Parks and Recreation Sites

In 1933, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) workers stationed in the Bridger-Teton National Forest constructed the Granite Hot Springs Swimming Pool recreational site by building a deck, changing room, and campground around the natural springs. Today, the Granite Hot Springs Swimming Pool is used by tourists and Wyoming residents alike. Water temperatures range from 93° in the summer to 112° in the winter. A historical marker placed near the site describes the CCC’s work on the swimming pool. No doubt, the deck has been renovated over the years.

"A major park that African Americans on the west side frequented was Grant Park, located at 3rd Avenue and Grant Street. Grant Park existed as an empty lot with grass and trees until the city Parks and Recreation Department renovated it in 1934 through Civil Works Administration funding. In 1937 Works Progress Administration funding provided for the construction at Eastlake Park of a bathhouse, showers, and dressing rooms for the pool. Two years later, the city added lights, swings, sandboxes, sports facilities, and equipment. The park added a bandstand, tennis courts, and a recreation hall where teens in the 1950s...

"The temporary Grant Park bathhouse at the foot of Lake Michigan was replaced by the WPA with a permanent building of Colonial design, complete with open-air dressing yards that sat on a raised stone terrace overlooking the beach and lake. The furniture on the terrace was also designed and built by skilled craftsman who worked under federal programs. "

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) worked to improve Atlanta's Grant Park ca. 1936.

"West Salem's own Granville Park has the WPA's mark in its majestic gazebo and its artful bridges."

Prior to colonial settlement, the area of Granville State Forest was inhabited by the Tunxis Native American tribe. In the mid-1700s, English pioneer Samuel Hubbard purchased the land for farming and pasturage, and the river that runs through the forest is now named the Hubbard River. The property was bought and owned by Tiffany and Pickett Lumber Company near the turn of the 20th century. In the 1920s, the Commonwealth obtained the land from the lumber company but little improvements were made before the CCC Camp was established. The Civilian Conservation Corps began work on Granville State Forest in 1933. CCC...

Today, Grapevine Springs Preserve is completely surrounded by the City of Coppell, but, in 1843, it was a wilderness where Sam Houston, then President of the Republic of Texas, and others camped while successfully negotiating a peace treaty with local Native American tribes. Dallas County accepted the donation of the land for a park in 1936. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) turned the area into a public park and built the rock-lined channel, walls, flumes, bridge abutments, grills, and paths that still exist. During World War II, the land reverted to prior owners. The Baptist Foundation of Texas acquired the property, and...

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...

"Graydon Park is at the heart of the Village of Ridgewood – its seven acres of open space provide an oasis of green parkland for the residents of this densely developed suburb. Celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, this historic park is home to a threatened unique resource – Graydon Pool. This 2.68 acre natural, sandy-bottomed spring-fed swimming pond, was constructed in 1926 as part of a larger national movement to create municipal parks and pools to promote community interaction. The pool (or pool/lake, called a "plake") was enlarged to its current size as part of a Works Progress Administration...

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...

The CCC built comfort stations out of rustic stone at the Chimneys Picnic Area.

The WPA re-landscaped and repaired park walks.

The amphitheater, located on the campus of Southern Arkansas University, was constructed by the NYA in 1936-38.

Multiple New Deal agencies worked to develop Green Brook Park in Plainfield, New Jersey beginning in 1933. The project involved the construction of a 1.55-acre artificial lake (which could be converted into an ice skating rink during the winter); the stocking of said lake with fish; the building of a footbridge across the brook; grass seeding; small dams to create modest waterfalls along the brook; paths around the lake and through the park; construction of a baseball diamond; and the planting of more than 2,000 trees, shrubs, and other plants.

The Works Progress administration built the City Park in Green, KS in 1938. Project no. 7392. The exact location of this park is unknown to the Living New Deal.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) constructed a bath house at Green Fall Pond / in Voluntown, Connecticut. The exact location and status of the facility are presently unknown to Living New Deal.

