Start Year: 1935

The Plainview Band Shell was built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in Plainview NE. According to the Architectural Foundation of Nebraska, "The land for the park in which the band shell would be located was purchased in 1935 by the city of Plainview, which used WPA labor to level and grade the land the following year. Norfolk architect Elbert B. Watson received WPA funds in 1938 to design the band shell, and work began in June 1939. Due to other WPA projects taking place in the park, the shell’s construction wasn’t hurried; in fact, in July 1941 – 25 months...

The Public Works Administration (PWA) funded the construction of the Lenexa Municipal Water System in Lenexa KS. "Establishing a municipal water system occupied the mayor and council for sometime, and it was approved on October 1, 1935. A federal PWA project grant was received for $31,091 to help build the system." Long time Lenexa residents recall a water tower in what is now Old Town Lenexa that they believe was linked to this project. The water tower was dismantled in the 1970s or 80s.

In 1935, the Public Works Administration (PWA) awarded $41,818 for the construction of faculty homes at Potomac State College (PSC), Keyser, West Virginia. The current Farm Shop appears to have been the "tool shed" included in the original contract for those homes. The Tri-State Construction Company was awarded the contract to build the homes, and a report in April 1936 said that, “First signs of construction on the Potomac State faculty homes here are seen with the construction of a tool shed. Mr. Gates of the Tri-State Construction Company, Ashland, Ky., is here supervising the preliminary work” (Mineral Daily News and...

In September 1935, the Public Works Administration (PWA) allotted $41,818 for the construction of faculty homes at Potomac State College (PSC), in Keyser, West Virginia. The allotment consisted of a $23,000 loan and an $18,818 grant. The Tri-State Construction and Building Company of Ashland, Kentucky, won the bid to construct the homes, and broke ground in April 1936. In its April 24, 1936 edition, the PSC student newspaper, The Pasquino, reported that “The homes will be built on the property of the school on the site of the old golf course. Three buildings will be erected on the site. One will...

Shelterbelts were natural windbreaks planted to protect land from the dust storms of the 1930s. The Great Plains Shelterbelts spans several states. The agency that started the project is unknown to the Living New Deal, but the project was transferred to the Works Progress Administration because of a dispute over the source of funding. Today, very few of the Depression-era shelterbelts are left, but a few trees remain of the shelterbelt built on the McFarland Ranch.  McFarland Ranch is a private property southwest of Cimarron. The ranch is south of the Arkansas River and the trees were originally irrigated by the Arkansas...

In 1935, enrollees in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) constructed a "museum, curios shop and coffee house" at Fall River Pass. Other CCC 'boys' came back in 1939 and added an extension to the building for toilets and a water supply  (Brock, p. 43). Today, the building functions as the Trail Ridge Store and Cafe, and a large, new visitor center has been constructed next to it. The Trail Ridge Store is built of stone and timber, with a shingle roof, in the classic National Park Service Rustic Style.  CCC enrollees were very helpful to the National Park Service as museum guides, as well.

In 1949, the Willowcreek Community Church purchased the former CCC Camp Vale's Recreation/Commissary Building for use as their gathering space. Renovations changed the building soon after its purchase, including the addition of a living space in the back of the building and placing sheet rock on the church's interior walls. Over thirty years elapsed when, in the 1980s, an effort to insulate the building required removal of the sheet rock. That renovation work revealed the original walls and, to the church members' surprise, the murals painted by Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollee Frederick H. Kluemper. That discovery sparked an interest among...

Built in the summer of 1935 and operated through October 1940, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Camp Vale served as the base for CCC enrollees working on the Vale Project's irrigation system. The Bureau of Reclamation's Vale Project involved construction of the Agency Valley Dam, located along the Malheur River and Willow Creek in east-central Oregon. At the dam's completion, the work of the enrollees at Camp BR-45/Camp Vale began. They finished the necessary means of furnishing irrigation water to area ranchers by building the lateral irrigation system to farm tracts in the area. These "soil soldiers," as the Bureau of Reclamation...

The town of Fruita, Colorado received a Public Works Administration (PWA) grant of over $70,000 that covered almost half the cost of a new Fruita High School, begun in 1935 and completed in 1936.  The building is now used as the Fruita Middle School. The school building is a lovely example of Moderne architecture. It is a long, rectangular two story structure with two rows of windows separated by vertical elements suggesting columns. There is a small, single story wing joined to the main building and a rounded entrance foyer between the two.  The cladding is a light orange/earth-tone brick. There is...

In 1935, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) workers stationed in the Bridger-Teton National Forest constructed three buildings for the Hoback Guard Station: an office/dwelling, a shed, and a garage.  There is a fourth building on the site that is not CCC. The CCC buildings were constructed with an architectural style typical of CCC workmanship, with notched logs and square floor plans. All of the buildings remain in use by the U.S. Forest Service with minimal physical alterations. The central office/dwelling is available to the public for short-term rentals and overnight stays.