Stadiums Sites

The Seattle Park Department utilized funds and labor from the Civil Works Administration and the Works Progress Administration, as well as the state-based Washington Emergency Relief Administration, to complete a series of maintenance and improvement projects at David Rodgers Park. The 8.5-acre park occupies a steep and heavily wooded hillside in Seattle's North Queen Anne neighborhood. The city was gifted the northern half of the park in 1883 and purchased the southern half of the park in 1909. In 1910, the city constructed a couple of paths through the park, followed by the installation of a small wood-frame comfort station...

"Thanks to Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal programs, which promised jobs to needy citizen, many facets of modern-day Roswell were born. Workers from the Works Progress Administration (WPA) built several schools, Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge, a city hall, DeBremond Stadium, and Roswell's first museum in 1937, today known as the Roswell Museum and Art Center." -John LeMay

"The first All-American race was held in Dayton in 1934. The following year, the race was moved to Akron because of its central location and hilly terrain. In 1936, Akron civic leaders recognized the need for a permanent track site for the youth racing classic and, through the efforts of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), Derby Downs became a reality."    (https://www.aasbd.org)

The WPA allocated $18,689 for "Dornblaser athletic field improvement" at the University of Montana in Missoula. The stadium housed Montana Grizzlies football home games, and is not to be confused with the newer recreation center that bears the same name. According to Wikipedia, the site of 'old' Dornblaser Field "is now the location of the Mansfield Library."

"The grounds have been used for baseball since 1920, on what was Elihu Phinney's farm. A wooden grandstand was built in 1924, later replaced by a steel and concrete grandstand built in 1939 by the Works Project Administration."

The construction of Dunn Field during the Great Depression was enabled by a federal Public Works Administration (PWA) grant. Construction occurred between 1938 and 1939. The ballpark is still in use today. (PWA Docket No. 1619)

Home football stadium for Morningside College, East High School, North High School and West High School. Formerly known as Roberts Stadium.

"Built by the Work Projects Administration near the end of the great depression in 1940 at a cost of $57,000, the stadium has is the second oldest in the Texas Panhandle. The first game played at the stadium was on Sept. 27, 1940 against the Chillicothe Eagles where the Bobcats recorded a 19-0 victory."   (Fair Park Stadium turns 75)

Farrington Field is a large multi-use stadium in Fort Worth, Texas. It was constructed in 1938-1939 by the WPA and designed by Arthur George King and Everett L. Frazier from the architecture firm of Preston M. Geren. Evaline Sellors did the bas relief sculptures of the football player and the track and field athlete.

"Fischer Field Stadium is the signature athletic field in Newton, Kansas, and is located in Athletic Park. The stadium is used for athletic events — including high school football and soccer, competitive leagues, and semi-pro football — concerts, Newton High School graduation and a variety of community events and festivals. The stadium is listed on both the Kansas Register and National Register of Historic Places. It can seat up to 5,000 people... In 1935, the City of Newton was granted funds by the Works Progress Administration, a New Deal program for recovery from the Great Depression, to build a football stadium...

Flamingo Park, also known as Flamingo Field, was a ballpark built in 1925. In 1935, new grandstands were built by FERA. The ballpark served a number of professional baseball teams for many years, but eventually became rundown, and was replaced by a new ballpark on the same site in 1967.

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) conducted work in 1933 to construct what is now known as Johnny "Red" Floyd Stadium at what was then the Middle State Normal School (Teachers College)—now Middle Tennessee State University. The facility has been enlarged multiple times over the years.

"Jones County, Hamlin - Construct football and baseball fieds, grandstands and bleachers, rock walls and gravel drives in city park; federal funds, $16,706; sponsor's funds $5,504; workers 48."

"NYA Projects in Area Approved. One hundred boys and young men are to be employes in five counties. Allotment was $1,024 per month, and the jobs are expected to last from three to six months. Projects approved and allotments made with work starting August 5, are: Memphis, Hall County, 20 boys on a school project, including a grandstand and football field."

The fort dates back the early nineteenth century, when it was used to “promote and protext the interests of the United States in the region’s fur trade” (historicfortsnelling.org). Between 1938 and 1940, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) performed structural renovation and historic restoration work at this site, including sidewalks, sewers, porches, and garages. National Park Service: "Fort Snelling benefited from New Deal programs such as the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The programs provided funding for a general reconditioning of the fort, including landscaping and infrastructure. Workers graded and resurfaced existing roads, built new sidewalks and curbs and...

