Unknown Sites

The Works Progress Administration built the Municipal Swimming Pool in Colby KS in 1941. The swimming pool with bathhouse built in Moderne style with Art Deco elements. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, but it was demolished in 2010.

"The Decorah Municipal Swimming Pool building design is an architectural specimen of an advanced contemporary style of its day. It is a vision of both the Art Moderne and the International styles of architecture, as designed by Edward Novak, who worked at the well-known Charles Altfillisch architectural firm in Decorah... The construction of the pool building has additional importance in local history. Constructing the Decorah Swimming Pool was a partnership project between the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the city of Decorah during the Great Depression. Land Deed Record No. 179 from Winneshiek County shows the three lots where the pool...

Public Works Administration project 1307 was awarded to Washington County following approval 2/21/1934. A loan in the amount of $400,000 and a grant of $161,149 enabled the construction a number of gravel roads throughout the county. Bids were advertised in September 1934 for construction of grading, drainage structures and bridges and gravel surfacing on 11.548 miles of the Murphy-Slater Ferry Highway. The highway began in Murphy and ended at the Slater Ferry Crossing for the Sunflower River. George Vinzant was chief engineer of the Washington County Highway Commission. Contractor was Barber Brothers of Baton Rouge, La. Construction began 10/17/1934 and...

In 1938, the National Youth Administration (NYA) constructed the Murray Woman’s Club Clubhouse. It is made of limestone and was built in the Tudor Revival architectural style. During World War II, “The Red Cross set up hospital rooms in the clubhouse for training nurses aids. Members worked with the Red Cross rolling bandages for hospitals and in making kits for soldiers overseas and dinners and dances for soldiers were also hosted by the club” (Murray Ledger & Times, 2017). Today, the Murray Woman’s Club Clubhouse is a Kentucky Landmark, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is rented out...

Muscatatuck Training Center (MuTC) offers users a globally unique, urban and rural, multi-domain operating environment that is recognized as the Department of Defense’s (DOD’s) largest and most realistic urban training facility serving those who work to defend the homeland and win the peace. Muscatatuck is a real city that includes a built physical infrastructure, a well-integrated cyber-physical environment, an electromagnetic effects system and human elements. Muscatatuck offers realistic, flexible and affordable training and testing scenarios. The site supports customized live/virtual/constructive (LVC) training, developmental testing and evaluation. The multi-domain environment includes a physical metropolitan infrastructure, a 1,000 acre urban and rural landscape with...

In 1938, the Public Works Administration (PWA) provided $150,000 (about $2.8 million in 2020 dollars) for the construction of a museum in Browning, Montana, for the Blackfeet and other plains tribes. At the time, it was “the largest Government project… undertaken to aid native groups in reviving their crafts and to furnish them an outlet for the marketing and sale of their goods” (Indians at Work, July, 1941). The building was dedicated on June 29, 1941. The Museum of the Plains Indian is managed by the Indian Arts and Crafts Board (a unit of the U.S. Department of the Interior) which...

The 1933 Long Beach Earthquake destroyed hundreds of schools throughout Southern California. Originally built in 1929, Naples Elementary School in Long Beach, CA, was rehabilitated by Watson L. Hawk in 1934 with Public Works Administration (PWA) funding. “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...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the National Guard Armory in Kokomo IN. WPA project numbers: O.P. 65-52-2377 "Armory improvements" and O.P. 65-52-X7 "State armory improvements."

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, working out of the Upper...

Works Progress Administration (WPA) project cards for 1938 at the National Archives indicate that the WPA was charged with making improvements to the grounds, buildings, and distribution systems at the U.S. Naval Observatory.  Photograph cards on file at the archives show a storage shed overhauled by the WPA and that WPA workers also led tours of the observatory at the time. The Navy's Bulletin #38 notes that, "At the Naval Observatory only limited funds have been available and they have been expended for repairs to buildings including the modernization of dangerous electric wiring. The available funds have also been used for the...

