Parks and Recreation Sites

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed a recreation hall in Vernal, Utah during the Great Depression. The exact location and present status of the structure is presently unknown to Living New Deal.

The WPA allocated $15,508 in late 1938 to "reconstruct and improve municipal golf course and tennis courts" in Glasgow, Montana. The precise location of these projects is unknown to Living New Deal.

Montana's Big Timber Pioneer newspaper discussed recent accomplishments of the National Youth Administration in Montana. Among the projects discussed: "Polson also is to have a skating rink which will keep youngsters from the often dangerous ice of Flathead lake. The NYA there also has worked to improve the municipal park and during the summer installed athletic jumping pits, graded running track and repaired the grandstand."

This tudor-style building in Recreation Park was constructed by the WPA in 1936-39, along with a pool and other park facilities: "In August 1934, the Village of Arlington Heights began to think about constructing a municipal swimming pool for the community. Walter Krause Sr. donated 13.59 acres of land for a park and pool (500 East Miner Street today). But, by September 1935, money for the project was still scarce and plans had yet to be drawn. On the last day to submit plans to the WPA (Works Progress Administration), Trustee Schneberger, Mayor Flentie, and Walter Krause Jr. went over to...

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) and Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) provided labor for the construction of multiple facilities at Recreation Park in Asheville, NC. The CWA constructed a barracks at the park, as well as developing a skating rink. The FERA improved roads at the park. The status of these structures is unknown to Living New Deal.

The National Youth Administration built a recreational hall at the Naval Reserve Parkin Biloxi in 1938 as W.P. 4380. They also planted rose bushes, cedar trees, and dog wood trees and numerous flower beds along with the construction of the recreation building. The project employed 40 boys.

The Works Progress Administration built a recreational center that included a club house and a municipal golf course in Winslow, Navajo County. Project #271, completed circa 1936.

Rocky Mountain National Park was established in 1915 to preserve a spectacular section of the highest peaks of the Rocky Mountains.  Several new additions to the park have been made over the years, until it reached its present size of 415 square miles. The park saw considerable recreational development in the 1920s under the National Park Service (NPS), but it benefitted enormously in the 1930s from the New Deal.  Most notable of the New Deal agencies was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), but the \ park also gained funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA), road work by the Bureau of...

A WPA press release from Jan. 1938 reported that Hoquiam, Washington received a WPA grant to improve recreational facilities. The exact details of the project are unknown to Living New Deal.

The WPA constructed this nine hole golf course in Kalamazoo in 1937. From the Kalamazoo Municipal Golf Association: “Red Arrow is a downtown community greenspace established in 1937 as part of the WPA’s Depression reconstruction efforts when workmen earned $15/week, although the first City Commission began acquiring land along the south bank of the river in 1885. Later foresight by succeeding commissions and the demise of the Michigan Buggy Co. in the 1920’s added remaining acreage. Aerial mapping now shows a green triangle of city parkland, forever commercially undevelopable to serve recreation needs of residents, organizations, and businesses. What began...

"A pavilion and wading pool were constructed at Red Arrow Park."

The Works Progress Administration built the Red Hill Park Picnic Pavilion in Purcell, Oklahoma. However, the facility is no longer extant. According to the Oklahoma Landmarks Inventory, "The Red Hill Park Pavilion is significant because it is the only intact structure remaining of a remarkable recreational facility created by the WPA." Contributor Note: "The picnic pavilion once stood atop this hill overlooking the Sharpe Memorial Park with its rodeo arena and grandstands. The pavilion once had two native sandstone pyramid supports on either side of the picnic area. A wood-shingled gable roof covered the area between the pillars (see B&W photo from Oklahoma Landmarks...

Red Hook Park in Brooklyn was one of several major parks and hundreds of playgrounds created in New York City with Federal funds in the New Deal era. In this 1938 text, Robert Moses describes the work accomplished in New York City parks, including Red Hook, by relief workers: "There are today 372 playgrounds, ranging from small neighborhood plots of a quarter acre to large developments such as Macombs Dam Park in The Bronx, Red Hook and McCarren Parks in Brooklyn, and Randall's Island, adjacent to the East Harlem section of Manhattan, all developed to take care of every type of recreation for both children and...

Red Hook Park swimming pool was one of eleven pools constructed by Works Progress Administration (WPA) relief workers for the New York City Parks Department in 1936.  As the Parks Department website puts it: "A new era in active recreation arrived in the 1930s and 1940s, when the Department of Parks assumed jurisdiction over the city's bathhouses and harnessed Works Progress Administration labor to develop a series of outdoor pools for the city. The WPA swimming pools were among the most remarkable public recreational facilities in the country, representing the forefront of design and technology in advanced filtration and chlorination systems. The...

The CCC built much of the road from Avery to Red Ives Ranger Station as well as the Red Ives compound itself. The work was completed in 1938.

