One of the lesser known New Deal agencies that left a solid legacy–certainly in Indiana–is the National Youth Administration (NYA). I think of it as a sort of junior WPA, which it was; President Roosevelt established the NYA as a division of the WPA in June 1935, under director Aubrey Williams.
Although far less visible than the Civilian Conservation Corps, Roosevelt’s premier New Deal program directed toward youth, the NYA was actually more comprehensive and widespread, attuned to a greater variety of needs. Geared toward young people sixteen to twenty-four, the program offered part-time employment to high school and college students through their institutions so that they would be able to complete their educations. My mother, June Fritz, did clerical work in the offices of Washington-Clay High School outside of South Bend. Her earnings allowed her to remain in school and graduate, and they probably aided her career path as an executive secretary. Work such as hers, or as laboratory helpers and library assistants, made the difference for thousands of young people able to keep up their education.
For unemployed girls and boys not in school, the NYA provided part-time work and training programs. For a time there were NYA camps for training girls in domestic skills–a project that had originated under FERA. I have documented two such NYA workshop buildings in Indiana, both of art moderne design. The one in South Bend had been built in 1939 by the NYA workers themselves; long abandoned, it was demolished in recent years. The one remaining NYA workshop building in the state is in Bloomington. It has been drastically remodeled, but at least is in use as a park recreation center.
Among the training programs set up for unemployed youth were a number of construction projects, including the development of recreational facilities. These have left their mark on the built environment to this day, although it’s difficult to find records of their work. I’ve stumbled on several examples, and unlike many WPA projects, NYA structures almost always boast identifying plaques unless they have been stolen.
Most of the NYA work I’ve discovered in Indiana is modest, such as two nearly identical park shelters: one in a schoolyard in Vernon and the other in the Old City Park in Greenwood. Indeed, the historic stone shelter in Greenwood must be blinking in disbelief at its current surroundings, so different from even ten years ago. It is now the only remnant of New Deal work left, where once there had been tennis courts, horseshoe pits, and playgrounds.
The most substantial work by the NYA in Indiana appears to be in Frankfort, the seat of Clinton County. In TPA Park, established about 25 years before the New Deal, on the northeast edge of the city, the NYA built a fine stone garage to complement the original park office constructed in 1910, along with a low stone wall surrounding both.
In Dornan Park in the south part of town, NYA workers built a concession stand with restrooms and horseshoe courts.
Frankfort is the only town in which I’ve discovered such a substantial cache of NYA structures, but I am ever hopeful to discover more just down the road!