- City:
- Compton, CA
- Site Type:
- Infrastructure and Utilities, Flood and Erosion Control
- New Deal Agencies:
- Federal & Military Operations, Work Relief Programs, Army Corps of Engineers, Works Progress Administration (WPA)
- Completed:
- 1938
- Quality of Information:
- Moderate
- Marked:
- Unknown
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
The concrete Compton Creek Channel in Compton, CA was constructed by Works Progress Administration (WPA) crews under Army Corps of Engineers supervision. In 1938, $585,700 in federal funds were approved for a project that constructed a concrete channel from Greenleaf Avenue “to a point approximately 800 feet upstream from Wilmington Boulevard”. Approximately 74% of the funds ($433,430) went towards labor.
Although we now recognize that “channelization” is devastating to riverine ecologies, it was a pillar of the massive flood-control project undertaken by the LA County Flood Control District in collaboration with the Corps following disastrous floods across the region.
There are a number of bridges that cross Compton Creek Channel that were also New Deal projects.
Source notes
Number 3385; Project Applications, Reports, and Related Records; Records of the Work Projects Administration, Record Group 69; National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD [online version available at www.catalog.archives.gov (NAID: 516670387); June 28, 2025].
Number 3385; Project Applications, Reports, and Related Records; Records of the Work Projects Administration, Record Group 69; National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD [online version available at www.catalog.archives.gov (NAID: 516670387); June 28, 2025].
Number 2589; Project Applications, Reports, and Related Records; Records of the Work Projects Administration, Record Group 69; National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD [online version available at www.catalog.archives.gov (NAID: 516670387); June 28, 2025].
Site originally submitted by Joshua Segura on August 7, 2025.
Site last updated on August 7, 2025.
Site Details
| Federal Cost |
|---|
| $585,000 |
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