"Mosholu Baseball Field on Webster Avenue between East 201st Street and Mosholu Parkway, July 2014. A May 21, 1935, Parks Department press release says (referring to this field by original name, and by its location): This field, recently reconstructed by relief workers assigned to the Park Department, is one of the finest baseball plants in the entire park system, with seating accommodations for 3500 plus 1000 park benches. The diamond has been constructed according to big league specifications... The same press release (which announces a game between Manhattan College and the Bronx Elks) goes on to say, “The Park Department band...

"Fraser Field is a baseball park in Lynn, Massachusetts that was built in 1940 by the Works Progress Administration as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal." (Wikipedia)

The stadium was originally built in 1926, but later improved by the WPA. The archival photo pictured details each feature the WPA worked on at and surrounding this stadium, including new adjacent handball and tennis courts. The WPA work on this stadium was most likely included the 1942 work referred to in the following quote from the stadium's website: "The stadium, originally know as Fresno State College Stadium and renamed for Fresno State's first football coach, Emory Ratcliffe, in 1941, was expanded with a high-rise grandstand on the west side in 1942, boosting the seating capacity to 13,000."   (www.fresnocitycollege.com) This may also...

Later known as Heisman Gym, Georgia Tech's old Auditorium / Gymnasium Building was constructed with federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds.  The building "was projected to be built in two phases with the first costing $93,000 and the second $116,000. It was the "first completely reinforced concrete structure on campus, began in June of 1935," The Auditorium was completed in January 1936. "The building's second phase of construction was completed and dedicated on September 30, 1938, with a swimming pool section, financed by Georgia Tech, and completed in June of 1939." The WPA contributed to the latter stage of construction. The...

"One regional example of these structures is the Vineland High School Stadium, built by the WPA and dedicated in October 1938. It was soon after renamed Gittone Memorial Field in honor of Harry A. Gittone, proponent of local scholastic sports programs. Gittone Stadium was planned as part of the Vineland High School campus in 1926 when land was acquired, extending the school grounds south to Montrose Street. For the next ten years, improvements to the field continued and it was used for physical training and track. Football games were held at Landis Park until 1938. in 1930, a state championship win...

"Originally known as University Stadium, was built in 1936 at a cost of only $335,000 as a Works Progress Administration project. Originally the natural seating bowl held 8,000 in two sideline grandstands. There was a grass hill at the south end of the stadium, and at the open (north) end of the bowl were two stone towers (still standing), that served as makeshift housing for the football team in its early years. Following World War II, the stadium was renovated, with many glass elements. Because of this, and the city's concentration on the industry, the stadium was renamed the...

The local high school football stadium known as H. A. Eggerss Stadium was a WPA project dedicated September 18 1936, the night of the first high school football game held there. Hans Eggerss, founder of the Continental Can Co. which had a factory in Van Wert, provided the money and chaired the citizen’s committee.

"Halliburton was founded in 1919, and is one of the world's largest providers of products and services to the oil and gas industry. It employs more than 75,000 people, in approximately 80 countries. Named for this high-profile presence in Duncan, Halliburton Field was constructed as a WPA project in 1941, with an appropriation of $19,311. It is located at 17th and Pine. Stone and concrete walls and bleacher foundations, as well as ticket offices and locker rooms show the distinct use of native stone in Oklahoma WPA projects. The tall announcer's booth on the west wall has been added at a...

"This project consisted of several buildings, walls and structures to provide an athletic field for the local high school. The area consists of 65 acres, five buildings and seven miscellaneous structures. Visitors enter the field from the south, through a 24 ft. wide archway which reads "HARMON FIELD." The arch is supported by two stone-covered posts... Flanking the entry on the east and west of the ticket booths are two stone field houses. Originally, these were dressing rooms, but are now used as rest rooms. These buildings and the ticket booths have buff-colored, rough-cut native stone blocks from the ground to...

Hatten Park in New London, Wisconsin was developed during the Great Depression and constructed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). WPA-built structures in the park include Hatten Memorial Stadium, a swimming pool, and stone pillars and walls. It all began with a discussion in 1935 centered on the community’s desire for a swimming pool. This quickly expanded into the need for a city park, shelter facilities, athletic fields, playgrounds, walking trails, and a stadium. Rolled into this conversation was a need to get people back to work during the height of the Great Depression. It was the creation of the Works...

WPA Bulletin, 1937: "The Haverhill Stadium, which was dedicated October 3, is the pride of the city. Every seat in the reinforced concrete stands built by the WPA is a good seat from which to watch football games on the well laid out field, which runs parallel to the stands."

"Hicks Field was built in 1939 as a Works Progress Administration project in 1939 at the corner of East Freemason and Woodward, adjacent to John A. Holmes High School."

