Start Year: 1941

A 1941 article in the Washington Post reported the imminent start of paving on Utah Avenue NW between Nebraska Avenue and Pinehurst Circle at the Maryland border, to be conducted by the Bureau of Public Roads, a division of the Federal Works Administration (FWA).

In 1941, the Washington Post reported that funds for paving projects in Congress Heights, Barry Farm, Bellevue, and Washington Highlands had been approved as part of a large roads program. The Public Roads Administration, a subdivision of the Federal Works Administration (FWA), was approved to pave the following stretches on and around South Capitol Street SE, across the Anacostia River:  Firth Sterling Avenue and South Capitol Street between Howard Road and Nichols Avenue SE; Overlook Avenue, from South Capitol Street to Fourth and Chesapeake Streets SW; South Capitol Street, from Atlantic Street to the District line. Work was to start...

Constructed in 1941, with WPA labor, the Banita Creek Bridge crosses the waterway of the same name with three spans of reinforced concrete girder. The 100’-long bridge has a 24’-wide roadway with cantilevered sidewalks on both sides. The hand railing is composed of open concrete balustrade divided into sections by stepped Art Deco-like posts. The approach railing at the end of bridge angles out, following the skew of the wingwalls below. The WPA erected the bridge as part of a larger project that widened and improved the channels of Bonita and Lanana creeks. As part of the project, work-relief crews built sidewalks...

The Stewart Lee Udall Department of the Interior building contains one of the largest collections of New Deal art in Washington DC by some of the finest American artists of the time. Mitchell Jamieson's painting, "An Incident in Contemporary American Life," depicts the  April 9, 1939 Marian Anderson concert at the Lincoln Memorial.  That concert came about after the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused to allow Anderson to sing before an integrated audience in Constitution Hall.  That incident infuriated many people, including Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who arranged for a public concert...

In 1941, the Works Progress Administration  (WPA) conducted improvement work on a grass airstrip at Beltsville MD. The Washington Post reported in April that “clearing, grubbing, grading, draining, construction of runways, seeding and installation of lighting facilities" had begun.   Two hangars were slated to be constructed, as well, but probably were never built – since they were still not present at the site in 1945, according to Abandoned and Little-Known Airfields website. In 1980, the airfield was decommissioned and bulldozed. The site is now part of the giant Henry Wallace Beltsville Agricultural Research Station and occupied by USDA Animal and Plant Health...

"Tech's development continued in the Fall of 1938 with the announcement that the Board of Regents, with Public Works Administration assistance, would spend $350,000 for the construction of four buildings and an addition to a fifth. ... The third building in this program is the Daniels Chemical Addition. Designed by Professor Galley and M. L. Jorgensen, the Addition Building faces on Third Street, and although announced in 1938, work on the building did not start until the summer of 1941. Completed in the Fall of 1942, the final cost of the building was $95,000 and contained the organic and physical...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built the Ostrander Ski Hut in 1941.  The ski hut is a two-story stone structure, in the classic National Park rustic style. It was built  for cross-country skiers, meant to be part of a larger system of winter trails and huts along the Sierra Crest that never were developed. The hut sits in a small glacial cirque at the edge of Ostrander Lake. Very basic overnight accommodations and cooking facilities are available at the hut. It sleeps 25 people and has bunks, mattresses, wood stove, a kitchen with a gas stove for cooking and assorted pots...

The concrete Art-Deco influenced WPA Moderne armory was completed as part of a 3 building complex. Cost was $200,000. The building is currently used as the Memphis Children's Museum.

This high school gymnasium was constructed in Antelope, Texas during the Great Depression with the assistance of the Works Progress Administration. In addition to the native stone structure, the construction project included a septic tank, disposal field, and improved school facilities and employed approximately 20 laborers. $13, 622 of the total cost of $21,393 was provided by WPA while the local school district provided the remainder.

The oldest intact house in Atlantic County, the Somers Mansion dates to the 1720s and was "continuously occupied by the Somers family for over 200 years. In 1937, Somers family descendants deeded it to the Atlantic County Historical Society. New Jersey took ownership of the Somers Mansion in 1941, and began an extensive restoration" through the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Laborers for the WPA both renovated the extant furnishings and conducted historical restoration, including the elimination of rooms dating to the Victorian era. (ettc.net)