Parks and Recreation Sites

Roosevelt Park in Blackstone, Massachusetts was developed with the assistance of federal funds during the early stages of the New Deal, most likely the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (F.E.R.A.). The facility is located behind the town's municipal complex, off St. Paul Street.

Devils Lake, North Dakota's Roosevelt Park was developed as a federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) project during the 1930s. Swimming, picnicking, and camping are noted as available activities in a WPA guide.

Roosevelt Park is located in Edison, New Jersey. It contains a number of picnic groves and sports facilities. The WPA did major work on the park in the 1930s. In addition to general park development, a monument honoring the laborers who built the park was erected in 1933. There is also a WPA sculpture in the park by Waylande Gregory (see linked project page).

The Roosevelt Field House, at the north end of Roosevelt Park in Piqua, Ohio, was constructed as a New Deal project with funds from the Public Works Administration (PWA). Piqua Daily Call, Sept. 12, 1935: "Work of laying brick for the walls of the new field house at Roosevelt Park was scheduled to start sometime this week, according to Carl Anderson, of the Arm of H. L. and C. P. Anderson, general contractors of Dayton, constructing the new PWA project. Practically all steel work has been completed on the recreation hall, Contractor Anderson Indicated and everything was nearly ready for the...

The federal Works Progress Administration constructed what is now known as Roosevelt Plaza Park (then known as City Hall Plaza) starting in 1936. The project called for "a center fountain, the planting of gardens, placing concrete gutters, building gravel walks and oiled gravel roadways and construction of a controlled parking area for 150 automobiles."

The Roosevelt pool in Susanville was built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1939.   It began as a community pool – a project long sought by the people of Susanville – and then was attached to Roosevelt School next door.  After a half-century of excellent service, the pool had to be closed in 2004 due to structural failure brought on by neglect (it began to leak).  It was demolished in 2015. Fortunately, a visitor to site in the late 1990s and took photographs of the pool.  The Susanville Historical Society also has photographs of the pool in its prime (unfortunately,...

Construction on the pool started in 1938 as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt`s Depression-era Works Progress Administration. The park district furnished the materials, and workers were bused in by the government. The pool, completed in 1940, is the last WPA pool still in use and in its original condition in all of Illinois. WPA construction included a stone bathhouse with fireplace and open-beamed ceiling. Renovations in 2005 to bring the pool into compliance with current building codes retained the historic character of both the pool and bathhouse.

"Roosevelt Stadium was a baseball park at Droyer's Point in Jersey City, New Jersey...It was home to the Jersey City Giants. Roosevelt Stadium was finally built in 1937, as a Works Progress Administration project on the grounds of what was the Jersey City Airport at Droyer's Point. The airport was operated by Eddie August Schneider starting in 1935. It was named for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the author of that New Deal agency. It was designed in Art Deco style. The ballpark's opening was scheduled for April 22, 1937 with the opening of the 1937 International League season... In November 1982, the Jersey...

Union City, New Jersey's old Roosevelt Stadium was constructed by the federal Works Progress Administration between 1936 and 1937. Heavily renovated and modernized during the 1990s, Roosevelt Stadium was demolished and replaced with a new high school building and a new sports facility of the same name. "Originally the site of the Hudson County Consumers Brewery Company, the property was purchased by what is now Union City for $456,000, and turned it into a gated playground. Later, through the efforts of Director of Public Affairs Harry J. Thourot, the stadium’s construction was funded by the federal Works Progress Administration Project, which...

"Roosevelt is one of the original nine state parks constructed by the CCC in the 1930s. It opened in 1940 and is named after President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The site was selected because of its abundant natural springs." (McGinnis)

"One of seven Lattice Steel Toilets and Concession Stands at Pasadena Rose Bowl. W.P.A. #25 Jan. 1936" A description and photo of the toilet pictured here appears in a photo album compiled by New Deal officials. It is unclear whether the other buildings mentioned here are still extant. The condition of the toilet is poor.

A Works Progress Administration-built stone bridge crosses the Arroyo Seco along Washington Boulevard at the edge of the golf course. The WPA laid a plaque (possibly bronze) at the end of the bridge. It is currently covered by a modern chain link fence. "Historical trails, rock retaining walls, and local public art throughout the Arroyo Seco were...constructed under the auspices of the WPA." --Arroyo Seco Watershed Assessment  

"W.P.A. #25 Jan. 1936" 4 photographs in a New Deal album show construction work of rubble walls along the base of the Rose Bowl. From the outside, much of the rubble wall tunnels and ramps around the stadium can be seen. All of it looks to be in good shape and the good use of landscaping built into the design helps hide the bare construction of the outside of the stadium.

Rose City Golf Course, constructed adjacent to a middle-class residential development in 1923, was the second public golf course in Portland and the state of Oregon. In 1937, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) redesigned the first nine-holes, rebuilding the greens and lengthening the course by 450 yards, and added rock walls and stone curbs along 72nd Drive.  Local basalt rock served as the landscaping material, as was the case in many WPA projects. City of Portland records indicate that approximately $38,000 was spent by the WPA on the Rose City Golf Course landscaping and redesign. WPA funding for these improvements was...

