Marked Sites

Alamo Stadium (previously submitted) was about to open in 1940 when the City of San Antonio applied for WPA funding to improve the streets in the surrounding neighborhood of the stadium. Streets were widened and repaved and simultaneously were developed into a new system of more convenient routes to the new Stadium. This was done in anticipation of the vehicles that would be coming on game days to the facility. The marker embedded in the curb is partially obscured by subsequent layers of asphalt. It gives a date of 1938-1940; the stadium opened September 20, 1940.  

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) relayed the red vitrified brick street pavement at an unknown date on Crescent Place and Woodbine Avenue in Wilmette, Illinois. An embedded marker reads "Relayed by WPA."

The Stuart Guard Station was originally built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the early 1930s and was in regular use by the U.S. Forest Service for several decades thereafter. The Stuart Guard Station has a small museum right next door offering a glimpse of the 1930s life of a ranger and his family who once lived there. Exhibits of Civilian Conservation Corps projects and original equipment are also on display. It is a scenic stop on the Huntington and Eccles Canyons National Scenic Byway (also known as the Energy Loop Byway). Many of the roads on the byway were also...

The Stuart Nursery was established in 1934 by the Kisatchie National Forest (KNF) in conjunction with the creation of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Although KNF employees managed the nursery, nearby CCC camps with 200 young men each provided manpower for its operation and field planting (Barnett and Burns 2012). Nursery seedling production was about 25 million annually with most of these seedlings shipped to CCC projects that had reforestation emphases. Wakeley’s research, now located at the nursery, took advantage of the CCC crews to apply a variety of nursery cultural practices and to establish outplanting studies. Over the 9-year...

Sul Ross State University, named for former Texas Governor Lawrence Sullivan "Sul" Ross, was founded in 1917. The university built Lawrence Hall, also named after Sul Ross, in 1938 to be a dormitory for 116 female students. The Public Works Administration provided the university a loan of $83,000 and a grant of $67,900 for the construction of the building. In 1996, Lawrence Hall was converted for use as an academic facility, housing the Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences. Per the El Paso Herald-Post in 1939: "On a sunny south slope the new dormitory commands a sweeping view of the rolling...

Also known as the National Guard Armory, the Sulphur Armory stands vacant today at 500 W Wynnewood Ave, Sulphur, OK. Placed on the National Register in 1994, it is an outstanding example of the work of the Works Progress Administration.

Athletic field and stadium for the Sulphur Bulldogs and still use practice field for the High School team The stadium located on West Wynnewood Ave, Sulphur is a rectangular 139 x 38 foot building made of native stone and pre-formed concrete slab blocks. Considered Art Deco in design it provides stadium seating for approximately 500 people. The original press box with a concrete roof stands on top of the stadium and two small ticket booths were placed east and west of the stadium building. A rock fence runs east of the stadium. Of all the stadiums built by Works Progress Administration in...

The Sulphur Creek Bridge is a three span steel stringer bridge that carries U.S. Highway 281 over Sulphur Creek in Lampasas, Texas. W. W. Vann & C0. built the bridge in 1934 under the direction of the Texas Highway Department and the United States Bureau of Public Roads.

Sumner County Courthouse in Gallatin, Tennessee was erected with the assistance of funds provided by the Public Works Administration (PWA) during the Great Depression. The two-story PWA Moderne courthouse replaced an older Greek Revival style building and was the last PWA courthouse to be constructed in Tennessee (Van West, 2001). Total cost was $170,000 and the PWA provided $78,750.

The Sumner Elementary School was built in 1936 with the support of the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works. It was registered in the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. The school was designed by Kansas architect Thomas W. Williamson, and features Art Deco architectural elements and stone bas reliefs. The two-story brick structure was renovated multiple times since its construction. Many of the structure's Art Deco original details—such as lighting fixtures and woodwork—still exist. In the 1950s, the school became an important landmark in the struggle against segregation. Sumner Elementary is the former all-white school in which Linda Brown, the central figure in Brown vs Board of Education, wanted to enroll. The...

