Start Year: 1934

The community notes of the Independent Reporter, January 11, 1934 mention CWA work: "The CWA road project above town is progressing slowly. The next four weeks will be spent in blasting the ledge at the bottom of Mill Hill. The ledge will be hauled to Austin Stream where it will serve as a breakwater near the home of Eli Carpentier."

The community notes in the Independent Reporter of February 4, 1934 mentions New Deal help in this very rural plantation of 114 (1930 census). "School at the Roosevelt schoolhouse reopened Monday, after a vacation of two weeks. The CWA workers have been making some much needed repairs on the schoolhouse." David Baker and P. Tripp are mentioned as visiting from the Greenville CCC camp.

During the late 1930s, with funds from various New Deal programs, the Seattle Park Department made significant improvements to Laurelhurst Playfield. The largest of these improvement projects was the construction of a field house near the southern end of the playfield. Workers with the CWA began constructing the field house in January 1934. Work had not yet been completed when the federal government shut down the CWA program at the end of March 1934. The remaining work on the structure was completed in 1935 with assistance from the Washington (State) Emergency Relief Administration. Designed by Seattle architect Lloyd J. Lovegren,...

There is a three page history of the pool in the Castine Historical Society newsletter by Lynn Parsons (winter 2011) detailing the role of the New Deal in bringing about this fine example of public recreation. According to a Selectman's report from March 2, 1934, the town voted $1,000 for a CWA project on land donated by Warren Hooper and William Bevan. It opened July 4, 1935 under the supervision of the Public Grounds Department, receiving considerable public support and was very popular with children. In 1937 the Public Grounds Dept. suggested the construction of a bath house. $1,967.55 was...

Red Hook Park in Brooklyn was one of several major parks and hundreds of playgrounds created in New York City with Federal funds in the New Deal era. In this 1938 text, Robert Moses describes the work accomplished in New York City parks, including Red Hook, by relief workers: "There are today 372 playgrounds, ranging from small neighborhood plots of a quarter acre to large developments such as Macombs Dam Park in The Bronx, Red Hook and McCarren Parks in Brooklyn, and Randall's Island, adjacent to the East Harlem section of Manhattan, all developed to take care of every type of recreation for both children and...

The  Federal Emergency Relief Administration (F.E.R.A.) furnished the cost of labor for the construction of a sidewalk along Elm Street in Hatfield, Massachusetts. The 11-man project cost the Town of Hatfield supplied only the price of materials for the project.

The  Federal Emergency Relief Administration (F.E.R.A.) furnished the cost of labor for the construction of multiple storm sewers in Hatfield, Massachusetts. One sewer collected runoff from Main Street and poured it into the Connecticut River nearby. The 25-man project cost the Town of Hatfield supplied only the price of materials for the project. Work occurred between Oct. 13 and Nov. 15, 1934.

In 1934, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (F.E.R.A.) furnished the cost of labor for the construction of a playground behind Center School in Hatfield, Massachusetts. The 35-man project cost the Town of Hatfield only the price of materials for the project ($982), while the federal government paid for the labor (3,028). The Center School itself was constructed as Hatfield's middle school in 1914. The building much later became the Western Massachusetts Regional Library and, as of 2016, has been vacant for about 10 years. It appears that the playground was demolished at some point as the aerial view of the site shows...

The federal Civil Works Administration (C.W.A.) and Federal Emergency Relief Administration (F.E.R.A.) furnished the cost of labor for the painting of five schools in Hatfield, Massachusetts in 1934. Other improvements were made to all schools in the town that year, putting them in "first class condition" (Town Report). "Owing to the use of WPA governmental funds in the past few years," the town's Report of School Committee from 1939 noted, "our local maintenance costs have been held to a low figure." The exact facilities in question and locations of the five schools is not presently known to Living New Deal.

The federal Civil Works Administration (C.W.A.) and Federal Emergency Relief Administration (F.E.R.A.) furnished the cost of labor for the painting—interior and exterior—Hatfield, Massachusetts Town Hall. The project employed two painters between March 1 and July 15, 1934. The C.W.A. paid $203.40 for the labor for the month of March, and F.E.R.A. contributed $586.20. The Town of Hatfield supplied only $169.45, the cost of materials for the project.