"During the Great Depression (1929-1939), the New York State Department of Conservation (under the administration of then-governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt) and later the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) constructed the park's roads, buildings, cabins, golf course and trails. CCC camps for project SP-12 were created on the property of the park. CCC company 1203, and subsequently 2211 (a company of veterans of the 1898 Spanish–American War), were assigned to the project. These men hauled loads of sand from Sylvan Beach (on nearby Oneida Lake) to create a sandy beach; they dug the basements of the park buildings by hand. The CCC...

"Green Lakes State Park has an 18-hole public golf course designed by Robert Trent Jones in 1935. The course was one of Trent Jones' earliest; ultimately, he was credited with designing about 500 courses. In lieu of payment for its design, he was given a ten-year lease for $1.00/year. Jones opened the course on May 6, 1936."

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) developed Green Mountain National Forest in Vermont during the 1930s. "The Depression-era legacy of the Civilian Conservation Corps (established in 1933 as part of Roosevelt’s “New Deal”) is reflected on the Forest. At one time during the 1930's there were 5 active CCC camps on the Forest (Mt Tabor, Weston, Peru, West River and Rochester).  The men at these camps built roads, trails and campgrounds, fought fires, planted trees and generally established much of the infrastructure of the early National Forest. Today a few of the buildings and many of the features, travel ways and landscapes...

At 47,560 acres, Green Ridge State Forest is the second largest state forest in Maryland and the “largest contiguous block of public land in Maryland.” It offers opportunities for target shooting, hunting, fishing, primitive camping, hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding, a driving tour, “geocaching” (see https://www.geocaching.com/), and paddling. According to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, “The first forest management activities at Green Ridge were performed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the 1930’s. Their main focus was fire control. Other work consisted of building roads, trails, recreation enhancements, and the management of existing forest for its future timber and...

Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) workers developed recreation improvements at Greenfield's Green River Swimming and Recreation Area and Murphy Park, during the 1930s. WPA Bulletin: Children of Greenfield have benefited by the WPA construction of a new bath house and other improvements at the Greenfield Swimming Pool. Tennis courts and a soft ball diamond were built in the adjoining public park property.

Green Valley was the main of two CCC camps in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) completed improvements at the municipal Greenbelt Golf Course in Columbus, IN. The Evening Republican, (1/12/1939) states that the funds allocated amounted to "$28,399 for improvements at city golf course." The article describes the approval of the WPA project including improvements to the golf course, flood control work—straightening the creek bed and widening the channel at the Tenth Street bridge—on the creek through the property, and construction of picnic grounds (now removed). An article in The Evening Republican (5/4/1939) describes the rescue of a swimmer near the "dam at the golf course" and notes that WPA workers from...

"A large outdoor swimming pool was constructed at Greenfield Park by the WPA to serve the western part of the community. The water supply was obtained from a deep well, pumped into small lagoons, or warming basins, where it was tempered by the atmosphere and then chemically treated before entering the pool."

WPA crews constructed the Greenhaven Golf Course, originally a nine-hole course, in 1937. It is now part of Greenhaven Country Club.

The Greensboro Country Park in Greensboro NC is the city's oldest recreational park. It was built by the Public Works Administration in 1934. The Guilford Courthouse National Military Park was also developed and transferred to NPS in 1933 with a new museum (1937; longer standing) and museum exhibits by the Works Progress Administration and tour road construction by Civilian Conservation Corps.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) conducted extensive development work at Grand Canyon Village. At the same time, the lesser-known and short-lived Civil Works Administration (CWA) of winter 1933-34 developed a path at the village in early 1934. A period photograph shows this as being a stone-lined path near Navajo Road. The information and photograph are consistent with the Grand Canyon Village Greenway.

Today's NYC Parks site explains: "Greenwood Playground is bounded by Fort Hamilton Parkway, and Prospect and Greenwood Avenues." "Greenwood Playground first opened to the public on December 19, 1935, as one of hundreds of Works Progress Administration-era playgrounds commissioned throughout the city, and built under the direction of Parks Commissioner Robert Moses (1888-1981). It contained a recreational building, a large wading pool, and standard playground features such as seesaws, monkey bars, slides, handball courts, and an open play area. At the time, its single acre was surrounded by residential lots to the east and the Greenwood Avenue Methodist Church to the...

