State Industrial Home (demolished) – Oakland CA

Description

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) continued work at this facility from the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). WPA project No. 65-3-2140, Approval Date 10-25-35, $1.045, “Paint Int. State Industr. Home. ERA” (Federal Emergency Relief Administration)

Excerpt from Oakland Wiki: “The Industrial Home for the Adult Blind (sometimes the Industrial Home of Mechanical Trades for the Adult Blind) was established in 1885 at the corner of Telegraph Avenue and Thirty-sixth Street, on the eastern half of the former Peter Thomson estate. The Home went through a number of changes, and then became the State-operated Orientation Center for the Blind in 1951. In 1964, in part due to the need to acquire a portion of the property to allow the construction of the interchange between the Grove Shafter Freeway and the MacArthur Freeway, the OCB moved to its current location in Albany. Sometime thereafter, the Oakland office for the California Highway Patrol and the Caltrans Telegraph Maintenance Station were constructed on the remaining portion of the OCB site north and east of the freeway interchange.”