Marked Sites

The historic Alliance Municipal Building was constructed between March 1936 and April 1937 with the aid of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. The PWA provided a $78,189 grant for the project, whose total cost was $178,625. PWA Docket No. NE 1079 In August 1935, the Alliance City Council took steps toward securing a new municipal building for Alliance. The council hired Omaha architectural firm John Latenser and Sons to draw plans for the new building, and encouraged the city to file an application with the Public Works Administration (PWA) for a free federal grant of $67,500.00 toward the building’s construction. A $100,000.00...

The building was initially built as a municipal building, but it was first rented by the state of Kansas to the National Guard for use as an armory for the headquarters of the 1st Battalion of the 137th Infantry of the National Guard. Subsequent uses were as a skating rink, several retail stores, and office space for Chase County during the county courthouse renovation. Presently, the front of the building houses offices for the city of Cottonwood Falls as well as meeting space. The large space behind the offices has been used as the home of Prairie Past Times since...

Public Works Administration (PWA) funded the construction of the Municipal Building in Greenwich OH. This building has housed village government offices since its completion. The architect of record was Granville E. Scott.The contractor was Roth Bros.

Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania's historic Municipal Building was built between November 1938 and September 1939. Construction of the new city hall was enabled by a Public Works Administration (PWA) grant. The Beaux Arts building, designed by George M. Ewing, is "an imposing building built in a classical Egyptian-Greek Revival style set upon a high podium entered by symmetrical formal staircases." It is still in service. PWA Docket No. PA X2014.

The National Youth Administration (NYA), a branch of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) for students and unemployed young people, built the Municipal Building in Roosevelt, Utah, in 1941. The Municipal Building is a modest, one-story structure in brick with very simple decoration (a zig-zag line in a white band above the front entrance).  Over the entrance is a cast-concrete plaque with the name and NYA 1941 on each side (see photo). The building sits next to the public library in the town's Central Park.  Presumably, it once was the town hall, but it presently houses a city ambulance garage (a later addition...

The Seminole city council make plans in 1935 for a new Municipal building to hold offices and a "civic center" due to the fact the old "civic center" exploded due to a gas leak on December 29, 1934. After selecting the architectural firm from Oklahoma City. The city council applied for a grant from the Public Works Administration in April 1935. The grant was approved September 26, 1935 with a total amount of the construction cost at $86,818 and the first federal check arrived January 27, 1936 but ground breaking did not occur until March 1936 and a grand opening...

City Hall and auditorium erected 1940-1942. Rock building with clock tower.

The Public Works Administration (PWA) funded half the cost of the handsome Municipal Building in Price UT, constructed in 1938-39.  The building includes city offices, a large auditorium and an enormous mural cycle by native son Lynn Fausett in the foyer of the auditorium.   The design is minimalist Neoclassical Moderne clad in desert-buff brick. The city offices have been completely altered, but the foyer with its murals  and the auditorium with its wooden seats with streamline sidebars (photos below) are both still intact.  The cornerstone attributes the building to the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works (the formal name for the PWA). The...

The historic former Municipal Building ("Town Hall") in Front Royal, Virginia was built with the aid of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. The PWA supplied a $10,707 grant for the project, whose total cost was $38,235. Construction occurred between June 1935 and early 1936. A plaque on the building offers more information about the its functions and history. PWA Docket No. 5744

Ben Miller writes in the Nazareth Patch: "This beautiful art deco pool was one of the few above-ground municipal pools to be constructed in the country and like Nazareth's Borough Pool, it was built by the WPA from 1937 to 1939.  Though I was raised in Nazareth from birth, my mother and her family are from Bangor and this pool was a big part of their lives.  In fact, my great-grandfather, John I. Correll, was a Bangor Councilman at the time and Project Chairman of the pool's construction.  He also oversaw the development of Bangor Memorial Park around it. Bangor's original pool...