The Sunbeam Hot Springs was greatly improved for public use by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).  In 1937, enrollees from the Clayton CCC Camp built a bathhouse on a walled, concrete platform overlooking the Salmon River, with two access stairways from the road above, a pump house (?), and a paved path down to the river. Bathers  could change in the bathhouse and proceed down the path to the river, where the hot springs water from the hillside mixes with river water. The bathhouse is not used today. An information panel next to the bathhouse reads: "The bathhouse was completed in 1937...

"The theater originally was constructed in 1930 and expanded and renovated in 1937 using Texas Centennial funding. The architect for the 1930 project was Harvey P. Smith, who was joined by George Willis and Charles T. Boelhauwe to design the 1937 project. The old quarry wall forms the western (back) edge of the theater site, providing an open-air setting with natural acoustic features. The 193- design included stage and classical wings, while the 1937 expansion added dressing rooms and stage support buildings, restrooms, seating, and a concrete floor for the seating area. The 1937 project was constructed by WPA workers, while...

The Work Projects Administration (WPA) operated in Sunland Park, constructing a community center building. "Sunland Park was the first county-owned park, dedicated to public use in 1883 when Sherman Paige and F. C. Howes purchased 2,000 acres and began subdividing the area into tracts of ten acres or more. This site was occupied by a grove of Live Oaks, believed to be several hundred years old, so Paige and Howes decided to preserve this space for public use. In 1912, the Monte Vista amusement park was established across the street, increasing the popularity of this public park." "Sunland Park features include mature...

The Works Progress Administration's National Youth Administration (WPA/NYA) hired youths to construct the stone shop building and 2 restrooms in Sunset Park in Salina Kansas. During the 1950s, the shop building doubled as a voting station. The shop building bears an NYA plaque.  

Workers from the Camp Sisters Civilian Conservation Corps (Company #1454) provided the necessary labor for improvement to US Forest Service land on the south shore of Suttle Lake over a number of years (approx.. 1935-1937). The CCC workers constructed campgrounds, trails, picnic spots, and outdoor fireplaces.  In 1936, the CCC members built the Suttle Lake-Camp Sherman road. On the south shore of Suttle Lake, a natural lake located within the Deschutes National Forest on the east side of the Cascades, are three large campgrounds and two day-use areas.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built a swimming pool and bathhouse in Swenson Park in Spur TX. The pool was built between 1935 and 1937 and closed in 2009. A WPA marker in front of the bathhouse reads: "Works Progress Administration  1935-1937."

The Work Projects Administration (WPA) constructed a pool in Pearsall, Texas. The entrance to the pool area is marked. Rock wall, rock decorations at edge of pool, and rock wall on one side of pool filtering equipment. The pool is located behind the Pearsall Junior High.

The Works Progress Administration commissioned the modernist mural in 1937 for the PWA-funded Williamsburg Housing Project in Brooklyn, New York. Only five of the murals planned for the International Style development were ever installed. Rediscovered in the 1980's after being painted over, the five installed murals were restored and are now on loan to the Brooklyn Museum. Swing Landscape was never installed at the Williamsburg Houses and has been at the IU Art Museum (now the Sidney and Lois Eskanazi Museum of Art) since 1942. A seventh mural, Sixth Avenue El, by Francis Criss also was never installed at Williamsburg...

"Built at a cost of approximately $32,000, and designed by Bryan W. Nolan, this armory was completed in 1937 using WPA labor. It consists of a one-story administrative wing, and a large barrel-roofed drill hall. The armory is built of uncoursed, squared white and tan polychromatic sandstone in a castle-like style....   "The administrative wing has a flat roof, with a stepped roof line and entrance which is slightly projected. The main entrance has double aluminum and glass doors, with the entrance and flanking windows having black cloth awnings. Some of the tall, narrow windows have the original steel frames and 2-over-4...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built the Calpine lookout tower in 1934. The forest fire lookout tower was in service until 1975. The three-story structure has exterior stairs, a ground floor storage room, a second floor sleeping room, and the observation cab on the top floor. The structure is one of the many CCC-built lookout towers that have been used for decades to spot wildfires fires in California's forests. According to the Forest Service: "Calpine lookout is an “L-7” or windmill style enclosed tower with a “BC-3” cab and has been determined to be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. The...

