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  • Ala Moana Park: the Sports Pavilion and Banyan Court - Honolulu HI
    Part of the Ala Moana Park complex, the Sports Pavilion and Banyan Court were designed by architect Harry Sims Bent and built with the help of federal funds and FERA and CWA labor. “The simple concrete exterior walls of the sports pavilion do not suggest the exotic richness of the banyan court hidden behind its walls. The banyan court is probably the best-kept secret in Honolulu's parks today; it is also perhaps Harry Sims Bent's most noteworthy design. The sports pavilion and banyan court were officially completed 1937, although much of the sports pavilion had been finished somewhat earlier, by 1935....
  • Alumni Field Development - Maynard MA
    The New Deal had a large impact on Maynard's Alumni Field. In 1933 the Civil Works Administration (C.W.A.) surfaced the running track, built a concrete foundation for bleachers, graded a field next to the highway, and surfaced tennis courts. The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (E.R.A.) constructed a field house, bleachers, and a hockey rink on site the next two years. Work was continued by the Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.).
  • American Fork School Improvements - American Fork UT
    The Works Progress Administration built tennis courts and completed landscaping at the American School in American Fork, Alpine School District. Docket # 2799-R (Utah).
  • Anna Murphy Playground - Framingham MA
    In 1935-6 the Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) constructed clay tennis courts at Framingham's Anna Murphy Playground; removed the remnants of a stone wall; and installed a wire mesh fence.
  • Athletic Field Development- Brookfield MA
    Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) workers worked to develop an athletic field in Brookfield, Massachusetts. From a W.P.A. Bulletin: Swish of tennis tackets, the bite of spiked running shoes, and the smart crack of ash wood meeting hoorsehide will soon sound from this Community Athletic Field, Brookfield. A WPA project now in progress involves repair and enlargement of the field, and construction of additional courts. The location and status of the facility is unknown to Living New Deal.
  • Avalon Park - Chicago IL
    Avalon Park was one of the last projects of the WPA that was approved by Harry Hopkins and Controller General J.R. McCarl in 1935 and was an example during the Great Depression of how the government was interested in giving pleasurable entertainment and culture to the community of the Chicago South Side. The park is located between 83rd and 85th streets, with South Kimbark Avenue on the east side and is approximately 28 acres . Pre-New Deal, in 1931 landscape architect Robert Moore created a plan for the park and Alderman Michael F. Mulcahy was also involved in jumpstarting plans...
  • Badger Park - Shullsburg WI
    "The landscape was planned and supervised by Phillip Wyman, a landscape architect from Milwaukee in the 1930's. This park holds an important geographical position in the visual landscape of the city. Badger Park is an 81/2 acre park, developed in 1934-1935 as a WPA project... The park includes a swimming pool, bath house, shelter houses, double tennis courts, concession stand, a picnic ground with fireplaces, tables and benches, a natural amphitheater commanding a view of two baseball diamonds and a football field... After the details were worked out, final approval was given by the federal government to start the park...
  • Bailey Park - Austin TX
    In November 1935, the Works Progress Administration authorized $8243.00 for the construction and improvements at a new two acre playground, which would become Bailey Park. The improvements included two tennis courts, a baseball diamond, wading pool, light, water and sewer facilities and a shelter house. The City of Austin added $4751.30 for the project.
  • Baisley Pond Park Improvements - Jamaica NY
    New York City's Parks Department website states: "During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Commissioner Robert Moses (1888-1981) and the Works Progress Administration constructed recreational facilities in the park, including a boat landing, several playgrounds, tennis and handball courts, baseball diamonds, and a football field."
  • Banneker Recreation Center Development - Washington DC
    During the 1930s, Banneker Recreation Area was developed as part of a larger Capital Parks improvement program undertaken by the Public Works Administration (PWA), Civil Work Adminstration (CWA), Works Progress Administration (WPA), and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Notably, the CWA was responsible for the completion of the historic Banneker Swimming Pool and Bath House in 1933-34.  Those facilities are still in place. Other New Deal work at Banneker included: “...tennis courts built; baseball diamond, football and soccer fields graded and equipped; running track and horseshoe courts installed; landscaping around field house completed.”   (National Archives) Most of this was probably done by the WPA, which...
