Start Year: 1933

Other small improvements were made by the WPA in Riverside in the area of culture and recreation. The zoo and tennis courts which had been built at Fairmount Park by the Emergency Relief Appropriations (ERA) in 1933 were supplemented in 1938 by the WPA’s construction of a Masonry Club House and a pistol range, both of which were to be available for public use. The zoo was removed in the 1950s. It is not known whether the current tennis courts are at the original site or relocated. The status of the Masonry club house is not known nor the pistol range.

The New Deal provided funding and labor for road improvements in Rock Creek Park.  The primary Depression-era addition to the parks road system was the long-contemplated construction of a direct connection between Bingham Drive and Daniel Road (Davis 1996, p. 94).  This project was undertaken in 1934-1935 by Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) workers. A newspaper report notes that the CCC work in the park included, “Bingham Drive extended to make new entrance to park" (Daily News 1936) Contemporary photographic evidence suggests that the new section of Bingham Drive was constructed with a bituminous macadam pavement and that hand labor was used to smooth the road banks in...

The Calvert Street bridge was built in 1935 as part of the completion of the Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway project of the 1930s. It was later named for Duke Ellington. It replaced a streetcar bridge built in the 1890s. Plans for a new bridge were submitted by architect Paul Cret and Modeskji, Masters and Chase engineers in 1931-32, but work was held up by disputes over the proper design (between a single steel arch or multiple concrete arches) and opposition from an architect who had another design approved before World War I.   The concrete design finally won over the Civic Arts...

The south wing of the Bird House at National Zoo – which had been left off the original building in 1927-28 – was constructed in 1936 with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA). It completed the the imposing, Romanesque style Bird House, adding space for more cages/exhibits and housing the Bird Resource Center. The PWA contributed around $1 million to several zoo improvement projects in the 1930s, including new elephant house, a small mammal house and an addition to the bird house.  The separate cost of the Bird House addition is undetermined.  The original building had been design by Albert Harris and the...

In 1933-34, the Public Works Administration (PWA) paid for pavement repair and other unspecified improvements to the segment of E Street NW crossing the Elipse, from Fifteenth Street to West Executive Avenue, plus the roadway of East Executive Avenue from E Street to Treasury Place.   PWA funds “provided greater traffic width and an approximate straight line extension of E Street to the west and East Executive Avenue to the south. The very high crowns on E Street and its intersecting roadways were considerably reduced and cement concrete gutters were installed.”   The labor was very likely provided by Civil Works Administration (CWA) or other...

In 1933-34, the Public Works Administration (PWA) paid for pavement repair and other unspecified improvements to a long segment of Good Hope Road SE, from Nichols Avenue (now Martin Luther King, Jr Avenue) to Naylor Road.  The labor was very likely provided by Civil Works Administration (CWA) or other relief agency workers.   This roadwork is probably not discernible today, having been paved over several times.           

The Public Works Administration (PWA) paid for pavement repair and other unspecified improvements to a long segment of Benning Road NE, from Minnesota Avenue to Central Avenue, between 1933 and 1934.  The labor was very likely provided by Civil Works Administration (CWA) or other relief workers.   This was one of a group of road projects funded by the Public Works Administration (PWA) in 1933: "Among projects approved here are paving of Sixteenth street, Constitution Avenue, Michigan Avenue, Columbia Road, Foxhall Road, Good Hope Road, New Hampshire Avenue, Benning Road and Conduit Road, widening of E Street back of the White House...

In 1933-34, the Civil Works Administration (CWA) and the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) carried out pavement repair and other unspecified improvements to a long segment of West Virginia Avenue NE, from Mount Olivet Road to New York Avenue.   The road was paved with “temporary material consisting of broken-concrete base, broken stone, and slag. These large aggregates are choked with smaller material, and an application of asphaltic cement completes the operation. This construction forms a very good temporary roadway.”   The work is likely still extant, but paved over several times since then.    

In 1933-34, the Civil Works Administration (CWA) and the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) carried out pavement repair and other unspecified improvements to a lengthy segment of Bunker Hill Road NE, from Twentieth Street to the District of Columbia line.   The road was paved with “temporary material consisting of broken-concrete base, broken stone, and slag. These large aggregates are choked with smaller material, and an application of asphaltic cement completes the operation. This construction forms a very good temporary roadway.”   The roadway has been repaved several times since and this work is undoubtedly invisible today.

In 1933-34, the Civil Works Administration (CWA) and the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) carried out pavement repair and other unspecified improvements to a long segment of Fordham Road NW, from Rockwood Parkway to Massachusetts Avenue.   The road was paved with “temporary material consisting of broken-concrete base, broken stone, and slag. These large aggregates are choked with smaller material, and an application of asphaltic cement completes the operation. This construction forms a very good temporary roadway.”   The work is likely still extant, but invisible and unmarked.