Parks and Recreation Sites

From the New England Lost Ski Areas Project: “Beartown Ski Area was a classic, and somewhat long lived CCC area that was originally built as a Ski Train Destination. It was also one of the largest areas to close in Massachusetts (820' drop)- only Brodie Mountain had a larger one (~1250'). With three rope tows and about 10 trails at its heyday, it was quite the happening place... Beartown's genesis begins in 1935, when the CCC began clearing trails and slopes at this area.”  

Big Timber Pioneer reported in early 1937 on a CCC camp at Beaver Creek park south of Havre, Montana. The workers were "developing trails, cabins and other conveniences for the public enjoyment."

The Works Progress Administration built the Beaver Creek Recreation Hall in Newcastle, Weston County. The exact location and condition of this facility are unknown to the Living New Deal.

“Lincoln County was not far behind Clark County sites in terms of federal funds spent on park developments. The county received approval for a fair share of state-operated recreational facilities that’s to the collective efforts of the county commission, the Caliente Chamber of Commerce, state senator L.L. Burt, and Congressman Scrugham. Lincoln County was anxious to promote its little-known natural attractions, including the intense red spires and erosional features at Cathedral Gorge. After purchasing park properties with federal Public Works appropriations funds, Congressman Scrugham and Senator McCarran secured a CCC camp for Panaca to build new parks. A full company...

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) worked to clear the land for / develop the then-new Beaver Island State Park.

Beaver Lake State Park, located two miles northeast of the town of Burnstad, North Dakota and about 15 miles NNW as the crow flies from Wishek, is "a recreational area developed by WPA labor."

"Much of the charm of Beavers Bend Resort Park lies in the fact that when the park was built in 1937 by the Civilian Conservation Corps, the materials of choice came from the land itself: slabs of native stone, and hardwood timbers thicker than a man's chest. From them, CCC crews fashioned cabins, staircases, fireplaces, campsites, and even the Forest Heritage Center and Museum, which now doubles as the Beavers Bend Resort Park office."   (https://www.mccurtaincountygetaways.com/beavers_bend.php)

This fieldstone and wood building (tower with stone base and wood shelter at the top) was erected by the Civilian Conservation Corps. Fire towers are endangered due to their isolated locations and because they are no longer necessary for fire prevention/control.

From the James F. Justin CCC Museum website: "Belleplain was established in 1928 by the state ... Beginning in 1933, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) transformed the Meisle family's cranberry bog into a 26.2 acre reservoir that was first named Meisle Lake and later renamed Lake Nummy (in honor of the last Lenape Sachem, or Chief, to live in the county). Three separate CCC camps operated on the property and the men who served constructed the forest's nature center (formerly the main office) and the maintenance buildings, and created much of the present day road system, bridges, and dams....

W.P.A. project description: 1938 Massachusetts Metropolitan District Commission annual report: "Blue Hills Division, in Boston; this project provided for extensive beautification work of road construction, sidewalk construction, grading of roadside slopes, drainage, etc. in Stony Brook Reservation, Bellevue Hill Section, ..."

The W.P.A. conducted the following work at what is now just Bellevue Pond: 1937 MDC annual report: "Bellevue Ponds, Medford; work was started in the late fall of 1937 on a project for improvement and development, as a recreational area, of the Upper and Lower Bellevue Pond and surrounding land on South Border Road near the Roosevelt Circle. The ponds will be dredged and cleaned, gravel placed on banks, rubble masonry spillways constructed, the surrounding woodland thinned and improved and gravel walks will be built." 1938 report: "South Border Road, Middlesex Fells Reservation, Medford; the development and beautification of Upper and Lower Bellevue Ponds on South Border Road was...

WPA laborers worked to grade slopes and construct a bypass road near the carpenter shop in Belmont Lake State Park in Babylon.

Parks first constructed a playground at the intersection of 182nd St. and Belmont Ave. in 1937. A press release from July of that year announced the opening of "five playgrounds, constructed by the Department of Parks with relief labor and funds," noting that "These playgrounds are five of the twenty-four sites in neglected areas selected by the Commissioner of Parks and acquired by condemnation after authorization by the Board of Estimate and Apportionment on July 15, 1936." One of these five playgrounds was located on part of what is now Belmont Playground. Today's Parks website explains that at its opening in...

In 1935, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) constructed the Clear River Camp (also known as the Norris Camp), which served as the headquarters for the Beltrami Island Project.   The Project was part of a “pioneering experiment in relocation and land-use planning” undertaken nationally, through the Land Utilization Project (est. 1937). Under the Project, “farmers on cutover lands were relocated and the land was reclaimed by the CCC, whose enrollees went to work ‘developing and managing forestry, wildlife and recreational resources.’”   The Clear River Camp is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1942, the Works Projects Administration (WPA) constructed 60-acre Soledad Park in East Los Angeles, CA. "From the 1940s to the 1960s," the L.A. Conservancy notes, "Belvedere Park (renamed in 1949) was known for hosting the games of the local Mexican American baseball leagues in the northern field, 'El Porvenir.' The park helped to foster a sense of community that led to the baseball players' involvement in local political and labor organizations, and the teams helped sustain the players' traditional language and culture." The construction of the Pomona Freeway in the 1960s divided the park in half: 31-acre Belvedere Park to the...

