Marked Sites

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the Baltic School in Baltic SD. The structure served as a public school. Its current use is unknown. A building plaque reads: "WPA project number 3883."

"Bandelier was established as a National Monument in 1916, but until the mid-30s the only visitor facility in Frijoles Canyon was a lodge built in 1909 by Judge A. J. Abbott. Even by 1925 when George and Evelyn Frey acquired the lease to run the lodge, the only way for visitors to access the canyon bottom and the lodge was on foot. Much of the Freys food came from their garden and livestock, but everything else - visitors, archeologists, supplies, and the Freys themselves whenever they had to get groceries or mail - had to come down this trail. In 1932,...

"Residents of Laramie are probably familiar with the large concrete semi-dome that anchors the southwest corner of Washington Park. The Edgar J. Lewis bandshell has become a staple in the community as Laramie's only public outdoor stage. It is a memorial, in a way, to University of Wyoming music professor Edgar J. Lewis for whom the bandshell is named. It was renamed in the 1980s to honor the professor. The concrete structure is also a memorial to events that affected the entire nation for over a decade. The Edgar J. Lewis Bandshell was a Works Progress Administration project that was...

Constructed in 1941, with WPA labor, the Banita Creek Bridge crosses the waterway of the same name with three spans of reinforced concrete girder. The 100’-long bridge has a 24’-wide roadway with cantilevered sidewalks on both sides. The hand railing is composed of open concrete balustrade divided into sections by stepped Art Deco-like posts. The approach railing at the end of bridge angles out, following the skew of the wingwalls below. The WPA erected the bridge as part of a larger project that widened and improved the channels of Bonita and Lanana creeks. As part of the project, work-relief crews built sidewalks...

Originally (1915) school for African American children, the Banneker Community Center - Bloomington IN was used for Works Progress Administration (WPA) after-school and recreation programs. The sidewalk and retaining wall around the building was built by the WPA in 1938.

The National Youth Administration built the Banneker Community Center Gymnasium in Bloomington IN. The gymnasium is now part of a Bloomington Parks and Recreation community center, in what was originally a segregated school, built in 1915, for African-American children.

"Banner School, constructed in 1935, was one of the 825 schools constructed in Oklahoma by the Works Progress Administration. Banner School is located at 1124 W. Warner in northwest Guthrie. The school was constructed in 1935 by the WPA. Unlike the red native stone buildings so prominent in the region, this school is constructed of several shades of tan brick. The brick was scored with vertical striations. This is a one-story building which was an elementary school. The windows are equipped with horizontal, exterior metal movable sun shades. The building is currently vacant and not in use... To the left of the...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) developed downtown Lahaina's Banyan Tree Park.  The park surrounds an immense banyan tree (a variety of tropic ficus) that covers three-quarters of an acre.  It is the largest and best known tree in Hawai'i. There is a stone marker in the park that says the WPA built the park, which presumably means that relief workers landscaped the park, added paving and built benches. It appears that the benches have been replaced recently. A massive wildfire burned through Lahaina in August 2023 and scorched the famous Banyan Tree; it is unknown to Living New Deal whether the tree and park...

Currently serving as the National Park Service's administrative office for the Fort Vancouver - McLoughlin House Unit, the Dr. Forbes Barclay House shares more than proximity with its better-known neighbor (the McLoughlin House). The two structures not only housed important figures of the Hudson Bay Company, who then retired to Oregon City and contributed to the development of the town, their preservation and restoration are linked in several efforts of the New Deal era as well. Built in 1849, the Barclay House is one of Oregon's oldest examples of Classical Revival architecture. As such, the Civil Works Administration (CWA) funded local...

A portion of Lynn Fausett's  Barrier Canyon mural hangs in the Prehistoric Museum at Utah State University Eastern. It is part of an enormous, 82-foot canvas painting done by Fausett in 1940 under the auspices of the Works Projects Administration (WPA) Arts Project (WPAAP). The segment of the mural on display in the USU Eastern Prehistoric Museum is the smaller of two (12 x 22 ft.) and depicts approximately the left hand one-fourth of the Great Gallery. The larger section of the mural hangs in the Museum of Natural History at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.    The mural...

