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  • 227th Street Playground - Bronx NY
    The 227th Street Playground in Bronx Park, June 2015, built by the New Deal Works Progress Administration (WPA) and opened on June 25, 1941. From the NYC Parks Department press release: The new development covers an area of about two acres in the sloping lawn between the Parkway and the Bronx River. The playground itself is semi-circular in shape, contains various items of play apparatus including swings, slides, see-saws, jungle gym, a sand pit and a shower basin, and is paved with bituminous material. It is fenced with chain link fabric for purposes of control and a number of trees have...
  • A. H. Stephens State Historic Park - Crawfordville GA
    "A. H. Stephens Historic Park contains tent and trailer sites, picnic sites, and fishing ponds, as well as a nature trail and rustic cabins, and was mostly built by the Civilian Conservation Corps, beginning in 1933." (wikipedia) The park "is located in a beautiful loblolly pine forest planted in the early 1930’s by the CCC."   (https://www.reserveamerica.com) The WPA also worked in the park.  
  • Ala Moana Park Landscape Design - Honolulu HI
    In 1932, the city government began grading work and site preparations on the grounds of the Ala Moana park with the help of territorial relief funds. But it was the advent of federal assistance in 1933 that expanded the scope of construction and park development. Robert Weyeneth describes the process in the volume, Ala Moana: The People's Park: "The Federal Employment Relief Administration (F.E.R.A.) and, briefly, the short-lived Civil Works Administration (C.W.A.) provided the resources for the park board to undertake a major construction program in the thirties. During the construction program funded by the CWA and FERA, the daily labor force was as...
  • Ala Moana Park: Lawn Bowling Green - Honolulu HI
    Part of the Ala Moana Park complex, the Lawn Bowling Green was designed by architect Harry Sims Bent and built with the help of federal funds and FERA and CWA labor. "Constructed in 1939, the lawn bowling green was the last of Harry Sims Bent's designs for Ala Moana Park. It remains today the only lawn bowling green in Honolulu."
  • 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....
  • Allegany State Park - Salamanca NY
    The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) conducted major development work at New York's Allegany State Park between 1933 and 1942.
  • Alley Spring, Ozark National Scenic Riverways - Eminence MO
    At Alley Spring, the CCC constructed many trails, rock walls, 11 buildings, campgrounds, roads, restored the mill including replacing the floor, and diverted the slough adjacent to the mill to insure that it did not silt in. The CCC unit that worked this site consisted of WWI veterans.
  • Alvarado Area of Wildcat Canyon Park: Improvements - Richmond CA
    The New Deal made major improvements to the former Alvarado Park on the east side of Richmond CA, where Wildcat Creek tumbles out of the East Bay hills. Alvarado Park was transferred by the city of Richmond to the East Bay Regional Park District in 1985 and is now the "Alvarado Area" of Wildcat Canyon Park.     The park is known for its New Deal stonework, done chiefly by Italian immigrant masons, including a massive stone arch bridge across Wildcat Creek, stone light standards along roads and paths, and picnic facilities and stone stoves. The stonework is remarkable enough for the park...
  • 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).
  • Anacostia Park: Improvements - Washington DC
    Anacostia Park is one of Washington DC's two largest parks and recreation areas, along with Rock Creek Park.  It covers over 1200 acres along the Anacostia River from South Capitol Street SE to the Maryland boundary in NE.  The New Deal improved the park in major ways, after the Capital Parks system was put under the control of the National Park Service (NPS) by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1933. New Deal public works agencies developed such key features of the park as Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens, Langston Golf Course and Anacostia Pool (see linked pages). Besides those major elements, improvements included,...
  • Aquatic Park - Berkeley CA
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the mile-long Berkeley Aquatic Park on the bay front south of University Avenue in 1935-37.  It was created as a water park for water skiing, canoeing, sculling and model yacht racing, and is still used for practice by collegiate rowers and for water sports. The park lies between the freeway (Interstate 80) and the former Southern Pacific Railroad tracks (now Union Pacific).  Tidal gates under the freeway keep the water level constant and refresh the basin with water from San Francisco Bay.  The aquatic park project grew out of the Eastshore Highway, a feeder road for the...
  • Atkinson Common Tower - Newburyport MA
    Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) co0nstructed a stately stone observation tower in Newburyport, Mass. WPA Bulletin: In the center of Atkinson Park, Newburyport, WPA workmen have constructed a fifty-foot, field-stone, observation tower. Surrounding grounds have been landscaped with grass, trees and shrubs.
  • Austin Cary Forest - Gainesville FL
    In 1939, the federal Work Progress Administration (WPA) worked to develop Austin Cary Forest, a UCF facility used for "the purposes of academic teaching, research, extension education, and demonstration". The WPA "built roads, buildings, and water draining ditches. And 100,000 board feet of pine and 80,000 cypress shingles were logged from the forest and processed at the School's sawmill."
