Start Year: 1937

"In January, 1937, the community of Avila, consisting of 75 people, installed the first wastewater collection system for the community at a cost of $10,670. This included 5,000 feet of 6” sewer lines, 18 manholes, 1 flush tank, 2 septic tanks and 200 feet of cast iron sewer. This became a WPA project with $8,464 contributed from the WPA resulting in a net cost to the community of $2,206."

In 1937, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) carried out improvements on Atascadero Lake Park.  WPA project cards indicate the following work: "Improve the recreational area at Atascadero Lake near Atascadero, San Luis Obispo Co., by improving earthen dam, and performing other incidental work, to provide additional parking spaces." We cannot ascertain what was done to the dam and the parking lots have been greatly enlarged since the 1930s.  Nevertheless, there are stone rings around trees, stone benches along the lake shore and stone drinking fountains that are characteristic of the rustic style used by WPA relief workers.  Further confirmation is needed. WPA Proj....

This brick Romanesque architecture building overlooking the city was built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) on the property of the long-closed County Hospital. This is a former Tubercular Hospital. According to a WPA job card, the project scope was to "Construct a tubercular hospital building and do other work incidental thereto, on the County Hospital grounds in San Luis Obispo, San Luis Obispo County. In addition to projects specifically approved. County owned property." WPA Proj. No. 165-03-2104, February 6, 1937, Total sponsor and Federal funds $80,491, Months to complete 27, average employed 108. "Construct a new unit to the Tuberculosis Hospital,...

In 1937, the California Department of Natural Resources sponsored the Works Progress Administration to "Construct warehouse, garage, barracks, and residence; install refrigeration plant, water mains, and sewer facilities; landscape and improve grounds; and perform other appurtenant and incidental work, at and in the City of San Luis Obispo, San Luis Obispo County. All work under this project is in connection with the construction and development of buildings and facilities to be used solely in the prosecution of the normal functions of the State Forestry Division, Department of Natural Resources. In addition to projects specifically approved. State owned property." WPA...

Designed by Overend and Boucher of Wichita, the historic Hamilton County Courthouse in Syracuse, Kansas was constructed in 1937 as a Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works (a.k.a. Public Works Administration—PWA) project, one of several P.W.A. county courthouses in Kansas. The P.W.A. supplied a $29,250 grant for the project, whose total cost was $65,007. Courthouses.co: "The building faces west and is a rectangular two story buff colored brick and concrete structure. On the west front is white colored stone trim with trim around the entrance." P.W.A. Docket No. Kansas 1258-D

In 1937-38, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) improved the road to Bodie CA (now CA 270) south of Bridgeport.  Bodie is a relic of a 19th century gold mining boom that had become a ghost town by the mid 20th century.  It was made a California State Park in 1962.  Highway 270 is closed in winter because Bodie stands at over 8,000 feet. The WPA project card in the National Archives states: "Improve Bridgeport - Bodie Road, near Bridgeport, in Mono County, by clearing and grubbing, excavating and filling, installing culverts, surfacing, grading and sloping, and performing appurtenant work. Not a part...

The former post office building, located at 200 Union Street, in Clinton, Massachusetts, was constructed with Treasury Department funds during the Great Depression. An example of New Deal artwork, which had been created for the then-new building, has since been relocated.

 In 1937 the Bureau of Biological Survey (from 1940, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) purchased 6,432 acres of the former Montezuma Marsh at the northern end of Cayuga Lake (one of the finger lakes of upstate New York).  In 1938, the Montezuma Migratory Bird Refuge was established by Executive Order 7971 to provide a refuge and breeding ground for migratory birds on the Atlantic Flyway. The name was changed to the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge in 1940.  Today, the refuge covered about 9,800 acres. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) established a camp to work on this wildlife refuge, as it...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built a bridge across Granite Creek on West Willis Street (at Granite St), just northwest of downtown Prescott AZ, in 1937. It is a simple concrete span with a central pillar and low railings.  It still stands. The WPA project card in the National Archives is mislabeled as the Virginia Street bridge – an understandable error, given that there are two WPA bridges, one on West Willis and one on East Willis Street (the Virginia Street bridge is not actually on Virginia Street, just next to it).

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was active in Jerome, a copper mining town hit hard by the Great Depression.  The WPA hired out-of-work miners for several projects in Jerome and nearby towns. In 1937, the WPA relief workers built retaining walls to prevent erosion and collapse of the hillside below the Little Daisy Hotel – which was not a hotel but a workers' residence hall built by the owners of the Little Daisy mine in 1918.  The mine failed in 1938 and the building was closed. At some later time, the top floor was removed and the next floor gutted, leaving only...