Start Year: 1936

The Beach Chalet at the western end of Golden Gate Park, built in 1925, is home to a trove of New Deal artworks in the first floor lobby, or entrance hall. The centerpiece of the Beach Chalet's artworks is an enormous fresco mural by Lucien Labaudt, entitled "San Francisco Life."   This magnificent mural cycle is 9' high and covers all four walls of the lobby (about 1500 square feet in all). It was painted by Labaudt in 1936-37. The mural cycle has nine sections depicting San Francisco locales: the Embarcadero & Fisherman's Wharf on the north wall; Baker's Beach on the...

The Martinez downtown post office was constructed by the Treasury Department Office of Procurement for the United States Post Office in 1936-37.  It is a striking one-story Moderne building built of reinforced concrete, with a central entrance and two windows on each side of the facade.   The entrance and central windows are bordered by lovely decorative bas-relief elements and there is a beautiful golden-eagle sculpture over the door. The interior of the post office is in excellent condition, with the original woodwork, metal grills and post boxes.  It also houses a New Deal mural by Hamlin and Dixon at the south...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) helped build the Post Library in Torrance, CA in 1936. The federal government contributed $12,691 to the Post Library project. It served as the City of Torrance's central library from 1936 to 1978.  The Post Library closed its doors after the new Katie Geissert Civic Center Library was built. The Post Library has been home to the Torrance Historical Society and Museum since 1979.

Arroyo Viejo Recreation Center/Park was developed between 1936 and 1939 by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), working with the Oakland Recreation Department.  The WPA funded the project for around $60,000 in 1935 (Chronicle 1935). The 16 acre site on Arroyo Viejo Creek was purchased by the city in pieces, starting in 1935.  The entire purchase cost about $36,000 (Post-Enquirer 1935). The property had belonged to the Japanese Domoto family, who operated a nursery there.  (An interesting sidelight is that Kenji Domoto went on to be a famous landscape architect) The work of creating a new park began with tearing down acres of...

Glendale Community College (formerly Junior College) relocated to its present campus in 1937. Several of the campus' original buildings—including the surviving John A. Davitt Administration Building—were constructed between 1936 and 1937 with the support of a bond election and funds matched equally by a Public Works Administration (PWA) grant. "The initial campus would consist of four buildings: a 24,000 square-foot Administration Building, a 12,000 square-foot Science Building and men's and women's locker rooms, together totaling 6,960 square feet. This plant would have 32 classrooms and laboratories. Space would be set aside for a student-funded student union, auditorium, liberal arts and classroom...

The original Beach School was built in 1913 but declared an earthquake hazard and torn down in 1934.  It was replaced in two phases: the main wing in 1936 and the rear classroom wing and auditorium in 1940 (PHS 2007). The new school included 8 classrooms, a kindergarten, offices, a health room and an auditorium. There had been three previous efforts to replace schools and temporary buildings at schools in Piedmont in the 1920s, but the bond issues lost.   After the school board sought and gained funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA), a new bond issue passed in December...

This colorful mosaic by Stanton Macdonald-Wright is installed above the doors to the auditorium at Hooper Avenue Elementary School in Los Angeles, CA. Entitled "Products of Nature and Inventions of Man," the mosaic was created under the auspices of the WPA Federal Art Project (FAP) in 1936-37. A 1936 article in California Arts & Architecture described the partially completed work: "This mosaic mural will be approximately eight feet wide by seven feet high. It symbolizes the products of nature and the works of man. The mosaic, a form of mural decoration developed by the Federal Art Project in southern California, is...

The historic downtown post office building in Redding, California was constructed by the federal Treasury Department in 1936. It is still in use today. The elegant Moderne design with fluted "columns" is by Albert Roller and features a graceful front stairway with two decorative urns and light fixtures flanking the entrance.  Two bas-relief eagles mark the corners of the facade. It appears that the striking blue highlights are original, if repainted over time. The original lobby was modernized at an unknown date, leaving the front desk area (on the left as one enters) quite undistinguished. But the two corridors with personal mailboxes are intact.

This tempera and oil on canvas mural "Incidents in California History" by Suzanne Scheuer was painted in 1936-37 with funding from the Treasury Relief Art Project. Located in the Berkeley Main Post Office. This mural depicts the earliest inhabitants of Berkeley. Scheuer was also one of the artists contributing to San Francisco's Coit Tower mural.