Start Year: 1938

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed Richmond’s Brook Field Park Swimming Pool in 1938. The pool was a segregated one, operating exclusively for the African American people of the city, as was normal practice in the Jim Crow era.   Made out of concrete, the pool’s physical dimensions were listed as 185 x 60 feet by 2 and a half to 11 feet deep. Like other WPA pool projects, the Brook Field Park Swimming Pool included the most modern equipment of the day, including a circulation pump and filter system as well as water treatment tools and a series of floodlights....

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) pursued a number of improvements at Blue Mounds State Park in Minnesota in 1938. Initial improvement plans called for the “construction of a bathhouse, facilities for picnicking and camping and general recreation.” The WPA also built dams and other structures.  In what was then called Mounds Springs Recreational Reserve, “workers in the WPA (Works Progress Administration) built five structures: a latrine and the upper and lower dams on Mound Creek, which created Upper and Lower Mound Lakes. The rustic style of the structures features native materials such as locally quarried quartzite. Rustic-style architecture, as defined by...

The Public Works Administration funded the construction of the Wade Hampton State Office Building in Columbia SC. According to Historic Columbia, "This structure was built using funds from the federal Public Works Administration to alleviate the state’s constant need for office space. Its Stripped Classical exterior and Art Deco interiors are typical of other buildings constructed under the New Deal and compliment the State House and the John C. Calhoun State Office Building next door. Built with separate bathrooms for African American citizens, the building housed the State Department for Education throughout the state government’s stalwart defense of racial segregation in public...

The Butterfield School was constructed in 1935 as a red brick building, with no kitchen or indoor toilets. In fall of 1938, improvements were begun through a National Youth Administration Project. The project included construction of rock walls for landscaping, a rock retainer wall for the front of school grounds, two tennis courts, two underground cisterns for water storage, and graveling of sidewalks. The total cost was $1,525 and the NYA provide $1,000 in labor. The building is still extant and is currently in use as the Daybreak Community following the closing of the school in 2006.

In 1938, the Public Works Administration (PWA) gave a grant to the city of Martinez to help construct a 500,000 gallon water supply reservoir.  This is the old Mountain View reservoir (which is no longer in service) at the end of Harbor View Street, according to former City Engineer Tim Tucker.  (A second storage tank, still in service, can be found farther south at the end of Shady Glen Street) The City Council minutes for August 4, 1938 indicate that this was PWA Project #1749F. On August 17, the council transferred $7,000 to the PWA project account and another $2,097 was...

Public Works Administration grant W1024 approved a grant of $13,167 toward a sanitary sewer for the city of Sitka. The project was approved 6/22/1938 and construction began 8/23/1938. The project was completed 12/2/1938.

As noted on a history plaque at the Marshfield IOOF Cemetery: "The Works Progress Administration (WPA) funds improvements to Ingersoll Avenue, including a 490-foot-long rock wall at the southern end of the cemetery." The WPA improvements occurred in 1938 and represent a significant improvement in shoring up the steep slope bordering Ingersoll Avenue.

Public Works Administration project W1026 funded improvements to the Ketchikan waterworks ($7,307), phone system ($4,411), and electric plant ($4,140). Waterworks and phone system improvements were approved 6/22/1938 and the electric plant was approved 7/7/1938. Construction began during August 1938 and was completed between January 1939 and July 1939 on all 3 sites.

There is a unique building within the historic district, the Ravenswood Community Center (JA-0177 and JA-177A). It was constructed by the National Youth Administration, a program under the “New Deal” program of Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the Great Depression. The “NYA Hall” was built in 1938 in the Art Deco Style with the cooperation of the City of Ravenswood and the program was geared towards employing younger adults. At some point, it was connected to the McIntosh House via an elevated, brick hyphen. The McIntosh House was built c. 1890 and is Colonial Revival style. It is now used as a community center, either hosting city events...

In 1938, the Public Works Administration (PWA) provided $150,000 (about $2.8 million in 2020 dollars) for the construction of a museum in Browning, Montana, for the Blackfeet and other plains tribes. At the time, it was “the largest Government project… undertaken to aid native groups in reviving their crafts and to furnish them an outlet for the marketing and sale of their goods” (Indians at Work, July, 1941). The building was dedicated on June 29, 1941. The Museum of the Plains Indian is managed by the Indian Arts and Crafts Board (a unit of the U.S. Department of the Interior) which...