WPA Bulletin, 1937: "A 12-acre pond is included on the land. WPA workmen have completed construction of a dike to hold in this water and in the winter the spot can be used for winter sport purposes."

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) conducted development work at Ben Ficklin Park in San Angelo, Texas. Work included $3,095 on a garden.

While less famous than its contemporary, Timberline Lodge, this New Deal sponsored mountain resort also is significant as an Oregon example of WPA log architecture. The Skyliner Lodge is located in the Deschutes National Forest, west of Bend. It was completed by WPA workers in 1936 for the Skyliners Club, a group founded in 1927 to promote winter recreation in the central Oregon Cascades as well as provide search and rescue services.  Thus, the facility became an important headquarter for a group associated with developing the region’s winter recreation industry and environmental education mission. As described in the National Register of...

"Bennett Spring State Park is located in Bennett Springs, Missouri, approximately 12 miles (19 km) west of Lebanon on Highway 64. The park was established in 1923. It is centered around the spring that flows into the Niangua River and gives the park its name... In the 1930’s the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) made various improvements to the park. The CCC built the dining lodge, cabins, trails, roads, shelters, gauge station, and the arched stone bridge across the spring branch. The bridge has 3 distinctive sideways “C’s” to memorize the men of the CCC who built it. The CCC also channelized the...

"On the northwestern shore" of Wood Lake, in Wood Lake Township, North Dakota, is the BENSON COUNTY PARK (_picnicking and camping_), a 40-acre tract improved under the Works Progress Administration in 1937." The park, whose current status is unknown to Living New Deal, is about two miles southwest of Tokio, North Dakota as the crow flies.

In 1933, the City of Portland gave permission to the federal government to establish a Civilian Conservation Camp (CCC) in its Columbia River Gorge Park. What had been Benson Park became CCC Camp Benson. Between 1933 and 1935, CCC enrollees groomed the surrounding parkland, creating the New Benson Park. Today, the lowland, timbered park serves as a day use picnic area with swimming and fishing in the park’s Benson Lake. It also serves as the western anchor to a system of trails connecting Multnomah Falls to the east and Wahkeena Falls to the south. The work of the CCC established these amenities...

The bulk of present day Bensonhurst Park was first established in 1895. Two further parcels were added later. In 1942, the WPA completed major work on the park: "The Department of Parks announces the completion of work in connection with the reconstruction of Bensonhurst Park and the addition of a new playground, baseball fields and other recreation facilities… The old park area has been increased in size. Fifteen acres were added at the time that the Belt Parkway was constructed. This was done by pumping sand beyond the seawall which was erected at the outshore end of the property… The two previously undeveloped...

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) provided labor for the improvement of Bergen Pines, the Bergen County Hospital, in Paramus, N.J. The CWA converted swampland into a "fifteen-acre recreation haven" for the grounds.

In 1913 the City of Tyler purchased the land for Bergfeld Park. Starting in 1936, the Works Progress Administration made improvements to the park including a stone amphitheater, rock culverts, and a rock lined creek, restrooms, and tennis courts. The city renovated the amphitheater in 2017 with a new stage and seating arrangement.

"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 Berkeley Rose Garden lies on the west side of Euclid Avenue in the Berkeley Hills. It was constructed in the little valley of Codornices Creek, which emerges in a viewing pool at the bottom of the garden.  The rose garden was likely begun by the Civil Works Administration (CWA) in 1933-34, as they built the adjoining ball courts.  But the Rose Garden itself was a project of  the Works Progress Administration (WPA), completed in 1940.    "The Garden is designed like an amphitheater with wide stone terraces facing magnificent views of San Francisco Bay. A semicircular redwood pergola, which extends...

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

Cost $255,547, for Alabama to Esmeralda Streets. Work consisted of building 1,890 lineal feet of sewer with catch basins and manholes, 12,890, lineal feet of redwood curb, 19,050 square feet of 6 inch concrete pavement. Placed 714 tons of 2 inch wearing surface, resloped all cuts and redressed all sidewalks. It formed a circular road around the Heights district making accessible a large number of interesting streets, difficult of approach before, and providing a fine Marine view--Healy, p. 47.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the Bernal Recreation Center in San Francisco in 1939-1940.  It sits just behind and below the Bernal Heights Public Library. Work consisted of excavating and grading 1,492 cubic yards of rock and soil, building 75 feet of rubble wall (18 inches by 4 feet), and paving 16,000 square feet of playgr0und area. Notably, the report on WPA work in San Francisco made a point that the combination of the library and playground on the same property was ."... combining the benefits of physical and mental recreation.(Healy, p. 64). The WPA built rock walls are still visible above...

