds of fish per acre each...

"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."

The Doctors Park Bathhouse in Bayside, Wisconsin, a northern suburb of Milwaukee, is adjacent to Tietjen Beach on Lake Michigan and within 75 feet of the shoreline. This former bathhouse was constructed as a Work Projects Administration (WPA) project in 1939-1940, part of a far broader county-wide park improvement program undertaken by the New Deal agency. While the park straddles Bayside and Fox Point, the bathhouse is located north of the border, in Bayside. For many decades the bathhouse provided a place to change into a swimsuit and shower off sand before heading for home. the building housed lifeguards to...

"The most visible legacy of WPA projects in Milwaukee County was the parks system, which had more construction and landscaping during the WPA period than any other time in its history. WPA construction included six swimming pools, pavilions at Red Arrow and Brown Deer Parks, service buildings at Jacobus, Jackson and Whitnall Parks, the Botanical Garden administration building and golf club house at Whitnall Park, a bathhouse at Doctor's Park, a recreation center at Smith Park, new roads in nearly every park, and parkways throughout the county."

"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...

The Dolly Sods Wilderness is 17,371 acres of natural area, located in Grant, Randolph, and Tucker counties, West Virginia. Visitors to the area can enjoy hiking, hunting, camping, and picnic areas. Dolly Sods Wilderness has regulations intended to preserve its natural appearance as much as possible. For example, no camping is allowed within 300 feet of the roads. According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, logging activities damaged the Dolly Sods area in the late 1800s / early 1900s and “The U.S. Forest Service purchased the land, and during the 1930s the Civilian Conservation Corps planted red pine and other...

Built 16 sets of horseshoe courts for local use.--Healy, p. 67. The park was the property of the San Francisco Unified School District and is the current site of the Zaida T. Rodriguez Child Development Center

On October 1937, Parks announced the opening of a new playground in what later became known as Dome Playground: "At Dahill Road and 38th Street, also in Brooklyn, the new playground, the wading pool section of which was opened some time ago, has facilities for handball, basketball, volley ball, soft ball games, a roller skating track, horizontal ladders and bars and a generously equipped small children's playground with slides, swings, see-saws, playhouse and sand tables. Shade trees and permanent concrete benches are also included in the design. This area is another one of the twenty-four sites selected by the Commissioner of...

Fieldstone structure built by the Works Progress Administration in 1935 for grange meetings. Also has been used as a city hall and library. Still in use as a grange hall. According to Brian Scott (The Historical Marker Database) "Construction in 1935 by local Works Progress Administration (WPA) labor on land donated by W. Maxie Agnew, the building served originally as the home of the town hall, the grange, and the public library. Since its inception, the fieldstone building has been the meeting hall for the agricultural organization known locally and most commonly as the Donalds Grange."