The Red Rocks Amphitheatre is probably the greatest single project of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and one of the most memorial accomplishments of the New Deal's public works programs.  It is a magnificent outdoor theater set among the spectacular red rock formations of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, just southwest of Denver, Colorado. It seats over 9,000 people. Red Rocks was built between 1936 and 1941.  After the CCC had prepared the site by blasting and removing tons of stone, leveling the immediate surroundings and building access roads, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) contributed funds and hundreds of relief workers...

Cal Poly Humboldt (formerly California State University Humboldt) began as Humboldt Teachers' (or Normal) College in 1913 and moved to its present location on a hill northeast of Arcata, California, in 1921.  Founders' Hall was built at the top of the hill in the 1920s and the campus has filled in below over time. During the New Deal, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the athletic fields and bleachers at what is now known as Redwood Bowl, just east of Founders Hall. The facilities have been greatly enlarged and upgraded over the years, but the roofed bleachers on the west side...

This former ranger station was erected in 1933 by the CCC and originally existed in Bridgeport, CA. It was later moved to Reese River Valley and remained active until the 1980s. After falling into neglect, a volunteer group of former National Forest Service employees known as the 'Smokeys' were able to relocate this ranger station to Bend, OR at the High Desert Museum where it was fully restored and put on display in 2009. According to the architectural historian for the (Bend) region's national Forest Service, this station is the only surviving building of its type that has not been subjected...

The federal Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) furnished the labor for a reforestation project involving multiple parcels in Millville, Massachusetts ca. 1938-9. 40 men were put to work on the project. The parcels involved comprised an area of more than 200 acres.

The East Bay Regional Parks District (EBRPD) was formed in 1934 and acquired land for parks from the East Bay Municipal Water District in 1936.  The first parks were Tilden, Sibley, Temescal and Redwood in the East Bay Hills behind Berkeley and Oakland CA.  The New Deal provided extensive aid towards improving the new parks (except for Sibley) for public recreation, working with the Parks District's first general manager, Elbert Vail. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) set up five camps in the East Bay hills and operated in the parks for the entire New Deal decade, 1933-42.   The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was...

In 1933, acting under the leadership of Mayor Thayer, the local C.W.A. administrator, various actions were taken to stabilize the finances of the town and reemploy as many people as possible. Reconstruction Finance Corporation Grant Received during 1933: $19,820.75 Among the various project launched: 1-H Sewing project "supervised by Mrs. Blye Drew. Clothing of all kinds has been furnished, through the Poor Department, for the relief of needy persons. More than 400' mackinaws have been made and distributed to minimum paid 'Civil Works employees engaged in outdoor work, in this, the most severe winter we have experienced in a generation." (Thayer) No. 1 J -...

The Annual Report from 1932-33 of the Los Angeles Board of Park Commissioners describes the role of federal funding in developing Reseda Park, which still serves the community today: "Reseda Park is one of the city parks located in San Fernando Valley at Reseda and Etiwanda Avenues, Kittridge Street, and Victory Boulevard. Being forty acres in area it provides a delightful recreational spot for the residents of San Fernando Valley. A great deal of improvement was accomplished during 1932-1933 with the help of the R.F.C. and County Welfare workmen. Fifteen hundred lineal feet of walks were built, involving the grading of 600...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed Harrisburg's Reservoir Park Bandshell, also known as the Ralph Feldser Memorial Band Shell, ca. 1939-40. "The erection of a bandshell was part of a $290,000 grant for area park improvements."

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed a rustic staircase from Market St. and S. 23rd St. up into Reservoir Park. The surrounding slope was strengthened with stone and planted to protect against erosion. The staircase appears to be no longer extant.

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees from the Mt. Elden Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp near Flagstaff worked at Walnut Canyon National Monument from 1938 to 1942.  The CCC built the stone comfort station (restrooms) on a rise above the visitors' center. It is constructed with local stone with a flat roof in the same Southwest rustic style as the CCC visitors' center.  The restrooms still function – although a ranger said that after each winter it can need work.  There are modern restrooms in the new visitors' center.  Walnut Canyon is an important site of cliff dwellings left by the Sinagua people,...

"The WPA restroom building is a small rectangular structure oriented east-west near the northwest corner of Poplar and 4th  streets. Like the other WPA park buildings, random range quarry-faced ashlar limestone clads the walls of this building. "

The WPA did extensive work in this Dallas park as part of "an extensive parks beautification program intended to make the city a showplace. For Reverchon, this meant the introduction of a series of stoneworks, including the floral amphitheater known as the Iris Bowl, a fountain entry and a picturesque bridge over Turtle Creek. The masterstroke of the project was Hillside Terrace, a trail network of meandering stone stairwells, lookouts and seating spaces that cling to the park’s bluff, providing shade, privacy and views. The paths and their furniture are all constructed of rough-cut Milsap stone that runs a spectrum from...

