Parks and Recreation Sites

This Lake Michigan Beach House in Ludington State Park was built by the CCC. Under the direction of the National Park Service, the CCC built roads, retaining walls, campgrounds, hiking trails, the park’s headquarters, and the Lake Michigan Beach House. Designed by renowned NPS architect Ralph B. Herrick, the one-of-a-kind, arts-and-crafts-style Beach House is regarded as the crown jewel of Michigan’s park system. The CCC Boys hand dug the foundation, water system, and septic field for the 116-foot building. A deal struck with the Morton Salt Company in the nearby town of Ludington had the CCC tear down a derelict salt...

The federal Works Progress Administration worked to improve the facilities of Luke Easter Park in Cleveland. "Ten baseball diamonds were later added, along with clay tennis courts, a football field, a running track, an office and service building, and landscaping. Much of this work was done in 1936 under the WPA."

Lummus Park is a beach-side park stretching along the Eastern side of Ocean Dr. from 5th - 15th streets. Under FERA projects 13-129: 13-B3-146, federal workers built 8 new shuffleboard courts and a new concrete-floored pavilion. The park was renovated in the 1980s. The shuffleboard courts are no longer there. It is unknown to the Living New Deal whether the pavilion is still extant or not.

Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) workers constructed a bathing beach at Luther Park at Lake Whittemore in Spencer, Massachusetts. From a W.P.A. Bulletin: Down came an old dance pavilion, 300,000 square feet of scratchy brush was cleared and for replacement the Spencer WPA Luther Park Bathing Beach Project now offers a sanded beach with swimming accessories, a 20 section locker house, fireplaces, tables, chairs, benches and a gravel driveway.

This ballpark (also known as Calvin Falwell Field) was built with the assistance of WPA funds is currently home to the Lynchburg Hillcats, a Minor League baseball team. "The ballpark project began in 1936, after the city purchased 28 acres of land ... for $30,000. City Stadium was completed in 1939, thanks in part to a $100,000 grant from the Works Progress Administration. The city contributed the remaining $190,000."

Lynn Woods Reservation was founded in 1881 by local residents and remains under jurisdiction of the city of Lynn. Lynn Woods contains over 30 miles of trails for hiking, biking, running, and horseback riding. Three active reservoirs exist in the forest and create pond-like scenery and a nice feel for those looking to enjoy the outdoors. It is the second largest municipal park in the United States, with over 2,200 acres of forest. In the center of the park, Burrill Hill is elevated at 285 feet above sea level and Stone Tower sits on top of the hill at 48...

The Works Progress Administration built tennis courts in Lyons Park in Mobile. The park is still in service today under the name Lyons Park Tennis Center.

CCC Camp SP-1, 1191 was established in Macedonia Brook State Park in 1935. The CCC "did much site development here in the 1930s, including construction of a pavilion and a carriage road with massive retaining walls constructed without mortar." (www.townofkentct.org) The road, built from 1935-37, is now used for hiking and skiing. "What makes the road so outstanding is that its solid workmanship was performed by young men who had little skill in road construction other than the ability to perform hard labor day in and day out. But 75 years after its completion, the craftsmanship has mostly survived the ravages...

Mackenzie Field is located in Holyoke, Massachusetts, next to Holyoke High School. In 1938, the concrete bleachers on the 1st base side of the field are a WPA project done at a cost of $35,392.

Mackenzie State Recreation Area, commonly referred to as Mackenzie Park, is located in the northeast portion of Lubbock. The park was first built in 1921, and included a pool and a golf course. During the Depression city leaders desired to expand the park and a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp was established that constructed roads, bridges, recreation facilities, and landscaping. The majority of CCC buildings no longer exist, but the landscaping and improvements still remain. The park currently has a golf course, swimming pool, recreation building, camping and picnicking facilities, a small amusement park, and a prairie dog town. The small...

Macleay Park, a 130-acre portion of the City of Portland's enormous Forest Park, was the site of Works Progress Administration (WPA) works projects during the mid-1930s. WPA workers built several miles of trails,  access roads, and comfort stations, improving a park that provided access to nature within a short distance of the city center. The Stone House, shown in the photo, is a stone restroom facility that serves as a popular stop along the lower Macleay Park trail. Given its similarity to other comfort stations constructed with New Deal aid, the structure is often wrongly attributed to the WPA. In fact, it...

Located in College Point, this green space on the East River is built on the grounds of an old mansion. It was originally known as Chisolm Park: "In 1930 the City of New York acquired the mansion and its grounds for a public park. The Parks Department improved the property with a new playground, football field, roller skating rink, baseball diamond, and picnic grounds. Popular with picnickers, the waterfront property was known alternatively as Chisholm Park (a variant spelling of the Chisolm family’s name) and College Point Shore Front Park. Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia made the Chisolm mansion his summer City Hall...

The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) funded improvements at the Macomb Playground in Washington DC between 1935 and 1936. The crews graded 1,500 cubic yards.  

