- City:
- Jerome, AZ
- Site Type:
- Infrastructure and Utilities, Flood and Erosion Control
- New Deal Agencies:
- Works Progress Administration (WPA), Work Relief Programs
- Started:
- 1937
- Completed:
- 1937
- Quality of Information:
- Very Good
- Marked:
- No
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was active in Jerome, a copper mining town hit hard by the Great Depression. The WPA hired out-of-work miners for several projects in Jerome and nearby towns.
In 1937, the WPA relief workers built retaining walls to prevent erosion and collapse of the hillside below the Little Daisy Hotel – which was not a hotel but a workers’ residence hall built by the owners of the Little Daisy mine in 1918. The mine failed in 1938 and the building was closed.
At some later time, the top floor was removed and the next floor gutted, leaving only walls with blank windows. This makes it hard, at first glance, to realize the buildings in the 1937 and 1922 photographs are one and the same.
The Little Daisy Hotel was recently bought for a private residence and restored. The WPA retaining walls are still there.
Source notes
Project card for Jerome AZ in National Archives Record Group 69-N
Interview with park ranger, Jerome Historic State Park museum, March 25, 2022
Site originally submitted by Brent McKee on December 7, 2017.
Additional contributions by Richard Walker.
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