Unknown Sites

In 1939, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed a bridge on Magnolia Blvd. over the Tujunga Wash in Los Angeles, CA. The WPA funds covered labor, and the city provided the equipment and materials.

In 1934, the Public Works Administration (PWA) provided funding for the construction of a bridge on San Fernando Road over the Middle Tujunga Wash in Sun Valley, CA.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) created a site within the Tulsa Fairgrounds called the Tulsa Fairgrounds Cafeteria, which was finished during 1938. Currently, the cafeteria still remains standing. It has expanded many times since it was first built. Geographically, the Tulsa Fairgrounds Cafeteria spans just under less than one acre. The architecture of the cafeteria is unique. It was built upon an Art Deco style, and its foundation was brick. It’s a one-story rectangular shaped building that was surrounded by a running bond. The construction of this cafeteria was built to better serve the needs of those who attended the...

The refectory building at the Tulsa Zoological Garden was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1935. It was one of many New Deal projects undertaken in Oklahoma that “aimed to improve America’s public lands and parks” and “help lift the country out of the Great Depression.” The former refectory building has gone through many uses at the zoo and has recently been refurbished to serve as a public event space. “Originally designed as a refectory (gathering place to eat) this structure has served many purposes in its 86-year history. Once as a zoo entrance and concession area it also became...

The former Turner Middle School was constructed with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) in 1938-1940.  The  At the time it housed Stowe Teachers College, which trained African American educators. It was later named in honor of Charles Henry Turner (1867–1923), a  noted African American zoologist and educator in St. Louis. The Turner Middle School closed in 2010 and, as of 2025, the building is listed for sale as a surplus property of the St. Louis School system.

In 1939, the Works Progress Administration (WPA)began improvements at Turtle Creek Park in Dallas TX.  The project was one of many undertaken in the area by the WPA and other New Deal agencies. “Widespread park improvements costing $34,000 have been announced at Dallas, Texas,” a writer for Parks & Recreation reported in January of 1939. “Included in the developments will be a new South Dallas community center, a golf course for Negroes and additional work in Robert E. Lee Park and also on the White Rock beautification program.” Dallas’s Robert E. Lee Park was renamed Turtle Creek Park after a vote by...

Following the 1933 Long Beach earthquake, the original Tweedy Elementary School in South Gate, CA was rebuilt with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA). Constructed in 1935 by J & B Construction Company for $21,510, the single-story PWA Moderne building now houses the Tweedy Learning Center, a Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) adult school. 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 LAUSD and proceeded in two cycles, 1934-35 and...

Twenty-Fourth Street Elementary School, which opened in 1904, 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 1950s or 60s, 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 the PWA...

This oil on canvas by Edward Biberman entitled "Los Angeles - Prehistoric and Spanish Colonial" (1938) was commissioned by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts at the time of the building's construction. It was removed from the building when the post office moved out in 1965, but was restored and reinstalled in 2003. A second mural by Biberman, "Creative Man" is still in storage.

These cast stone eagle facades decorating the outside of the courthouse were carved by Henry Lion in 1938 with support from the Treasury Section of Fine Arts.

Artist Stanton Macdonald-Wright designed a series of tile mosaics for University High School (now University High School Charter) in Los Angeles, CA. The work was funded by the Federal Arts Project (FAP). The mosaics would "fill lunettes (arched window spaces which have no windows) and will treat of music, art, and literature " (Wells, p. 24). Macdonald-Wright was supervisor for the Southern California division of the FAP from 1935 to 1943. He is considered "an important proponent of the nonrepresentational styles of art on the New Deal projects" (Kalfatovic, p. 370). Macdonald-Wright's other New Deal–funded works in the region include murals at the...

The Public Works Administration (PWA) funded the construction of the Infirmary, which was part of the PWA expansion of the University of Arizona. The structure was completed in May, 1936. The infirmary was remodeled as the Student Health Center in 1964.  