“One of the CCC’s most important contributions was the well-engineered twenty-six-million-gallon capacity reservoir and dam in Rose Creek Meadow. The Rose Creek Reservoir was an incredible undertaking due to its location more than halfway up the mountainside. The labor-intensive water impoundment was largely constructed by manual labor and horse-drawn Fresno Scrapers. The long-term advantages of the Rose Creel Reservoir live on as the reservoir continues to provide a significant source of water to this day. Subsequent efforts focused on transporting additional water to the depot on the valley floor. CCC crews soon completed a 4.5-mile duplicate water-supply system (pipeline) and...

The Works Progress Administration and the National Youth Administration renovated the Rosedale Playground in Washington DC in 1937.

Rosewood Park is a 13.9-acre neighborhood park in East Austin. The land for Rosewood Park was purchased by the City of Austin in 1929 and developed as the first African-American park in Austin. The Civil Works Administration helped make improvements to the park which included stone entry columns, a bandstand, and a sports field flanked by stone retaining walls.

Rosewood Playground in Bronx Park near Rosewood Street and Bronx Park East, was a WPA project, like so many of New York's parks. Construction began in 1940 and was completed in 1941. A Department of Parks Press Release from June 22, 1941 explained: “The Department of Parks announces the the completion of work in the northern section of Bronx Park ... Certain features of the complete development plan prepared by the Department of Parks have been embodied in the present work preformed by the Works Progress Administration. These include construction... two marginal playgrounds. One of these playgrounds is located in...

WPA workers removed bodies from old Odd Fellows Cemetery to create this park. "Constructed playground, 3 tennis courts and 2 basketball fields, 1 volleyball court, landscaped and built drainage and water system, fenced entire playground and courts, built convenience station and 8 sets of horseshoe courts and 4 outdoor checker tables. This is the largest supervised playground in the Richmond District."--Healy, p. 62.

Rotary Island, in the middle of the Delaware River and primarily located in Trenton, New Jersey, was improved by the federal National Youth Administration (NYA) ca. 1936. Quote "The Dawn," a monthly WPA newsletter, July 1936: Forty youths are working on Rotary Island, where the Mercer County Health League camp for children is maintained. Considerable damage was done to the island by the Spring floods, and NYA workers are cleaning up the debris, in addition to grading and painting and making necessary repairs to buildings.

"While on mountain, the CCC crews improved camping and picnic grounds, “to make Casper Mountain a heaven on earth for local picnic parties and passing tourists” and also substantial work at Rotary Park part way up the mountain near Garden Creek Falls, constructing fireplaces, picnic tables and benches, and other features." Furthermore, the Civil Works Administration (CWA) improved roads and trails at Rotary Park.

Beautification efforts in Rothwell Park were completed by the WPA in 1939.

"The bandshell, originally called the Municipal Music Pavilion, was ... under the Works Progress Administration (WPA)." "A souvenir program from the 1940 dedication provides the history and details of the original construction.  The project was proposed to Johnstown City Council in 1937 by a local community association who later agreed to raise funds for the required sponsor’s share for a WPA project.  After Council’s approval, community representatives visited a recently completed bandshell in Hagerstown, MD, and subsequently established the Johnstown Music Pavilion Committee.  For the proposed pavilion, the sponsor’s share was to be only $5,000, but with modifications and additions...

"The Rubber Bowl is a stadium in Akron, Ohio, United States, primarily used for American football... The movement to build a stadium in Akron began in 1939 when Akron Beacon Journal sports editor James Schlemmer and Akron Municipal Airport director Bain Fulton began a campaign asking patrons to donate $1 each. Later that year, the Works Progress Administration authorized construction of a horseshoe-shaped stadium in southern Akron adjacent to Derby Downs, the home of the Soap Box Derby that had been built in 1936. Construction lasted approximately one year and the first event hosted was a state music and drill competition...

Rudd Playground, located at Bushwick Ave. and Aberdeen St. in Brooklyn, was one of seven Works Progress Administration (WPA) playgrounds opened in New York City on November 22, 1935.

There are multiple facilities in the park - an amphitheater with a NYA marker 1937-38, an unmarked 2 room community center dedicated in 1939 (newspaper article), two park entrance gates, retaining walls with steps, picnic tables and benches, a covered picnic area, and a bathhouse for the swimming pool. While only the amphitheater and community center have documentation, I believe the other items are also the work of the NYA.

In 1942, the Washington Post reported the allocation of $20,448 to the Federal Works Agency (FWA) for new construction and/or improvements to the Rudolph Playground in the city's northwest quadrant. Today, park abuts the Washington Latin Public Charter School and is apparently part of the school's recreation area.  There is a baseball field and traces of an older field, as well as a soccer pitch.  The ball fields very likely trace back to the New Deal work of the early 1940s.

"During 1935 the pond in the Rufus Putnam Memorial Park in Rutland was developed as a swimming pool under the provisions of said Chapter 346 of 1934 in co-operation with the town under the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, which provided about $1,500 for labor in addition to the $3,860 expended by the Water Division for labor and materials. The pool has an area of about 1.6 acres, a maximum depth of 6.5 feet and a shallow sand beach, 140 feet long and 30 feet wide to a depth of 3 feet."

