Evan Kalish, the Living New Deal’s Researcher at Large, has traveled to Pennsylvania in search of more New Deal sites. He has discovered a fascinating New Deal vestige: a beautifully restored fragment of the Bangor PA Municipal Pool. Built by the Works Progress Administration, the pool was one of the few above-ground public pools built in the United States. The Art Deco, cement plaster architectural elements with brick insets are unique for this area and more commonly encountered in the Western and Southwestern United States. The above-ground design with bathhouses underneath was developed by Wesley Bintz of Lansing, MI. This configuration offered a cost savings of 25% to 40%, which made it an attractive solution for small cities impacted by the Great Depression. Construction started in 1936 and the pool opened on May 27, 1939. The pool was in service until the 1990s, when it was closed due to structural deterioration. The pool was demolished in 1996, but a wall segment that used to serve as the original entrance was preserved along with the original WPA plaque.

The U.S. Postal Service is commemorating the artistic legacy of the New Deal via a new set of stamps. Five historic New Deal murals are featured on a new sheet of 10 U.S. postage stamps. Called “Post Office Murals,” the sheets are now available for sale nationwide. The stamps were formally introduced at a ceremony in front of the post office in Piggott, Arkansas on April 10th. An image of the stamp featured at the ceremony is shown here. Other communities whose artwork is represented are: Anadarko, Oklahoma; Deming, New Mexico; Florence, Colorado; and Rockville, Maryland. Our Researcher-At-Large Evan Kalish drove from New York to Piggott for the occasion, which was fitting tribute to the New Deal’s immense art programs. Along the way, he found a rich trove of New Deal sites in Kentucky and Arkansas, on which he will report in a future Low-Down issue.