The Publics Works Administration funded the construction of ROTC stables, infirmary, and barracks for the cavalry training program. Interestingly, by the time of completion horses were already practically obsolete within the US military. Within five years, "cavalry" would mean meant tanks, not horses. "The R. O. T. C. Stables was another PWA project, designed by Roy Place and built by the M. M. Sundt Co. It is located on the north side of Warren Avenue, north of the University of Arizona Medical Center, next to the old UA polo field. It was completed in March, 1936. Original cost was $24,342. Later,...

A Women's Club building was added to the campus of the University of Colorado in 1937, paid for by the federal Public Works Administration (PWA). "Before the construction of the new women's club, the University of Colorado had no suitable facilities for the holding of social functions by women. The building is two stories in height and contains on the first floor a living room, approximately 40 by 25 feet, a dining room, reception room, manager's office, kitchen, and pantry. The second floor is devoted to bedrooms. Construction is fireproof with a reinforced-concrete frame and floor slabs, exterior walls of native stone, and...

This Public Works Administration (PWA) funded building was originally the Dental College for the University of Illinois at Chicago. It was PWA project #1057. Construction of the Dental Building began in 1935 when the project was proposed and backed by the PWA under Illinois director Carl H. Bauer. The Public Works Administration funded the project with a grant of $366,000 and a 20 year loan of $1,091,000. The University Foundation directed by Glen M. Hobbs awarded the contract to the J.W. Snyder company for $952,610. Other contracts amounting to $370,500 were given to Haughton Elevator and Machine Co (elevators), Divane Brothers...

The Public Works Administration funded the University of Northern Iowa Women's Gymnasium Improvements and Pool Addition in Cedar Falls IA. The building now houses the university's Innovation Teaching and Technology Center. "In August 1935, the Board of Education announced plans for a large remodeling project for the Women's Gymnasium.  The basement would be devoted entirely to dressing rooms.  New floors and fireproof stairs would be installed.  And an addition would be put onto the west side of the building to house a 36 X 90 foot swimming pool, with seating for five hundred spectators.  The pool would be three feet six...

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...

The US Coast Guard Station Humboldt Bay at the end of the Samoa Peninsula across from Eureka, Calif0rnia was built in 1936-37 as a federal military project, with the aid of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and its relief workforce. (HABS, p. 17) The structure replaced a considerably smaller station built in 1878, known as the Humboldt Bay Life-Saving Station. This was part of a nationwide effort to upgrade Coast Guard facilities during the administration of Franklin Roosevelt (as ardent sailor and Undersecretary of the Navy in the early 1920s). (The Life-Saving Service and Revenue Cutter Service had been merged to...

The American Legion Post No. 5 in Tampa contains a large stained glass USS Tampa Memorial Window which was created in 1939 by Tampa artist Ferdinand Frederick under the sponsorship of the WPA’s Federal Art Project. The ten-foot tall, five-foot wide memorial window lists the names of the 115 U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Navy crewmen, many of them from the Tampa area, who perished when the USS Tampa was sunk in 1918 by a German U-boat during World War I. Their names are ranged around the Great Seal of The American Legion. After the American entry into World War I...

The Public Works Administration (PWA) funded the construction of the Home Economics building at the Utah State University. The structure was built in 1935-36 and designed by Leslie Hodgson & Myrl McClenahan.  It is a two story, yellow brick, Moderne structure with bas-relief columns between every set of windows, white decorative elements capping the columns, and a slightly projecting entrance with somewhat gothic windows over the doors. According to a USU Historical Buildings guide, “On October 18, 1933 the federal Public Works Administrator announced allotments in excess of ten million dollars for non-federal projects. As part of the allotment given to the...

In 1936, a classroom building and auditorium were constructed at Utah Street Elementary School in Los Angeles, CA with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA). The two-story, 17-room classroom building is extant off Park Paseo Ln; the single story auditorium—which was embellished with a colorful mural c. 2020—is extant off Gabriel Garcia Marquez St. Both PWA Moderne structures were designed by architect Claud Beelman and built by the Schuck Construction Company for $147,870 total. According to the Los Angeles Historic Resources Inventory, "Notable architectural features include horizontal massing emphasized by bands of windows and string courses, symmetrical facades, flat...