The New York City Parks Department Press Release for October 14, 1935 announces the opening of a new playground at the site of what was later called Macombs Dam Park, with some or all of the following amenities: wading pools, handball courts, basketball courts, jungle gyms, swings, slides, seesaws, and other outdoor gymnasium equipment. Macombs Dam Park was not a New Deal creation; it was first opened in 1899 and was famous for its athletic fields (see history). But the press release confirms that at least one playground was added to it by the Parks Department during the New Deal. Later...

Early Twin Bridges offered few public gathering places, and so these fifty acres, once part of the Lott and Seidensticker homesteads, were developed as “The Park” in 1887. A “harvest home barbecue” was held that year, and two years later the event had blossomed into the first annual county fair. Early fairs were privately run and later partially supported by the county. Then, as now, the fair gave ranchers and farmers a chance to show their best produce and livestock while promoting local pride and friendly rivalry. In 1928, a depressed economy curtailed the event and in 1930 Madison County...

WPA engineer C. D. Paxton designed this impressive octagonal community building as part of the federally funded project to rebuild the fairground in 1936. Master log craftsman Tosten Stenberg of WPA headquarters in Livingston supervised the building. The primary construction material is lodgepole pine, chosen for its uniformity and harvested at nearby Ramshorn Creek. Logs are bias-cut and saddle-notched. Poles radiating from a central lantern form the interior rafters and afford a floor space of one hundred feet in diameter. Besides serving as the main hall during fair time, the Pavilion has long been a favorite place for building memories,...

Madison Park, located at the eastern end of Madison Streeet, next to Lake Washington, was the site of several small Works Progress Administration (WPA) projects. The first of these projects involved the replacement of the park's clay tennis courts near the intersection of East Blaine Street and 42nd Avenue East. Installed in 1936, the new tennis courts were built with reinforced concrete, which the Park Department preferred due to lower maintenance costs and their potential use for other recreational activities, such as roller skating. Then, in the spring of 1937, WPA workers began remodeling the park's bathhouse, a wood-frame structure originally...

In 1927, the Seattle Park Department acquired the site for Madrona Playground at East Spring Street and 34th Avenue. The playground site received a few improvements during the late 1920s and early 1930s, including the grading of the playfield and the construction of a pair of concrete tennis courts, but otherwise remained mostly undeveloped until the late 1930s, when increased Works Progress Administration funding allowed the completion of several improvement projects. These improvement projects included the construction of a new brick shelter house near the north end of the playground. Begun in 1938 and completed in 1939, the shelter house...

During the late 1930s, with funding assistance from the Works Progress Administration, the Seattle Park Department upgraded Madrona Playground. The largest component of the improvement project was the construction of a new shelter house near the north end of the playground, immediately east of an already existing pair of tennis courts. WPA workers began constructing the shelter house in 1938. Completed the following year, the one-story, brick structure housed a recreational playroom, instructor's room, caretaker's room, and men's and women's restrooms. Interior features included hardwood floors and a fireplace at the north end of the recreation room. Significant renovation work...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) conducted multiple projects to develop Magnetic Park in Plymouth, Indiana. The New Deal agency constructed a barn, the Conservation Club House, and a fish hatchery with a capacity of 10,000 fingerlings.

Magruder Park is Hyattsville's major park facility. According to an index of WPA projects in the National Archives the WPA worked on the park in 1935, improving the park, clearing the stream, constructing playground courts, a wading pool and curbs and installing playground equipment.

The land for Mahoney Playground was acquired in two parts in 1933 and in 1961. Parks announced the opening of a new playground on the first half in 1937, with "a fully equipped small children's section besides facilities for handball, basketball, horseshoe pitching, paddle tennis, shuffle board and Softball for older children and adults. Here, too, benches and shade trees are also provided." Although the 1937 press release does not mention the WPA or other New Deal agencies, researcher Frank da Cruz explains here that almost all New York City Parks Department projects between 1934 and 1943 were carried out with...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) developed Vermont's Maidstone State Park during the 1930s. "Maidstone was designated by the state of Vermont as a state park in 1938. The camp areas were wilderness, but the area around the lodge was a Civilian Conservation Corps camp. The CCC built many sites with fireplaces for camping, the lodge, and a picnic shelter, which are still in use today."

The Group Utility Building (original name) in Yosemite Valley opened 1935.  It was funded by the Public Works Administration (PWA). The utility building consolidated a hodgepodge of old shops, forges, storage and maintenance into one facility.  It also provided three bays for fire trucks. It is a mammoth structure covering 18,548 square feet and lacking in any architectural niceties, hence popularly known as "Fort Yosemite."  Despite its size, however, very few visitors ever see it or know of it.  It is tucked away in the maintenance and parking areas north of the Visitors' Center and Yosemite Museum.

The state historical marker erected at this site describes the still standing arched entryway to the now demolished Majors Stadium as having been built by the Works Progress Administration in 1940.