The Works Progress Administration built the Municipal Pool and Bathhouse in Cordell, OK Contributor note: "The municipal pool and bathhouse is located across the street south from the WPA park, at 504 E. 2nd Street. It was constructed by the WPA in 1937. The bathhouse is a one-story rock building with protruding mortar. The building is segmented into three parts with the center section projected to the west, and slightly recessed on the east poolside. The windows are large and multi-paned. The pool to the east of the bathhouse is large and was empty and dry at the time of our visit. A sign...

The municipal pool and bath house in El Reno was a FERA project completed in 1935. From the 1999 National Register of Historic Places application: The El Reno Municipal Pool Bath House, constructed in 1935 in Legion Park, the city's largest recreation area, represents an historical pattern within the context of Recreation/Entertainment for El Reno, Oklahoma. Legion Park was the second of six city park projects developed in the years 1901-1949. Legion Park, formerly Peach's Park, had initially been privately developed c. 1903 but was allowed to decline even after the city acquired the property in 1920. The area remained relatively...

The Municipal Water System Pumping Station is located at the corner of E. Main (MS 6) and Elliott Avenue at 34.089206, -88.621181. The small brick building is marked with a Public Works Administration dedication plaque. Concrete holding tanks remain at the rear of the building, but are not in use. The water tower (next to the pumping station) was fabricated by Taylor Iron Works. Consulting engineers were Totten & Loving and the builder/contractor was Blair, Algernon, Construction Company. The project Miss.1081 was supported by the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works with a loan of $37,000 and grant of $30,272....

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built sidewalks on Munroe St. in Newburyport MA.

The El Viejo Building in Modesto, California, features a splendid series of murals painted by Roy Boynton.  This was originally the downtown post office and Federal Building, and the murals were commissioned by the Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP) and mounted in 1936. The murals are arrayed high on the walls of the lobby. Boynton and several assistants painted a series of thirteen tempera murals depicting agricultural scenes in the Central Valley. Ten are lunettes and three are placed on the end wall to make a single, large mural. As one local reporter explained: "These are the scenes of the Central...

"There is a Work Projects Administration plaque, dated 1938-1940, on the front of the building, and the school's cornerstone references the WPA and the dates 1939-1940. A Texas Historical Marker at the rear entrance (which is the main entrance today) elaborates: " 'Murphy was originally called Old Decatur after the hometown of founder C.A. McMillen. In 1888 the town was renamed Murphy after William Murphy donated land to build a train depot and a post office. The Federal Works Project Administration (WPA) built Murphy School in 1939, which because of consolidation lasted only until 1950. The city purchased the building and...

The Museum of Indigenous People was constructed 1933-1935 by relief workers employed by the Civil Works Administration (CWA) and Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA).  It is built of local fieldstone and flagstone in a sober, if romanticized, indigenous style. It was long known as the Smoki Museum after a local club of White businessmen who called themselves "the Smoki People" and dressed up as Hopi to perform native dances. After protests by Hopi, who disapproved of such imitations, the club stopped its dances and eventually disbanded.  The name of the museum was changed in 2020.   The museum collection evolved from native...

According to the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), Anne Fletcher’s WPA oil painting, “Iris Garden,” was completed in 1939 and placed in the Home Economics Center (or, “Home Economics Cottage”) in Berryville, Virginia.  This building appears to have been part of, or had some relation to Berryville High School.  In 1970, the high school was set for demolition and nearby schools were permitted to take things from the abandoned building that would benefit their own schools.  A principal and two students from Boyce Elementary School took up the offer and transported some items from the high school to their own. ...

The CCC did extensive work creating Myakka River State Park between 1934 and 1941. According to the Florida Public Architecture blog, it was the only camp in Florida established by an African-American division of the CCC, reminding the visitor that segregation obtained even in great public works of the New Deal. From the Florida State Parks website: In the 1930's, during the Great Depression, over 17,000 acres of the Palmer estate was purchased by the government to develop Myakka River State Park as part of President Roosevelt's New Deal. The New Deal was intended to boost the economy and spirit of the American population during...

At the intersection of N. 8th and Boston in a residential area, there are two WPA culverts which pass under 8th Street east to west. One culvert has the WPA shield stamped 1939 at either end; the other does not. The culverts are constructed of large cut stones, and have curbing that is quite tall vertically. The openings are approximately 3 ft. by 5 ft.

