Unmarked Sites

The Works Progress Administration built the municipal swimming pool in Navasota, Texas between 1935 and 1936. The complex includes the main swimming pool, a wading pool and a bath house. The bath house was originally built as a single story structure. A second story was added in the 1960s.

The Reconstruction Finance Corporation and the Public Works Administration funded the construction of municipal waterworks in Moncks Corner SC. Before the waterworks construction, the townspeople of Moncks Corner relied on individual electric pumps and wells for their water supply.

Much work was done by the New Deal in this small town of 1,018 (population 1930) The 1934-35 town report mentions E.R.A. and C.W.A. help on road work projects. Amusingly, the report of the school supervisor complains about all the Federal help for roads but nothing for the schools in town. The 1935-36 town report mentions $150 being raised in connection with a W.P.A. sidewalk project. The school superintendent wrote "On December 27th Mr. Crocker of the School Committee, Mr. Carson of the Board of Selectmen, and myself, went to Augusta and entered a project for school building improvement under the WPA. The project...

The second floor of the north wing of the Ben W. Murch Elementary School was added by the Civil Works Administration (CWA) in 1933-34.  The school is an elegant two-story, federal-style building with a cupola over the central portion and two harmonious wings, north and south. The school was founded in 1930, but the DC school system probably ran out of funds in the Great Depression to finish the full plan, so the CWA was called upon to complete the job. Confirmation of this supposition is needed. Ben Murch School replaced an earlier Grant Road School, dating back to the 1860s.

The State of Oregon received a two-acre, ocean-front property from Jack Ponsler in 1939 to be made into a public park in memory of his wife Muriel O. Ponsler. Civilian Conservation Corps enrollees provided the labor to develop it. The small park's improvements consisted primarily of a picnic area and viewpoint with a circular access road. The entrance to the park is enhanced by an ornamental stone fence on both sides of the circular roadway.

The Murray UT City Center (city hall and police station) occupies the former Arlington School building, constructed with the aid of the New Deal. The school was replaced at another site and the building renovated in the 1980s. Several school building and renovation projects were undertaken in Murray, Utah during the 1930s, with the aid of the Public Works Administration (PWA): a new  Arlington School, a two classroom addition at Bonnyview, finishing the basement into classrooms at Liberty, and an addition to the high school gymnasium.  The largest project was a new Arlington  School constructed on State Street in front of the older...

Jennings County Park. Established as the 4th Indiana State Park in 1921, originally called Vinegar Mill State Park after a pioneer-era stone cutting mill on the site. Renamed Muscatatuck State Park in 1922 and used as a state park, youth camp, and wildlife-raising station until 1968, when the property was transferred to the county. CCC and WPA built roads, trails, shelters, and stairs at the Vinegar Mill site.

In March, 1939 the federal government approved $65,000 for a new football stadium in Sweetwater, Texas. Texas Senator Tom Connally and U.S. Representative from Texas Clyde L. Garrett received credit for getting the project signed off. The Works Project Administration built the stadium in 1939. The Mustang Bowl seats 7,500 in the bleachers and 9,500 in the tiered concrete embankments around the end zones. The bleachers were originally wood sitting on grass, but were changed to metal on concrete in 1972. Other improvements over the years include new restrooms and press box in 1959 and new concession stand, restrooms and railings...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built the amphitheater at Mutual Dell camp in 1936.  It is a modest sized outdoor theater with a concrete and stone stage and wooden plank seating for about 200 people. It was constructed by CCC enrollees working out of Camp F-43 in Pleasant Grove UT. Mutual Dell is a girls camp run by the Latter Day Saints (Mormon) Church. The amphitheater is still actively used for camp programs.

The Public Works Administration (PWA) funded the construction of the Myton Grade School in Myton NV for the Duchesne County School District. The school was designed by the architecture firm Scott and Welch. The contractor of record was Tolboe & Tolboe. The New Deal school, which was constructed c. 1939, has been replaced in recent years by a new structure at the same site.    

A partnership between the Forest Service and Works Progress Administration resulted in a rudimentary picnic shelter and campground at Namekagon Lake in northern Wisconsin's Chequamegon National Forest. Originally, the shelter had changing rooms at each end which were later removed. Today, the campground boasts 34 sites, a sandy beach, boat landing, and trails.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) reconstructed the retaining walls along Naples Canal in Long Beach, CA, after the 1933 earthquake "caused a slump in the sidewalk area directly behind the wall, making a dangerous passageway for pedestrians and threatening the stability of homes back of the property line" (Connolly and Farman).

