- City:
- Indianapolis, IN
- Site Type:
- Airports, Infrastructure and Utilities
- New Deal Agencies:
- Work Relief Programs, Works Progress Administration (WPA)
- Quality of Information:
- Minimal
- Site Survival:
- No Longer Extant
Description
What was then Stout Field was developed as part of a massive New Deal project, with funds and labor provided by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). It is sometimes difficult, from sources, to differentiate work done at this facility and work conducted at what is now Indianapolis International Airport. Some of these references may instead apply to that airport, another site of extensive WPA work.
Per The Indianapolis Star, “More than 600 WPA workers also prepared Stout Field for entry into World War II by upgrading the facility that had originally opened in 1927. The control tower and hangar were designed by John Parish with WPA funds.”
WPA Project No. 165‐1‐52‐108. Total funds: $1,212,000. Sponsor: War Department.
In 1937 it was written that the WPA “built new runways at the airport, helped to install three instrument approach systems, establishes a radio field traffic system and installed a switchboard that operated all lighting at the field.”
Source notes
WPA Related Resources Available at IUB Wells Library - WPA in Indiana: "Caudell, Marcia, Deborah Jones, Ben Jessup and Marti Reeser. "WPA Library Projects in Indiana." Indiana Libraries, Volume 20, Number 1, 2001. 7-14."; "Envy of the World: A History of the U.S. Economy & Big Business", Timothy J. Botti, pp.227.
Nationwide Context, Inventory, and Heritage Assessment of Works Progress Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps Resources on Department of Defense Installations, July 2009 (page C-56).
"Officials To See Airport Project," Anderson Herald, Oct. 29, 1937 (pg. 12): https://www.newspapers.com/image/974287511/
"WPA put Hoosiers to work in dark days, built landmarks that remain," The Indianapolis Star, September 29, 2019 (page A2): https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/605813873/
Site originally submitted by Indiana DNR, Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology on August 27, 2015.
Additional contributions by Evan Kalish.
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