- City:
- Portland, OR
- Site Type:
- Roads, Bridges, and Tunnels, Infrastructure and Utilities
- New Deal Agencies:
- Public Works Funding, Public Works Administration (PWA)
- Quality of Information:
- Moderate
- Marked:
- No
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
During the hard winter months of 1933-1934, the Civil Works Administration (CWA) was a work relief program that employed Portlanders on a variety of needed projects. Road work was one such project category. These men are shown graveling SE Holgate near SE 28th Avenue in late December 1933.
The CWA served as a federal relief program from November 8, 1933 through March 31, 1934. When the CWA began, Oregon anticipated being able to put 21,000 men back to work on small projects involving a large amount of hand labor. The projects were submitted for approval to the CWA and the jobless were asked to apply to the administration.
The CWA was part of the Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA). FERA operated from May 12, 1933 to May 6, 1935 when it was replaced by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) as the New Deal’s primary work relief program.
Source notes
City of Portland Archives: Efiles - A2000-025.642 : Crew grading Holgate St east of SE 28th Ave (AP/25026) (portlandoregon.gov)
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