In 1934, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees constructed the fire Guard Station in Bonanza, Idaho. Bonanza is a former mining camp on the Yankee Fork of the Salmon River, near its confluence with Jordan Creek. Nothing is left of the town. This small structure housed the Challis National Forest fire guard with responsibility for the Yankee Fork area, including the maintenance of the nearby Forest Service bathhouse at Sunbeam Hot Springs. The Guard Station is still intact and occupied.

WPA Constructed National Guard Armory, built in Portsmouth, VA. GIS gives a sale (completion?) date of December 5, 1936.

The Washington Post, October 11, 1933, reported that the Public Works Administration (PWA) was funding a number of projects around Washington, including $66,945 for housing facilities and equipment at the district National Guard armory.

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) – an emergency job-creation arm of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) – reconstructed the bathhouse for two  recreational swimming pools near the Washington Monument in the National Mall during the winter of 1933-34. The work consisted of the following (in the terse format of an annual report of the DC government):  “Graded, fenced, wrecked 45 percent of existing locker-house, remodeled remainder with check-rooms, increased toilet facilities.”  The swimming pools and the bathhouse were soon removed, however, during a complete reconstruction of the Washington Monument grounds, and the area was graded and landscaped. (Daily News 1936).  The...

The New Deal carried out a major renovation of the National Mall, the green centerpiece of Washington DC.  Funding was provided by the Public Works Administration (PWA) and labor power by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). As of 1939, the PWA had expended $1,050,000  on redeveloping the Mall. Work began in 1934 under the direction of the Superintendent of the National Capital Parks, which had become a branch of the National Park Service when the park system was taken over by the Interior Department under Harold Ickes in August 1933.  One element of the reconstruction of the National Mall was to move and...

The New Deal carried out a major renovation of the National Mall, the green centerpiece of Washington DC.   Funding was provided by the Public Works Administration (PWA) and labor power by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). As of 1939, the PWA had expended $1,050,000 on the reconstruction work.  As one newspaper put it, “...the mile long park connecting the Capitol with Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial probably would still be in an early stage of development but for the allocation of PWA funds to finish the project."  Work began in 1934 under the supervision of the Superintendent of the National Capital Parks,...

The New Deal carried out a major renovation of the National Mall, the green centerpiece of Washington DC.  Funding was provided by the Public Works Administration (PWA) and labor power by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). As of 1939, the PWA had expended $1,050,000 on the reconstruction work.  As one newspaper put it, “...the mile long park connecting the Capitol with Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial probably would still be in an early stage of development but for the allocation of PWA funds to finish the project."  In 1901, the McMillan Commission, composed of eminent architects and landscape architects, was created to rethink...

The New Deal carried out a major renovation of the National Mall, the green centerpiece of Washington DC.  Funding was provided by the Public Works Administration (PWA), labor power by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and supervision of the work was the responsibility of the Superintendent of the National Capital Parks, which had become a branch of the National Park Service when the park system was taken over by the Interior Department in 1933.  One element of the National Mall project was the building of tennis courts on the north and south sides of the Mall between 3d and 4th streets.  It...

The south wing of the Bird House at National Zoo – which had been left off the original building in 1927-28 – was constructed in 1936 with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA). It completed the the imposing, Romanesque style Bird House, adding space for more cages/exhibits and housing the Bird Resource Center. The PWA contributed around $1 million to several zoo improvement projects in the 1930s, including new elephant house, a small mammal house and an addition to the bird house.  The separate cost of the Bird House addition is undetermined.  The original building had been design by Albert Harris and the...

Elizabeth Fulda was commissioned to make glass mosaics – 9 by 6 foot panels – to be placed over two entrance doors to the new addition to the Bird House done in 1936.  Those were never done.  Instead, her designs were used to create colored concrete panels carved by Dominico Mortellito. Mortellito's  initials are carved in the panels, but the design is Fulda's, as can be seen from her drawings submitted to the Fine Arts Commission. One panel depicts dodos and the other moas.  The panels still exist on the rear of the building – though the doors have been bricked up...

