Start Year: 1939

Flowell, Utah's historic community house was constructed as part of a New Deal project undertaken by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The exact location and present status of the community house are presently unknown to Living New Deal. "30 Families Raise $5,159 For New Hall FLOWELL, Utah March 23-(AP)--The 30 families living here, seven miles west of Fillmore, have made a bigger cash sacrifice per family to obtain a WPA project than any other community in Utah. Darrell J. Greenwell, state administrator, said the residents raised $172 per family to provide matching funds to obtain a $20,830 community house erected by the WPA....

Today's NYC Parks website explains that the village of Whitestone (now the neighborhood of Whitestone in Queens) acquired this land in 1892.  Parks took over the 21 acre site in 1936 in conjunction with the construction of the Whitestone Parkway.  This site says that a children's playground opened on the site in 1939. However, the official opening of the playground was announced by the Parks Department on April 25, 1940: "Here recreation facilities nave been provided for all age groups. There are three separate children's completely equipped playgrounds, handball, horseshoe pitching, shuffleboard and basketball courts, a full-sized hard ball and a...

The historic public library, now Kanab Heritage Museum, in Kanab, Utah was constructed by the federal Work Projects Administration (WPA) between 1939 and 1940. "The library is one of 226 buildings constructed in Utah under the WPA and is important in documenting the impact of New Deal programs in the state. ... Although the Kanab Library was founded in 1915, it was not at first housed in a permanent structure but was rather moved around to various temporary accommodations. In 1938, an $8,000 bond election was approved to build a permanent library, and plans drawn by the architect Carson F. Wells were...

This large, tiered park in Brooklyn was acquired by the City in stages between 1916 and 1935. In 1939-1940, the WPA constructed a brand new playground on the lower level of the park and then completely redesigned the upper levels as well. The August 1939 press release announcing the opening of the lower section described this work in detail: "The Brooklyn playground, in Lincoln Terrace Park, is one of the most intensively developed recreational areas that has been constructed by the Park Department. It is thirteen acres in size and contains a large open play area for group games for older...

The historic former Sugar House Station post office was constructed in 1939-1940 with federal Treasury Department funds. The building is now privately owned. NHRP Nomination form: The May 7, 1936 edition of the Sugar House Bulletin reported a "rousing talk" by local Postmaster Smoot that was a 'call to arms' to members of the newly-formed Sugar House Rotary. Mr. Smoot stated that a new federal building was seriously needed to handle the sixteen percent increase in mail during just the preceding twenty months. ... On March 19, 1938, the Salt Lake Tribune announced that the House Appropriations Committee had approved $150,000 for a...

Seeley Lake is one link in a chain of five lakes nestled between the lofty Swan and Mission mountain ranges in western Montana. Two hundred acres of ancient larch trees surround the area, which has drawn visitors since the early 1900s. In 1924, the USDA Forest Service granted a permit to the Western Montana Council of Boy Scouts to construct a summer camp. The facility was originally a tent camp but by the late 1930s there was need for a more permanent facility. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), New Deal programs vital to the...

The Georgian Revival style elementary school completed September 9, 1939 was described that year as a "school of tomorrow" by the Democrat-Times. The interior was primarily Art Deco and Streamlined Moderne (MDAH) to reflect modern ideas of teaching. Funded by the city and PWA funds, estimated cost was $151,000.

In 1939, the federal Work Progress Administration (WPA) worked to develop Austin Cary Forest, a UCF facility used for "the purposes of academic teaching, research, extension education, and demonstration". The WPA "built roads, buildings, and water draining ditches. And 100,000 board feet of pine and 80,000 cypress shingles were logged from the forest and processed at the School's sawmill."

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed a gymnasium in Elizabethtown, North Carolina in 1939-40. Living New Deal believes this to be the facility on King Street that now houses the Bladen County Recreation Department.

"In 1939 the Works Progress Administration (WPA) fenced the Cemetery and installed the first rock gateway and cement markers to identify individual lots."