Unmarked Sites

Red oaks line a section of McLoughlin Boulevard on its southern entry into the City of Portland. The nearly ninety-year-old trees are the legacy of a highway beautification project funded by the Public Works Administration (PWA) in 1934. The Oregon State Highway Commission selected this section on McLoughlin Boulevard (99E), along with two sections of Barbur Boulevard (99W), for the state's first comprehensive highway beautification program. Members of the Portland Garden Club joined in designing the landscape plans that focused on native plants. Funding for the six-mile section on McLoughlin Boulevard amounted to approximately $15,000, which covered landscape materials and a...

As motorists travel southbound on the Milwaukie section of McLoughlin Boulevard they pass through a corridor of Giant Redwood trees. The Public Works Administration funded the planting of these Sequoia Giantea in 1934. The Oregon State Highway Commission selected six miles of McLoughlin Boulevard (99E) that connects Milwaukie and Portland to launch the state's first comprehensive highway beautification program. The north unit is still marked by red oaks while this southern section is defined by the giant evergreen Redwoods. Funding for the entire six-mile section amounted to approximately $15,000 for landscape materials and the labor required to complete the landscaping.    

Oregon City's Grand Staircase links the historic center with the town's premier park located on a bluff 100-feet above it. Completed in 1939, the stone and cement pathway replaced an old wooden stairway in approximately the same location. Skilled and unskilled Works Progress Administration workers provided the labor for this feature of McLoughlin Promenade. Several aspects of the Grand Staircase make it distinctive. Workers cut a new pathway into the basalt bluff for the staircase. Natural landscaping and a man-made waterfall adjacent to the stairway enhanced the public amenity. Those aspects of the Grand Staircase's design established it as a safe,...

Works Progress Administration (WPA) workers began construction of the Singer Hill Creek Falls landscape feature in May 1936. Oregon City manager J L Franzen designed the series of five waterfalls as part of improvements to the McLoughlin Promenade. WPA funding was $2500 for the combined waterfall project and the Promenade Staircase. Dropping from the Oregon City bluff at Eighth Street, Singer Creek falls into a series of twenty foot wide pools. Four of the pools create a ten foot drop while the fifth drops twelve feet. WPA masons used stone quarried locally encased in cement to create the park's water feature. This...

Works Progress Administration (WPA) records in the National Archives report that the WPA constructed a recreation building at the McMillan Playground in northwest DC and that New Deal wood carvings were installed inside. The building opened in 1938. The playground was likely in the Bloomingdale neighborhood near the McMillan reservoir. The Park View DC blog reports that in 1934, Eleanor Roosevelt participated in a tree planting ceremony at the playground, which according to the writer was located at 1st and Bryant streets NW. There no longer appears to be a McMillan Playground, but we are told that the recreation building is still...

"A dirt road through eighteen miles of wilderness between and Oquossoc had been visualized by business men of the section for many years, and the need and feasibility of the road had been presented to the Highway Commission as early as 1930 and their favorable reaction received. With the start of the CWA program in November, 1933, the municipal officers of Rumford, Mexico, Roxbury and Byron presented to the CWA Administrator the idea of building this road as a joint CWA project of these towns. The project received the approval of the administrator primarily because it presented an opportunity to...

The Alley Dwelling Authority (ADA) and the Federal Works Agency (FWA) funded the construction of the Meade and Grant Street Houses in Washington, DC in 1943. This development of 107 living units was built for African American national defense workers (Washington, DC was highly segregated at the time). It is unknown to the Living New Deal if any of the structures still exist, but it is not likely since these homes were classified as “demountable,” i.e., intended to be taken down and salvaged sometime after the war. The ADA’s 10-year report (see source list below) indicates that the Meade and Grant Street Houses...

The existing Mechanic Street School was renovated and enlarged with Works Progress Administration funds in 1936. The building has since been converted into an office building.

In 1936, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) completed a new water system and comfort station at Media Park, a small park at the intersection of Venice Blvd. and Culver Blvd. The lawn area was also renovated, reseeded, and landscaped. Media Park is leased to Culver City by Los Angeles. A theater company, The Actors Gang, is based here at a rebuilt Pacific Electric Railway substation.

Melrose Leadership Academy, a public school in the Oakland Unified School District, occupies the former Sherman Elementary School building  –  named for Margaret Sherman, a teacher and principal in the Oakland school system. Melrose Academy is a K-8 dual language immersion school and has two locations. The former Sherman school is the K-2d grade half of the academy.  Melrose Academy has used the old Sherman school since 2007. Sherman Elementary was built in the 1930s with the assistance of the Public Works Administration (PWA).  The exact construction date is unknown to us.