    As noted in the State of Oregon's Historic Preservation database: "The John Day Compound, Supervisor's Warehouse is a complex of work buildings, employee residences, and related infrastructure owned an operated by the Malheur National Forest in John Day, Oregon, United States. Built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1936–1942, it is the headquarters for field operations in the national forest and is typical of projects carried out by the CCC on behalf of the Forest Service. It represents that era's shift in the Forest Service's architectural vision toward comprehensive site planning, as well as its policy evolution from custodial superintendence...

The federal Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) worked to develop southeast Oregon's Malheur National Wildlife Refuge during the 1930s. "The Refuge was expanded on February 21st, 1935 to incorporate the 164,503 acre Blitzen Valley. The Blitzen Valley was purchased using funds made available under provisions of the Act for the Relief of Unemployment through the Performance of Useful Public Works and the National Industrial Act as established under Executive Order 7106 signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt, July 19th, 1935. Between April and July, 1935 three CCC camps were established on Malheur refuge to fulfill that purpose." (www.fws.gov) The CCC built refuge buildings as well...

W.P.A. project descriptions: "Malibu Beach; a parking space of about 3,000 square yards was constructed at the beach, off the Old Colony Parkway, Dorchester" Old Colony Parkway has since been renamed Morrissey Blvd.

In 1935, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) built a clubhouse and tennis court at Mallows Park in Claremont, CA. The club house survives in near original condition; the tennis court has been updated over the years.

Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) labor created Malone Park in Chelsea, Mass.

Now known as the Malvern Hills Pool, the Civil Works Administration (CWA) and Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) supplied labor for the construction / improvement of what was called the Horney Heights Swimming Pool, named for a development of the same name in West Asheville. The pool is operated by Asheville City Pools. Regarding CWA/ERA work in North Carolina: "Twenty-one concrete swimming pools, equipped with filtering systems (not including the pool at Asheville which was almost completed when transferred to WPA)."

Mammoth Cave National Park in central Kentucky encompasses portions of Mammoth Cave, the longest cave system known in the world. The National Park Service website describes CCC work on the park: “…the Civilian Conservation Corps arrived on the scene to begin developing the property for use as a national park. The roads were little more than wagon ruts, impassable in wet weather. The trails within the cave remained rough, the same flagstone paths Stephen Bishop and others laid out almost a hundred years before. No communications were available; there was no housing; the water system was crippled. Four camps of CCC workers...

The Manitou Experimental Forest (MEF) is part of the USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station, located in Pike National Forest. "Built between 1937 and 1939, this collection of six architecturally significant sandstone buildings represents some of the finest Depression-era construction in Colorado. As one of only two experimental forest stations in the state, the property is also significant in the areas of conservation and agriculture. The WPA constructed the buildings as part of the Farm Security Administration’s Fountain Creek Southeast Project."   (www,historycolorado.org)

The former 17,000-seat Manning Bowl was constructed by the federal Works Progress Administration between 1936 and 1938. The facility was demolished in 2004. WPA Bulletin, 1937: "At 10 o'clock Thanksgiving Day morning football teams of the Lynn Classical and Lynn English High Schools will be the first to use the huge Lynn WPA Municipal Stadium now under construction. The stadium will not be finished at that time, so the game must be considered as a pre-dication event. We recommend the contest to all who can possibly attend. In addition to seeing how far work has progressed on this splendid recreational site...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) constructed a basic USDA Forest Service campsite next to Sheep Creek in the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area.

The Manteo School Gym, a large white building near the corner of Devon Street and US Highway 64 was built by the Works Progress Administration. The building was recently demolished.

This large stone building was completed by the WPA in 1938 along with a swimming pool. The pool has since been replaced by a modern pool, but the large bathhouse and attached buildings have been repurposed as the Maplewood Public Library. When it was built, the pool was segregated with this being a white only pool.

"The first park land was purchased in 1921. However, the majority of the park facilities were not constructed until the 1930's by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Both programs resulted from the federal government effort to make work for Americans during the Great Depression. Their work included the stone lodge, Dancehall Cave walkway system, stone picnic circle and several hexagonal picnic shelters along the trail. Some of these structures have been restored and efforts continue." -Iowa Department of Natural Resources  

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) constructed Chippewa National Forest's Marcell Ranger Station between 1934 and 1936, and it is now part of the National Register of Historic Places.   Five of the original six buildings, all constructed in the Rustic style, are extant. The buildings were meant to "serve as the administrative headquarters for the Marcell Ranger District, which was established in 1933-34" (edgeofthewilderness). In fact, "The facility represents the only surviving example of a Rustic Style ranger station on the Chippewa National Forest and is believed to represent the best developed example of a Rustic Style ranger station in the state"...

Parks acquired what is now Marconi Park "on February 15, 1938, for the benefit of the adjacent P.S. 40 (William Wordsworth School) and the South Jamaica community. The playground opened on June 26, 1939, under the administration of Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia" (NYC Parks). On June 30, 1939, the Department of Parks held official opening ceremonies for the park, attended by Mayor LaGuardia and Robert Moses among others. The press release announcing the opening described the work done on the site: "South of the school, the one block square area developed to care for older children and adults has been provided...