Start Year: 1933

The Alabama state archive has a photograph showing the construction of an addition to the High School by the Civil Works Administration (CWA). With the help of the city clerk, we've located the old high school which has been torn down. The photos here show an old gymnasium that might have been a New Deal project given how common towns requested help with gym construction during the New Deal period.

Established in 1931, the airport now known as Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport was the site of substantial work relief efforts on the part of multiple New Deal agencies: the Civil Works Administration (CWA) and Works Progress Administration (WPA). A 1931 documents said that the airport had 2 asphalt runways 3,600 by 100 feet N/S and 3,700 by 100 feet NE/SW runways. According to the CWA of Jefferson County, the cost as approved Feb. 15, 1934, of the Municipal Airport Project 37-C-381 Grounds - Local Contribution $385.38 Labor $7,362.29 Material $1,080.00 37-C-825 Bldg.& Add - Local Contribution $2,080.00 Labor $141,742.00 Material $91,426.08 In addition from Feb. 15-Mar...

Before Pratt City was annexed into Birmingham, the independent municipality was protected by three volunteer firefighting companies, the first of which was organized by Mayor Ephraim Hudnall around 1900. After 1910 the Birmingham Fire Department took over the Pratt City station as its Station No. 18. In June 1912 the station was the last of Birmingham's 19 fire companies to be equipped with a Seagrave "automobile hose wagon". Medal of Honor recipient Kelly Ingram was a firefighter at Station 18 for four years before his re-enlistment in the U.S. Navy during World War I. In 1960 the old station at...

The former Station No. 12 was built in 1929 in Woodlawn at 1st Avenue North and 57th Street North. Designed by Turner & Slater Architects in a residentially-scaled Tudor Revival style, the station was pulled back from the street to create a park space across from Woodlawn High School. Schoolchildren were welcomed to the grassy lawn, and public restrooms for "girls and boys" were included in the station's floor plans. The two-bay garage, tucked under parallel gables with arched openings and fanlights, opened onto an alleyway. Unsightly functions such as hose-drying, barbecuing and coal deliveries were concealed in a rear...

"Birmingham Fire Station No. 19 serves the East Lake neighborhood. In 1960 Company No. 19 operated one 750-gallon Seagrave pumper truck from the station. in 2017 Station 19 ranked as the 68th busiest Engine Company in the Nation according to Firehouse magazine. Station 19 is the second oldest active fire station for the City of Birmingham behind Station 24. It is the only station with a fire pole still in use." This was one of 23 fire stations that were fixed up under a CWA Birmingham Public Buildings 37-C-715 project. These were designated Class “A”, "those needing general minor repairs, having...

Birmingham Fire Station No. 11 (1910) was a station for the Birmingham Fire Department located at 1250 13th Street North, adjoining the alley between 12th and 13th Avenues to serve the Fountain Heights area. Construction of a station in the neighborhood was recommended in a 1904 report by the Southeastern Tariff Association. The flat-roof one-story brick building was built by early 1910 in a utilitarian commercial style with one large truck bay on the left side of the building and offices to the right. It was the first Birmingham fire company to exclusively use "automobile equipment". The fire company's first run...

There is little info about this station beyond that it "was equipped with one 1939 Seagrave pumper truck with a 750-gallon capacity." This station was fixed up under a CWA Birmingham Public Buildings 37-C-715 project. These were designated Class “A”, “those needing general minor repairs, having sufficient sound value left in them to justify a thorough repairing, on which buildings was included painting inside and outside where needed, general carpentry repairs, including doors, windows and repairs to floors, or new floors; general repairs to masonry work and plaster or stucco, repairs to roof and sheet metal work, or new roof and...

The Civilian Conservation Corps built roads, hiking and ski trails, and recreation facilities on Burke Mountain VT.

The Civil Works Administration of Jefferson County employed women in a school clean up project 37-C-348-2. Excerpts from the Report on Civil Works Administration of Alabama Jefferson County Division: "The clean-up of Birmingham Public Schools and Public Buildings enabled the employment of white and colored unskilled women, and constituted cleaning of walls, dusting of walls, polishing furniture and brass, washing windows and woodwork, and various duties the principals of the schools could outline in order to create cleaner, healthier and more attractive schools, not conflicting in any way with any of the work outlined for the janitor or maid, such as mopping...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) first arrived in Petrified Forest National Monument in 1933, setting up camp at Rio Puerco.  There seems to have been a pause before a new company arrived in 1936 and another in 1938.  The camp numbers were PNM-1 and 2 and one of the companies was #3342. During their time in the Petrified Forest, the CCC enrollees built the Painted Desert Inn, two groups of ranger residences, the trail system, and a water pipeline, as well as paving and improving the park's roads. Petrified Forest became a National Park in 1962.