This shelter was constructed by the Public Works Administration (PWA) in 1937.

Grevillea park is graced by an gargantuan mosaic mural, called "History of Transportation."  This extraordinary mural is 8 feet high and 240 feet long, composed of 60 panels. It is made of cast concrete and terrazzo paneled walls.  It is the largest petrachrome mural in the world and one of the last examples of petrachrome mosaic art (that is, made up of tiny stones). The mural was created by artist Helen Lundeberg with the support of the New Deal Federal Art Project in 1939-42.  (The FAP was part of the Works Progress Administration, or WPA). Originally installed in the nearby Centinela Park,...

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...

"On Oct. 3, 1933, tragedy struck in the Mineral Wells area of Griffith Park. More than 1,500 public-relief workers in the park came rushing to put out a brush fire. Some climbed down into the steep canyon to fight the blaze, but having no firefighting experience, 29 of the workers were engulfed by fire and died. Two years later the WPA rebuilt the clubhouse that had burned in the fire." - https://articles.latimes.com/1993-11-22/local/me-59618_1_wpa-art-projects/2 "Following the fire which destroyed the original clubhouse, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Work Progress Administration built the current Clubhouse in 1937. Constructed in the Spanish Revival Architectural Style, the Clubhouse...

The Astronomers Monument at Griffith Observatory is one of L. Archibald Garner's well-known public works. It was completed in 1934 with Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) support. The Monument pays homage to six great astronomers: Hipparchus, Nicolas Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler, Isaac Newton, and William Herschel. Although the Monument was Garner's design, he worked with five other sculptors to sculpt and cast it. Each artist was responsible for one astronomer. (One of the artists, George Stanley, was also the creator of the famous "Oscar" statuette.) "On November 25, 1934 (about six months prior to the opening of the Observatory), a...

"WPA funds were responsible for various projects in park, including construction of a 9 hole golf course on the former Griffith Reservation. At the urging of Mayor Frank Shaw, it was named in honor of President Roosevelt in 1937."

The CWA or the RFC (which early on in the New Deal directly hired temporary day labor) constructed a 12 court tennis complex in Griffith Park. Rubble wall construction typifies work done by the ND throughout the park.

A mission revival style building. In July 1933, the Illustrated Daily News reported that under various projects that were being initiated under the CWA and CCC in Griffith Park as part of the first large wave of mass employment projects was a club house and a sprinkler system for the golf course at a cost of $128,988. The plaque on the clubhouse though says Built by the United States Works Progress Administration 1937

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) remodeled the Grimes County Courthouse in Anderson, Texas, in 1940. WPA crews installed a tile roof, cleaned and painted the building facade, installed tile floors, built outside stairs, plastered the interior walls, and landscaped the grounds.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) worked to develop Groton State Forest and multiple state parks attendant with the state forest, including New Discovery, Kettle Pond, Stillwater, and Ricker Pond State Parks. The CCC conducted reforestation work, developed trails and roads, and constructed campgrounds and shelters. According to a 1988 Groton State Forest History Guide, the CCC road started the construction of the main forest road (Route 232).  

The land for Grover Cleveland Park was first established in the 1920s. It acquired its present name in 1939. In June 1940, the Department of Parks announced the completion of the WPA's reconstruction of the park: "This five-acre park has been redesigned and reconstructed to provide a wider all year round usage. Approximately three-quarters of the area is set aside for active recreation. There is now a completely equipped separate small pre-school children's playground, a wading pool which can be used for basketball, and three paddle tennis courts, a volleyball court, and three shuffleboard courts for older children. For adults, there is...

"In the late 1930s, after the property had been donated by the Tennessee Consolidated Coal Company, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) reclaimed the land, built the lakes, planted new trees and foliage, and constructed recreational facilities. The considerable CCC effort turned a wasteland into new recreational opportunities for a community that had been devastated by the Great Depression. Grundy Forest began as another CCC project in 1935, after local residents purchased 211 acres and donated it to the state for use as a CCC camp. CCC Company 1475 moved to the site on June 29, 1935. It built the first...