In 1924, a prominent group of African Americans in Los Angeles, CA bought 1000 acres in Val Verde, CA to build a vacation resort for African Americans. The name of the vacation resort was Eureka Villa, and it was envisioned as a community area free from prejudices and discrimination. The resort featured baseball fields, tennis courts, golf course, hiking trails, and a community house. Eureka Villa also featured cabins, inns, restaurants, and shops. In 1936, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) provided funding for park development at Val Verde Park. In 1939, the resorts name was changed to Val Verde, which was the...

The State Emergency Relief Administration (SERA) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) built many buildings for Valencia High School during the New Deal era.  The school was initially founded in 1933. Then in 1935, SERA built an administration building. This was followed by a gym and pool funded by the WPA in 1937. “Today the school serves a student body of approximately 2,500 students. It is one of four high schools in the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District." (Wikipedia)

The Works Progress Administration built facilities at Van Doren Park in Bird City, Kansas. The park buildings were constructed with stone from Beaver Creek and the Kuhrt Ranch quarry.      

In 1934, approximately 1.3 miles of Van Nuys Blvd—between Chandler and Ventura Blvds—in Sherman Oaks, CA was improved with $7,300 of Public Works Administration (PWA) funding.

Following the 1933 Long Beach earthquake, Van Nuys Elementary School in Van Nuys, CA was rebuilt with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA). Construction lasted 1935-36 and totaled $62,964. The single-story annex building on Hamlin St building was rebuilt by William J. Shirley in 1935. The following year, an auditorium designed by architect J. Robert Harris was built at the school by R. J. Daum at the corner of Sylmar Ave and Gilmore St. Both structures combine elements of the Mission Revival and PWA Moderne styles. The reconstruction and renovation of Los Angeles schools damaged by the 1933 Long Beach earthquake...

Van Nuys High School in Van Nuys, CA was rebuilt following the 1933 Long Beach earthquake. Construction of three new buildings between 1935 and 1937 totaled $307,484 and was partially funded by the Public Works Administration (PWA). A two-story, 38-room administration building designed by architects Allison and Allison was built in 1935. N. A. Anderson was the contractor. The PWA Moderne structure incorporates Neoclassical elements (note the suggestion of columns on the facade) and remains the main school building on Cedros Ave. In 1936, contractor W. W. Petley oversaw the construction of auditorium and physical education buildings also designed by Allison and...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed six sets of pergolas—known as "pagodas"—along Ocean Front Walk on Venice Beach (Los Angeles, CA). The pagodas were restored/reconstructed in 2000. The City of Los Angeles' Venice Beach Ocean Front Walk Refurbishment Plan noted that they would "be restored in either wood or recycled wood plastic materials suitable to retain historic character and appearance of the pagodas could also allow for durability and easy, long-term maintenance . The five sets of pagodas that do exist will be fully restored. In reviewing the historic photos for Venice Beach, it is clear that the original design of...

Grace Rivet Clements and Helen Lundeberg painted two 18' by 33' frescoes for Venice High School (Los Angeles, CA) in 1941: “History of Southern California” and “History of Early California.”  The frescoes were funded by the WPA Federal Art Project (FAP) and the artists were assisted by Aurel J. Leitner, Edwin T. Emery, Miriam Farrington, and Serena Swanson.  The two murals are located in the school library. Sylvia Moore writes that the frescoes "narrate the history of California in unrelated vignettes that seem to float across the walls of the library. On the east wall is the History of Early California,...

The six-mile concrete Verdugo Wash Channel in Glendale, CA was constructed by Works Progress Administration (WPA) crews under Army Corps of Engineers supervision between 1935 and 1937. The Verdugo Wash wends through Glendale, carrying rainwater from the northern foothills to the Los Angeles River. In 1933, wildfires in the San Gabriel Mountains stripped the landscape of chaparral and created significant quantities of loose earth, leaving the cities in the Crescenta Valley vulnerable to floods. On January 1, 1934, after weeks of torrential rain, mud, debris, and water roared into the local communities (La Crescenta, Montrose, La Canada, and Glendale) causing the...

