Unknown Sites

Ramona Gardens was the first housing project in Los Angeles, CA completed under the city’s New Deal–era public housing program. In 1941-43, the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) constructed 10 public housing developments for $16 million, funded 10% by city bonds and 90% by federal loans from the United States Housing Authority (USHA). Located in the Boyle Heights neighborhood, Ramona Gardens was completed in 1941.  Having cleared 32 acres of the Beaudry Street “slums," a predominantly impoverished Mexican neighborhood, HACLA began construction of Ramona Gardens in March 1940 and made speedy progress. The first tenants were able to...

Rancho San Pedro was one of the developments in Los Angeles, CA completed under the city’s New Deal–era public housing program. In 1941-43, the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) constructed 10 public housing developments for $16 million, funded 10% by city bonds and 90% by federal loans from the United States Housing Authority (USHA). Located in the industrial district of San Pedro, Rancho San Pedro was completed in 1942. To make way for the 12.5-acre development, 80 residences (69 of which were deemed “substandard”) were demolished by July 1941. Construction of 33 concrete-and-frame structures comprising 285 dwelling...

The Public Works Administration and the Works Progress Administration funded the construction of the Randolph County Courthouse in Pocahontas, AR in 1940. The building is designed in Classical Moderne style with brick and precast concrete facade materials. The architect of record was Eugene John Stern.

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 1935, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) completed work on Raymond O'Connor Park. The city had purchased the property—which originally included the square block across Corporal Kennedy St, now the site of Bayside High School—in 1931. The WPA landscaped, created walkways, and built the Kennedy Playground, which was one of seven playgrounds to open on November 22, 1935. The dedication ceremony was attended by Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia, Parks Commissioner Robert Moses, and WPA administrator Harry L. Hopkins.

The Raymond Rebarchek Colony Farm is a historic farm associated with the Alaska Rural Rehabilitation Corporation’s Matanuska Colony project, established with help of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) and Resettlement Administration (RA). Built with the help of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) between 1935 and 1937, the complex is located on the original 40 acres allotted to Mr. Rebarcheck when he drew tract # 52 from a hat in 1935. The plot consists of a 25-acre hayfield, 7 acres in pasture, one acre in natural vegetation, two acres of house and barn yard, and five acres of forest. While the...

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.

Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon was expanded in two steps under the New Deal.  In 1935 the 164,503 acre Blitzen Valley was purchased using emergency relief funds. In 1941, land west of Malheur Lake was added. The refuge was originally established as the Lake Malheur Reservation in 1908 by President Theodore Roosevelt from unclaimed government lands encompassing Malheur, Harney, and Mud Lakes after plume hunters had decimated the local bird population. The information brochure for Malheur NWR gives more details: "The drought years of the 1930s had a profound effect on Lake Malheur Reservation. The water levels on Harney, Malheur, and Mud...

In 1937, the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project, in cooperation with the history and landmarks division of the Women's Community Service Auxiliary of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and the Los Angeles Country Department of Recreation Camps and Playgrounds, made possible a monument to Hugo and Victoria Reid and their two children, by sculptor Preston L. Prescott. The monument was originally located at the Arcadia Community Regional Park, but in 2003 was transferred to the Gilb Museum of Arcadia Heritage. The Reid family was chosen as subjects for the monument, due to Hugo's importance as an early California...

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."

In 1936, the Public Works Administration (PWA) provided partial funding for the construction of a classroom building at Reseda Elementary School in Reseda, CA. The single-story, 15-room structure is located on the west side of campus. It was designed by architect A. S. Nibecker and built by contractor N. A. Anderson for a total of $62,000. The Mission Revival style matches that of the original, main school building; note the arcades and tile roofs. 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...

In 1936, the Public Works Administration (PWA) provided funding for the construction of a reservoir in Alhambra, CA.

A modest reservoir project in Franklin, Pennsylvania was conducted as a federal Public Works Administration (PWA) project. The PWA supplied a $1,500 grant for the project, whose total cost was $6,721. Construction started in Dec. 1933 and was completed Jan. 1934. PWA Docket No. 1547. The location and status of this facility is currently unknown to Living New Deal.

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 1936, the WPA constructed massive retaining walls along Richwood Ave. in the Woodburn community of Morgantown, West Virginia. In 2025, these walls were added to the National Register of Historic Places, "recognizing their enduring craftsmanship, cultural significance, and contribution to the city’s Depression-era landscape" (Clyde Craig, West Virginia Explorer Webzine, 10-8-2025).

