Unmarked Sites

Moraine Park, a large valley in the southeastern portion of Rocky Mountain National Park, is home to the Moraine Park Museum.  The building was formerly a private lodge built in 1923.  Both Moraine Park (a glacial valley) and Moraine Lodge were 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. The exterior of the museum building has been preserved in its original form as a typical rustic...

The CCC built a campground near Morgan Falls in the Chequamegon National Forest of northern Wisconsin. The campground flooded in 1946 and closed in 1960 due to over-saturation and unsafe camping conditions. Today, hikers and snowshoers can see fieldstone fireplaces, a well, and a round cistern along the trail that connects Morgan Falls to St. Peter's Dome, a granite outcrop offering views of Lake Superior.

The Works Progress Administration built a seven-room school and gymnasium with field stone masonry walls on a concrete foundation in Morgan Mill, Texas in 1940. The official project number was 65-1-66-218. The building is still in use as an elementary school.

Works Progress Administration (WPA) helped develop Morganfield Legion Park in Morganfield, Kentucky.  The WPA relief workers built a recreation hall (known locally as the "Legion Hut"); a pool and pool house; tennis courts; playgrounds; and a football stadium and field (for Morganfield High School).  These were built in 1936. The city of Morganfield, the local American Legion, and the public school district all sponsored the project.  We do not know when the park was originally set aside or what, if any, improvements had been made before the WPA arrived. Much of the WPA work at the park is still in place. The...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) made extensive improvements Morro Bay State Park, as it did throughout California's new state park system.  These included picnic areas, an entrance road, comfort staton, ranger lodge, and stone walls.  The work was continued by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and state relief workers. As Engbeck (2002) explains: "CCC Company 1916-V, made up of World War I veterans, moved into Camp Morro Bay on May 11, 1934.... Check dams were constructed on Chorro Creek above Morro Bay in order to prevent flooding of the 're-claimed lands' that were to be 'utilized as beach areas and scenic...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built an access road and other facilities, including a day-use picnic facility and protective fencing, at the Morro Strand State Beach in Morro Bay CA.  It is unknown if those features are still standing today. The National Youth Administration (NYA) also worked at Morro Strand State Beach restocking clam beds (shown below).

"The Kern Mosquito & Vector Control District is an independent district formed pursuant to the California Health and Safety Code, Section 2000 et seq. The District was formed in 1916, but began control operations in August of 1917 and was originally named the Dr. Morris Mosquito Abatement District. Dr. Morris was a well-known local physician and County Health Officer who was responsible for initiating the formation of the District. The original District encompassed 48 square miles and its objective was to control mosquitoes and malaria along the Kern River and its sloughs." KMVCD WPA Project No. 165-3-8120, App. Date 5-15-37, $21,936,...

The National Youth Administration (NYA) built the Mounds State Park Pavilion in Anderson IN. The pavilion holds up to 150 people and is still in service.

On the Marshall County Courthouse grounds the two sided marker lists one theme per side. 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...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built several campgrounds in Mount Diablo State Park.  Live Oak, Junction, and Juniper campgrounds come with individual campsites, while the five Group Camps – Buckeye, Barbecue Terrace, Wildcat, Stagecoach and Boundary – provide larger areas without individual sites.  Barbecue Terrace is equipped for equestrian use. Camp sites usually come with tables and stoves done in rustic style – wood planking on stone or concrete pillars and stone fireplaces or metal ring fire pits. The stone stoves built by the CCC were dubbed "Diablo Stoves" and their design was copied all over California. The campgrounds were part of...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built over fifty picnic areas in Mt. Diablo State Park. Most are small sites tucked into the trees along the roads up the mountain, each with a couple tables and stoves done in rustic style – wood planking on stone pillars and stone fireplaces ("Diablo Stoves").  Every picnic area is named, with clear signage, and they appear to be well maintained.  The photographs below are just a sample, descending from the summit to the North Gate (taken in mid-winter). The picnic areas are one element of the extensive works projects undertaken by the CCC at Mount...

Both the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) carried out projects at the Mount Diablo State Park from 1933 to 1942.  The CCC work is well-known, and it is acknowledged by the State Parks on their website and in signage at the Summit Building. Less recognized is the WPA work in the park, which was mostly on roads.  There is also extensive drainage work alongside and under the roads that features lovely rustic stonework.  The State Parks website attributes drainage works to the CCC but they may well have been done by WPA workers, too. WPA job cards in...

