Unmarked Sites

Mackenzie State Recreation Area, commonly referred to as Mackenzie Park, is located in the northeast portion of Lubbock. The park was first built in 1921, and included a pool and a golf course. During the Depression city leaders desired to expand the park and a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp was established that constructed roads, bridges, recreation facilities, and landscaping. The majority of CCC buildings no longer exist, but the landscaping and improvements still remain. The park currently has a golf course, swimming pool, recreation building, camping and picnicking facilities, a small amusement park, and a prairie dog town. The small...

In 1938, the Public Works Administration (PWA) allotted $47,870 for the Macomb Street Divorcement Sewers project. Two new sewer lines were installed in the area of Macomb Street and 38th Street NW, running southwest in the direction of Massachusetts Avenue for a length of about 5,000 linear feet (nearly one mile). These divorcement sewers separated domestic sewage from storm water run-off (two products that had previously collected in a combined sewer line), allowing the sewage to be treated at the new Blue Plains facility and reducing pollution caused by periodic overflow during rain storms. The divorcement sewer project was completed in early-to-mid...

"Macon Downtown Airport has its origins beginning in World War I as "Camp Wheeler". As early as 1925, Huff Daland Dusters, the precursor of Delta Air Lines, based its crop dusting operation at Camp Wheeler. In 1936 the City of Macon purchased 250 acres of airfield for $107,000 to replace its inadequate "Miller Field" to support Eastern Air Transport's passenger and mail service to Macon. Then the Works Project Administration began a $500,000 project that included a hangar, a 24 x 56-ft, administration building, and a concrete apron. The new airport was dedicated on November 11, 1937, and named in...

The Public Works Administration (PWA) funded part or all of a major 6-mile long pipeline for the Mad River Water Supply Project.  The pipeline contract was awarded the United Concrete Pipe Corporation of Los Angeles in 1937 for $775,695.] According to the Eureka Times-Standard (Oct 7, 2016), " a 20-year project to build a parallel pipeline was being completed as a failsafe in case the old New Deal era pipes failed. The system goes from a pumping station on the Mad River north of Arcata to the filtration system in Eureka's water treatment facility on W and Hemlock St. The survey company...

The Public Works Administration (PWA) approved a grant for construction of the Madras Grade School in 1938. The original, $35,000 four-room school building plus auditorium was designed by the Portland architectural firm of Roald & Schneider and constructed by Baldwin & Whier of Hood River. Substantial renovation work has expanded the school, currently called the Madras Elementary School. The front facade, however, retains much of its orginal colonial revival appearance. The one-story, red brick building is decorated with simplified classical details.

During the late 1930s, with funding assistance from the Works Progress Administration, the Seattle Park Department upgraded Madrona Playground. The largest component of the improvement project was the construction of a new shelter house near the north end of the playground, immediately east of an already existing pair of tennis courts. WPA workers began constructing the shelter house in 1938. Completed the following year, the one-story, brick structure housed a recreational playroom, instructor's room, caretaker's room, and men's and women's restrooms. Interior features included hardwood floors and a fireplace at the north end of the recreation room. Significant renovation work...

Public Works Administration (PWA) funded the construction of the Magnolia Elementary School Gymnasium. The architect of record was Harry E. Boyle & Co. Architects and Engineers of Evansville, Indiana. PWA Docket No. KY-1375-F. The structure is currently part of a complex called “The Old School Market.” It houses a professional office space and a restaurant. The gym is an entertainment venue used for events such as weddings, entertainment, family reunions, and other community events. The Gym was originally built for the Magnolia High School. Later, the school became an Elementary School. It was decommissioned in 2006.  It’s been privately owned since then. The gym...

Along Main Street, between 1st and Poplar exist a small number of concrete curb stops located at asphalted, angled parking stalls that flow directly from the roadway heading north. These curb stops were part of a WPA street improvement project in 1940. The southbound lane along Main Street also contained angled parking stalls but have recently been converted to vertical parking lanes and the original concrete curb stops removed.