"A significant addition to the park occurred in 1941, with the construction of a large stone pavilion on high ground west of the memorial grove. Architect Leroy Bradley designed the pavilion, and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) provided the labor and materials. The stone was salvaged from old foundations, sidewalks and bridge abutments, and hand-hewn oak beams supported the roof. The west wing of the pavilion was designed to house a park caretaker, and the east wing contained restrooms." "the WPA picnic pavilion is an important historic structure and provides evidence of the Depression recovery period of influence on Fort Wayne’s parks....

The former Mercer Playground at 2nd Avenue North and Harrison Street in Seattle's Queen Anne neighborhood was the site of several small WPA maintenance and improvement projects. In 1938, WPA workers painted the playground shelter house, as part of a city-wide initiative to repaint various park structures that had not received any paint maintenance since the start of the Depression due to budget cuts. The following year, workers regraded the playground's ballfield, installed a water and drainage system, and built a new handball court. A lighting system was also installed. Twenty years later, Mercer Playground, along with much of the surrounding...

On March 8, 1936, The Chicago Daily Tribune  announced the arrival of The Federal Theatre Project (FTP) at two major theaters in Chicago: the Great Northern and the Blackstone. Over the life of the FTP, the Blackstone Theater was used for over twenty productions. The Federal Theater Project was part of the Federal One program under the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The FTP put on public performance but did not normally engage in public works like the rest of the WPA.  Yet, prior to the FTPs acquisition of the Blackstone, it had fallen into a state of disrepair and needed renovations to...

Merritt Middle School was built in 1942-43 with funding by Public Works Adminstration (PWA) (part of the Federal Works Agency) to the DC Commissioners for the Board of Education.  It is unknown if the district government paid a portion from its own funds. The school closed in 2009 and the site has been retrofitted as a district police headquarters.   The look of the present building – 1960s brutalism – suggests that the school had been rebuilt since the New Deal.

In 1933, the Portland Water District moved its meter shop from its Casco Street office in Portland office to its main facility on Douglass Street. The Portland Water District was able to complete the new meter shop with C. W. A. (Civil Works Administration) funds made available by the Federal Government under its plan to relieve the unemployment situation by granting funds to public agencies so that they could complete projects approved by the Federal Relief Authorities.

The Public Works Administration funded the construction of facilities for the Mexico School in Mexico, NY. Excerpt from the Mexico Academy & Central School District, Mexico High School History: "On June 19, 1937, the cornerstone was laid for the new $500,000 high school building. The architect for the project was Mr. Harold Fullerton from Albany and the project was administered through the Public Works Administration . The building is of Georgian Colonial style and was built to house 1500 students and last for 150 years. Substantial materials besides the brick exterior include terrazzo flooring, marble, and brass. Additionally, the original building library is...

With WPA support, Cal Peters painted several murals for the University of Wisconsin-Stout campus, circa 1935-1936. "French Trappers on the Red Cedar" is a 7' x 18' oil on canvas, depicting French Trappers on the Red Cedar, future site of Menomonie, Wisconsin. Location: Hallway connecting Micheels Hall and Jarvis Hall Technology Wing, University of Wisconsin-Stout

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) improved a segment of Concord Avenue N, from North Capitol Street to Third Street.  This was a WPA curb and gutter project: “This constitutes the first step in the development of this roadway to connect North Capitol Street and Georgia Avenue.” Concord Avenue was later renamed Michigan Avenue and further improvements have been made.

The Middle Bridge is 296 foot Warren (Riveted) Through Truss bridge that carries Route 197 (Patterson Road) over the Eastern River in Dresden Maine. The Middle Bridge was completed in 1936 to replace a previous bridge after the Flood of 1936. The previous bridge was a wooden stringer bridge supported on stacked stone abutments and timber cribbing. The bridge included a wooden king post truss drawbridge. The bridge was located just north of the previous structure and diverted the roadway to higher ground. The bridge’s elevation was raised up to nearly 130’. Substantial roadway approaches were graded to meet the new bridge’s...

The Morgan Middle School contains a building that was formerly named the Morgan High School Mechanical Arts Building.  A new high school was built one block east of this site, but the Morgan Middle School still uses the building. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the building in 1936 as part of a $155,000 Public Works Administration (PWA) building program in the Morgan County School District.  Also included in the project was the construction of the Morgan Elementary School and extensive remodeling at Morgan High School. The architects of the building are not known for certain but are likely Scott & Welch...