  • Beacon Hill Playground Improvements - Seattle WA
    Between 1938 and 1941, with funding assistance from the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the Seattle Park Department completed several improvement projects at Beacon Hill Playground. In the first of these projects, WPA workers re-painted the playground shelter house in 1938. This was part of a city-wide project to paint and repair park buildings that, due to budget cuts, had received little to no maintenance since the early years of the Great Depression. The following year saw the installation of new lighting fixtures to provide nighttime illumination of the playfield. Then, in 1941, WPA workers regraded part of the playfield, installed...
  • Belmont Playground - Bronx NY
    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...
  • Bensonhurst Park - Brooklyn NY
    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...
  • Braithwaite Park - Braithwaite LA
    Braithwaite Park is "a 32-acre WPA-built recreation area containing picnic grounds, a bathing beach, tennis courts, a baseball diamond, and a dance pavilion." The park, with different amenities, is still in use today.
  • Bronx Park, Trojan Courts - Bronx NY
    Researcher Frank da Cruz has gathered research from a variety of sources here to conclude that the New Deal had some role in the development of the Trojan Courts area of the east side of Bronx Park: This area includes the Trojan baseball fields (named after the Bronx Trojans, a 1930s amateur baseball team), the Trojan Courts (game courts), Brady Playground, and Ben Abrams (formerly Lydig) Playground. Records of specific projects in this area are scant; we have only the May 4, 1936, press release from which it is clear that a baseball field was built on the site in 1936, and...
  • Brush School Improvements - Santa Rosa CA
    The WPA made extensive improvements to Brush School, Santa Rosa, California, under Official Project Number 65-3-364. The work to the one-room school house included building stone retaining walls, a playground and a presumed tennis court (Goddard, 1976: 72-74). Though now under private ownership, the stone walls and tennis court are visible from the public right-of-way. (Goddard does not identify the specific year of construction but it can be inferred from the WPA project number).
  • Cabrillo Playground - San Francisco CA
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built a field house (recreation hall) and athletic courts at the Cabrillo Playground in San Francisco, CA.   The exact date of this work is unknown to us. "Constructed field house for district recreation headquarters; basketball and 2 tennis courts, 1 volleyball etc. This improvement provided facilities for intensive supervised play." (Healy, p. 63). The "Hansel & Gretel" style field house, with restrooms, is still there, as are basketball and tennis courts which have been greatly modernized in recent years.
  • Cain Park - Cleveland Heights OH
    "Besides constructing the amphitheater, workers from the Great Depression-era Works Progress Administration (WPA) also helped drain the ravine which Cain Park is situated in, covering up and culverting the creek that ran through its center. Attractive landscaping, tennis courts, ball fields, and walking paths completed the transformation of the former "wild" land into a public park."
  • Central Park - Mott ND
    Mott, North Dakota's Central Park, is located "between 3rd and 4th Sts. Its recreation facilities were built as an FERA project." Tennis courts were suggested as being among the facilities.
  • Charles R. Adams Park - Atlanta GA
    Charles R. Adams Park is a 32-acre public city park located in southwest Atlanta, Georgia. The park is surrounded by the neighborhood of Cascade Heights. Construction of the park began in the mid-1930s, and the dedication ceremony took place in 1940. The park used county funds, federal relief money and Works Progress Administration labor to construct many of the facilities and landscape features. William L. Monroe, Sr., a noted Atlanta landscaper, is credited with the design. "The property consists of a 32-acre designed landscape including passive greenspace, a lake and stream, and active recreational and community facilities. The...