Neighborhood Gardens is part of the first round of Public Works Administration (PWA) housing in America. Only 7 projects were completed in this earliest phase, including Harlem River Houses in New York City and Techwood Homes in Atlanta. The program provided loans to limited dividend corporations to clear slums and build low-rent housing projects. The first PWA program proved slow and unwieldy and was replaced by the PWA's direct-subsidy program in 1935, under which 52 projects were completed. These programs were discontinued with the passage of the 1937 Housing Act which established the US Housing Authority. However, most historians agree that...

The Public Works Administration completed improvements at the New Jersey Avenue Sewage Pumping Station between 1939 and 1940. The work consisted of “electrical installation."

In 1941, the Works Projects Administration (WPA) built a new auditorium at Newhall Elementary School in Santa Clarita, CA. The auditorium seated 460 people, and had an orchestra pit and projection room with a film vault. The school auditorium served as a gathering space for the community to watch movies, plays, and similar events. It is unknown if the New Deal-era auditorium is still extant.

The Federal Arts Project (FAP) funded the Newton (now Newton North) High School Murals in Newton MA. Painted by Maurice Compris, the mural triptych depicts "Education," "Commerce," and "Industry." It was dedicated as a memorial to Leighton Brown, class of 1915, who died in World War I. Originally displayed in Newton High School library, moved to Newton North cafeteria, and now in the new Newton North building.

Newtown Playground in the Elmhurst neighborhood of Queens opened on August 9, 1935. According to the NYC Parks website, the playground featured "slides, swings, sandbox, seesaws, benches, comfort station, tool house, and cherry and hawthorn trees." On April 3, 1937, the Department of Parks announced the further completion at this site of "a new recreation building of brick construction," containing "a boys and girls' comfort station, a mother's room and play-room." Although sources do not explicitly mention New Deal involvement, researcher Frank da Cruz explains that almost all New York City Parks Department projects between 1934 and 1943 were accomplished with New...

Newtowne Court is a 294 units apartment complex located in the town of Cambridge, MA. There are eight three-story walk-up buildings; most entrances serve six to nine apartments. Includes 6 units for households with vision impairments. This was one of 50 slum clearance or low income housing development projects financed by the Public Works Administration. The cost was $2,500,000.

Designed by George W. Kahrs, Buildings A and C at Nieto Herrera Elementary School (formerly Robert E. Lee Elementary School) were built in 1935 with New Deal funding. It is one of six LBUSD schools built in the aftermath of the 1933 Long Beach Earthquake that were designed in the Period Revival style instead of WPA/PWA Moderne. The 1933 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...

Carmelita Avenue Elementary School—today's Nimitz Middle School—in Huntington Park, CA was remodeled with partial funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) in 1936. The two-story PWA Moderne building, which is extant at the corner of Carmelita Ave and E 61st St, was the elementary school's main building but now appears to be an auxiliary classroom building; the former entrance on E 61st St has been closed off (note the blank space between the central windows). Designed by architect Harold G. Spielman, the building was remodeled by contractor L. W. Odell for $41,729. The reconstruction and renovation of Los Angeles schools damaged...

Two buildings at Ninety-Fifth Street Preparatory School in Los Angeles, CA were rebuilt following the 1933 Long Beach earthquake. Construction in 1934-35 totaled $105,399 and was partially funded by the Public Works Administration (PWA). In 1934, Harvey A. Nichols rebuilt the school's annex building, which includes the auditorium facing onto W 96th St. The following year, Arthur Pinner Jr reconstructed the school's main building. Both are two-story, tile-roofed PWA Moderne structures, with the annex's auditorium wing featuring Renaissance Revival detailing around the entrance. The reconstruction and renovation of Los Angeles schools damaged by the 1933 Long Beach earthquake was the single largest...