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) worked at Mount Diablo State Park for nine years, 1933-1942. Along with such notable features as the Summit Building, campgrounds and picnic areas (see linked project pages), the CCC 'boys' made many other improvements to the park.  These include hiking trails, entrance gates, retaining walls, drinking fountains, comfort stations, turn-outs and observation areas, residences for park staff, barracks for fire crews, a mess hall and other service buildings, and a water supply system.  The State Parks Department is quite cognizant of its debt to the New Deal for improving all the parks existing in the 1930s, as noted...

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp NP-12 was established at the base of Mt Elden, near Flagstaff AZ, in 1935.  The camp continued through 1942.  Company 3345 was billeted there (and possibly others, but we have no evidence of that, as yet). The CCC enrollees at Mt Elden worked for the National Park Service (NPS) on many projects around the region, including at Wupatki National Monument, Walnut Canyon National Monument, and Sunset Crater National Monument.  They also helped build the road into the Arizona Snow Bowl in the San Francisco Peaks and Cottage City on the campus of the Teachers College in...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) made extensive recreational improvements on Mt. Nebo, the highest and southern-most peak of the Wasatch Mountains.  The CCC teams worked out of three camps: F-9 at the south end of the Mt. Nebo Loop, F-3 at Hubble Canyon and F-40 near Provo, from 1933 to 1938 – and possibly to 1941 when the last camp closed. After building the Mt Nebo Loop Road (Scenic Byway), the CCC enrollees created several campgrounds, picnic areas and many trails. Not all this work can be identified precisely, but some can be verified from reliable sources. As more information comes...

Starting in 1933, the young men of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built the Mount Nebo loop road in Utah (and part of Juab) County, Utah. Today, it is forest road FR 015 and officially designated as the Mt. Nebo Scenic Byway by the US Transportation Department. Mount Nebo is both the southern-most and highest peak in the Wasatch Mountains, at 11,929 feet. It is snow covered all winter and the Mt. Nebo road is closed for the winter season. Mt. Nebo Loop Road travels from Payson to Nephi, climbing over the back of Mt. Nebo at more than 9,000 feet, with...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) made extensive recreational improvements on Mt. Nebo, the highest and southern-most peak of the Wasatch Mountains.  The CCC teams worked out of three camps: F-9 at the south end of the Mt. Nebo Loop, F-3 at Hubble Canyon and F-40 near Provo, from 1933 to 1938 – and possibly to 1941 when the last camp closed. After building the Mt Nebo Loop Road (Scenic Byway), the CCC enrollees created several campgrounds, picnic areas and many trails. Not all this work can be identified precisely, but some can be verified from reliable sources. The trails laid out by...

Mount Rose Elementary School is one of two remaining Mission Revival style schools the other being McKinley Park School. The school was built in 1912 and designed by local architect G Ferris. Work was done under the new deal projects to improve the playgrounds.

The Public Works Administration (PWA) funded the construction of the Mountain View elementary school near Martinez.  At the time, the school was located just outside the city of Martinez in an unincorporated area southeast of the city limits at the corner of Palm Avenue and Almond Street, a couple blocks south of Pacheco Boulevard.  The PWA funds appear to have passed through the city's hands.  Receipt of a $21,406 grant from the PWA for the school was announced at a city council meeting on August 3, 1938 (Council Minutes). Perhaps, this anticipated the subsequent incorporation of the Mountain View neighborhood. The New Deal...

This one room schoolhouse in the mining town of Mount Bullion got help from the WPA on "Repair school building & excavate & level playground." WPA Proj. No. 65-3-4639, January 30, 1936, $1,287. The school was built in 1900 and operated until 1950. The building is currently used for storage.

The Mount Shasta Ranger Station was constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1935 in classic rustic park style.  The original Ranger Station consists of several buildings, including the main office/visitors' center, timber management office, guest house and auxiliary buildings – which remain in pristine condition. The ranger station was the headquarters of the Shasta National Forest (1905) until it was unified with the Trinity National Forest in 1950. It is now one of four management units of the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, whose headquarters is in Redding.  A sister station is located in McCloud CA. A relief map of the Shasta-Trinity area hangs...