  • City Park - Pueblo CO
    Multiple New Deal agencies collaborated in the development of Pueblo's City Park (and one of its primary components, the Pueblo Zoo). Stunning stone facilities and walls throughout the park are still in good condition. There are at least two WPA plaques located in the park: one at the entrance and one affixed to one of the stone buildings at the park's tennis court complex. The plaques state: ERECTED THROUGH THE COOPERATION OF FEDERAL STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS BY WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION DEDICATED TO THE ENRICHMENT OF HUMAN LIVES * A RECORD OF * * PERMANENT * * ACHIEVEMENT *
  • Claremont Park - Bronx NY
    The 17-acre Claremont Park in the Bronx was extensively renovated and improved in 1940 by the Works Progress Administration. The renovated park opened on December 7, 1940. A press release from opening day describes WPA work in the park: "This park has been redesigned by the Department of Parks and constructed by the Work Projects Administration to provide wider year round usage for all ages and groups of citizens of the surrounding community. Besides three new children's playgrounds which were opened on September 14 of this year, the old playground at the East 170 Street end of the park has been...
  • Codornices Park Tennis and Handball Courts - Berkeley CA
    The Civil Works Administration (CWA) built tennis and handball courts at Codornices Park – most of which lies on the east side of Euclid Road and is accessed via a pedestrian tunnel from the ball courts, which are on the west side of the road.  The tennis and handball courts adjoin the more famous Berkeley Rose Garden.  The CWA was the short-lived predecessor (1933-34) to the better known Works Progress Administration (WPA), which constructed the Rose Garden.  It is likely that the CWA began the work for the Rose Garden by creating the semi-circular hollow out of the valley cut by Codornices...
  • Community Regional Park - Arcadia CA
    In 1938, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) converted Ross Field, a World War balloon training school for more than 3,500 military personnel located in Arcadia, CA, into a public park. They constructed a golf course, swimming pool, and tennis courts. "Before opening day Oct. 12, 1938, the WPA crew christened each golf hole: The fifth is 'Railroad' because it paralleled the Pacific Electric tracks; the 11th is 'Wind' because the prevailing wind blows in players' faces, and the 16th is 'Clubhouse Turn' because it was the first turn on pioneer Lucky Baldwin's original racetrack site. A plaque paying tribute to the...
  • Cookerow Park Tennis Courts (former) - Boonton NJ
    The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed three tennis courts at what was known as Cookerow Park / playground in Boonton, New Jersey. The exact location or status of the facility is unknown to Living New Deal.
  • Crowe Park Development - Maynard MA
    The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (F.E.R.A.) conducted multiple work projects at Crowe Park in Maynard, Massachusetts in 1934, including removing rocks and stumps; grading land for parking space; painting its grandstands; and constructing tennis courts. In 1935 F.E.R.A. labor "erected a new back stop, cut brush and graded behind the grand stand. The Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) continued work at the park, which included construction of a band stand in 1939.
  • Davie Tennis Stadium - Oakland CA and Piedmont CA
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) developed the Davie Tennis Stadium in 1936-37 with an allocation of $65,000.  WPA relief workers built five tennis courts, with lights for night play and bleachers for viewing,  plus a community center in rustic style  that has a WPA plaque in front.  Low stone walls circle the courts and run around the short entrance road; stone pillars flank the park gate.  The park opened to the public on September 1, 1937. The park lies within the city limits of Piedmont CA, itself entirely within the city limits of Oakland!  Piedmont residents opposed the park but Oakland built...
  • Davis Avenue Community Center - Mobile AL
    The Works Progress Administration constructed Mobile's Davis Avenue Community Center. The center opened in 1936 and it included facilities such as tennis courts and a pool. Today, the facility is known as the Davis Avenue Recreation Center. The center holds historical significance for the African American history in Mobile and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 27, 2011.
  • Delano Park - Decatur AL
    "When the Great Depression hit in the 1930s, Franklin Delano Roosevelt used landscape and park projects to provide relief and hope for America. The second great period of park building occurred during this ten year period when the CWA and WPA work teams focused much of their attention on our "City Park" building the Rose Garden, bathhouse, wading pool, bandstand, and the stone armory, now known as Fort Decatur Recreation Center." (decaturparks.com)
  • Dimond Park: Dimond Recreation Area - Oakland CA
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the impressive Recreation Area in Dimond Park at the foot of the Sausal Creek canyon in East Oakland in 1936. In late 1935, the WPA approved $38,000 in grants for this project out of over $1 million allotted for various works in the city of Oakland. WPA workers laid out a recreation area where the Sausal Creek flood plain widens as it exits the canyon, laying out fields, picnic areas, amphitheater seating, benches and retaining walls.   There is a lovely redwood grove where the two main picnic clusters (with BBQ pits) are located, and...