“The Forest Service’s CCC program blazed new roads and trails into prospective campgrounds, existing mines, or susceptible fore zones. The Forest Service with its ample staff of engineers and natural resource specialists provided technical expertise for CCC projects. Similarly, the technical staff assisted the Soil Conservation Service by supervising construction activities on southern Nevada flood-control projects in the lower Moapa Valley, Panaca, and Caliente. Similarities in construction and design in different forests are no coincidence. Most early ranger stations, roads, and campgrounds were built according to standard regional plans prepared by architectural engineer George Nichols in Utah. After 1938, a manual...

Berry Playground is a pocket park tucked along a side street in Brooklyn, which was constructed in 1937 by the city Parks Department with the help of the New Deal, most likely Works Progress Administration (WPA) labor. The site had recently been acquired "...for $18,000 from the Brooklyn Eye and Ear Hospital in 1936. It immediately came under the jurisdiction of Parks..." (NYC Parks) A new playground opened on the site on November 13, 1937, as explained in the Parks Department Press Release at the time: "...the new playground is for small children and has swings, see-saws, slides, playhouses, sand tables, a play...

The federal Civil Works Administration (CWA) constructed a gymnasium at the old high school for the Berryhill school district in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina (now within the city limits of Charlotte). The structure, whose exact location is unknown to Living New Deal, no longer exists. "The Long Creek High School Gymnasium was one of eight facilities of its general type constructed in Mecklenburg County under the arrangements outlined above, the others being at the high schools then in the local school districts of Huntersville, Paw Creek, Pineville, Sharon, Oakhurst, Berryhill, and Bain. Only the Long Creek Gymnasium survives from this initial...

The single story stone building was designed in a "Plain Traditional" style with "minimal Craftsman influences" and included a stone chimney on the western elevation (Story, 1992). The building was constructed by 50 local laborers employed by the WPA.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built the Palmer Lodge at Bertha Brock Park.  The park benefited from the work of 94 CCC enrollees working two overlapping 15 hour shifts.

"The park contains remains from a prehistoric communal dwelling constructed by the Salado people. The site was inhabited from 1225 to 1400 A.D. Irene Vickrey conducted the first formal archaeological investigation starting in 1935. Funding for her salary and her laborers came from the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and later the Works Progress Administration. She and her workmen excavated over 200 rooms and 350 burial sites. Vickrey worked on the excavation until January 1946. Her cause of death was due to heart failure due to a long term health condition. Her death left the excavations incomplete and her results unpublished. The...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) reforested "20,000 acres of drifting sand hills and expanded Bessey Forest Nursery producing 30 million saplings for reforestation." The CCC also "constructed a public campground and picnic area, shelter house, bath houses, and a swimming pool in the park."

Bethpage State Park is a 1,476-acre New York state park on the border of Nassau County and Suffolk County on Long Island. It is best known for its five golf courses, including the Bethpage Black Course. "The park’s clubhouse and four of its five courses, including the legendary Black course, were either built or improved with federal relief funds and labor."   (https://www.nytimes.com) "In the early 1930s, the Bethpage Park Authority purchased the Lenox Hills Country Club and other adjacent properties to build what we now know as Bethpage State Park. * All of the work on these four courses (Black, Red, Blue and...

Five years after the WPA built a new pool and bathhouse in Betsy Head Park, the Parks Department announced the completion of the rehabilitation of the south section of the rest of the park, bounded by Livonia and Dumont Avenues, Strauss Street and Hopkinson Avenue: "The remainder of the plot, to the west of the pool has been entirely reconstructed to meet the needs of a district well supplied with children and young people and under-privileged in the matter of play areas. The new plan, designed by the Department of Parks, called for the reconstruction of the baseball diamond, football field...

In 1936 the Betsy Head Park in Brooklyn, New York, "was redesigned extensively and the Olympic-sized swimming pool was constructed. Architect John Matthews Hatton’s pool house exemplified the sleek Art Moderne style with liberal use of glass block and a parasol roof. One of eleven pools built by the Works Progress Administration during the summer of 1936, the pool is a relic of the New Deal era. The construction project, organized by Parks Commissioner Robert Moses, and funded by the federal government, was part of a citywide effort to erect recreational facilities in under-served neighborhoods. The pools represented the forefront of...

The Bidwell Bowl amphitheater sits along Big Chico Creek on the California State University, Chico campus.  It was built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1938, no doubt in conjunction with improvements the WPA was making in Bidwell Park at the time (just upstream). The campus website provides the following information: "Built as a WPA project in 1938, the amphitheater known as the Bidwell Bowl was one of many ventures in Chico that created work for people during the depression. Located on the bank of the creek, next to the Physical Science building, the Bidwell Bowl had been used for various...