The Works Progress Administration built the  Tarrant City Library in Tarrant AL.  The original construction on the Tarrant City Library began in 1936, and was completed in 1937. Today, the former library is the Tarrant Senior Citizen Center.

The Works Progress Administration built the Taylor County Agriculture Building in Abilene, Texas between 1938 and 1939. The building then became the Taylor County Welfare Office for a number of years. The building's current use is unknown. Anecdotes tell that the stone in the building came from Abilene's 1895 jail. The jail was demolished as another WPA project.

This teacherage (meant to house teachers for the town school) was one of two constructed by the National Youth Administration in 1939 for the Hickory Flat school. It remains in use by the school.

As part of general improvements at Lake Temescal Park, Works Progress Administration (WPA) relief workers created a lovely stone cascade and waterfall alongside the elegant stone beach house.  The park is now known as Temescal Regional Recreation Area and is part of the East Bay Regional Parks District.  The cascade starts about 50 feet above the waterfall, which is on the main path along the lake. There is a small waterfall and pool at the top, then a lovely little stream about a yard wide, another pool above the falls and then the final waterfall into a basin.   To see the full...

The PWA built this large concrete bridge over Figueroa St.

The Public Works Administration (PWA) paid for construction of Tennessee's Supreme Court building in 1937-38.  The state's highest court had not previously had its own building, having been housed in the state capitol.  The structure also contains the....  Short and Stanley-Brown recorded in their 1939 report on PWA projects that: "Before the erection of this building the supreme court was housed in the State capitol and its offices were located in rented quarters in various parts of the city. The new structure houses the Tennessee Supreme Court, the Tennessee Court of Appeals, the legal department of the State government, the attorney general...

In 1938, the Bullitt Park municipal park was founded along with the building of a log cabin by the National Youth Administration (NYA). The building was a collaboration of the Richmond District Girl Scouts and the NYA boys, and was used for the training of NYA girls. The Girl Scout cost was $1000 and was raised by donations. The building cost was $3800. Many locally and nationally known citizens were contributors to the cabin, including VA governor, Lynwood Holton's mother, A.L. Holton, and grandmother of Mrs.Tim Kaine; author, John Fox, Jr.; Congressman C. Bascom Slemp; and outdoor drama "Trail of the...

A Harold Everett "Bubi" Jessen mural entitled "Pageant of Texas," created with funding from the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP), hangs on a wall within the Colonial Era Mission of Nuestra Señora del Espíritu Santo de Zuñiga, at the Goliad State Park and Historic Site. This mural once hung at the Texas State Capitol building.

Between 1937 and 1938, the National Youth Administration (NYA) built a stone structure on the east side of Santa Anna, Texas for a Texas Ranger memorial museum and reunion hall. Funded by the citizens of Santa Anna, the complex was dedicated at a Texas Ranger reunion in August 1939. Texas Rangers operated in the Santa Anna area as early as the 1870s, with many of the Rangers settling in the area after their term of service ended. Former Rangers founded the Texas Ex-Rangers Association and held annual reunions around the state. Santa Anna hosted a reunion in 1935 and became a permanent...

The former Thackerville School in Thackerville, Oklahoma was constructed as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project. Today, three buildings exist on the campus; however, none of them bear resemblance to other WPA school buildings in southern Oklahoma (although at least one source asserts otherwise). A modest 'memorial' to the old school building, which features its shield-shaped WPA plaque, can be found in front of the current high school on U.S. 77.