Charles R. Knight produced a frieze of Pre-Historic Animals inside the Large Mammal House at the National Zoo in 1937. They were cast in aluminum by the Manhattan Terrazzo Brass Strip Company. On the floor are roundels by Knight in marble and aluminum depicting various large mammals. Those were also carried out by the Manhattan Terrazzo Brass Strip Company. These artworks were commissioned and paid for by the Treasury Relief Art Project, which aimed to put unemployed artists back to work.    

The Machine and Carpenter Shops building was constructed at the National Zoo in 1936-37, with a grant from the Public Works Administration (PWA). The PWA paid for four buildings and other improvements to the zoo in the 1930s. In 1938, the National Zoo reported that “fiscal year 1937 was probably the most outstanding in the history of the Zoo.  The construction under the Public Works Administration grant of $892,920 was completed. These improvements include… machine and carpenter shops...”  The separate cost of the Machine & Carpenter Shops building is not specified in the reports. The Zoo report described the new utility building as...

In 1937, Domenico Mortellito painted habitat background murals for the Bird House and the Pachyderm (Elephant) House and added murals to the zoo restaurant.  These murals were commissioned by the Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP), which aimed to put unemployed artists back to work.   Mortellito used a rubber-based paint for the animal house murals and carved linoleum for the restaurant.   It appears that all have been lost over the years, though two murals at the Bird House are said to survive (this  needs to be verified). Mortellito is shown in the photos below painting the background murals in the Elephant House, including...

From 1933 to 1941, New Deal relief workers added a number of new animal exhibit areas to the National Zoo, as well as improving existing enclosures.  The following are sketches of the significant work performed at a dozen areas, taken from the Zoo’s annual reports, with the relevant relief agency and years in parentheses.  Many of these exhibit improvements appear to still exist today, as shown in the photographs below.  Further verification is needed, but much of the stone and concrete work is typical of the New Deal era. Antelope and wild sheep exhibit “Replacing old and unsatisfactory frame structure by a series...

The Public Works Administration (PWA) funded a Small Mammal House at the National Zoo, constructed in 1937.  It was one of several buildings paid for by the PWA and many other improvements made at the zoo by New Deal relief agencies. It is a brick building done in Italian Renaissance style, with a triple-arch entry, one semicircular end, limestone trim and tile roofing.  It includes a ventilation system. The designed was done in 1935 by Edwin Hill Clark, lead architect for all the New Deal additions to the National Zoo, as well as the Philadelphia zoo, in 1930s.  The work was supervised...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) conducted extensive development work at Grand Canyon Village, 1933-37, including the rock walls and pillars at the bottom of Navajo Street. The National Park Service CCC Walking Tour adds these details: "The CCC constructed these rock pillars and walls in 1934 as a visual barrier between the public area and the residential area up Navajo Street. Historians believe that this is CCC work, although documentation is lacking. The recessed cement between the stones was a common CCC technique. Civilian Conservation Corps rock work has proven to be durable. Notice the extensive growth of lichens on the...

The Naval Research Laboratory has been a major research facility for the US Navy and military since it was founded at the instigation of Thomas Edison in 1923. It is located along the Potomac River at the southern tip of the District of Columbia. In 1937, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) carried out repairs and made additions to the US Naval Research Laboratory.  Principle among these was a large addition to the field house.  The WPA teams also added roads, sewers and storm drains, and landscaping. Navy Bulletin No. 38 provides more specifics: “At the Naval Research Laboratory, Bellevue, D. C., the major...

In 1935, Works Progress Administration (WPA) stone workers built a retaining wall along the east and west banks of NE 223rd to finish a Multnomah County road improvement. The road project involved constructing a railroad bridge and underpass for improved traffic safety. The stonework completed this road improvement in the area of Depot Street and NE 223rd. A 2001 Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) report documented the 340-foot retaining wall along NE 223rd in Fairview, arguing for its significance as an example of the craftsmanship of WPA workers. Drawing inspiration from work completed on the Columbia River Highway and National Park...

Neahkahnie Mountain rises almost perpendicularly, 1600 feet from the Pacific Ocean. This headland posed an engineering and budgetary challenge to the completion of the Oregon Coast Highway until funding was provided by the Bureau of Public Roads and labor was provided by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Improvements to this fourteen-mile section of highway between Cannon Beach and Manzanita took approximately eight years to complete. Just before the roadway's opening in 1941, The Sunday Oregonian referred to it as "chiseled on rocky Neahkahnie Mountain" and informed prospective motorists that they would be traveling over a road that "cost $100,000 a mile." The...