Description of a project undertaken by the W.P.A.: 1937 MDC annual report: "Revere Beach Reservation; to rebuild two concrete truck and ambulance ramps to the beach; to build 700 linear feet of 4-foot high concrete sea wall near the North Circle; and to build 576 linear feet of 7-foot high concrete sea wall and concrete-over terraced steps to form a ramp at the shelter in front of the bath house." 1938 report: "Revere Beach Reservation and Parkway, Revere; work was begun on the completion of 1937 work at Revere Beach; the construction of 4,000 linear feet of new seawall near Northern Circle and the...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) helped construct Salem-Winston’s Reynolds Park and Recreation Center between 1939 and 1940. “A $300,000 proposed municipal park and recreation center at Winston-Salem, N.C., has received final approval in Washington,” a journalist for Park & Recreation magazine reported. “The development, to be known as Reynolds Park, will be located two miles east of the courthouse square…Within the area will be an 18-hole golf course, a large swimming pool, tennis courts, an athletic field and wooded area for walking and picnicking.” The fruits of this WPA-funded project can still be enjoyed today.

The Works Progress Administration built Rhea Stadium in Russellville, Kentucky. The stadium is part of the Russellville High School. A historical sign on site reads, "Rhea Stadium was named for Thomas S. Rhea, a local & state political figure. It was a project of the Works Progress Administration, a New Deal program started under Franklin D. Roosevelt. The first game was played on Nov. 23, 1939. Dedication of the stadium occurred on Sept. 20, 1940. Added to Nat'l Register of Historic Places 2008."

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) and Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) supplied labor for the development of a "Rhododendron Gardens Park" in Asheville, North Carolina. The project cost was $4,089.29, all footed by the federal government. The location and status of this project is unknown to Living New Deal, although there was a Rhododendron Park reputedly located in West Asheville. A 1936 USGS map places Rhododendron Park at the coordinates shown.

"In July 1935, a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp was set up on the west bank of the Wisconsin River in the town of Rib Mountain. The 250 young men created walking paths, widened the road, developed a campground and built a picnic area gazebo. Chamber of Commerce leader, Walter Roehl, had convinced the Conservation Department that Rib Mountain would make a fine winter ski area, and the CCC began work on clearing the slopes and installing a T-bar lift. The first ski event was the Central Ski Association Championship February 24-25, 1938. The slalom, downhill, cross-country and jumping events attracted more...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) conducted extensive development work in Grand Canyon National Park from 1933 to 1942. Among its trail development work, the CCC constructed the Ribbon Falls Trail. The National Park Service's CCC Walking Tour says: "More challenging projects included a number of inner canyon trails. The Ribbon Falls Trail, a half-mile (0.8 km) spur off the North Kaibab Trail, still leads hikers to a beautiful waterfall." The trail is approximately 2.7 miles south of the Grand Canyon Lodge on the North Rim, as the crow flies.

The Works Progress Administration built a shelter in Rice Island park in Corydon IN. This event center was created on former school athletic fields.

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) worked on a project that involved "cutting embankment on upland at 54th St. Newark Bay, cleaning beach and reconstruction of 3 life-saving stations." Richard A. Rutkowski Park is still in use today.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) made several improvements to Richardson Grove State Park during the period 1933-40.  Richardson Grove was one of the original Old Growth redwood groves purchased by the Save the Redwoods League in the early 20th century and passed over to the California state parks. It was officially established around a single grove in 1922 and has been expanded to 1,800 acres since. Little had been done in the way of improvements before the New Deal, in part because California did not establish a full state parks system until 1928.  Working from camps farther north in Humboldt Redwoods...

Montana's Big Timber Pioneer newspaper reported in 1937: "The Richland county fairgrounds are being completely remodeled for the coming Richland county fair and according to manager Jack Suckstorff about 40 men are now being employed in this work which is a WPA project. The grandstand is the most noticeable of the changes, it is being enlarged to scat approximately 3,000 people whereas its former capacity was around 1,500. The midway is being enlarged and seeded. It is planned to make this year's fair the greatest in history. The fair opening is on Labor day."

A developed campsite within the 26,000 acre Groton State Forest, Ricker Pond State Park was constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps. "In 1933, CCC Company 1217 from New York City was stationed at Ricker Mills and then followed by Company 1162 in 1935. Ricker Pond was originally a picnic area with a log shelter, 10 picnic sites with stone fireplaces, and a staff cabin (rangers quarters). Where the current campsite #1 exists, you can find an 8’ granite picnic table carved into the rock. In 1941-42, another small cabin was built, which is used today as a weekly rental cottage."

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) conducted the following work at the former Ridge Avenue school in Darby, Pennsylvania: "grade the grounds on the Tenth street side of the Ridge avenue school grounds and ... enlarge the cement court to the Tenth street fence and the line of the property of the Friends' Meeting." The school, which was located at the western corner of Ridge Ave. and N 10th St., is no longer extant.

"Portions of the park have historical significance because they were constructed and financed by the Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.). One charmingly rustic single-story picnic shelter, for example, was built in 1942 by the W.P.A."