Unknown Sites

The Prairie Creek Fish Hatchery near Orick was one of the first local hatcheries developed in California to improve sport and commercial fishing. It was constructed in 1936 by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) on the 62-acre site of a previous hatchery.  The work included the hatchery ponds, five water tanks, a pipeline, superintendent's house, assistant's house, sidewalk, garage shop, and shed. The hatchery operated until 1992 and the site is now on the National Register of Historic Places.

Prince William Forest Park was developed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), with help from skilled workers of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), from 1935 to 1942.  It was then known as Chopawamsic Recreation Demonstration Area (the name was changed in 1948).  RDAs were meant for getting inner city children out into the country to enjoy the benefits of nature and outdoor recreation. The New Deal programs built permanent structures, including the park headquarters and five cabin camps, extensive roads and trails, and five recreational lakes.  Almost all these improvements are still in use today.  The National Park Service, which operates...

Walter Inglis Anderson and his brother, James McConnell Anderson were commissioned in 1935 to create murals for the 1927 Ocean Springs Public High School as part of the Public Works of Art Project. “Ocean Springs: Past and Present” was a six-panel oil on canvas. “The Fish and Bird Mural” was a tile mural constructed in four sections. Both are in the Walter Anderson Museum of Art since 1991. Anderson’s murals were painted on canvas sheets and then glued to the wall of the school auditorium, flanking the stage. Two were 14 feet long horizontal panels and placed on the wall between...

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.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was very active in northern Michigan, planting trees, fighting fires and building recreation facilities in state parks.  There was a CCC camp at Higgins Lake.   The CCC built the Ralph A. MacMullan Conference Center next to North Higgins Lake State Park in 1939-42.  The conference center, which covers 32 acres on North Higgins Lake, had an earlier life as the Higgins Lake Conservation Training School, established in 1941.  The school was converted to a conference center in the 1990s. Several of the original buildings constructed by the CCC survive on the center's campus, but further verification...

Wupatki National Monument was established in 1924, following decades of plunder of artifacts by American settlers.  Archaeological excavation and restoration of the main pueblo began in 1933.  In 1939-42, a contingent of Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees (from Mt Elden camp at Flagstaff) began development of the monument for public use, building trails, a ranger residence, a utility building, and water supply system. (NNDPA 2012) The ranger residence is located on hill above the current visitor center (it replaced a prior residence inside the main pueblo ruins).  It is an elegant stone building in mid-20th century modern style. The CCC utility...

The Union Creek Historic District on the upper Rogue River in Union Creek, Oregon, is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places because it is a fine representative of a type of rustic resort popular in the early 20th century and has been little altered since the 1930s.   There are almost one hundred buildings and other facilities in the Union Creek Historic District, almost all of which conform to the Forest Service plans of the 1920s and 30s.  Roughly a third were constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) from 1933 to 1942. CCC enrollees worked during summer...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) and National Y0uth Administration (NYA) aided  in the development of Rankin Park, a 42 acre park in the hills to the west of Martinez.  The city purchased the land for $12,000 in 1938 and New Deal relief workers went right to work, helping city crews and Boy Scouts develop the park for public access and use. The work teams cleared brush, planted trees, built roads, laid out trails, and created picnic areas with stone picnic stoves, as well as adding a ball field, a playground and sanitary facilities. (Contra Costa Times, May 28, 1939) More information is needed...

In 1936, three WPA artists—Henry Wadsworth Moore, Velma Buckner, and Alan Flavelle—painted portraits of 11 former Washington, DC Recorders of Deeds, for placement in the Recorders’ office space at 412 D Street NW.  When the new Recorder of Deeds Building was constructed in 1941-1943, at 515 D Street NW (and funded by the New Deal’s Public Works Administration), the portraits were moved there. The current location(s) of these portraits is unknown to the Living New Deal, but they could still be in the 515 D Street NW building (the building has been closed to the public for many years, after the...

The National Youth Administration built a recreational hall at the Naval Reserve Parkin Biloxi in 1938 as W.P. 4380. They also planted rose bushes, cedar trees, and dog wood trees and numerous flower beds along with the construction of the recreation building. The project employed 40 boys.

The Reconstruction Finance Corporation provided 22 loans to drainage districts in Mississippi in 1934, totaling $2,726,150. The Red Banks district received $26,000. From the Coldwater River, Byhalia Creek, Red Banks Creek, and a canal 11 miles long ran through the counties of Marshall and Desoto, and into the Pigeon Roost Creek and Pigeon Roost Drainage Canal.