After the establishment of the Civilian Conservation Corps' (CCC) Camp Brice Creek in 1933, the enrollees undertook development of the Rujada Forest Camp. They constructed the forest camp to provide a recreation facility for visiting family, friends and local residents. CCC workers built the campground's registry and information booth in 1934. It's rustic design includes large diameter peeled logs and poles, a flagstone platform and split shake gable roof. The forest camp's current configuration provides twelve single- and three double-campsites.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) played an important role in the construction of highway 1 along the California coast during the 1930s – most famously along the Big Sur coastline. WPA crews also worked on highway 1 in Mendocino County, where they built three new bridges  — Jack Peters Creek bridge, Russian Gulch bridge and Jughandle Creek bridge.  Russian Gulch bridge, completed in 1939, is 527 feet long, with a central span of 240 feet.  It is an open-spandrel concrete arch design. It is similar in design to the more famous Bixby Creek Bridge in Big Sur, but its arch has no...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) improved Russian Gulch State Park, as it did most of the parks in California's newly-launched state park system in the 1930s.  CCC Company 572 built a new park entrance and roads throughout the park, as well as fire breaks, hiking trails, a picnic area and campground, and a park visitor center.  The latter is notable for a huge cobblestone fireplace on the south wall.

The beautifully designed low retaining wall is on the south side of the Ruth Park Golf Course in University City, MO. The design is of horizontal rock flagstones interrupted by several rows of vertical rocks periodically. There are few places where it is not in excellent condition, one at a tree which is much larger than when the wall was originally built.

In 1939, a dead-end wall was constructed at the south end of Kansas Avenue in Salina, Kansas by youths who were employed by the National Youth Administration (NYA). The NYA was a division of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) that focused on training, employing, and educating young people between the ages of 16 and 25. Chris Cotten, Parks and Recreation Director of the City of Salina, Kansas tells us that "n April 1939 the Salina Journal reported that 35 NYA youths, working part time and using rubble masonry, were hired to construct 'ten dead-end walls' on streets that terminated at the Smoky Hill River....

In 1939, a dead-end wall was constructed at the south end of Penn Avenue in Salina, Kansas by youths who were employed by the National Youth Administration (NYA). The NYA was a division of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) that focused on training, employing, and educating young people between the ages of 16 and 25. Chris Cotten, Parks and Recreation Director of the City of Salina, Kansas tells us that "n April 1939 the Salina Journal reported that 35 NYA youths, working part time and using rubble masonry, were hired to construct 'ten dead-end walls' on streets that terminated at the Smoky Hill River....

Sabino Canyon Recreation Area is in Coronado National Forest at the northeast corner of Tucson AZ.  At the behest of the city of Tucson and Pima County, it was developed out of former mining and grazing land in the Santa Catalina Mountains by New Deal agencies, which built access roads, dams and recreational facilities.  Relief workers hired under the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), and Works Progress Administration (WPA) all contributed to the park's improvement.  A major recreational lake never materialized, as funds ran out in the mid-1930s and, beside, dams in the desert quickly fill with sediment...

Sabino Canyon Recreation Area is in Coronado National Forest at the northeast corner of Tucson AZ. At the behest of the city of Tucson and Pima County, it was developed out of former mining and grazing land in the Santa Catalina Mountains by New Deal agencies, which built roads, dams and recreational facilities.  Relief workers hired under the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), and Works Progress Administration (WPA) all contributed to the park's improvement.  A major recreational lake never materialized, as funds ran out in the mid-1930s and, beside, dams in the desert quickly fill with sediment...

According to Big Timber Pioneer newspaper, Sacajawea Park in the town of Livingston, MT was one of 55 public parks 'built or improved' by the WPA in Montana between fall 1935 and Sept. 1938. The construction of Sacajawea Park involved a diversion of the Yellowstone River, creating a lake "that provide habitat for waterfowl. An arched stone bridge built by the WPA separates two of the ponds creating Sacajawea Lake." In addition to other "extensive improvements," WPA labor built a "lighted turf athletic field; and a spacious hard-surface tennis court area." Swimming and boating facilities were also provided.

"With support from the local communities and the state, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed a museum at the park in 1938. The Sacajawea Museum was built to display Native American artifacts from the tribes of the Columbia Plateau. The museum, now known as the Sacajawea Interpretive Center, and three other WPA buildings are still in use."   (www.parks.wa.gov)

The New Deal was involved in building parks throughout the county.

Development of Saddle Mountain State Park began with the arrival of Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Company #1258 in 1935. Over a five-year period, the CCC enrollees built the seven-mile access road to the base of Saddle Mountain, picnic grounds and a parking lot at the trail head, and the hiking trail to the mountain's summit. Saddle Mountain is a north coast landmark, known for its colorful wildflowers and rare plants, its basalt formations, and the impressive panoramic views from its 3290-foot summit. Access to these natural amenities still rely on the CCC-built zig-zag hiking trail that rises 1620 feet over a...