In an effort to beautify the area around a pond in Neshotah Park, the City of Two Rivers had rocks hauled to the park over a period of about three years. In late October 1938 50 WPA workers were transferred from other work in the city to finish the park project. A contemporary newspaper description outlined the scope of the project: "The pond will be lined with the rocks and several elevations provided so that the water will cascade from an outlet rock cap to a pool several feet below and will then go to a lower pool several feet below...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the airport in Nevada City. In mid 1935, $10,547 from the WPA went into "Airport improvements." WPA Proj. No. 79703, $10,547, Oct. 18, 1935. According to Paul Freeman of the Abandoned Airfields website, "the 1948 USGS topo map depicted the 'Nevada City Airport' as having 2 runways, with 5 small buildings adjacent to the south side, and a 'Historic Monument' on the north side. An article entitled 'Nevada City's Old Airport – What Now' in the 12/21/81 The Independent (courtesy of Greg Archbald), the airport became inactive in 1961 after a fire consumed the hangars. It 'was...

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp SP-24 was established at Capitola, just east of Santa Cruz, for the purpose of working on nearby California beach state parks at New Brighton and Sea Cliff. The California state parks system had only been created c 1930, and all parks existing or purchases in the 1930s needed work on recreational facilities.  The CCC was active in state parks all over California.  New Brighton Beach was purchased by the state in 1933. Camp SP-24 was active in the late 1930s, but we do not have exact dates.  We know that the CCC enrollees of Company 5447 worked...

The Alabama Relief Administration/Civil Works Administration paved 3.7 miles of road in New Castle AL. "Probably the most important single piece of work was the paving of the above road, which is 3.7 miles in length. This road is a heavily traveled feeder road connecting with United States Highway Number 31 at Lewisburg and serves the mining community in the neighborhood of New Castle and the farming section North of New Castle, and leads up into Blount County." "This was formerly a macadam road which was graded and reworked. A limestone base was laid and then consolidated with road machine and left...

The Sprankle Building (also known by later names of The Pembroke and The Daylight Building) is now a 38- (formally 40) unit condominium in the adaptive reused building. Built in 1927, this building housed the initial offices of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Engineering Staff, Training, and Education programs, and Soil Erosion and Reforestation offices. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Daylight Building in 2009.

In the town of Pasadena, California, "the CCC put... young men to work quickly on projects such as the extension of New York Avenue (now called New York Drive) from Foothill Blvd (now Altadena Dr) to Sierra Madre Villa Rd."

In 1934, it was reported that the American Locomotive Company “is building 15 freight engines for the ‘Nickel Plate’ Railroad, in its plant at Schenectady, N.Y… All of these engines are being built with a PWA loan to the Nickel Plate” (Times Union). “Nickel Plate,” or “Nickel Plate Road,” were commonly used names for the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad, headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio. The railroad company “served parts of the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri” (Wikipedia). The 15 PWA-financed Nickel Plate Road engines were steam-driven Berkshire locomotives, numbered 700-714. No. 700 “made its first revenue trip between Bellevue, OH, and...

Newland Memorial fountain, located at Chevy Chase Circle on the border of Washington D.C. and Chevy Chase MD, was create to honor Francis Newlands, Congressman, author of the Newlands Reclamation Act, and developer of Chevy Chase. The fountain was designed by Edward Wilton Donn in 1933 and put in place in 1938.  It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. New Deal workers erected the monument as part of a larger Capital Parks improvement program.  The work was probably done by Works Progress Administration (WPA) relief laborers, who were active in parks renovations across the district in the 1930s.

The Alley Dwelling Authority (ADA) and the Federal Works Agency (FWA) funded the construction of the Nichols Avenue Houses in Washington, DC, in 1943. These houses were called “Standard Temporary Dwellings Units,” or “TDU’s.” They were built for African American national defense workers, and were intended to be taken down after the war. It is unlikely that any part of the Nichols Avenue Houses still remains. The ADA was one of the earliest New Deal initiatives to provide better housing for low-income Americans. It replaced unsafe alley dwellings in Washington, DC with more modern and affordable houses and apartments. The ADA existed from...