  • Dyker Beach Park - Brooklyn NY
    Dyker Beach Park, located just south of the Dyker Beach Golf Course and north of the Belt Parkway was assembled in eight stages between 1895 and 1934. In 1942, the WPA and the Department of Parks completed extensive work on the park, much of which is still visible today. A press release announcing the completion of a field house and playground described the finished and ongoing work: "The field house, a one story brick structure, approximately 44' x 100' is located at the east end of the athletic field in a paved plaza designed as a focal point for the park...
  • East Potomac Park: Tennis Courts - Washington DC
    East Potomac Park rests on an artificial peninsula created with dredge spoils from the Potomac River by the Corps of Engineers.  The park opened to the public in 1912 and was largely developed in the 1920s. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) both made improvements in East Potomac Park.  CCC work at the park featured the construction of twelve tennis courts surrounded by a 10-foot chain link fence. A HABS report provides the details: "The CCC constructed the tennis courts, and by extension the chain link fence, between 1938 and 1942.  Fieldwork conducted in 2004 found an extant, though...
  • Edgewood Recreation Center Improvements - Washington DC
    During the 1930s, Edgewood Playground, as it was then known, was upgraded as part of a larger Capital Parks improvement program undertaken by the Public Works Administration (PWA), Civil Work Adminstration (CWA), Works Progress Administration (WPA), and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). At Edgewood, the WPA graded and constructed tennis courts and may also have built a baseball diamond and other recreational facilities.  The CCC also did unspecified work there, probably landscaping. Today, Edgewood Recreation Center still has tennis courts, basketball courts, a field house and traces of an old baseball diamond (in satellite view).  It is unknown how much evidence remains of...
  • Elijah Perry Park - Camden NJ
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed Elijah Perry Park (then called "South Camden Park") in Camden, New Jersey. Among the amenities were a "spacious bath house ... swimming pool, 200 feet by 78 feet; wading pool amid a playground for children; tennis court." Camden's Evening Reporter described the facilities in June 1936: The bath house is constructed of concrete block and stone. Its exterior is of salmon-tinted California stucco with white granite trim. Locker rooms on the main floor are equipped with 1,600 clothing baskets of wire, each with a numbered brass tag. As many as 2,400 persons can use the...
  • Ellis Lake Park Improvements - Marysville CA
    In 1939-40, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) made substantial improvements to Ellis Lake Park, which was originally designed by landscape architect John McLaren in 1924 on an old slough of the Yuba River.  It is not clear how much of the park had been developed before the WPA came in to assist the city of Marysville.  The WPA workers dredged the lake, put cobblestone rip-rap on the banks, built rock lampposts for night illumination, and installed an ornamental fountain. They also added two tennis courts, a judging stand, a 20-ft. concrete and stone bridge to an island in the lake, and a...
  • Elysian Park Improvements - Los Angeles CA
    As part of a grant to the Pueblo before it became the City of Los Angeles, Elysian Park is the oldest and second largest park in Los Angeles at 600 acres. A section of the park Montecillo De Leo Politi is a limited use area available by reservation. In 1936, the WPA constructed two tennis courts and two comfort stations there. Under project number 9907, it was sponsored by the City of Los Angeles, the cost was $211,942, and provided 358 men on average per month with employment for 9 months.
  • Enosburg School Facilities - Enosburg VT
    The Works Progress Administration built tennis courts, an ice rink, and a shelter house for the School in Enosburg.  
  • Farnam Park - La Crosse WI
    "Farnam Park is located at 1305 7th Street South. The City purchased lots from John A. Salzer Seed Company in 1938 to build tennis courts with WPA labor. This is a neighborhood park of .34 acres where people can recreate using the lighted basketball courts and two lighted tennis courts."
  • Flynn Park - University City MO
    The WPA did extensive landscaping in the park in 1936, including redoing the tennis courts and surrounding retaining walls.
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