The largest portion of Lynn Fausett's WPA-funded Barrier Canyon mural hangs at the back of the entry hall of the University of Utah Museum of Natural History at the eastern flank of the University of Utah campus (a smaller portion hangs in the Natural History Museum in Price, Utah). The canvas mural measures 12 x 60 feet and depicts ancient native pictographs/petroglyphs that Fausett had observed at the Great Gallery in Canyonlands National Monument (now a National Park), in what is known as the "Barrier Canyon Rock Art" style.   The mural was originally painted to be hung at the Museum of Modern...

The federal National Youth Administration (NYA) built circular walls surrounding Barton Springs and created a terraced sunken garden. The site can be found along Barton Creek in Zilker Metropolitan Park, just off the Lady Bird Lake Bike Trail. There are two sets of steps leading down into the garden.

The elementary school in Basalt, Colorado was originally built as the town's high school in 1937-38. The school was paid for, in part, with a $20,970 federal Public Works Administration (PWA) grant, which covered nearly half of the $46,504 total project cost.  Alterations to the building were undertaken in 2000, and the original structure is now a part of a larger elementary school complex.  

"Concrete bleachers have a concrete shed roof structure supported on steel beams. Brick walls with a concrete cap surround the ball field on the north, east and west, with an entrance at the NE corner. A chain link fence encloses the south side of the ball field. The brick wall surrounding stadium is divided into bays by pilasters on the interior and exterior. On the field side, the wall has with advertising signs painted within each bay...The concession stand and toilet building appear to post-date the original construction. Current bleachers and roof structure are also recent modifications. An appropriation of...

This beautiful park is nestled in the "Lost Pines" area of Texas. The park was built as a CCC project and opened to the public in 1937. In September 2011 96% of the park was burned by a devastating wildfire; some of the burn damage is still visible, but the park is regenerating. The fire spared the refectory and the cabins built by the CCC. A CCC pavilion at the overlook suffered damage to the wood roof, but today has been rebuilt. "The architect of Bastrop State Park, Arthur Fehr, followed National Park Service design principles that suggested harmony with the...

In 1935, a Civilian Conservation Corps camp was located at Battle Mountain State Park to improve that state recreational property. The CCC workers built a water system with drinking fountains and a large granite fireplace as well as placing picnic tables throughout the park. The park is located on State Highway 395, nine miles north of the town of Ukiah.  

The Beach Chalet at the western end of Golden Gate Park, built in 1925, is home to a trove of New Deal artworks in the first floor lobby, or entrance hall. The centerpiece of the Beach Chalet's artworks is an enormous fresco mural by Lucien Labaudt, entitled "San Francisco Life."   This magnificent mural cycle is 9' high and covers all four walls of the lobby (about 1500 square feet in all). It was painted by Labaudt in 1936-37. The mural cycle has nine sections depicting San Francisco locales: the Embarcadero & Fisherman's Wharf on the north wall; Baker's Beach on the...

The Beach Chalet at the western end of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco contains several New Deal artworks. Lucian Labaudt painted a set of monochrome frescoes around the stairwell and in the corridor to the restrooms on the south side of the ground floor.  The stairwell is surrounded on all sides and on the ceiling by soaring gulls and sea birds. The frescoes were done in 1937 under the auspices of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) Federal Art Project (FAP). Labaudt also painted the immense mural around the entrance hall.  

The Beach Chalet contains several New Deal artworks.  Include decorative mosaics by Primo Caredio, done in 1937.  They are located in the South Staircase and over the north and east doorways of the large first-floor lobby. All the Beach Chalet artworks were done by unemployed artists hired by the Federal Art Project (FAP), a branch of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). 

The original Beach School was built in 1913 but declared an earthquake hazard and torn down in 1934.  It was replaced in two phases: the main wing in 1936 and the rear classroom wing and auditorium in 1940 (PHS 2007). The new school included 8 classrooms, a kindergarten, offices, a health room and an auditorium. There had been three previous efforts to replace schools and temporary buildings at schools in Piedmont in the 1920s, but the bond issues lost.   After the school board sought and gained funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA), a new bond issue passed in December...

