- State:
- WASHINGTON-DC
- Site Type:
- Parks and Recreation, Paths and Trails, Park Roads and Bridges
- New Deal Agencies:
- Works Progress Administration (WPA), Work Relief Programs
- Started:
- 1937
- Completed:
- 1938
- Quality of Information:
- Good
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
In 1937, 250 WPA enrollees went to work on a recreation center on the site of the defunct Brightwood Reservoir in Rock Creek Park. The Washington Post (1937) reported: “Dynamite yesterday blasted a hole through the obsolete Sixteenth Street Reservoir so that steam shovels could begin razing the plant for an athletic field and playground to be erected there…. The recreation center will incorporate 16 new tennis courts, a field house, baseball diamond, a football and soccer field and areas where football, softball and lacrosse may be played. Tennis courts now on the land will remain for the time being.”
Today, the site still hosts the Brightwood Recreation Center and the Rock Creek Tennis Center.
Source notes
“350 jobs added to city’s share of WPA boost,” Washington Post, December 28, 1937, p. 13
Site originally submitted by Richard A Walker on January 17, 2020.
At this Location:
- Rock Creek Park: Improvements - Washington DC
- Rock Creek Park: Pierce Mill Restoration - Washington DC
- Rock Creek Park: Paths and Foot Bridges - Washington DC
- Rock Creek Park: Carter Barron Fields - Washington DC
- Rock Creek Park: Piney Branch Parkway - Washington DC
- Rock Creek Park: Fort DeRussy Improvements - Washington DC
- Rock Creek Park: Creek Stabilization - Washington DC
- Rock Creek Park: Road Work - Washington DC
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