Start Year: 1939

Constructed in 1939 by the US Treasury.

The Public Works Administration (PWA) provided about half the funds for construction of the original city hall in San Leandro CA – which had only recently incorporated as a city in 1933.  City Hall was built in 1938-39 and dedicated on June 22, 1939. Available sources disagree on the cost of construction and PWA funding. In late 1938, the Daily Pacific Builder reported that construction was to begin on the San Leandro City Hall the following month for a cost of $105,877.  By contrast, a 1940 city brochure declared that, "In August of 1938, the voters bonded the city for $185,000 for...

The Pear Lake Winter Hut was originally built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1939-41 as a ranger station for Sequoia National Park.  It now serves as a ranger station in the summer and as a ski hut for backcountry skiers in winter.  The hut is 17' x 30' and constructed of stone in the national park rustic style.  The steeply pitched gable roof is supported by a framework of log rafters and brackets, with a shake roof.  A gable covers the second-story balcony and a rear gable is covered with board and batten. It sleeps ten people. The Peak Lake Winter...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built a sidewalk in 1939 at Auburn and Harwood Avenues in Oakland's Rockridge District.  It was one of many sidewalks constructed by the WPA around the city of Oakland.   Date stamps in sidewalks were a common practice in the first half of the 20th century.  Many are documented at oaklandunderfoot.com.

Burbank Elementary School was built in 1939 by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The original school appears to consist of three buildings, all long and low in the style of Spanish mission residential buildings.  All have covered, pillared breezeways along the entire front, with door to each classroom opening onto those outdoor corridors. The school has had additions and underwent a major renovation in recent years, according to a staffer who spoke to us in 2023.  The original design had tile roofs, as shown in 2010 photo, which have been changed to metal roofs.    

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) developed the Monterey County Fairgrounds in 1939-40, building exhibit halls, barns, a racetrack and more. There is a WPA plaque on the grounds. (Note: in the second phase of the WPA's life, it was called the Works Projects Administration and was placed under the new Federal Works Administration) "Covering 22 acres, the Monterey county fairgrounds is the site of the annual county fair, as well as other events large and small which throughout the year. There are two arenas, livestock barns, and several exhibit halls. Probably only a handful of the millions of people who...

Floor mosaics depicting a variety of images pertaining to aviation can be found throughout the Long Beach Airport Terminal. They were created for the terminal in 1939-41 by then 28-year-old artist Grace Richardson Clements. Clements was hired through the Work Projects Administration (WPA) Federal Art Project. In 2012, the Long Beach Press-Telegram reported: "For years, works of art lay hidden beneath the feet of millions of passengers who annually frequent the Long Beach Airport. It wasn't until recently, when the airport's maintenance team was restoring the terminal, that the 1941 mosaics by Works Progress Administration artist Grace Clements were found underneath...

This former San Francisco post office, originally known as the Rincon Annex, was built in 1939-40 and served as the major package transfer center through the city's port – then the largest on the West Coast.  The building was paid for by the Treasury Department and designed by architect Gilbert Stanley Underwood in the Streamline Moderne style. The detail work, inside and out, is exceptional.  The exterior scrim features repeated dolphin bas-reliefs and carved eagles across the facade.  The exterior windows and doors are beautiful  examples of the Art Deco love of cast aluminum.  The interior lobby is done in green...

A New Deal Fresno brochure lists the swimming pool at Frank H. Ball park as being built by the PWA. The playground also received $42,000 for an NYA project to give youth training in building trades. The recreation building plaque shows that it, too, was an NYA project.

Fresno CA gained a new City Hall during the New Deal.  It was undoubtedly paid for by the Public Works Administration (PWA), but this needs to be verified. A New Deal Fresno walking tour brochure describes the building: "Fresno's second City Hall was a radical departure from the previous, classically-inspired building, and is an example of how the New Deal brought new forms of architecture to communities across the country. Kump's International style building attracted national attention in 1944 when the Museum of Modern Art included it in an exhibition of the most significant buildings constructed in the United States between 1932...