Works Progress Administration (WPA) crews did improvement work on the Ridenbaugh canal in Boise in the mid-1930s. We know they were at work on it in 1936 but the project may have started earlier and gone longer. WPA enrollees poured cement walls and floor on a previously dirt channel. We do not know how many miles of the canal were upgraded by the WPA. The canal was originally constructed in the late nineteenth century as part of the irrigation system now managed by the Nampa & Meridian Irrigation District.  By the 1930s, flood control in the city of Boise was the...

In 1937, Moscow-born artist Anton Refregier painted an oil-on-canvas mural for the visitors room at Rikers Island Penitentiary (today's James A. Thomas Center). Refregier painted the mural, titled "Home and the Family," with funding from the WPA Federal Art Project (FAP). According to the New York Correction History Society, "the larger-than-life scene looked out on a big room whose occupants could view it full spectrum. The Rikers mural reflects a frequent WPA art theme: By working together—whether on a farm, in a forest, or in industry—people can build a better life for themselves, their family, their country. "When the Rikers Island...

Today's U.S. Forest Service Rincon Fire Station (Azusa, CA) was one of twenty Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camps in the Angeles National Forest. From 1933 to 1935, CCC Company #905 shared the location with Camp Rincon, a declining private camp run by Burt Luckey. The CCC men stationed here built trails, firebreaks, and roads. In 1938, after the 25-year old buildings were washed out by a flood, a new station was constructed. The new quarters included housing for a CCC fire prevention crew.

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...

The Civil Works Administration (CWA), the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) completed road Improvements in Thomaston ME between 1933 and 1939. Road work was a very common project for the New Deal agencies in Maine. According to Annual Reports of the Town Officers of the Town of Thomaston, in Thomaston (population 1930 - 2,214), the "Civil Works: Appropriated 00 Expended on Buttermilk Lane and Marsh Road from Town account $855.16 Overdraft $855.16" The Town Warrant lists “Article 17 To see what sum of money the town will raise to continue the work started on Buttermilk Lane under the C.W.A....

Following the 1933 Long Beach earthquake, Robert E. Peary Middle School (formerly Gardena High School) in Gardena, CA was rebuilt with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA). Construction lasted 1935-37 and totaled $$133,068. In 1935, the administration and home economics building were reconstructed by Byerts and Dunn. The PWA Moderne style administration building is located at the corner of W Gardena Blvd and Normandie Ave overlooking the school parking lot. The PWA Moderne style building located at the T-intersection formed by Normandie Ave and W 163rd St may have originally been the home economics building, but confirmation is needed. A gymnasium...

The gym at Robert Louis Stevenson Middle School in Los Angeles, CA was built with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) in 1937. The two-story PWA Moderne building was designed by architect E. L. Bruner and built by contractor Joseph Maiser for $80,798. The gym survives next to the basketball courts and is visible from Esperanza St. 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...

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, as well as Works Progress Administration (WPA) laborers.  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...

In 1936, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the US Army Corps of Engineer constructed two rock jetties at the mouth of Ballona Creek that extended into the Pacific Ocean in Playa Del Rey, CA. They also constructed a riprap protected channel from the Pacific Ocean to Inglewood Blvd. 

In 1941, the Work Projects Administration (WPA) undertook a storm sewer construction project in the Rockaway Park neighborhood of Queens. One of six sewers was installed at Rockaway Beach Blvd from Beach 117th St to Beach 116th St. According to The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, the other five sewers were located at “Beach 147th St. between Newport Ave. and Jamaica Bay, Beach 141st St. between Cronston Ave. and Beach Channel Drive, Beach 120th St. between Newport Ave. and Rockaway Beach Boulevard, Rockaway Beach Boulevard north and south from Beach 120th to Beach 121st Sts., an overflow arrangement at Beach Channel...

In 1941, the Work Projects Administration (WPA) undertook a storm sewer construction project in the Rockaway Park neighborhood of Queens. One of six sewers was installed at Rockaway Beach Blvd from Beach 120th St to Beach 121st St.* According to The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, the other five sewers were located at “Beach 147th St. between Newport Ave. and Jamaica Bay, Beach 141st St. between Cronston Ave. and Beach Channel Drive, Beach 120th St. between Newport Ave. and Rockaway Beach Boulevard, an overflow arrangement at Beach Channel Drive and Beach 117th St., and Rockaway Beach Boulevard from Beach 117th to...

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...