In 1936, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed a storm drain at the intersection of Vermont Ave. and Vernon Ave. in Los Angeles, CA. It was one of the ten largest public works projects completed during that year in Los Angeles. The job took four months and employed 1315 men.

In 1936-37, a two-story classroom building was constructed at Vermont Avenue Elementary School in Los Angeles, CA with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA). The 30-room PWA Moderne building was designed by architect A. S. Nibecker Jr and built by the Theodore A. Beyer Corporation for $201,849. 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 cycles, 1934-35 and 1935-37. The first...

The Veterans Memorial building in San Leandro was constructed in 1934 by the county of Alameda with the aide of funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA).  The building dedication was held on September 23, 1934.  The site was purchased by the city of San Leandro in 1933 for $65,000 and the building cost $80,000. It was designed by Henry Meyer, Mildred Meyer and George Klinkhardt and the contractor was George Peterson. A new wing was added on the south side of the building, with a cornerstone that says "1950" -- which is confusing since there is no other cornerstone or plaque giving...

The auditorium at Victoria Avenue Elementary School (formerly Home Gardens School) in South Gate, CA was remodeled with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) in 1937. The architects were Arthur Kelly and Joe Estep; the contractor was L. W. Odell. While the auditorium was adjoined to the main school building at the time, it now is free standing at the corner of Dearborn and Missouri Aves. 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...

Vine Street Elementary School in Los Angeles, CA was remodeled with partial funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) in 1935-37. The main school building was rebuilt in 1935 and the auditorium (at the corner of Vine and Romaine Streets) in 1936-37.  Both PWA Moderne structures were designed by architect C. E. Noerenberg; the auditorium was rebuilt by contractor Charles J. Dorfman. Together, the projects totaled ~$84,650. In addition, the pedestrian tunnel beneath Vine Street was likely constructed with New Deal funding. The first of the city's 200-plus pedestrian tunnels were built in the 1920s to prevent traffic violence by providing...

The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) and the Civil Works Administration (CWA) funded improvements at the Virginia Avenue Playground in Washington DC. Today, the sire is called Virginia Avenue Park. The work consisted of the following improvements: CWA and FERA, 1933-1934, “Graded, fenced, running track 90 percent complete, old pavilion removed; roof reshingled, electric lights installed.” (Report of the Government of the District of Columbia 1935) FERA, 1934-1935, “Completed running track.” (Report of the Government of the District of Columbia 1936)

The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), the Works Progress Administration (WPA), and the Civil Works Administration (CWA) completed improvements at the Georgetown Playground in Washington DC. Today, the playground is part of the Volta Park Recreation Center. The work consisted of the following improvements: “Graded, topsoil, fenced, 6 gates, remodeled interior of shelter house, new plumbing, wired for electric lights.” (Report of the Government of the District of Columbia 1935) FERA, 1934-1935, “Surfaced two tennis courts.” (Report of the Government of the District of Columbia 1936) WPA, 1935-1936, “2 tennis courts surfaced with clay.” (Report of the Government of the District of Columbia 1936) WPA, 1936-1937, “Constructed pool...

The Public Works Administration funded the construction of the Wade Hampton State Office Building in Columbia SC. According to Historic Columbia, "This structure was built using funds from the federal Public Works Administration to alleviate the state’s constant need for office space. Its Stripped Classical exterior and Art Deco interiors are typical of other buildings constructed under the New Deal and compliment the State House and the John C. Calhoun State Office Building next door. Built with separate bathrooms for African American citizens, the building housed the State Department for Education throughout the state government’s stalwart defense of racial segregation in public...

Wadsworth 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...

The Works Progress Administration built the WaKeeney City Building (also known as Wakeeney Municipal Building) in WaKeeney KS. Built of native limestone and dedicated in April 1939, this impressive structure originally housed not only city offices, but an auditorium with a basketball court, meeting rooms, the town library, and soil conservation offices. The building has been extensively remodeled over the years, but still houses city offices. The auditorium now shelters city trucks and other vehicles. According to the Trego County Historical Society, "They started to build the City Building in June of 1937. Dedication for the building was held in April of...