The Federal Art Project (FAP) funded several art works currently located at the Beaumont Library in Beaumont, Calif. The pieces include a mural, a watercolor, and a sculpture created by WPA artists. 1. Watercolor by John Warren. Labeled as FAP on the frame. 2. Mural by artist Henri de Kruil. The artwork is composed of two pieces depicting the view from Beaumont looking north toward the mountains. The bigger part of the mural is on the north wall of the second story of the library. The smaller piece is on the east wall of the library. They almost meet together in a corner. Gene...

The Public Works Administration (PWA) provided funding for a new high school for Beaverhead County schools in Dillon, Montana, constructed in 1939. The PWA had become a part of the new Federal Works Agency that year.. The design of the two-story school is a very striking Moderne, painted in a desert beige with white bas-relief columns. The entrance portions for the classrooms and the auditorium project outward slightly, while the doorways are recessed. There are glass-block windows over the auditorium entrance. The school is still in use.

The Works Progress Administration built sidewalks on Begier Avenue in San Leandro CA. Contributor note: "Sidewalk stamp is in front of the garage door on Begier Avenue. around the corner from the house connected to it at 799 St Marys Avenue. The garage is across the street from 1445 Begier Avenue between St Marys Avenue and Glen Drive in San Leandro."

Artist Jason Herron sculpted "Modern Youth" for Belmont Senior High School in Los Angeles, CA, with Federal Arts Project (FAP) funds. Originally located on the school's front lawn and currently found in the entryway, the sculpture "represents the scholastic interests as well as the athletic accomplishments of young people today" (Wells, p. 25). It depicts a boy with a book in his right hand and a globe against his left hip. He sits on a two-tiered base with the inscription "WPA/Federal Art Project/1937." According to a 1937 article in the Los Angeles School Journal, "Jason Herron is a young lady whose art...

Benjamin Allen Hall is named after an early 20th Century Lincoln University president and was built as a dormitory by the PWA in 1936.  It served as housing for black legislators who could not find rooms at hotels in Jefferson City during legislative sessions.  A professor of sociology, Oliver Cromwell Cox, was unable to find suitable housing when he arrived to teach in 1948 and resided in the dormitory for the next 20 years.

This large 3 story brick building overlooks the east side of the Lincoln University campus and was “named in honor of Private Logan Bennett of the 65th U.S. Colored Infantry, who contributed money for Lincoln’s founding.” It was built in 1938 by the PWA as a women’s dormitory.

What is now Benson Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas was constructed in 1937-8 with the assistance of Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. The PWA supplied a $37,933 grant for the project, whose total cost was $84,817. Construction began in Dec. 1937 and was largely completed in October 1938. The school is now part of an expanded school and administrative campus known as the Benson Educational Complex. The original building is in the shape of an 'L' along Mueller and Dean Streets, and still features original floors, ceilings, and pull-up classroom closet doors, as well as its old auditorium stage. A Federal...

The WPA constructed Benton High School in 1937. It was used as a high school until 1957, and then as an elementary school until 1970, after which it was put to community uses before being closed. It is a long, wide, linear school with hips at both ends and a gabled entrance in the center and at both ends.  The concrete above the central entrance clearly shows the school name. Quoins are present at all exterior corners.  The school is in good condition with windows intact - they may have been restored by the Benton Community Betterment Corp. (see second...

The Berkeley Rose Garden lies on the west side of Euclid Avenue in the Berkeley Hills. It was constructed in the little valley of Codornices Creek, which emerges in a viewing pool at the bottom of the garden.  The rose garden was likely begun by the Civil Works Administration (CWA) in 1933-34, as they built the adjoining ball courts.  But the Rose Garden itself was a project of  the Works Progress Administration (WPA), completed in 1940.    "The Garden is designed like an amphitheater with wide stone terraces facing magnificent views of San Francisco Bay. A semicircular redwood pergola, which extends...

