Start Year: 1934

In 1934, the Interstate Commerce Commission approved a $1 million loan to the Gulf, Mobile & Northern Railroad Company (GM&N), from the New Deal’s Public Works Administration (PWA).  Out of this money came two streamliners: Rebel trains 352 and 353.  The Rebels ran a route from Jackson, Tennessee to New Orleans, from 1935 to 1954.  They appear to have been scrapped in 1962. (Note: In 1940, GM&N was merged into the new Gulf, Mobile & Ohio (GM&O) Railroad.) The red and silver Rebels were designed by Otto Kuhler and constructed by American Car & Foundry.  The locomotives (“powercars”) had 660 horsepower Diesel...

In 1934, the New Deal’s Public Works Administration (PWA) loaned the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad Company—popularly known as the “Milwaukee Road”—$8.6 million (about $194 million in 2022 dollars) for infrastructure improvements and new equipment.  The latter included two streamliner passenger trains, the coaches to be built by the Milwaukee Road’s own shops and the locomotives to be built by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) in Schenectady, New York for $90,000 each (about $2 million each in 2022 dollars). Each train set consisted of an engine and seven cars.  The locomotives were numbered 1 and 2 (see photos) and...

In 1934, the Public Works Administration gave a $28,770 grant and $71,230 loan to the Ellwood City school board for an addition to Lincoln High School. The addition included 18 class rooms and a gymnasium. It was designed by Robert A. Eckles of W.G. Eckles & Company. The general construction contract was awarded to Cooke-Anderson Company of Beaver Pennsylvania. The school and addition are still in use.

James Madison University's Converse Hall, originally known as Senior Hall, was constructed with the assistance of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. The PWA supplied a $106,000 grant and $41,975 loan for the project, whose total cost was $147,476. Construction occurred between Mar. 1934 and June 1935. PWA Docket No. VA 1811

Construction on this Public Works Administration (PWA) funded building took place in 1934 as an addition to the town's high school (built in 1911). While retaining the New Deal era gymnasium, the current Lava Elementary School structure replaced the high school in 1979. The Lava School Gymnasium received National Register status in 1997 based on its significance to both local history and architecture. In the application's statement of significance, it was argued that the gymnasium is associated with "the continued development of this small southeastern Idaho town during the Great Depression" and its ability to demonstrate several primary contributions of the...

Elise Seeds painted a mural, "Prehistoric Animals," for a school in Los Angeles, CA, with funding from the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) and—upon the termination of the PWAP in 1934—the Federal and State Emergency Relief Administrations (FERA/SERA). The mural was subsequently relocated to the George Page Museum. Elise Seeds' other New Deal work in the region is a mural, "Air Mail," at the post office in Oceanside, CA.

In early November, 1934, the Illinois Central (I.C.) Railroad contracted with the Pullman Car & Manufacturing Corporation to build the I.C.’s first streamline train, consisting of a 1,200 horsepower Diesel-electric locomotive, a mail & baggage car, two passenger coaches, and a lounge car.  Then, on November 26, 1934, the I.C. requested the Interstate Commerce Commission approve a $2 million loan from the Public Works Administration (PWA), a portion of which was to finance the new streamliner (the PWA had awarded this loan in October).  The loan was approved sometime thereafter, probably in early 1935. The “Green Diamond” cost $425,000 to construct...

In 1934, Leo Katz painted a three-panel mural in the lobby of Frank Wiggins Trade School (today's Los Angeles Trade-Technical College) in Los Angeles, CA. Katz was assisted by artists Tyrone Comfort and Ben Messick. The side panels were funded by the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP); the central panel was completed at Katz' own expense following the termination of the PWAP in May 1934. The April 1937 issue of Los Angeles School Journal noted that an "unsuccessful attempt" was made by a first artist before Katz took over. Having "just returned from Mexico filled with enthusiasm from his study...

In 1934, the Public Works Administration (PWA) loaned the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company $7 million for equipment repair, new track installation, and new equipment purchases.  Among the new purchases was the $250,000 Comet, a streamlined Diesel-electric train. The Comet was built in 1935 by the Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation of Akron, Ohio. “The Aluminum Co. of America furnished the aluminum alloy sheets and castings. The Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Co. made the Diesel engines and electrical equipment” (The Indianapolis Times, 9-7-1935). It began service that same year, running a regular route between Boston, Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island. The blue,...

We often think of New Projects as going smoothly, but Avalon School is an exception. The educational situation in the Ouray Valley had stuggled: schools and boarding schools had been built beginning in 1885 for the Uncompahgre Ute people but they were consistently consolidated, closed, and reopened. In 1905 homesteading was allowed in the valley. By 1928 Avalon had been settled and only a few years later (1934) the school board was entertaining a FERA-funded school. Construction began with brick being formed and burned near the property, and men going via sleigh 'to the mountains' to get lumber. In Feb 1935...