The federal Bureau of Public Roads gave a grant of $8,200 for the State Highway Department to grade and surface a half-mile portion of Main Street from Broaddus Creek to the North West Pacific Railroad tracks.  Main Street is part of the old Redwood Highway, which is was bypassed by the modern Highway 101 in the 1960s. 

A December 1935 article in Bangor Daily News reported that "The Department of Agriculture announced today presidential approval of five Maine grade crossing elimination projects involving $396,922 of the state's $1,425,861 quota for that purpose. The projects were submitted by the state highway commission. ON CANADIAN NATIONAL RAILWAYS Oxford county, at Oxford on Federal-aid highway route 23, Relocate highway. Federal funds $98,684." At some point, Federal Highway 23 was changed to State Route 26. The track is former Atlantic & St. Lawrence Railroad/Grand Trunk Railway which was acquired by Canadian National in 1920 after bankruptcy. The right of way is currently leased by St....

The Group Utility Building (original name) in Yosemite Valley opened 1935.  It was funded by the Public Works Administration (PWA). The utility building consolidated a hodgepodge of old shops, forges, storage and maintenance into one facility.  It also provided three bays for fire trucks. It is a mammoth structure covering 18,548 square feet and lacking in any architectural niceties, hence popularly known as "Fort Yosemite."  Despite its size, however, very few visitors ever see it or know of it.  It is tucked away in the maintenance and parking areas north of the Visitors' Center and Yosemite Museum.

The state historical marker erected at this site describes the still standing arched entryway to the now demolished Majors Stadium as having been built by the Works Progress Administration in 1940.

The old section of Malakoff Elementary School, locally referred to as the “Rock Building” or the “Old Rock School,” was constructed of brown fieldstone in 1940 as part of the federal Works Projects Administration (WPA).

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built a roadway extension from Nichols Avenue to Bolling Field in southeast Washington DC in 1942. Judging from the current roadway network, this extension appears to have been Portland Street, which is now Malcolm X Avenue. Nichols is now Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. This project was part of a major program of road building and repaying across DC undertaken during the New Deal.  Like all such road work, it is probably invisible today due to subsequent repavings; but the street itself is still there.

$40,000 was provided by federal funds for the Malpaso Creek bridge on State Route 1, the Cabrillo Highway, just north of Big Sur, California. It is a concrete arch bridge, built in 1935. This bridge was part of a much larger effort by the New Deal to aid in construction of the California coastal highway (then called State Route 46) from Monterey/Carmel to Morro Bay.  Much of the road had been built in the late 1920s by the state highway department, with federal aid from the Bureau of Public Roads, but New Deal funding was required to complete the job, particularly in...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) constructed a basic USDA Forest Service campsite next to Sheep Creek in the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area.

Mar Vista elementary school was built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1935.

The W.P.A. conducted improvement work at Marblehead Light. Project details: "Make repairs at lighthouse" Official Project Number: 165‐15‐2008 Total project cost: $4,345.00 Sponsor: Commanding Officer, Harbor Defense (1st Corps Area USA) "Replace fence" Official Project Number: 365‐14‐8001 Total project cost: $845.00 Sponsor: Commanding Officer

In 1935, the Public Works Administration (PWA) funded renovations for Marion Park, southeast of the Capitol, such as sidewalk repair, landscaping, and so forth.  Marion Park was first established in 1886, but like other parks in the district had suffered neglect for many years. The New Deal undertook a major program of parks improvement across the city in the 1930s with input from the PWA, Civil Works Administration (CWA), Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).  It is likely that the labor for Marion Park improvements was provided by the WPA. Marion park has recently been the scene of controversy,...

"WPA WORKERS TO CLEAR CREEK IN FLOOD CONTROL Eighty-five W.P.A. workers began today clearing a four-mile section of Mariposa Creek bottom, near Le Grand, of debris and brush."