Long Beach High School (the current site of Renaissance High School for the Arts) was built in 1935, likely with New Deal funding. The 1933 Long Beach Earthquake destroyed hundreds of schools throughout Southern California. “On August 29, 1933, Long Beach citizens approved a $4,930,000 bond measure for the rebuilding of schools. Applications for approximately thirty-five schools were filed with the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Public Works Administration (PWA); federal grants up to thirty percent of labor and material costs were obtained. To minimize costs, building materials were salvaged from damaged buildings, some schools were rehabilitated, and new schools were...

The Public Works Administration funded the construction of the Republic County Courthouse in Belleville KS. According to the Society of Architectural Historians, "The Commissioners of Republic County prepared plans for a replacement courthouse and received funds from the Public Works Administration (PWA). The PWA’s hope was to support important public projects and to relieve the employment crisis of the Depression years. The relatively labor-intensive process and durable nature of reinforced concrete made it a favored building material for many federally supported projects."

Reseda Elementary School, which opened in 1916, was rebuilt with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) between 1934 and 1935. In January 1934, the PWA allocated $9,380,000 to the Los Angeles Unified School District for the rehabilitation of schools damaged in the severe 1933 Long Beach earthquake. One hundred and thirty schools would benefit from the system-wide loan and grant, with 2,500 men to be employed in rehabilitation work over 21 months. Upon receiving news of the PWA allocation, Board of Education member Arthur Eckman told the Los Angeles Times, “I am sure that every member of the board agrees with...

The construction of a reservoir in Alhambra, CA, received New Deal funding.

Public Works Administration (PWA) project 4484 funded a new reservoir for Wrangell with a $32,000 loan and a $$12,487 grant approved 6/20/1934. Construction began 2/7/1935 and was completed 8/2/1936. Art Anderson was awarded the bid for the new water dam to be constructed of timber with dirt and rock fill. The completed dam would result in a “reservoir of 36 acre feed” (Art Anderson, Petersburg Press, Feb. 8, 1935, p. 1). Foreman of construction was Oden Jensen.

The farmland around the town of Fruita in western Colorado was the site of a Resettlement Administration (RA) project that relocated poor farmers driven out by the Dust Bowl. Some 34 families had been relocated to Fruita by 1937. The official name was the Grand Valley Resettlement Project (also known as the Western Farms Association). (Fruita Community History page) It appears that another 32 families were relocated to neighboring Loma CO, probably as part of the same Resettlement Project (Wikipedia).  A Community Hall was built in Loma for the new settlers in the area by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) helped construct Salem-Winston’s Reynolds Park and Recreation Center between 1939 and 1940. “A $300,000 proposed municipal park and recreation center at Winston-Salem, N.C., has received final approval in Washington,” a journalist for Park & Recreation magazine reported. “The development, to be known as Reynolds Park, will be located two miles east of the courthouse square…Within the area will be an 18-hole golf course, a large swimming pool, tennis courts, an athletic field and wooded area for walking and picnicking.” The fruits of this WPA-funded project can still be enjoyed today.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) conducted extensive development work in Grand Canyon National Park from 1933 to 1942. Among its trail development work, the CCC constructed the Ribbon Falls Trail. The National Park Service's CCC Walking Tour says: "More challenging projects included a number of inner canyon trails. The Ribbon Falls Trail, a half-mile (0.8 km) spur off the North Kaibab Trail, still leads hikers to a beautiful waterfall." The trail is approximately 2.7 miles south of the Grand Canyon Lodge on the North Rim, as the crow flies.

This fancifully decorated elementary school was built by the Public Works Administration (PWA) in 1936, after the original school was destroyed in the 1933 Long Beach earthquake. Note the PWA construction sign in the archival photo below.

In 1934-35, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) helped develop Roaches Run Waterfowl Sanctuary out of the marshes along the south shore of the Potomac River. Roaches Run  is located at the north end of National Airport, which was developed a few years later.  The CCC enrollees built a tidal gate between the lagoon and the river, cleared out brush and landscaped the area.  They built a parking lot for visitors and entry/exit roads from the George Washington Parkway, along with a trail around the lagoon.  A gamekeeper's cottage and feed storage unit were also added. The CCC crews presumably worked under...

Robert E. Peary Middle School (formerly Gardena High School), which opened in 1907 in Gardena, CA, was rebuilt with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) between 1934 and 1935. In January 1934, the PWA allocated $9,380,000 to the Los Angeles Unified School District for the rehabilitation of schools damaged in the severe 1933 Long Beach earthquake.  One hundred and thirty schools would benefit from the system-wide loan and grant, with 2,500 men to be employed in rehabilitation work over 21 months. Upon receiving news of the PWA allocation, Board of Education member Arthur Eckman told the Los Angeles Times, “I am sure...