The beautiful Bernal Heights Library on Cortland Avenue in San Francisco was built in 1940 by the Works Projects Administration (WPA), after it had become part of the Federal Works Administration (FWA) in 1939. The library is built of reinforced concrete and finished in Mission Revival style with stucco exterior and tile roof.  The interior features lofty ceilings, large windows, and lovely hanging light fixtures. The floors, entrance and bathrooms are all tiled and the ceiling beams are hand-painted in abstract designs.   The shelving and furniture appear to be the original, made of solid oak, and the layout looks to be...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built the Palmer Lodge at Bertha Brock Park.  The park benefited from the work of 94 CCC enrollees working two overlapping 15 hour shifts.

This monumental building was constructed in 1939 for  offices of the Berwyn Township’s Public Health District.  It was funded in part by the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works (i.e., the PWA). It was designed by Berwyn resident Vladimir Novak and is listed on National Register of Historic Places.

This WPA-constructed school was built in 1937 when the town was called Berwyn. Contributor note: "The Old Berwyn School at 45-47 Prairie Street was built by the WPA in 1937-1938. It is a one-story beige brick building with a flat roof. Two recessed entrances face east, each with double glass doors. The north side of the building is currently the Gene Autry post office; the south end houses the Gene Autry Museum. At the curb, a set of terracotta veneer steps lead to the front walk. (We never have understood why so many old schools had these steps which had three steps...

Robert F. Gates painted the mural, "Montgomery County Farm Women's Market," in 1939 for the Bethesda post office, which was closed in 2012. It shows a woman feeding animals next to women selling produce at the Farm Women’s Market, which opened on Wisconsin Avenue in 1932.   The mural was commissioned by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. Robert Gates later became head of the Art Department at American University. In 1938, Eleanor Roosevelt visited the Procurement Division of the Treasury Department to look at the sketches of the Gates mural. She later wrote in her diary the sketch was “charming,” and “I think...

Beulah Reservoir, also known as Agency Valley Reservoir, was created with the completion of the Agency Valley Damn in 1935. Throughout 1939, the Bureau of Reclamation supervised enrollees at a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) spike camp. They built a stone parapet wall on the upstream crest of the new damn. The spike camp was CCC Camp Vale, or Company BR-45 which worked on the Vale Project. The basalt stone wall runs on both sides of the road that crosses the top of the damn. The stone signature plaque left to commemorate their work is located on the eastern end of the...

While the main buildings of Beverly Hills High School date to 1927, the unique "Swim Gym" was built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1939. Designed by Stiles O. Clements, the gym features a basketball court that can be opened to access a 25-yard swimming pool below. It has appeared in films such as It's a Wonderful Life and Clueless.  

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) installed a camp at Big Basin, California's first state park (1901), and built a variety of facilities for public recreation.   Big Basin was saved through the efforts of Sempervirens Club (now Fund), as one of the last and largest groves of giant coast redwoods left in the Santa Cruz Mountains. CCC men built the park headquarters (1936), an amphitheater of redwood logs, campgrounds, other park buildings and miles of trails, and probably roads and water lines, as well. For 75 years, those facilities remained virtually unchanged (one footbridge across...

Suzanne Miller painted a nine-panel series of murals in 1937 under the auspices of the WPA Federal Art Project (FAP). Known both as "Children's Stories" and "Scenes from English Language Literature," the murals were originally located at the old Lincoln Park Main Library in Long Beach, CA. After it burned down, the murals were relocated to the new Billie Jean King Main Library. The murals include scenes drawn from Hiawatha (Longfellow), Il Penseroso (Milton), Vicar of Wakefield (Goldsmith), Rip Van Winkle (Irving), King Solomon (Old Testament), Man with the Hoe (Markham), Alice in Wonderland (Carroll), Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built sidewalks on the 1500 block of Birchmont Dr. NE in Bemidji MN.

“Bishopville High School, located in Lee County, was built as a project in 1936. The school was designed by well-known Bennettsville architect Henry Dudley Harrall. Shuttered in 2000, attempts have been made in recent years to save this important Depression-era landmark.” Described as “one of the most modern school plants in the state” when it was completed, “Bishopville High School is an excellent example of the type of school architecture that flourished as a direct result of the educational reform campaign in South Carolina in the first quarter of the twentieth century. Additionally, it is a noteworthy example...