  • Bailey Playground - Bronx NY
    The New York Times reported in 1941 that WPA labor was to develop a playground at Bailey Avenue and West 234th Street in the Bronx. Bailey Playground now resides on that site: "WPA crews are busy on twelve other parks and playground projects in other parts of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx ...  A plot originally acquired for school purposes in 1929 will become the site of a playground at Bailey Avenue and West 234th Street, the Bronx.  A large wading pool is included in the plans." In August 1943, at the end of the New Deal, the Parks Department announced the opening of this...
  • Ballentine Park Improvements - Norfolk VA
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) funded and provided labor for an improvement and beautification program in Norfolk’s Ballentine Park in 1937. The WPA allocated $12, 836 for the project with the city adding an additional $4,884. “The project call for the extension of drains, building of a culvert, excavation for a lake, the grading and building of walkways and the planting of shrubs and trees.” The efforts of WPA work crews resulted in a beautiful park that shared property with the old Ballentine School. In recent years, the vacant school building was demolished and replaced by new townhouses and lofts. Nonetheless, the...
  • Bandshell (former) and Landscaping - Abilene KS
    "The existing bandshell was constructed in 1992 to replace and earlier building constructed in 1934. The City received CWA funds to construct the original bandshell adjacent to the stadium in the fairgrounds park. It burned in 1992 and was replaced by the existing concrete block building in 1998. The contributing landscaping consists of the grassy lawn in front of the stage and dense linear segments of deciduous shrubs that follows the curve of the road between Eisenhower Park Road and Pine Street. It is unclear whether this landscaping was part of the CWA project that funded construction of the bandshell or...
  • Banyan Tree Park Development - Lahaina HI
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) developed downtown Lahaina's Banyan Tree Park.  The park surrounds an immense banyan tree (a variety of tropic ficus) that covers three-quarters of an acre.  It is the largest and best known tree in Hawai'i. There is a stone marker in the park that says the WPA built the park, which presumably means that relief workers landscaped the park, added paving and built benches. It appears that the benches have been replaced recently. A massive wildfire burned through Lahaina in August 2023 and scorched the famous Banyan Tree; it is unknown to Living New Deal whether the tree and park...
  • Bath Beach Park - Brooklyn NY
    Bath Beach Park, named for the surrounding neighborhood, was acquired by the City in 1937. In 1941-1942, the WPA completed extensive work on the park. A press release announcing the opening explained: "Located on a knoll on the center line of 17 Avenue extended is a semi-circular overlook sitting area commanding an unobstructed view over Gravesend Bay and the Lower New York Bay. A concrete ramp skirts the brick surfaced retaining wall which supports the overlook and connects with a 30 foot wide tree and bench lined mall... The smaller western section which is subdivided into six use areas by fencing, benches...
  • Beachland Park Improvements - West Hartford CT
    In 1933/4 the federal Civil Works Administration (C.W.A.) furnished the labor toward the development of Beachland Park in West Hartford—specifically the planting of trees and shrubs on the grounds. Work was continued by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (F.E.R.A.), which took to grading tennis courts on site; improving the baseball field and covering a brook; and remodeling an old creamery on the grounds.
  • Beavers Bend State Park - Broken Bow OK
    "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)
  • Bellevue Pond Improvements - Medford MA
    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...
  • Belmont Lake State Park Improvements - Babylon NY
    WPA laborers worked to grade slopes and construct a bypass road near the carpenter shop in Belmont Lake State Park in Babylon.
  • 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...
  • Beltrami Island Project (CCC Camp Norris) - Roosevelt MN
    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.
  • 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...
  • Bessey Ranger District Construction and Reforestation - Halsey NE
    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."
  • Betsy Head Park - Brooklyn NY
    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...
  • Bienville Square Landscaping - Mobile AL
    The Works Progress Administration completed landscaping and grading work in Bienville Square in Mobile.
  • Big Lake CCC Camp Improvements - Cloquet MN
    From 1933 to 1935, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) planted 304 acres of “white pine, Norway pine, Scotch pine, and jack pine.”
  • Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge - Cambridge MD
    In 1933, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) achieved considerable infrastructural and land management improvements at the formerly-named Blackwater Migratory Bird Refuge near Cambridge Maryland. Maintained by the U.S. Biological Survey, the refuge covers an area of 8,241 acres, including marshes and waters where black ducks and blue-winged teal breed and mallards and pintails concentrate. The site is also refuge to a variety of shorebirds and other wild animals. In a December 1933 press release, the U.S. Department of Agriculture outlined the role played by CCC workers at the refuge: “C.C.C. camps were established…with a view to making the refuges more attractive...
