- City:
- Portland, OR
- Site Type:
- Infrastructure and Utilities, Roads, Bridges, and Tunnels
- New Deal Agencies:
- Work Relief Programs, Public Works Funding, Public Works Administration (PWA), Civil Works Administration (CWA)
- Started:
- 1933
- Completed:
- 1934
- Quality of Information:
- Minimal
- Marked:
- No
- Site Survival:
- Partially 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. Street repair work was one such project category. These men are shown on January 26, 1934 repairing a street damaged by the collapse of a retaining wall at the intersection of NW Maywood Drive and NW Melinda Avenue in Portland’s West Hills.
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 through 1935 when it was replaced by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) as the New Deal’s primary work relief program.
Source notes
"Crew Repairing Street Damaged by Collapsed Retaining Wall at Intersection of NW Maywood and NW Melinda," PWA Collection, City of Portland Archives- Elfies. https://efiles.portlandoregon.gov/record/3895264
"Orders Received for Civil Works: Start on Projects Set for Thursday," Oregonian. November 19, 1933.
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