By the early twentieth century, the area that would become the Robert Mills Manor site consisted of a large assemblage of dilapidated late-19th and early-20th century residences and tenements surrounding the county's jail on the corner of Franklin and Magazine Streets. Conditions at the site had deteriorated to the point where contemporary accounts called it: "the worst disease breeding spot in the lower section of the city. Its existence was a constant police problem and fire hazard. Its crowded poorly lighted, evil smelling tenements depreciated the entire section of the city." In its 1937 report published in the City Year Book,...

The National Park Service, which took over command of the Capitol Parks system in 1934, restored the old Pierce Mill in Rock Creek Park in 1935-36 with the aid of a grant from the Public Works Administration (PWA) of $26,614 and labor of Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees.  The project was completed in March 1936. The old mill building was constructed in 1810 of native split stone taken from a nearby quarry.  It is 50 by 40 feet in size. One gable is stone and the other wood frame.  The floors are wide oak plank and the roofing is wood shingles....

The Rockville school was a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project in Rockville, Minnesota. In late 1934, the town of Rockville realized they needed a bigger school for the children in their town: too many children attended the existing school, and the town was utilizing the second floor of the city hall as more classrooms. The school secured WPA funding to build a bigger school to meet the needs of the growing town. This project provided 78,773 hours of labor, it cost a total of $37,474 in labor costs. The school is a monument of the granite industry that employs many of the...

The federal government built a large new health research complex in Hamilton, Montana, during the New Deal, with construction completed in 1940.  It would have been done by the Public Buildings Division of the Federal Works Administration for the use of the Public Health Service (now the National Institutes of Health, NIH).  The laboratory had previously been housed in an empty school building. The laboratory works on insect-borne diseases.   "After its successful work with spotted fever, the Rocky Mountain Laboratory expanded its facilities and programs ... to work on other insect-borne diseases, such as yellow fever and the spirochetal relapsing...

Will Rogers Middle School was built in 1934 with Public Works Administration (PWA) funding. Edward L. Mayberry designed Building A in PWA Moderne style. He also designed the Boys and Girls Physical Education Buildings in 1935, but it is unclear whether this too was a New Deal project. The 1933 Long Beach Earthquake destroyed hundreds of schools throughout Southern California. “On August 29, 1933, Long Beach citizens approved a $4,930,000 bond measure for the rebuilding of schools. Applications for approximately thirty-five schools were filed with the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Public Works Administration (PWA); federal grants up to thirty percent...

Lower Rolling Dam bridge is a 29 foot concrete T-beam over the Rolling Dam Stream. It was one of 26 bridges that were badly damaged or destroyed by a 500 year flood in March 1936. A 1936 Annual Report by the Maine Highway Commission notes that the reconstruction of these bridges were U.S. Works Program Flood Relief projects and were handled under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Public Roads, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Labor was provided to some by the Works Progress Administration. At some point in the past, the bridge was abandoned when Route 24 was changed and...

At the behest of the city of Barrett, Minnesota, the Civil Works Administration (CWA) built a combination public auditorium and high school gymnasium in 1933-34.  The CWA provided the labor from the ranks of local unemployed workers and the city provided the empty lot and pitched in $5,000 for materials. The building was named Roosevelt Hall in honor of President Franklin Roosevelt. It served for around twenty years as the school gym and Barrett community hall. The 34' x 110' structure is wood frame, with Western Red Cedar siding and a shingle roof. The roof is rounded in a style roughly reminiscent of...

Sometimes mis-attributed to the Works Progress Administration, the former high school in Rossville, Kansas was constructed with the assistance of Public Works Administration (PWA) funding. The PWA supplied a $38,004 grant for the project, whose total cost was $85,724. Construction occurred between Decembet 1936 and September 1937. PWA Docket No. Kan. 1095 The building was used for as a high school until 1979. The location and status of the building is presently unknown to Living New Deal.

Rowan Avenue Elementary School, which opened in 1912, was rebuilt with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) between 1934 and 1935. In January 1934, the PWA allocated $9,380,000 to the Los Angeles Unified School District for the rehabilitation of schools damaged in the severe 1933 Long Beach earthquake. One hundred and thirty schools would benefit from the system-wide loan and grant, with 2,500 men to be employed in rehabilitation work over 21 months. Upon receiving news of the PWA allocation, Board of Education member Arthur Eckman told the Los Angeles Times, “I am sure that every member of the board agrees...

From January to April 1935, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) oversaw the excavation of Rubio Wash in Altadena, CA. "Under this project, accumulated debris was excavated from debris basin and hauled with wheelbarrows to fill an adjoining area. It is estimated that 6,000 cubic yards were removed."