"Authorized by the California State Legislature in May 1939, the 35-A District Agricultural Association held its first annual county fair in Mariposa October 1939." A couple of years later the Work Projects Administration made major improvements. "WPA Project No. 165-1-08-292, Sponsor 35-A District Agricultural Association." "Description: Improve fairgrounds. Work includes constructing grandstand, exhibition buildings, barns, comfort station, concession hall, and office building; excavating; backfilling; roofing, painting; rehabilitating barns; installing water lines, tank, hydrants, plumbing, sewer and electric facilities; and performing carpentry, sheet metal, and incidental and appurtenant work. Publicly owned property." March 19, 1941, total Federal funds $72,092, average men employed 270, total...

New Deal agencies played a major role in the transformation of the narrow and dangerous Wawona wagon trail into a safe and comfortable route from the South Entrance of Yosemite National Park to Yosemite Valley. As part of this project, a new entry road was built to the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees (Sequoia Giganteum). The National Park Service and the Bureau of Public Roads (U.S. Department of Agriculture) signed a Memorandum of Agreement in July 1925, authorizing the planning and construction of new roads within Yosemite National Park. Surveying was begun in 1928 and initial construction was finished by 1933,...

From Joseph Conforti's Creating Portland: "The Public Works Administration constructed a number of staff residences and dormitories on the campus of the existing Maritime Commission hospital, which was completed in 1859." From Joseph Conforti's Creating Portland: "The Public Works Administration funded the construction of buildings for federal, state, and local  government... Other projects in Portland included a number of staff residences and dormitories at the U.S. Maritime Commission Hospital at Martin's Point" (2007, p. 278). From the National Register of Historic Places nomination form, 1974: "Portland's Marine Hospital is a rare surviving example of a series of such buildings erected during the...

Among the many sanitary privies constructed by Work Project Administration (WPA) employees across America from 1935-1943, two latrines remain at Mark Prairie School near Canby, Oregon. Using the concrete vault design, these simple structures represented a significant increase in public health for rural schools and other primarily rural public and private facilities with an estimated 2.3 million WPA latrines installed across the country. The WPA reworked a U.S. Public Health Service concrete vault model outhouse to simplify its production. The standardized design produced a four foot by five foot wood-frame building with wood cladding and a braced-board door.. The interior specifications...

According to the Troy Daily News, the Works Progress Administration constructed concrete bleachers for football seating at Troy's athletic park.

The Public Works Administration (PWA) granted the Marple Newtown Joint School District $32,500 of a $70,000 project to alter and expand the former high school building (see PWA voucher image). The structure is located at the intersection of Media Line Road and West Chester Pike in Newtown Square, PA. This school building was destroyed by fire in April of 1956, but the former school building has been repurposed into the district's administration building. Pieces of the PWA funded project are still visible in the lobby of this building.

One of many county line historical markers placed in West Virginia. Each side denotes the county that is being entered. The West Virginia historical marker program began in 1934 with the beginning research for the markers with the intention of placing markers around the state to encourage tourism. Dr. Roy Bird Cook, a Charleston druggist, a longtime commission member, and a vocational historian worked on the project. Approximately 5,000 sites were collected with 440 markers selected by the commission for placement. Most of these along 44 state and federal highways. The funds came from the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and the Works Progress...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) provided assistance in the landscaping and improvements at Berkeley's Civic Center Park, c 1940-41.   "... the land acquisition and most of the construction costs were covered by a local bond issue of $125,000... Research done when the park was declared a city landmark in the late 1990's indicated that at least two small wall-mounted fountains in the park (north and south of the central fountain) were constructed by WPA employees, although the park project remained incomplete at the onset of WWII. WPA support was also obtained for landscaping, benches, as well as for the acquisition...

One of many county line historical markers placed in West Virginia at the Wetzel/Marshall County Line. The West Virginia historical marker program began in 1934 with the beginning research for the markers with the intention of placing markers around the state to encourage tourism. Dr. Roy Bird Cook, a Charleston druggist, a longtime commission member, and a vocational historian worked on the project. Approximately 5,000 sites were collected with 440 markers selected by the commission for placement. Most of these along 44 state and federal highways. The funds came from the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and the Works Progress Administration. In addition to...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) carried out repaving and other improvements to a segment of Massachusetts Avenue NW, from Wisconsin Avenue to Nebraska Avenue, in 1935-36. “The roadway of Massachusetts Avenue NW, from Wisconsin Avenue to Nebraska Avenue, was improved with combination cement curb and gutter and the old macadam roadway was covered with a bituminous surface. With the exception of two narrow strips adjacent to the gutters, practically no new concrete base was laid.” The work was part of the $949,496 WPA allotment for DC roadwork for fiscal year 1936. This WPA roadwork is probably not discernible today due to subsequent road maintenance,...

