- State:
- WASHINGTON-DC
- Site Type:
- Historic Sites, Archaeology and History
- Quality of Information:
- Good
- Marked:
- No
- Site Survival:
- No Longer Extant
Description
The WPA sewing room project at the Metropolitan Methodist Church in Washington, DC was located at the southwest corner of C Street NW and John Marshall Place (John Marshall Place no longer seems to exist, but most likely ran north to south on the western side of today’s John Marshall Park).
Reporting on Eleanor Roosevelt’s visit to the sewing room on July 6, 1936, the Evening Star noted that “1,300 women are employed in two shifts on making garments which are later distributed among W.P.A. relief clients.”
Between 1935 and 1943, WPA sewing room workers in Washington, DC made over 1,350,000 items of clothing, bedding items, and other products for low-income residents in the District.
The Metropolitan Methodist Church was partly demolished and partly salvaged (and removed) around 1940-1941. Nothing of it remains on the original site.
Source notes
“Magnificent Lost Methodist Church on C Street,” Ghosts of DC, August 26, 2014 (accessed September 1, 2020).
“John Marshall Place, Old Center of District, Succeeded By New City Area,” Sunday Star, March 19, 1939, p. C-4 (accessed September 1, 2020).
“Swimming Suits Made For Needy,” Sunday Star, June 26, 1938, p. A-13 (accessed September 1, 2020).
“President’s Wife Sees Human Side of W.P.A. Operation,” Evening Star, July 6, 1936, p. A-1 (accessed September 1, 2020).
Federal Works Agency, Final Report on the WPA Program, 1935-43, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1947, p. 134.
Site originally submitted by Brent McKee on September 3, 2020.
Contribute to this Site
We welcome contributions of additional information on any New Deal site.
Submit More Information or Photographs for this New Deal Site
Join the Conversation