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed a stadium on what was then the high school's athletic field in Audubon, New Jersey. The exact location or status of the facility is unknown to Living New Deal.

The Auditorium and Gymnasium is an addition to Baldwin High School built by the Works Progress Administration. Construction on the $72,000 project stopped in 1942 when WPA workers were pulled away to work on a site in Lawrence. The gymnasium at Baker University was destroyed by fire in January 1943, leaving Baldwin City without a court for either its high school or college basketball teams. The community rallied and finished the high school gymnasium themselves in a couple of weeks. The site was sold to a private party in 2014.

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed a stadium for the high school in Collingswood, New Jersey ca. 1936. The current status of the facility is unknown to Living New Deal. As of March 2018, Collingswood school officials are seeking voter approval for a plan to replace the stadium with a multi-sport turf field.

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) started and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) completed a high school stadium in Rock Springs, Wyoming. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) was likely also involved, given the timeline in the article below. Casper Star-Tribune, Nov. 1935: "The folks in Rock Springs take a lot of pride in their new athletic field, and deservingly so. Started as a CWA project (as was Casper's new stadium), the field was completed last year. It is a splendid asset to the community, and supplements the excellent high school athletic system of which Rock Springs is justly proud. Roosevelt field...

The Works Progress Administration built the Highland Park High School Stadium in Topeka KS.

"Hinchliffe Stadium is a historic 10,000-seat municipal stadium in Paterson, built 1931–32 on a dramatic escarpment above Paterson's National Historic Landmark Great Falls ... It is one of only a handful of stadiums surviving nationally that once played host to significant Negro league baseball during America's Jim Crow era. The stadium was designated a National Historic Landmark in March 2013 and a Paterson Historic Landmark in May 2013... Many workers laid off from the mills found work under a New Deal-financed program to provide enhancements to the stadium in 1932–34." (Wikipedia) This huge stadium is in serious disrepair now, but still has...

The Hoisington High School Stadium was built by the Works Progress Administration in 1937 with limestone from the nearby Ney farm. The stadium is still in use and on the National Register of Historic Places.

Originally known as East High Stadium, what is now Holland Stadium was constructed as a New Deal project undertaken during the Great Depression. Construction on the facility, which lies behind what is now known as Auburn Junior High School, occurred in 1936; football games have been played there ever since. The federal Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) supplied a $48,056 grant for the project, whose total cost was $110,336. P.W.A. Docket No. NY 1405

Hoquiam Olympic Stadium is the largest all-wood structure of its kind in the United States, constructed from old growth fir donated by the Polson Logging Company. This stadium houses local football and baseball games, as well as larger events, such as the annual Hoquiam Loggers Playday. It is on the National Register of Historic Places, and is one of two sites for the annual Hoquiam and Aberdeen football game, which has been a long-standing rivalry dating back to 1905.

The Public Works Administration (PWA) funded the construction of the House Park football stadium in Austin. House Park was built between 1938 and 1939 and has served as the home stadium for several Austin Independent School District high schools. The project was part of a larger grant made by the PWA to the City of Austin on October 31, 1938. The grant, up $613,127 under PWA Docket No. Texas-2134-F., was to cover 45% of the costs of construction of school facilities, school repairs and additions, athletic facilities, and land acquisitions. The architects of record were Giesecke & Harris and the contractors were J. R. Blackmore & Sons.

The University of Washington's Husky Stadium was expanded during the 1930s as a result of WPA funding assistance and efforts. A WPA press release from Dec. 1937 announced $23,345 in funds for the site and described some of the work: "A three-story headhouse will be built over the main entrance. The first floor of the structure will be occupied by ticket offices, storage rooms and public lavatories while the second floor will be given over to caretakers' apartments. Equipment for a public address system, and an observation room will find a place on the third floor. Surmounting the structure will be a cupola...

"Between 1932 and 1935 communities throughout North Carolina, including Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, benefited from a broad array of public works funded primarily by Washington.  These included ... the building of a grandstand in Independence Park ..." The project was begun by the Civil Works Administration (CWA) but completed by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). Per the latter's description: "In Charlotte at Independence Park, one of the baseball fields has been used for years for Sunday school leagues and business league games. Much interest has always been manifested in these ball games, and attendance especially on Saturday is heavy. No...

“The stadium in Muskogee is called the Indian Bowl, and is made of white concrete. No WPA marker is visible, but the stadium is on the list of WPA properties. It was constructed with WPA funds and was eligible to be on the National Register. The adjacent Alice Robertson School is made from buff-colored brick.”