According to a historical sign on site, "Named for Fridjof Nansen, the Greenland explorer. Berlin's first ski club formed in 1872. The club sponsored the "Big Nansen" constructed in 1936 -38 by the National Youth Administration and the City of Berlin. At the time, it was possibly the tallest steel-tower ski jump in the world, standing 171 feet high. The first jumper Clarence "Spike" Oleson in 1937. In 1938, the Olympic trials were held here. Four times Milan hosted the United States Ski Jumping National Championships: 1940, '57, '65, '72." The architect of the ski jump was John Barnard Nichol, a...

"The building was constructed in 1933, one of the projects undertaken during President Roosevelt's Depression-era New Deal building campaign. Although remodeled in 1965 to make it wheelchair accessible, it remains relatively unchanged since it was built." (Napa County, 82)

The Public Works Administration funded construction work on facilities at the Napa State Hospital in Napa, CA in 1939. The hospital opened in 1875 and is still in service today.

A cantilevered Warren through truss bridge spanning the Mississippi River on US Highway 84 connects Natchez, Mississippi with Vidalia, Louisiana. Mississippi's project # 1126 opened to traffic on September 26, 1940 after two years of construction (Mississippi Department of Archives & History). It originally operated as a toll bridge. The toll plaza remains on the Natchez side of the river, and although the toll booths have been removed, the semi-circular wooden columns that surrounded the plaza remain. A commemorative tower and plaque, identical to the one at the toll plaza, stands just before the bridge entrance in Vidalia. A second bridge...

The Natchitoches Parish Courthouse was undertaken in Natchitoches, Louisiana during the Great Depression with the assistance of funds provided by the Public Works Administration (PWA). The facilities were part of the largest wave of courthouse construction in Louisiana history, with eleven total courthouses erected in the period of  1936-1940. The Natchitoches courthouse was one of only two of these projects undertaken with substantial use of bas-relief sculpture common in PWA architecture. "The entrance to the Natchitoches building is flanked with two huge American Indian chiefs" (Leighninger, 2007, p. 116) and is designed in the Art Deco style. It was constructed for...

The National Gallery of Art on the mall is one of America's greatest art museums.  It holds thousands of New Deal artworks in its vast collections, much of it available in digital form and occasional shown in exhibits.    By far the largest New Deal collection at the National Gallery is the Federal Art Project's (FAP) Index of American Design, containing over 18,000 artistic renderings (chiefly watercolors) of historic and contemporary American arts and crafts: textiles, furniture, toys, decorative arts, industrial products, and so on. The FAP was part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) from 1935 to 1942.  This collection was part of...

WPA crews built this armory in 1939. It has a central barrel vaulted auditorium and surrounding single story offices, all of which has a native stone façade that is in excellent condition on the exterior.  It is on the east side of Doniphan and likely used some of the rock masons who were used on the school rock wall project.

"The Guthrie Armory was constructed between 1935 and 1937 by the Works Progress Administration. With sandstone quarried on-site, using local, unskilled labor, this building is typical of WPA construction in Oklahoma. This is a one-story building, 125 x 140 feet, located in a residential/recreational area known as Highland Park. The architect was Bryan W. Nolen. The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. ...The building has an Art Deco appearance, with the placement of recessed stonework on the front, and the projected pilasters rising to a stepped parapet. The building has its original windows and overhead...

An economic account of Kearney is given in The Kearney Daily Hub paper of November 19, 1935, reporting facts disclosed at a joint Buffalo County Board and Kearney City Council meeting. Board Chairperson Martin Slattery reported that “There were nearly five thousand persons on relief in Buffalo County last year, practically as many as the combined populations of Ravenna, Shelton, Gibbon, Elm Creek, and all other towns in the county outside Kearney.” Chairman of the County Board’s poor committee, Gene Loomis reported that there were then “about 150 non-employable cases on relief, as well as about 175 employable but jobless...