Artist Adrien Machefert painted a mural, "All Nations," at Ninth Street Elementary School in Los Angeles, CA. He was funded by the Federal Arts Project (FAP). It is unlikely the mural survives, as Ninth Street Elementary school as been demolished and rebuilt at least twice since the New Deal. "Adrien Machefert, a man past fifty, was born in San Jose, California, and started drawing for San Francisco newspapers at the age of seventeen. Following fourteen years doing portrait and landscape painting on the Island of Majorca, Mr. Machefert returned two and a half years ago to California and has since been...

Nora Sterry Elementary School (formerly Sawtelle Boulevard 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...

Normandie Avenue Elementary School, which opened in 1907, was rebuilt with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) between 1934 and 1935. The school appears to have been rebuilt yet again in the 1970s or 80s and it is unknown to us whether any of the PWA buildings remain. 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...

In 1942-43, the federal government constructed five temporary wartime defense housing projects with the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) under the Lanham Act of 1940 for $13.5 million. Normont Terrace was the first of the Lanham Act projects built between February and June 1942 by the Federal Works Agency (FWA) in Harbor City, Los Angeles for shipyard and war worker families. Built on 37.6 acres, Normont Terrace consisted of 400-units in a two-story, garden-style apartment complex, 60 of which were one-bedroom apartments, 240 two-bedrooms, and 100 three-bedrooms. All units had front and backyards, with gas heaters and...

The Public Works Administration (PWA) funded the construction of the North Beach Elementary School in Miami Beach FL in 1935. The PWA awarded a $205,000 grant for the construction of three schools in the district, while 495,000 school district bond covered the rest of the construction costs. The construction costs of the elementary school amounted to $141,000.

The Public Works Administration (PWA) funded the construction of an addition to the North Cache High School in Richmond, Cache County, Utah.  North Cache High School was demolished in 1999. The school addition, done in a subdued brick Moderne style, was designed by the architecture firm K. C. Schaub of Logan, Utah. The contractor of record was Johnson & Mickelson of Logan, Utah.

In 1937, artist Fletcher Martin painted a mural at North Hollywood High School in North Hollywood, CA. The mural, "Legends of the California Indians," was funded by the Federal Arts Project (FAP). The school "wanted a mural which related to the California scene and Indians. Mr. Martin felt that the usual themes had been overdone, so he sought out the legends of the people and chose from them the subject for his mural...." (Wells, p. 22). Martin ended up painting a Tataviam village. Located in a corner of the school auditorium, the mural was painted over in the 1950s. The Los...

From 1934-1936 the Civilian Conservation Corps constructed North Lake Park, including Lake Garnett. "The project included a 48-acre (840 acre-feet) man-made lake with dam and spillway, a road, and the planting of over 300 cedar trees, lilac bushes, rose bushes and shrubs." Other construction included roads, plantings, two shelter houses, restrooms, a football stadium, and a swimming pool.

The first tree of the Great Plains Shelterbelt, an Austrian pine, was planted at the Ed Curtis farm near Willow, Oklahoma, on March 18, 1935. The state forester of Oklahoma, George Phillips, did the honors. The Great Plains Shelterbelt was designed to mitigate damage from the 1930s dust storms.

Crews from the nearby Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp in Leeds, UT, built the road to Oak Grove and completed the Oak Grove Campground sometime between 1933 and 1942. The campground featured a tennis court, wading pool, and playground.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) modernized and expanded the administration building at the original Oakland Municipal Airport (now the North Field of Oakland International Airport). The project was sponsored by the Port of Oakland and cost $70,000. The work added 8500 square feet, doubling the floor space of the building in order to house new offices of the Civil Aeronautics Board, including airway traffic control, air carrier section, private flying division, air safety board, airway communications station, and general inspection section, plus an office for the US weather service.  The building also served as passenger terminal for a time. The renovated building...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) made improvements to Oakland Lake, a New York City Parks Department property in the Bayside neighborhood of Queens. The WPA "lined the brook feeding Oakland Lake with blocks, and later, the brook and a small pond leading into the lake were filled. In 1941 officials from the Sanitation and Health Departments worked with WPA workers to fill in nearby wetlands in an attempt to control the mosquito population. Three thousand people were put to work at nine Queens sites laying pipes, digging drainage ditches, and filling in and grading low areas." The Brooklyn Daily Eagle described...

