Start Year: 1936

The former Camp Simms in the city's southeastern quadrant housed the DC National Guard rifle range prior to World War II.  In 1936, Work: A Journal of Progress reported extensive Works Progress Administration (WPA) improvements to Camp Simms: "Transformation of the National Guard Rifle Range at Camp Sims, from an ill-equipped, obsolete military adjunct into a model rifle range, is one of the many accomplishments of relief labor under the Works Progress Administration in the District of Columbia. One of the first tasks undertaken by WPA labor at Camp Sims was that of raising the level of practically the whole site. Coincident...

West Potomac Park lies just below the National Mall and encircles the Tidal Basin.  It is the site of many national landmarks, including the Korean War Veterans Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, George Mason Memorial, and Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial. It is administered by the National Park Service. In the 1930s, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees graded, topsoiled, and seeded a one-and-one-half acre hockey field in West Potomac Park. Although nothing remains of the hockey field, that CCC work established the park as a site of sports and athletics. (HABS Survey report).   In 1936, the Works Progress Administration...

The Langston Golf Course in Anacostia Park was opened as a 9-hole course in 1939 (and expanded to 18 holes in the 1950s). It was constructed with the help of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Works Project Administration (WPA). The course is named for John Mercer Langston, an African American who was the first dean of the Howard University School of Law, first president of Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute (now Virginia State University), and first African American elected to the United States Congress from Virginia.  The black golfing community formed the Royal Golf Club in 1933 to agitate for a...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) developed the Fort Hunt site as a recreational park from 1936 to 1939.  The work was very extensive, including excavating a lake, a golf course, roads and parking areas, and a storm drainage system.  The CCC enrollees built 8 acres of picnic areas with tables, stone fireplaces, restrooms, water pipes and drinking fountains, plus a trail system for hikers.  Lastly, they constructed a park ranger home, shop buildings and an oil storage house, and planted trees and other landscaping. Little of the original work remains, since the park has undergone a great deal of renovation over...

National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: "Situated on a city block on the southwest corner of Becker Avenue and South Fifth Street, the former Belen city hall is a two-story, multi-mass institutional interpretation of the regional Spanish-Pueblo Revival style. Constructed of adobe in 1936-37, as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project, it is distinguished by its massed composition and its north elevation portal. It is fenestrated with a mostly - regular pattern of openings, including sets of original four-over-four and six-over-six, double-hung wood windows. The upstairs is dominated by what was once an assembly room for the facility. The former...

In 1936 the Bureau of Biological Survey (BBS) determined that Bosque del Apache site was suitable for a migratory bird refuge. Condemnation of the land was initiated through the 1931 Migratory Bird Conservation Act and concluded in December 1936. The landowner  was paid around $12/acre for about 57,000 acres. The refuge was formally established by executive order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939. Between 1939 and 1942 the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and Work Progress Administration (WPA) sent in teams of relief workers to restore the refuge land under the guidance of the BBS, which became the US Fish &...

Believed to be presently abandoned, this historic rural school is located at the intersection of County roads 191 and 30, southwest of Kim, Colorado. "Built in 1921 and expanded in 1936 under the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the school exemplifies oneroom schools constructed in eastern Las Animas County during the homesteading boom of the 1910s and 1920s. The school addition and its adjacent WPA-constructed barn, intended to store coal and shelter student’s horses, reflect Depression era New Deal efforts to improve rural education facilities in eastern Las Animas County. The WPA constructed new schools and barns for several rural school districts...

In 1936, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) constructed three buildings for what was then called the Bighorn Ranger Station at the east entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park – which was the original entrance on this side of the park. The group included a ranger office with garage, a ranger residence and secondary residence/utility building. The three structures were designed by Edward Nickel of the park service in the classic National Park rustic style popular in the first half of the 20th century. "The residence building particularly reflects the design characteristics of the style with its uncoursed native stone foundation, log...

Humboldt General Hospital in Winnemucca has been around in various forms since the 19th century. The first hospital on the present site was established in 1908.  It was expanded with new structures in 1936, 1942, 1962, 1973 and completely rebuilt in 2015-16. The 1941-42 expansion was undertaken with a $14,121 grant by the Work Projects Administration (WPA), while the 1936 addition was undertaken with a $24,545 grant by the Public Works Administration (PWA). The 2015-16 reconstruction of the hospital effaced all traces of buildings before the 1960s. Old Hospital before being torn down in 1972 - Winnemucca NV

The school auditorium contains a set of murals by Sacha Moldovan entitled "New York Old and New," painted under the auspices of the WPA. "Drawing inspiration from historic images of New York as well as 1930s views of the city, Sacha Moldovan created a fanciful panorama of New York City, old and new, blending recognizable landmarks with a naïve sensibility. Moldovan was born in Russia but lived and worked in Paris, where he came of age artistically as a member of the School of  Paris, befriending Henri Matisse and Chaim Soutine. Moldovan’s paintings feature thick applications of brilliant color, heavy outlines, and...