Start Year: 1937

University at Albany, State University of New York's Hawley Hall was opened in September 1909 as the Auditorium, one of three buildings (with the Science and Administration Buildings) on the original Western Avenue (Downtown) Campus. On December 12, 1927 the Auditorium was named Hawley Hall. The building served as an auditorium and gymnasium until February 1933 when the first floor was opened as the College library. Since the Great Depression the Dewey Graduate Library, at the University at Albany Downtown Campus, features numerous murals designed by William Brantley Van Ingen (1858‐1955), "a student of John LaFarge and Louis Comfort Tiffany, as...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed the Main Street Dam at the head of Lake Flower in Saranac Lake NY between 1937 and 1938. The WPA allocated funds for a number of proposed improvements in and around Ogdensburg, including “the construction of a new dam…and the development of a picturesque bathing float, beach, park site and addition of buildings to Saranac Lake Craft and Study Guild” (Parks & Recreation). According to a contemporary news report, the dam was “placed…on the site upon which Capt. Pliny Miller once built a sawmill. Later it was taken over by Alonzo Blood…who organized Saranac Lake’s...

Among the challenges in constructing the final link in Oregon's Highway 101, the state's bridge engineer responded by designing Chasm Bridge on Neahkahnie Mountain. Using Bureau of Public Roads funds and design advice from the National Parks Service, workers completed the bridge in 1937. An information plague located at a viewpoint on Neahkahnie Mountain describes the project, writing: "Built on the sheer face of Neahkahnie Mountain, this 59-foot reinforced concrete deck girder is a major engineering feat! Designed by Glenn S. Paxton, the bridge features stone masonry on its face and railings, which extend nearly uninterrupted around the mountain." Chasm Bridge is also...

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, c. 1937-38.  One of those projects is "Upper Park" on the hillside between upper Main Street and Clark Street. The parks consist of two parts.  Along Main Street a spacious, curving bank of stone risers is flanked by stairways and stone walls, with a short pair of central stairs and a metal drinking fountain.  The stairways lead up to a small area with grass and trees, backed by a...

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. One of those projects was planting trees to stabilize the steep hillside on which the town is built (like so many western mining towns).  The favorite tree for the job was the tough, fast-growing Ailanthus, or Chinese Tree of Heaven. Since the species readily spreads by root suckers, they are all over the town to this day.  But the harsh climate of Jerome, varying from winter snow to desert heat,...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built a school house at Wawona in 1937. The enrollee work teams came from the nearby Wawona CCC Camp YNP #7. The building is a shingled, rustic wood structure set on a stone foundation, with large windows for good interior lighting. Its appearance is unchanged over the years. A new, large school has replaced the New Deal building sometime around 1970, built in a modern style at odds with the old idea of park rusticity.  The old CCC school was used for many years as a community center, until that, too, was replaced by a new, larger,...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) began to restore the foundation of Fort Rice and build replica structures on the historic site in 1937.  Located eighteen miles south of Mandan in Morton County, Fort Rice was originally built as an Army post during the Civil War. The WPA mapped out a program of improvement for both the site and the North Dakota State Park system more generally. “No structures remain but there are markers for the site and individual building locations. The main marker is enclosed in a stone shelter. Two replica blockhouses were constructed by the WPA in the 1930s, but they...

The public swimming pool at Rafferty Slough in Dubuque, IA was built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1937. Measuring 75 x 225 feet, the Dubuque pool was the largest and most expensive of a number of publicly constructed swimming pools in Iowa during the late 1930s and early 1940s. Over the course of its construction, the pool project secured employment for sixty-one laborers. The dedication of the pool culminated a total expenditure of $17,000 by the city of Dubuque with the rest of the funding coming from the WPA. The opening ceremony included public speeches, diving exhibitions, and swimmers performing...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) began improvements at Bellingham WA’s Cornwall Memorial Park in 1937. The WPA also allocated $29,000 for the construction of a state-of-the-art bowling green at the site. This was in addition to earlier improvements, which included recreation structures, playgrounds, and tennis courts as well as “the finest bowling green in the Pacific Northwest.” The work undertaken at Cornwall Memorial Park was one of a variety pursued in Washington State by New Deal agencies. The park continues to provide recreational and leisure outlets for area residents today. “Centrally located, the park offers opportunities to escape into nature with 70...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) funded and provided labor for an improvement and beautification program in Norfolk’s Ballentine Park in 1937. The WPA allocated $12, 836 for the project with the city adding an additional $4,884. “The project call for the extension of drains, building of a culvert, excavation for a lake, the grading and building of walkways and the planting of shrubs and trees.” The efforts of WPA work crews resulted in a beautiful park that shared property with the old Ballentine School. In recent years, the vacant school building was demolished and replaced by new townhouses and lofts. Nonetheless, the...