Description

Florida “boasted several notable and highly visible WPA projects, including the Daytona Beach Bandshell Oceanfront Park Complex (NR 1999) and the Bayshore Boulevard Sea Wall (NR 1985) in Tampa. Conceived to help promote Daytona Beach’s flagging tourist industry and assembled with native coquina, the distinctive Daytona Beach structure faced south with its profile perpendicular to the Atlantic Ocean. As designed by architect Alan MacDonough, the structure included a clock tower, fountain, and monument to Edward H. Armstrong, Daytona Beach’s aggressive mayor who used New Deal resources to enhance the “World’s Finest Beach.” … City funds and WPA coffers allocated approximately $300,000 to construct the “world’s largest bandshell” capable of seating 5,000 patrons. Dedicated on 1 January 1938, the structure rose sixty feet high, extended 135 feet across, and displayed twin towers that bracketed the bandshell’s stage, which measured forty feet deep by fifty-two feet across.” (NRHP Nomination)

The federal government contributed $184,000 of the project’s $268,000 total cost.