According to Work: A Journal of Progress, in 1935-1936 the Works Progress Administration (WPA) extended Massachusetts Avenue SE approximately one mile from Anacostia Road at Randle Circle to Alabama Avenue near the Maryland border, along the southern border of Fort Circle Park. This project was part of a nearly $1 million in WPA road work around the district in 1935-36. The road still exists though the WPA pavement is probably invisible today.

Works Progress Administration workers repaired the 700 block of Massachusetts Street in Lawrence, Kansas.    

In 1935, the Works Progress Administration completed upgrades/repairs for the Matawan Aberdeen Public Library on Main Street, Matawan, NJ. "As the year draws to a close, a WPA-funded upgrading project begins. The project includes book repair, creation of local history scrapbooks, mounting of photos (for instructional purposes), indexing/cataloging and shelf-listing."

Out of many small projects for Fresno County that came out of a Civil Works Administration expenditure of $10,548, was a project for "widening the Mason Road" briefly mentioned in the March 3, 1933 Clovis Independent. Note: The road is named after Charles N. Maxson, who in 1892 settled an 800-acre homestead located at the junction of Trimmer Road and a wagon trail leading to Watts Valley.

A $100,000 grant from the federal government enabled the construction of a bridge to carry Maze Boulevard over the San Joaquin River, east of Vernalis, California, according to a report from the California Department of Highways in 1935. The grant almost surely came from the Bureau of Public Roads (BPR)s, either in its regular budget or from a pass-through grant by the Public Works Administration (PWA) The Maze Boulevard bridge was replaced by the California Highway Department (CalTrans) around 1970, according to reports in the Modesto Bee.

McCormick Park in Missoula, Montana was developed by the Works Progess Administration (WPA) on "surplus highway land, a parcel from the American Hide and Fur Company, and land donated from the Kate McCormick estate." (Wikipedia).  The work would have been done by local relief workers made jobless by the Great Depression and paid for mostly by the federal government. McCormick Park is very much in use today and has been improved over time. We could not determine if any of the original facilities developed by the WPA are still in place.

The McCoy Creek bridge in Mendocino County is a timber stringer trestle bridge on state highway 271 – which used to be the Redwood Highway before U.S. 101 was constructed. It was renovated in 1966 with a steel stringer sub-unit supporting upper trestle components. According to California Highway and Public Works, $22,000 was appropriated by the federal government for the grading, surfacing, and structure of the McCoy Creek bridge and approaches.  The journal does not specify which federal agency provided the funds for the California Division of Highways (now CalTrans), but it was probably the Bureau of Public Roads (BPR), possibly with...

Also referred to as the McKenzie River Campground, the McKenzie Bridge Campground was among the first campgrounds built with Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) labor in the Willamette National Forest (WNF). The forest supervisor prioritized recreation projects in the WNF, setting a goal that 25% of CCC time be spent on recreational development with the remainder be spent on fire fighting and forest management responsibilities. CCC enrollees from Camp Belknap constructed the McKenzie Bridge Campground, laying out the site's roads and campsites, providing water, and constructing picnic tables as well as the needed facilities for camping and picnicking. Today at McKenzie Bridge...

McKinley Elementary School was one of several schools and many public works built by the New Deal in Butte County, CA.  It was probably built by the WPA (but this needs to be confirmed).

The WPA built these unique stone "castles" at McKinley Park in Oklahoma City. "...he most fascinating thing to see, as you come in the park from the east, are two small native stone buildings constructed to look like small castles. They are located on each side of the main drive into the park. The north building is boarded up and appears to possibly have been for storage. The south building has barred windows and a few tables and chairs can still be seen inside. It was difficult to tell whether these buildings are currently in use. The buildings are constructed of native...