The Works Project Administration built a school in Milford, Texas in 1940. The official project number was 65-1-66-186. The school had twelve classrooms and a combination auditorium and gymnasium. The school is still in use.

A Public Works Administration (PWA) grant provided approximately forty-four percent of the cost of constructing Milwaukie's City Hall in 1938. The simple Moderne style structure included space for the city's fire department as well as meeting the city's need for administrative office space. The red brick building was designed by Portland architect Walter E. Kelly with embellishment primarily at the entrance. The rounded arch entrance is decorated with four pilasters above the arch that have cast stone capitals. A few Art Deco features such as brass light fixtures at the entry complete the facade. The contractor Joseph H. Anderson built the...

In 1940, in a retrospective on four years of public works improvements in the city, the Washington Post reported that the Works Progress Administration (WPA) had installed a sewer on Minnesota Avenue at Blaine Street in northeast DC. This was part of the massive New Deal era upgrade in the city's sewage system, with many new sewer lines, separation of storm and sanitary sewers and building the first sewage treatment plant at Blue Plains.  

In this small village of 600 (1930 population) in Penobscot County the New Deal performed minor work. The 1933-34 town report mentions an unspecified C.W.A. project, of which the town share was less than $100. The 1934-35 town report lists an E.R.A. road repair project, of which the town share was $277 and the federal contribution was $1,000. The project employed 7 people. The 1938-39 town report has a request to the W.P.A. for assistance in Blister Rust Control efforts. The 1940-41 town report has a request for the P.W.A. to grade the yard at the Village schoolhouse. "The school lunches have been supplemented by...

This manufacturing city on the Androscoggin River received Federal assistance for various projects, between 1933 and 1942. In 1933, part of the $281,433 spent by the Civil Works Administration in this city of 34,948 (1930 census), was assistance to the public library: "Miss Doris Linehan has done valuable work repairing books and filing documents employed as a federal CWA assistant." Report of the Health Officer, Robert J. Wiseman, Jr., M.D. CHILD HEALTH EMERGENCY RELIEF PROGRAM—The Child Health Emergency Relief Program was made possible thru an order of the Federal Government, with the cooperation o f the local physicians, five nurses employed thru the Civil...

In 1934, the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA)/Public Works Administration (PWA) financed the construction of the first continuous highway across the city of Santa Barbara (roughly six miles), taking through traffic off city streets.  The route followed the Southern Pacific tracks. Along the new route, Mission Creek was channelized and several new bridges were built. Today, the highway is jointly State Route 1 and Interstate 101.  While it seems to follow the route built in the 1930s, it has been altered by subsequent expansions by the state department of highway.  It is not clear what – if any – portions of...

Mission San Jose y San Miguel de Aguayo was first established in 1720, moved to another site briefly, and then was reestablished at this location in 1740. The site is near a ready source of water, later known as the San Antonio River. Franciscan priests came on behalf of the Spanish government to establish missions among the Coahuiltecan Indians. The Mission was four miles south of Mission San Antonio de Valero (the Alamo). Three more missions would be relocated nearby in 1731. San Jose would later be known as the "Queen of the Missions" due to the ornate carvings and...

The Public Works Administration (PWA) helped pay for major improvements to the irrigation canals of the Modesto Irrigation District (MID), created in 1887. "MID ditches were vastly improved during the Depression. One project in 1937, was funded by a $380,000 federal grant from the PWA. It would bring the miles of improved ditches up to about 100 miles (out of a total of about 450 miles). Fifty ditches were involved in this project and over 500 men were employed for about five months. The federal government furnished about 45% of the cost of the manpower and materials." (Osborn, p. 46)

The Mojave elementary school was built in 1938 with $150,000 in federal funds from the Public Works Administration (PWA).  It was made primarily of reinforced concrete. There has been considerable alteration of the exterior and windows over time, plus addition of further structures to house the school, about which we lack further information.  The front entrance is a stripped down version of the original and the bas-relied and original doors have disappeared.

The Alley Dwelling Authority (ADA) and the Federal Works Agency (FWA) funded the construction of the Monroe Street Houses in Washington, DC in 1943. This development of 90 living units was built for white national defense workers (Washington, DC was highly segregated at the time). It is unknown to the Living New Deal if any of the structures still exist, but it is not likely since these homes were classified as “demountable,” i.e., intended to be taken down and salvaged sometime after the war. The ADA was one of the earliest New Deal initiatives to provide better housing for low-income Americans. It replaced...

The Works Progress Administration built theMontgomery County Courthouse Wall in Conroe TX. Waxahachie Daily Light excerpt: "Construct stone wall around courthouse yard, landscape grounds; Federal Funds $2,410; sponsor's funds $1,122; workers 36."

