Start Year: 1933

The Civilian Conservation Corps built a camp F-23 at Packers Meadows, Selway Forest, Idaho.

Lewiston took full advantage of New Deal funds to get much work accomplished during the years of the economic depression. One of these federally funded projects was the upgrade of the sewer system. During the hard winter of 1933/34, "Sewer pipes are now being laid on Castle, Dill, Eustis and Foch St. Sewer pipes on Glenwood St., Boston Ave. and at Barkerville are soon to be laid." 1934 Mayors Report: E. R. A. "Please let me enumerate some of the most important projects completed during this last year under the E. R. A. All proposed projects on sewerage have been accomplished to the...

Rebuilding the water supply system was part of the massive amount of public works projects undertaken in this small industrial city. In the winter of 1993/34, under the Civil Works Administration, the Mayor said "work was accomplished at great odds, inclement temperature, ground frozen to a depth of over four feet in some places. Let me, very briefly, tell you what work was accomplished: 4100 feet of six inch water pipe was laid on Sabattus Road. 8500 feet of six inch was laid on Webster Road. 600 feet of six inch water pipe on South Avenue. 4400 feet of eight inch water pipe at Barkerville,...

Schools were one of the many work programs that helped reduce welfare rolls in the depths of the depression in this industrial city. Out of $239,193.23 distributed by the Civil Works Administration (CWA), "Nearly all of our public schools have been painted and varnished 12 rural schools are also to be painted." The 1934 town report, under Federal Emergency Relief Project From Dec 1933 up to Feb. 1935 specifies the schools. "5. Painting and varnishing the interior of City Schools. Martel, Pettingill, Coburn, Frye, Dingley, Wallace, Jordan, and Lewiston High School. Exterior and interior painting of the twelve suburban schools, with general repairs such...

This manufacturing city on the Androscoggin River received Federal assistance for various projects, between 1933 and 1942. In 1933, part of the $281,433 spent by the Civil Works Administration in this city of 34,948 (1930 census), was assistance to the public library: "Miss Doris Linehan has done valuable work repairing books and filing documents employed as a federal CWA assistant." Report of the Health Officer, Robert J. Wiseman, Jr., M.D. CHILD HEALTH EMERGENCY RELIEF PROGRAM—The Child Health Emergency Relief Program was made possible thru an order of the Federal Government, with the cooperation o f the local physicians, five nurses employed thru the Civil...

The mayors address in the 1933 town report mentions a Civil Works Administration project for repairs at the 1892 baroque revival style building. "City building is now being rewired, painted and varnished as you may see." This project was part of $239,193.23 spent in the city for unemployment relief. The mayor's address in the 1934 town report mentions an E.R.A. project for modernizing the wiring in City Building.

According to the 1933 and 1934 town reports, a significant amount of work in the city of Belfast was accomplished by the New Deal, particularly improvements, addictions and new construction for the town schools. 1933: Superintendent of Schools Under the C. W. A. the brick walls in the High School have been scraped and repainted with a sealer and two coats of paint. We are also maintaining a school for illiterates in the City under the Emergency Relief in Education. Milk is also being provided from the Federal Fund. 1934 Under the newly formed School District construction was started December 3rd, of a new...

The 1933 town report includes a photograph of a CCC camp, which was CO.132nd P-59 and operated from June 1933 to May 1937 for the Maine Forest Service in protection from insects & disease. It was located on the property of the Town Farm in the far SE of the city.

Camp Wawona, at the south end of Yosemite National Park, was one of two hubs for the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the park during the New Deal era, 1933-42 (the other hub was at Camp Cascades in Yosemite Valley).  The Wawona area had only been added to the park in 1932 and there was much work to be done to improve that part of the park. The first two camps at Wawona, YNP #1 and 2, were established in May 1933 and were the first CCC camps in the West. These early camps were located at the far end of...

The federal Bureau of Public Roads (BPR), funded by the Public Works Administration (PWA), built the 15.7 mile Glacier Point Road from Chinquapin Flat on the Wawona Road to Glacier Point, 1933-35. This project was part of a complete overhaul of Yosemite National Park roads carried out under the New Deal in the 1930s. The Glacier Point Road replaced a primitive saddle road built in the 1870s. Surveys for the route were done in 1930-31 and grading began in 1932. Then, funding for the project became available through the National Industrial Recovery Act, which created the PWA.    "The new road was to...