In 1939, the Public Works Administration (PWA) funded improvements to Ocean Ave. between Seaside Terrace and Pico Blvd. in Santa Monica, CA. Ocean Avenue improvements were made by the Oswald brothers Paving Company. The project was the first link of the Roosevelt Highway, currently known as Pacific Coast Highway. Improvements made to Ocean Ave. included new sidewalks, gutters and curbs. The density of Ocean Ave is recorded to be 7 ¼ inches deep and asphalt was poured in 3 separate layers. The total cost of the project came to a total of $10,000. An average 40 men were employed on...

The Public Works Administration funded the construction of the Oildale Standard School Auditorium in Bakersfield CA. The structure has been in use as a school auditorium since completed in 1937.

"Careful research has been done and is continuing and the whole restoration is by no means complete. The part undertaken with P.W.A. aid was completed in July 1938 at a construction cost of $32,164 and a project cost of $37,175."

The Old Fire Station in Chester, Illinois was constructed in 1935 and served as a firehouse until 1961. The decommissioned building is presently used for storage. While some documents are unable to distinguish the particular New Deal agency responsible for the construction—Public Works Administration (PWA) vs. Works Progress Administration (WPA)—PWA records make no mention of such a project, and the documentation is consistent with WPA specifications. NRHP nomination: "The two-story rough-cut stone building has a footprint of about 28 by 36 feet and was constructed using recycled stone from a razed building that was located on a street near the Mississippi River.......

In 1940, the Work Projects Administration was constructing storm drains throughout Los Angeles, CA. One drain was located on Olympic Boulevard, "in the very heart of Los Angeles. The basic structure is of reinforced concrete, the mainline is from 5 to 12 feet in diameter with dozens of connecting laterals, catch-basins and catch basin connections on principal downtown streets which have been flooded, completely cluttering up traffic during the heavy rainfall of the brief California winter period" (see photos).

One Hundred Eighteenth Street Elementary School, which opened in 1907, was rebuilt with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) in 1935. Designed by Waker E. Erkes and built by Charles J. Dorfman, the two-story PWA Moderne building faces onto E 118th St and features some subtle Spanish Revival elements (note the doorways). The reconstruction and renovation of Los Angeles schools damaged by the 1933 Long Beach earthquake was the single largest PWA funded program in the country, totaling ~$34.7 million (LA Times, May 23, 1937).  It was overseen by the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and proceeded in two...

One Hundred Ninth Street Elementary School, which opened in 1926, was rebuilt with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) between 1934 and 1935. The school appears to have been rebuilt yet again in the 1960s or 70s, although the PWA auditorium may remain—confirmation is needed. 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...

In December 1935, a new playground was opened at One Room Schoolhouse Park in the East Elmhurst neighborhood of Queens. Twelve other playgrounds opened on the same day and collectively contained "88 small swings; 72 large swings; 36 seesaws; 14 playhouses; 15 large slides; 11 sand tables; 10 garden swings; 7 small slides; 7 small tables; 6 handball courts; 6 jungle gyms; 5 shuffleboard courts; 5 wading pools; 4 parallel bars; 3 horizontal bars; 3 horizontal ladders; 3 horseshoe pitching, etc.; 2 basketball courts, 1 shower." As researcher Frank da Cruz explains, almost all New York City Parks Department projects between...

In 1934, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) installed exercise equipment on Ocean Front Walk in Santa Monica, CA, immediately south of the Santa Monica Pier. Known today as Original Muscle Beach, the recreation area—which includes ropes, bars, swings, etc.—is considered the "birthplace of the physical fitness boom of the twentieth century." According to the City of Santa Monica's travel and tourism website, "What began as a venue for people in Santa Monica to watch acrobats, gymnasts, wrestlers, and stunt performers practice their fantastical acts for films being shot during the Great Depression (to distract people’s attention from their own financial crises),...