"The Marlow National Guard Armory is located at 702 W. Main, in a residential area. It was constructed by the WPA, beginning on November 7, 1935, carrying through 1936, being completed in January 1937. It was dedicated during a fierce snowstorm on April 1, 1937. This is a one-story red brick armory with cast concrete detailing... Near the front entrance is a stone block reading "State Armory/Built by Works Progress Administration/1936/W.S. Key/State Administrator." At the northwest and northeast corners of the building are concrete blocks reading "Built by WPA 1936." When constructed it was the home of the 1st Battalion, 158th Field Artillery,...

National Guard Armory in McAlester OK is a single story armory built by the Works Progress Administration and made of sandstone with arched roof. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. The building is still in use.

What is presently the Indiana Army National Guard Armory was constructed as the Michigan City Naval Armory with the assistance of Works Progress Administration (WPA) labor. A plaque states the completion date as October 1939.

The New Castle National Guard armory located at Shenango Township, Lawrence County PA was built in 1938 with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA). The building design is stone Moderne on an "I" floorplan, consisting of a one- to two-story administration building, a connected riding hall and former stable building. One observer notes that, "Ashler stone was used by the Thayer Company of New Castle to design this Romanesque structure, although the NRHP narrative classifies the building as Art Deco (I just don’t see it, but I’m no expert). Like most armories built in Pennsylvania for cavalry units at the time,...

In 1936, the Federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) completed construction of an armory in Perry, Oklahoma in order to support the equipment storage and training needs of the Perry Unit of the Oklahoma Army National Guard. In 2011 the Armory was transferred back to the community. The public release that announced the transfer of the Armory from the military to the community points out that "...during the Great Depression, local communities and the State of Oklahoma were unable to fund the construction of... armories....This armory was one of many proposed Oklahoma armories approved for construction by the WPA." It goes on to note...

This 2-story Art Moderne building was constructed by the WPA in 1938, and from 1939 to 1940 served as the armory for Company G, 155th Infantry. It is currently used to house the City Parks and Recreation Department.

The Works Progress Administration financed the construction of a national guard armory and rifle range for Amory. Architects N. W. Overstreet and A. H. Town designed the building, "expected to exceed $56,000 and take 12 months" (Daily Clarion-Ledger, Oct. 6, 1940, p. 5). The average number of workers for the project was 44. In 2002, the building was named a Mississippi Landmark.

The Works Progress Administration built the National Guard Armory in Batesville in 1936. A 1998 National Register of Historic Places Registration Form describes the formal characteristics of the structure: "The 1936 National Guard Armory in Batesville was constructed in a vernacular Ozark stone style with Gothic Revival influences by local stonemasons hired by the federal government as well as National Guard unit members. The armory was a WPA project designed by Dutch architect Pieter Blaauw and is composed of Batesville sandstone obtained from the Maxfield Quarry on the outskirts of town. Each stone from the local quarry is hand cut. A barreled tarpaper roof...

In 1941, the WPA completed work on a National Guard armory designed by Edd Gregg for Williamsburg. The building is a classic modern deco building with strong vertical elements surrounding the entry that is capped with an eagle in flight. From the Kentucky National Guard History eMuseum: The old armory in Carlisle was constructed circa 1941 by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The armory was completed with funds from the Armory Corporation of Kentucky. The building is located in downtown Carlisle on Main Street, and is a grey one-story poured concrete building with an attached, barrel-vaulted drill hall and a basement. The...

The former National Guard Armory in Columbia, Tennessee was designed by Warfield and Keeble. The facility includes a 70x100-foot drill hall. Warfield and Keeble designed a series of Tennessee National Guard Armories for the WPA between 1940-1942 with a "standardized but vaguely Art Deco-style architectural plan" (Fieser & Moore, 2011). Other armories were in Cleveland, Shelbyville, Centerville, and Murfreesboro. The Tenth Machine Gun and Chemical Company was headquartered in the Columbia armory during World War II. The building is currently used by the local Parks and Recreation department.

In 1941, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) completed work on a National Guard armory designed by Edd Gregg. The building is a poured, 2-story modern Deco style building with both horizontal and vertical elements on the front façade. It has been repurposed for use by the local YMCA. A barrel vault over the gymnasium is visible at the rear.