Mt. Vernon Township high school was expanded during the 1930s with the assistance of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. The school's original building B was supplemented by three new structures Buildings A, D, and E (a classroom building, an auditorium, and a gymnasium). Credit for the structures is sometimes mis-attributed to the Works Progress Administration (WPA) (e.g., on Wikipedia, below). In the 2010s, a new school was built 5 miles away on the SW edge of town and the old school was torn down in 2017-18, according to the Jefferson County Historical Society. Apparently, the loss of the venerable Changnon Gymnasium...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was very active in the Coronado National Forest during the 1930s. Coronado National Forest is discontinuous across southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico because the forested areas occur only on isolated mountain ranges called "Sky Islands" – a type of landscape similar to the Basin and Range in Nevada. CCC camp F-30 was located in Madera Canyon in the Santa Rita Mountains (we are not sure exactly where or for how long).  The CCC 'boys' (enrollees) did extensive work in the canyon, including a campground, picnic area, amphitheater, trails and erosion works. The largest CCC project in...

The CCC did extensive work in Muir Woods National Monument. The National Park Service site summarizes their activity: "The men began work in Muir Woods and the surrounding Tamalpais State Park. Projects included a revetment (rockwork stream banks) in Redwood Creek; construction of a stone-faced concrete bridge on Fern Creek; construction of utility buildings and benches; and the construction of the Sidney B. Cushing Memorial Amphitheater (the "Mountain Theater"), near Rock Springs, on Mt. Tamalpais. The CCC completed its last project in Muir Woods in May 1941, and was disbanded shortly thereafter."   (https://www.nps.gov/) Not everything the CCC did was ideal by modern standards,...

The Work Projects Administration (WPA) built a new runway for the Santa Monica Municipal Airport in 1940-41. It was one of many WPA airport projects completed in the run-up to the Second World War. Santa Monica was, at the time, a key locale for aircraft development and production. "Designed especially for the heavier and faster craft of today, the new WPA-built runway, from which the famed B-19 took off on her maiden flight, was a certified national defense project sponsored by the city of Santa Monica. Begun December 30, 1940, the runway project more recently was classified as an 'expedite'...

In 1940-41, the Work Projects Administration (WPA) made a major upgrade to the Long Beach Airport, then known as Daugherty Field, which had been constructed in 1923.  WPA relief workers improved the airport runways and constructed a new terminal building. The project employed roughly 1,000 relief workers. Exactly what runway improvements were done is unknown to us. "The were completed and scheduled for grand opening on December 7, 1941, the day Pearl Harbor was attacked. Instead, it was repainted in camouflage and used a billet for soldiers and military guns. The terminal formally opened on April 26, 1942" (Schipske). The runways,...

Wichita Municipal Beach Swimming Pool was built in 1938 as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project. The pool replaced an earlier municipal pool built in 1923. The new pool cost $50,000 to construct. At 240 feet long and 125 feet wide, the pool sloped from a depth of two to nine feet. It also contained 38 underwater flood lights of 1000 watts each. In addition to the main deck, there were two smaller pools nearby designed for children. The Municipal Beach Swimming Pool was the crown jewel of the Wichita parks and recreation system. It opened to a deluge of residents during...

Two-story stone Art Moderne governmental building; symmetrical facades with recessed quadripartite windows; central entrance bay behind stepped recess with decorative metalwork around entrance and above central second-story window; central stepped parapet. A WPA project designed by architect Louis Wirtz, the building exemplifies one period of architecture in Seguin.

An Independent Reporter article from the 1930s reported that an Emergency Relief Administration crew was nearing completion of a job at the local municipal building: "By the close of the present week the Municipal building will lose some of its untidy appearance which has been a natural result of the work undertaken by an ERA crew to paint, varnish and generally renovate the building. Painters stagings and other equipment will be out of most of the offices by then and possibly the corridors for the work has advanced at a good speed and much of the task already completed. Offices which have...

This recreational complex inclusive of ball fields, grandstands, a playground and tennis courts was constructed by the WPA. Completed in 1937, the project extended from today’s Bullens Field to Franklin Street and was comprised of three levels. The first level would contain a “first-class” baseball diamond, a football field, a running track with jumping and pole vault pits, two large concrete grandstands (nicely trimmed in art deco), a field house with lockers and showers. The second level, today known as Jachym Field (named after a Massachusetts Hall of Fame High School Coach Joe Jachym a star basketball and baseball player...

