Sidewalks on North Arizona Street – Prescott AZ

Description

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built sidewalks on both sides of North Arizona Street where it runs through Ken Lindley Park and in front of the Museum of Indigenous People in what is now the Prescott Armory Historic District.  There are several WPA sidewalk stamps dating from 1936 to 1938.

Curiously, these sidewalks are not mentioned in the Historic American Landscape Survey report on the historic district done in 2014.  There is also a 1937 WPA stamp on the narrow sidewalk along the north side of Ken Lindley park on E. Willis Street and another on the west side on S. Washington Street.

On the east side of N. Arizona Street, just south of the museum, there is a stone drinking fountain that must be New Deal work, with a sidewalk stamp adjacent to it.  The fountain flanks the driveway to a small building with a first story in stone, which suggests New Deal provenance; but it might have been part of the former Smoki Tribe club house and museum complex.

It is unknown to Living New Deal if these sidewalks were done as part of the construction of the National Guard Armory along side North Arizona Street, built by the WPA in 1936-39; or, to finish off improvements to Ken Lindley Park and the museum done by the Civil Works Administration (CWA) in 1933-34; or, as part of a general program of street and sidewalks around the city of Prescott.