Start Year: 1934

Tietze Park is a 9-acre park in the City of Dallas acquired in 1924. At that time it was named Keith Park. Ten years later it was renamed Tietze Park, after W.R. Tietze, who was Superintendent of Parks for the city from 1896-1933. The rustic style stone pavilion at the center of the park is a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project, built in 1934.

"Today, as the nation works its way out of a mighty recession, it seems natural to look back at the Depression-era origins of the old stone building in which the Mansfield Historical Society is housed. Construction began in late 1934 for the Mansfield Town Office Building.  The project was one of many sponsored by the Work Projects Administration (WPA) during the period.  A one-story colonial edifice with stone exterior and a fireproof vault within, the building was designed to provide a central place for carrying on town business and for safely housing important town records.  Meanwhile, however, the construction project gave much-needed work...

The National Industrial Recovery Act was involved in the construction of this final portion of former intercontinental highway 60 (now, here in California, I-10) that used to stretch from Virginia to Los Angeles. The 24.3 mile Indio cutoff was built to cut 9 miles off the narrow and twisty Box Canyon road (route 64). The route rises from its westerly end near Indio at an elevation of 47 feet below sea level to a maximum elevation of 1688 feet at Shavers Summit, now known as Chiriaco Summit, formerly the location of General Pattons tank training facility ('42 - '44) and...

The Coachella Canal is a 122-mile (196 km) aqueduct that conveys Colorado River water for irrigation to the Coachella Valley in Riverside County, California.  It is effectively a branch of the All-American Canal, which was completed in the 1930s.   Both are arms of the gigantic Colorado River Storage Project, anchored by Boulder Dam, built under the Bureau of Reclamation.  The contract for both canals went to the so-called Six Companies – an alliance of big western construction firms including Kaiser, Bechtel, Utah Construction and Parsons. Contracts were signed in 1936-37 and work began in 1940 but was interrupted by the...

A September 1934 issue of California Highway & Public Works described federal work on Daly City's Junipero Serra Blvd: "During the past summer the work of extending Junipero Serra Boulevard southward from junction with School Street in Daly City to Edgemar Road (a distance of 0.6 mile) was completed joint Highway District. No. 10 at a cost of about $9,600, which cost included a concrete structure separating Washington Street from the boulevard. At the same time the State has been constructing the "feeder" road extension southward from Edgemar Road including a connecting link eastward to join El Camino Real (State Highway...

The September 1934 issue of California Highway & Public Works reported on the construction of a road along the Coalinga Lateral in Monterey County: "On the Coalinga lateral between the Mustang Ridge and Priest Valley in Monterey County, a distance of about 3.3 miles, the road is being constructed with a 24-foot graded roadbed and a 20-foot selected material surface. It is anticipated that this work will be completed in February of next year. This project is financed under the National Industrial Recovery Act." The road appears to be what is now called the John McVeigh Jr. Memorial Highway.

A 1934 issue of California Highway & Public Works reported that, "At Ellwood (a neighborhood of Goleta), a change of line, including the approaches to the new concrete bridge over the Southern Pacific tracks, has been completed with a 20 foot P. C. C. pavement on a 36·foot graded roadbed under the provisions of the National Industrial Recovery Act." The New Deal era bridge is gone, replaced by a new one by CalTrans. The original was probably funded by the early PWA, then called the "Emergency Public Works Administration", which was created as part of the NIRA but far outlasted the parent...

This recreational lake in Eastern Kansas was completed by the WPA and German POWs. Work included a dam and spill way. The lake is still a popular recreational area for residents of Topeka and nearby towns.

Frederick Mulhaupt painted two large pieces for the old Maplewood School in 1934-35. They were later moved to their current location at the O'Maley Middle School. "Native American Life on Cape Ann" is composed of one 6' x 40 panel and two 6' x 6' panels. It was painted in 1934. The 12' x 20' mural "Gloucester Harbor" was painted in 1935 with funds from the WPA Federal Art Project.  

Gloucester City Hall contains several paintings by Charles Allan Winter. "The Founding of Gloucester" was painted in 1934, with funding from an unknown federal agency. "Education" was painted in 1935 with funding from the WPA Federal Art Project. It was originally installed at the old Central Grammar School. In 1939, Charles Allan Winter also painted three WPA murals in the main lobby: "“City Council in Session” fills the space above the collector’s windows (approximately 7 feet high by 11 feet wide). “City Government” covers the opposite wall. Tucked in and around the arch-topped lunettes, the two-part mural, “Civic Virtues,” spreads across the two...