- City:
- New York, New York City, NY
- Site Type:
- Education and Health, Museums
- New Deal Agencies:
- Work Relief Programs, Works Progress Administration (WPA)
- Started:
- 1935
Description
The WPA allocated $12,100.41 in 1935 to assist with miscellaneous repairs to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The New York Times reported in Sept. 1935: “A shooting gallery to make the guards more proficient in the use of firearms is only one of the many improvements at the Metropolitan Museum of Art begun within the last two months with WPA funds …”
The WPA also washed the building’s exterior, in addition to “pointing up brick and stone masonry and washing it down with muriatic acid.” They also constructed what was known as Gallery E-15. Inside they washed the building and undertook “masonry repairs such as patching up interior brick work and replastering walls and painting.”
The WPA was also reported to be “installing new outlets in the boiler room, making new ladders for the roofs, putting new copper on the roofs ad constructing new skylights in Wing H. They are installing a new marble floor in Wing D at a cost of $39,000. Their job calls for sound-proofing the ceiling of the museum restaurant as well as that of the shooting gallery.”
Source notes
National Archives; Record Group 69: Records of the Work Projects Administration; Records of the Project Control Division; microfilm publication T935; roll 41.
The New York Times: "PISTOL RANGE BUILT BY WPA AT MUSEUM," Sept. 11, 1935 (page 25)
Site originally submitted by Evan Kalish on August 11, 2014.
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