In 1937, the District of Columbia government contracted with the Fred Drew Co. to reconstruct the Municipal Fish Market Pier (also called Pier No. 1). The cost of the project was $20,000 (about $366,000 in 2020 dollars) and funds were provided via the District of Columbia Appropriation Act for 1937, signed into law by Franklin Roosevelt on June 23, 1936. The project was part of a broad New Deal initiative to modernize and beautify the Washington Channel and Southwest Waterfront areas. Work started on April 19, 1937 and was completed three months later, on July 13. The DC Government noted: “The...

New Deal agencies conducted extensive improvements in and around the towns of Bristol and South Bristol, as recorded in the Annual Report of the Municipal Officers of the Town of Bristol Maine. 1933 CWA Road work in Walpole and Round Pond Town share: $4,988.78 CWA: $5,000 “The towns of Bristol and South Bristol were allotted $6000.00 of the total of $29,202.00 to be expended in Lincoln County on roads, by the Federal Government in its first Reconstruction Program. This was one of the six projects approved in the County and was built with Federal money, under the supervision of the State Highway Commission and...

Many useful things were done in this coastal community whose population in 1930 was 2,135. The 1934 town report mentions E.R.A. work on the fire station, and the 1936 town report of the Fire Chief requests appropriations in order to finish work started by the E.R.A. The identity of this fire station is unknown to the Living New Deal, but it does not appear to be the station in use now. The 1935 town report mentions an unspecified E.R.A. project for labor and supplies costing $1,030. In the 1936 town report 18 men are mentioned in connection with a W.P.A. road project. No....

Annual municipal reports show that the town of Fitzwilliam received assistance from multiple New Deal programs in the 1930s, including the RFC, the CWA (which constructed fire holes and water tanks and improved the library), and the WPA.  

Annual reports show that the town of Hudson was helped extensively by New Deal programs. In addition to work by the RFC and FERA (which included distributing food and medicine to school children), the CWA repaired and improved schools and libraries. From 1935 on, the WPA did extensive work on the town's infrastructure, including digging fire holes, improving town roads, and moth extermination. The WPA and PWA also improved local school grounds. The NYA also employed local school children for "various tasks around the school."

The 1933 town report notes $1,712.05 spent by the town on an unspecified CWA road project. The 1934 town report lists a small contribution by the town toward unspecified CWA and FERA road and bridge projects. The 1935 town report mentions a loan of $11,000 from the PWA for a building fund. The warrant section says "Art. 20. To see what action the Town will vote to take as to the use of its P. W. A. School House Building Loan." The 1936 report lists a "WPA State Aid Bridge" $1,066 by Maine, $544 by the town, and $614 by a joint fund...

Newspaper articles describe various projects in carried out in Skowhegan  by the CWA, FERA and the WPA, as well as direct food relief provided by federal agencies. In 1934, the CWA began a sewing project employing local women. In 1938, the WPA also ran a sewing project in town. Work by FERA over the years included building 700 feet of sewer line from Hesselton St across the Cannan Rd and into the Kennebec River; other sewer work on West Front, Hathaway, Leavitt and St. John Streets; installing street signs; constructing sidewalks; cutting roadside bushes; and improving the local airport. FERA also ran...

Montana's Big Timber Pioneer newspaper reported in 1936: "Work on PWA projects in Polson is well under way. Construction of a new jail and fire house has started, adjacent to the new city hall which was constructed with a grant of federal funds last year. C. J. Loveland who was superintendent for the construction of the new city hall is again in charge."

The municipal lodging house provided cheap shelter for the indigent and homeless of Washington D.C. It was built in the early 1920s, replacing an earlier lodging house. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) records in the National Archives indicate that in 1936 WPA labor was used to repair a municipal lodging at 310 Third Street, NW.   The lodging house has been demolished, no doubt taken out in the construction of Interstate 395.  It probably stood at the current site of the Frances Perkins (Department of Labor) Building, above the I-395 tunnel.  

The National Youth Administration (NYA) contributed work teams to the construction of a new power plant for the municipal power system of Murray, Utah (the NYA was a part of the Works Progress Administration of the New Deal). A team of 85 NYA workers also helped in the conversion of an old theater in town into offices for the Municipal power system. The town of Murray municipalized its local electric power system in 1912, along with its water and sewage systems.  The power plant has been modified, but is still in use as part of the city power system.