Russell Elementary School, which opened in 1918, was rebuilt with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) between 1934 and 1935. In January 1934, the PWA allocated $9,380,000 to the Los Angeles Unified School District for the rehabilitation of schools damaged in the severe 1933 Long Beach earthquake. One hundred and thirty schools would benefit from the system-wide loan and grant, with 2,500 men to be employed in rehabilitation work over 21 months. Upon receiving news of the PWA allocation, Board of Education member Arthur Eckman told the Los Angeles Times, “I am sure that every member of the board agrees with...

San Fernando Elementary School, which opened in 1915, was rebuilt with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) between 1934 and 1935. In January 1934, the PWA allocated $9,380,000 to the Los Angeles Unified School District for the rehabilitation of schools damaged in the severe 1933 Long Beach earthquake. One hundred and thirty schools would benefit from the system-wide loan and grant, with 2,500 men to be employed in rehabilitation work over 21 months. Upon receiving news of the PWA allocation, Board of Education member Arthur Eckman told the Los Angeles Times, “I am sure that every member of the board agrees...

San Gabriel Avenue Elementary School, which opened in 1932, was rebuilt with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) between 1934 and 1935. In January 1934, the PWA allocated $9,380,000 to the Los Angeles Unified School District for the rehabilitation of schools damaged in the severe 1933 Long Beach earthquake. One hundred and thirty schools would benefit from the system-wide loan and grant, with 2,500 men to be employed in rehabilitation work over 21 months. Upon receiving news of the PWA allocation, Board of Education member Arthur Eckman told the Los Angeles Times, “I am sure that every member of the board...

Bonding ($36,000) for a new San Juan courthouse was put a successful vote in February 1920 after citizens realized that their neighboring county (Grand) was building a large new courthouse. Construction in Monticello began soon thereafter, and the courthouse was nearly ready for occupancy in late 1920 lacking only steam heat, plumbing (including toilet facilities, jail lavoratories, and hot water), and finished cement. And then it sat, partially completed for nearly 17 years: only four rooms were useable, and those without heat or modern plumbing. In 1937, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) approved $8000 to complete the courthouse. The county's portion was...

This series of nine oil-on-canvas murals, collectively titled "Industrial Life in San Pedro," by Federal Art Project (FAP) artist Tyrone Comfort is located in the library at San Pedro High School in San Pedro, CA. Completed in 1937, the nine murals are "Hauling the Cargo," "Fisherman in Port," "The Riveters," "Refinery Maintenance," "Opening the Valves," "The Propeller Crew," "Loading the Harvest," "Construction Workers," and "The Drillers." They were restored and preserved by the Los Angeles Unified School District Historic Schools Investment Fund in 2008. Comfort's other FAP works in the region include two murals, "Printing" and "Science and Industry" (1936), at John...

In 1937, Ross Dickinson completed a four-panel mural at San Pedro High School in San Pedro, CA. He received funding from the Federal Art Project (FAP). Dickinson's other New Deal works—all in Los Angeles, CA—include two murals, “A Valley in California” and “Mankind’s Achievements" (1934), at George Washington Preparatory High School; a pair of tile mosaics (1936) at Thomas Starr King Middle School; and a mural, “History of the Recorded Word” (1937), at Thomas Jefferson High School. Also located at San Pedro High School is a series of murals by FAP artist Tyrone Comfort. Titled "Industrial Life in San Pedro," these murals...

The Works Progress Administration approved a statewide sanitation program for Mississippi in 1935, totaling $390,115.40. The program focused on eliminating typhoid, hookworm and dysentery in 65 of Mississippi’s 82 counties by construction of sanitary toilets (privies) for homes and buildings without access to sewerage disposal. The project was projected to employ 14 workers in each county. The privies were constructed from concrete and wood, costing about $16 in materials for each privy. Property owners were to contribute the materials. Tallahatchie county was allocated $5,956.50. Federal work projects (CWA, FERA, and WPA) for community sanitation and drainage resulted in reductions of both...

Old Santa Ana City Hall was constructed in 1935 at a cost of $126,000, funded by city bonds and a Public Works Administration (PWA) grant. There is a plaque in the lobby (which we are waiting to photograph). It was designed by prominent Southern California architect W. Horace Austin of Long Beach, who had designed the rather similar Masonic Temple at Sycamore and Fifth Streets a few years earlier. Austin’s credits also include the Bowers Museum and many Long Beach commissions, such as the 1904 Long Beach City Hall , several schools, the original Buffum’s Department Store , the Long Beach...