Start Year: 1942

Several New Deal agencies contributed to the construction of the Deerfield Dam in the vicinity of Hill City and the Black Hills National Forest, SD. Construction began before the Roosevelt Administration, continued during the New Deal, and finished after World War II. According to the Bureau of Reclamation, "Construction was started on July 7, 1942, by the Farm Security Administration and was later continued by the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Civilian Public Service Camp under the Works Projects Administration during World War II. The facilities were completed by the Bureau of Reclamation in 1947."

The 1,300+ mile Alaska Highway was constructed in 1942 and opened in 1943.  It was built to provide an alternate supply line to Alaska during World War II, an idea the President Roosevelt had proposed to the Canadian government in 1936.  It runs through Canadian Territory but the cost was borne by the United States.   The Alaska Highway was a joint effort of the U.S. Army (Corps of Engineers) and the Public Roads Administration (PRA)—a sub-agency of the New Deal's Federal Works Agency that replaced the earlier Bureau of Public Roads.  The construction was carried out by a host of PRA-contracted...

The Treasury Section of Fine Arts commissioned "the Wheelwright" painted by artist Daniel Rhodes in 1942 for the Clayton Branch Post Office in St. Louis, Missouri. The mural was removed from the post office in 1971 and relocated to the Des Moines Federal Courthouse, where it is currently on view.    

The City of Gainesville purchased the Servicemen’s Center lot on December 7th, 1942. The Federal Works Agency constructed a $37,000 building with a ballroom, stage, dressing rooms, second floor reading room, three showers, three telephone booths for long distance calls, a coat check room, a 20-foot-long snack bar, and a kitchen with a ten-burner stove. A $420,000 renovation took place in 2000. Today, the building serves as a voting Precinct and used for various community meetings and gatherings.

In 1942 the Work Progress Administration began construction for a building to serve as an armory, athletics coliseum, and student assembly hall. Only the skeleton was constructed during World War II; materials shortages caused by the war halted progress. After the war, construction recommenced when the college arranged other funding sources, and it was completed in 1949.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was present in Death Valley National Monument  from 1933 to 1942.  CCC 'boys' built erected dozens of buildings in the monument, including administrative, residential, maintenance and visitor facilities.  One important building is the Emigrant Junction ranger station, built in 1942 as one of the CCC's last projects in the monument.   The Emigrant Junction station, at the junction of the Towne Pass and Emigrant Pass roads, was the principal western entry point to Death Valley for decades.  The stone building seen here replaced a flimsier structure built in 1935.  It was  heavily modified in 1963, then restored...

With the consolidation of the numerous one-room school houses into a central facility, the Works Progress Administration helped construct a gymnasium for the school district. "WPA Project No. 265-1-63-83, $26,321, Total funds $47,163, Application date 12-12-41, Average Employed 48. "Construct a school gymnasium building and perform work incidental and appurtenant thereto. Publicly owned property. Sponsor: Newark School District #33." A new facility was constructed in 1984 and Newarks school district was consolidated into the Cord-Charlotte School District to create the Cedar Ridge School District in 2004.

In 1940, Coryell County voters passed an issue for $30,000 in bonds bearing interest at the rate of not more than three percent to build a county hospital. Those bonds were issued on July 8, 1940. Designed by architects Brooks Pierson of Waco and L. S. Secrest of Gatesville, a 34-bed hospital built primarily with Works Progress Administration (WPA) labor was constructed and equipped between 1942 and 1943 at a cost of around $60,000. The county renovated the building in 2013 for a mental health unit, and currently the building is the Gatesville Center for Central County Services, which provides treatment for...

The historic Ruidoso fire lookout tower in Lincoln National Forest was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1933. NRHP Nomination Form: "This lookout, a 30 ft high steel tower' with a 14 ft by 14 ft wood cab, represents an Aermotor MI-25 type and was erected in 1940. It is located on the Smokey Bear Ranger District. The Aermotor NI-E5 type is an unusual and rare type of lookout in the Southwestern Region. Only one other MI-25 is known, that being located on the Gila National Forest. The Ruidoso lookout does not appear to have experienced any major modifications...

"In 1942 Dubuque's 2.5 miles of street car tracks were ripped up for the war effort. The Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) removed the rails and replaced the pavement. Interstate Power Company agreed to supply some of the needed equipment. Money raised from the sale of the estimated 282 tons of metal was given to the W.P.A."