The Montlake Playfield and Shelter House were constructed partially on fill in former marshlands on the shores of Portage Bay between 1933 and 1936. In the 1910s and 1920s, houseboats moored there, and Dahlialand, a local garden store, utilized nearby acreage to grow dahlia bulbs for commercial use. Montlake mothers, desiring to ward off boredom that might propel their teenagers into juvenile delinquency, pushed for the creation of the playfield, which—with the field house structure that initially housed the community center—were built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) workers. The playfield was expanded in the early 1960s when material dredged for...

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees stationed in the Bridger-Teton National Forest of Wyoming constructed the Monument Ridge Fire Lookout in 1941. The structure is the only remaining fire lookout in Wyoming assembled with precut logs. The wooden cabin looks over the Hoback Ranger District and has a sweeping view of the surrounding mountain ranges. The lookout was used to identify and fight forest fires until the 1970s, when it was decommissioned by the U.S. Forest Service. Today, the Monument Ridge Fire Lookout is a common destination for hikers, bikers and ATV-riders who traverse the Hoback Mountain Range. It remains in relatively good...

The US Bureau of Reclamation built the Moon Lake Reclamation Project in 1935-41, with the assistance of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).  It provides irrigation water for the the Moon Lake Water Users Association in the Duchesne Valley of northeastern Utah. The CCC established a camp, BR-11, under the sponsorship of the Bureau of Reclamation.  It was located near Bridgeland, a hamlet between Duchesne and Myton, on the north side of the Duchesne River.  There is no recognizable trace of the camp left that we could find. Moon Lake Dam and reservoir, built by the Bureau of Reclamation, is the principle element of...

The US Bureau of Reclamation built the Moon Lake Reclamation Project 1935-41, with the assistance of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).  It provides irrigation water for the Moon Lake Water Users Association in the Duchesne Valley of northeastern Utah Moon Lake reservoir is the principle storage facility for the project. Moon Lake Dam was built by the Bureau of Reclamation. A secondary storage reservoir, now called Lake Boreham, was created by the CCC-built Midview Dam, The three main distribution canals for the project were built by the CCC:  •The Duchesner Feeder Canal (1934-35), running north-south for 15 miles from the Duchesne River to the...

Midview Dam was constructed between 1935 and 1937 by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), working under the supervision of the Bureau of Reclamation.  It was built as off-stream storage for the Moon Lake Reclamation Project in the Duchesne Valley of northeastern Utah.   Midview Dam is an earthen dam with a height of 54 feet and length of 1900 feet at its crest. The CCC also built a dike 21 feet high and c. 2,500 feet long to secure the reservoir along its northeastern flank.  The dam is owned by the Bureau of Reclamation, but the reservoir is operated by the local...

The Works Progress Administration built the Moorevile School in Mooreville, Falls County. The project was funded by the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works. The federal government allotted $5000 and the city matched the school district with $7000 in bonds. This wood structure is located at the intersection of FM2643 and FM499A. It housed approximately eight classrooms. The Mooreville school district had ninety-seven students in 1933; the district was consolidated with the Chilton Independent School District in 1950. The school building was converted to a community center.

"The 87 park acres and surrounding 668 acres of state forest were purchased by the state in 1934. The swimming area, bathhouse, campground, and administration building were built at that time and the park opened to the public in 1936. The original administration building, still in use, is an excellent example of classic Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) design and construction. "

"Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge is a northern treasure in the National Wildlife Refuge System. It consists of nearly 30,000 acres of federally protected lands in northeastern coastal Maine. The refuge's landscape is varied, with rolling hills, large ledge outcroppings, streams, lakes, bogs, and marshes. The diversity of forests and wetlands provides habitat for over 225 species of birds, endangered species, resident wildlife and rare plants. A northern hardwood forest of aspen, maple, birch, spruce and fir dominates the upland. Scattered stands of majestic white pine are common. The Edmunds Division boasts several miles of rocky shoreline where tidal fluctuations of...

Moraine Park, a large valley in the southeastern portion of Rocky Mountain National Park, was  purchased in 1931 by the National Park Service, which cleared the area of most of its former private resort structures. In 1934, the Public Works Administration (PWA) funded a thorough remodeling of the building to convert it into Rocky Mountain National park’s primary museum. In 1935-36, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was called upon to build an amphitheater, designed by the National Park Service, next to the museum. It an seat 500 people. (Brock, p 43). It was added to the national register listing for Moraine Park...