"The Gilman Street Bridge, since named “Thayer Memorial Bridge” , which was undertaken as a C. W. A. project in 1933 was completed under F. E. R. A. early in 1934. Although the cost of this project exceeded the estimate by several thousand dollars, due to a sharp advance in the price of materials after construction started and to difficult working conditions because of extremely cold weather, it is a beautiful, well constructed and useful memorial to the vision and ability of the late Mayor Thayer to plan and bring to pass this project which will be an everlasting benefit...

The cannery was an integral part of the large WPA resettlement community, known as Dyess Colony, located in northeastern Arkansas. It was located in the town's central hub along with other buildings like the commissary, the administration building, and various shops. The cannery, or canning plant, enabled colonists to process their own produce, as well as sell canned products, cooperatively. This allowed for self sufficiency but also for cooperative income. In Dyess Colony, every family was required to plant a garden that was adequate for feeding their whole family. Home demonstration clubs were also a part of the colony's support...

The Fort was built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Kern County in 1938-40. This unusual New Deal site is a replica of the pre-Gold Rush Sutter's Fort in Sacramento, designed by W. Francis Parsons. It was constructed of native adobe mud bricks made on site and took 83 relief workers 18 months to build.    The Fort covers nearly three acres and measures 360 feet by 200 feet, over 1,000 feet around the outside walls. The walls are 14 feet high. There are two interior courtyards with shade trees and many small offices arranged along the side walkways, which are roofed...

The Palisades Interstate Park system, a major beneficiary of New Deal public works projects, spans New York and New Jersey and stretches from The Palisades--cliffs overlooking the Hudson River in sight of Manhattan--to forested hills dotted with lakes in the western Hudson Highlands. The park system was founded in 1900 through the activism of women’s clubs that fought to protect the Palisades
from quarrying. They were aided by some of the richest men in America, among them J.P. Morgan, the Rockefellers and the Harriman family. Mixing civic idealism and the desire to preserve the beauty of their own region, they purchased or...

The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense and the largest office building in the world.  It was constructed from August 1941 to January 1943 in order to centralize the administration of the U.S. armed services during World War II.  The burgeoning War Department moved from what is now the Truman Federal Building (home of the State Department), which had just been completed in 1940.  While it may not appear to be a typical New Deal public works project, the Pentagon ought to be considered as part of the New Deal legacy.  It was built for the...

In 1934-36, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built the beautiful amphitheater at Aspen Grove – today known as the Theater in the Pines.  The amphitheater has an elegant stone stage that includes back and side walls with entrances for actors stage left and stage right, plus a tunnel behind the stage for easy movement and steps up to the top of the walls on both side. There is an orchestra pit, also in stone, and planting beds for flowers.  Surprisingly, the stage is built over a seasonal creek that passes through an arched tunnel beneath.  On each side of the stage area...

This Art Deco School Building at 411 N Mound St, Nacogdoches, TX 75961 is a two-story facility with basement. A plaque identifies the building as a federal Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) project.

The Jefferson Memorial was built to honor the author of the Declaration of Independence and third President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. Such a memorial had long been proposed, but it was only realized under the New Deal, 1939-1943.  It remains one of America's most beloved monuments to this day.   The design is based on the Roman Pantheon and Jefferson's own love of classical architecture, as shown in his design of the Rotunda at the University of Virginia. It is built of white Danby marble from Vermont and is elevated on a circular platform of granite and marble, with steps...

In 1937, youths employed by the National Youth Administration (NYA), a division of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), constructed a building of native stone that became knows as the "KIVA" in Thomas Park. For many years the Kiva served as the headquarters for the Girl Scouts. Today, the Salina Parks and Recreation Office offers reservations of the Kiva for special events. The Kiva bears an NYA plaque.

The Tillamook Burn was a series of forest fires occurring at approximately six-year intervals between 1933 and 1951. The fires destroyed 355,000 acres of old growth timber in what is now the Tillamook State Forest. At the time of the fires, the majority of timberland belonged to private timber companies. The CCC was instrumental both in fighting the fires in the early 1930s and in replanting much of the area destroyed by the burn.