  • Blue Hills Parkway Sidewalks - Milton MA
    Description of a W.P.A. project: "Blue Hills Parkway; in the early spring of 1939, work will be started on the construction of a bituminous concrete walk from Kahler Avenue to Canton Avenue. The major items of work are the construction of 6,900 linear feet of 6-ft. wide bituminous concrete walk, regrading, loaming and seeding of 920 linear feet of 9-ft. wide planting space and 4,600 linear feet of 5-ft. wide planting space."
  • Blue Hills Reservation - Milton MA
    The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Civil Works Administration (CWA), and Works Progress Administration (WPA) conducted extensive development work at Massachusetts's Blue Hills Reservation. Massachusetts Metropolitan District Commission annual reports detail the work of the CCC over time. 1933 report: "In the latter part of June a Civilian Conservation Camp was established by the National Park Service for Emergency Conservation Work for State Parks in the Blue Hills Reservation near Randolph Avenue. The camp was in charge of U. S. Army Officers. The enlisted men in the camp varied from 212 to 145. The work of the men in the reservation has been handled by a...
  • Bonham State Park - Bonham TX
    The state acquired the land for Bonham State Park in 1933 from the City of Bonham. The Civilian Conservation Corps developed the 261-acre park, landscaping the rocky, hilly terrain for erosion control and recreational purposes, and constructing an earthen dam to impound a sixty-five-acre lake. CCC Company 894 constructed buildings of local cream-colored limestone and Eastern red cedar, working under the supervision of Bonham architect Joe C. Lair and San Antonio architect William C. Caldwell. The overall design exhibits a WPA rustic style. The CCC built the entrance portal, concession building (currently the park headquarters and storage facility), waterfront storage building...
  • Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge - San Antonio NM
    In 1936 the Bureau of Biological Survey (BBS) determined that Bosque del Apache site was suitable for a migratory bird refuge. Condemnation of the land was initiated through the 1931 Migratory Bird Conservation Act and concluded in December 1936. The landowner  was paid around $12/acre for about 57,000 acres. The refuge was formally established by executive order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939. Between 1939 and 1942 the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and Work Progress Administration (WPA) sent in teams of relief workers to restore the refuge land under the guidance of the BBS, which became the US Fish &...
  • Boy Scout Cabin (former) - Casper WY
    In 1934 the Federal Emergency Relief Administration constructed a cabin Wyoming for use by the Boy Scouts. According to the Casper Star-Tribune the cabin "comprises a large assembly room, kitchen and cloak room." Work at the site also included tree planting and landscaping. The project cost $2,955. The exact location and condition of this building are unknown to the Living New Deal. According to the Casper Star-Tribune the building was located in 'south Casper' "in the old city tourist camp." An additional reference to it states that it is located near Durbin and Fifteenth streets, by the site of the old...
  • Breakheart Reservation - Saugus MA
    The CCC conducted extensive work on Breakheart Reservation to turn it into a public park. From the Friends of Breakheart Reservation website: “undreds of men lived and worked here, paid $30 a month, out of which they kept $5 and sent the rest home to their families. It was the CCC who helped develop this land into a recreational area with bridle paths, trails, and picnic areas.” From Wikipedia: "In 1934 the executors for Johnson and Clough sold the Breakheart Hill Forest to the Metropolitan District Commission for upwards of $40,000. The MDC then turned the land over to the Civilian...
  • Brewton City Park Landscaping - Brewton AL
    The Works Progress Administration landscaped and beautified the Brewton City Park through the WPA Community Beautification Project sponsored by the City of Brewton.
  • Brimfield State Forest - Brimfield MA
    The CCC assisted in the development of this state forest. From Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs: "This rustic shelter is the only one of its type still remaining. Dingley Dell Dam was another important CCC project at this forest, where there are many CCC camp buildings still remaining."
  • Bronx Park, Waring Playground - Bronx NY
    "Waring Playground in Bronx Park, across Bronx Park East from the block between Waring Avenue and Thwaite Place, June 17, 2015. It opened on September 28, 1939, as part of the larger project of developing the land turned over by the New York Botanical Garden to the Parks Department. Although the Parks Department's September 27, 1939 press release does not explicitly credit the WPA or any other New Deal agency with building or funding this facility, it states that it "is a unit in a chain of children's recreation areas already built or now under construction along the easterly boundaries...
  • Brookdale Park Improvements - Montclair NJ
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) completed improvements in Brookdale Park NJ (Essex County) in 1937. Initial construction of the park began in 1928 following an Olmstead Brothers’ design. “The basic work was in place by 1930,” suggests the Essex County Parks Department. But hen the Depression hit, the work that was originally estimated to take only a few years was extended to many years. Construction became dependent upon labor available from the WPA and ERA agencies, who completed the major work by 1937. The result is one of the County's most beautiful parks.” The WPA provided most of the funds and labor...
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