Unmarked Sites

Within a group of federally funded road and highway projects that came out of the Haydn - Cartwright bill in 1934, 3.7 miles of the El Camino Real through the Nojoqui Pass were graded and paved.

The National Youth Administration built park facilities in Nolan Park. While I didn't find the "Community House" pictured I found multiple other facilities that appear to be NYA construction. Picnic Tables, Small Building, Pavilion, possible water feature, and a bridge. A newspaper Article from 1940 says in part: "Construction of a shelter house in city park at Sweetwater complete with picnic tables and benches, restrooms and tool shed. Federal funds were $1,936.94 and $862.78 for sponsors. "

In 1938, a fire destroyed the Noonday School. The community furnished $17,682 and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) added $9,368 for the construction of a new school. The WPA built a new eight-room brick school house the same year. The building is currently a combination city hall, library and community center.

In 1935, the New Deal helped to extend North Beaver street two blocks to connect with the entrance of the new Flagstaff Hospital in the northern part of the city, which opened in January 1936.  The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) at nearby Mt. Elden camp sent a crew to help city workers with the street job. The hospital has grown from a single story stone building to the large complex now known as the Flagstaff Medical Center, but the street entrance is still in the same place – though obviously repaved and probably widened over the years.

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) surfaced and replaced the sidewalks on Highland Road in Bridgton ME. According to a 1933 town report, on “Dec. 15 Fifty men to be employed on local CWA projects by next Saturday is the goal which is set for Bridgton, although the plan which has been adopted of selecting these men through the federal employment bureau instead of allowing the selection to be done locally, is handicapping the work some. Monday of this week work was started on resurfacing the North Bridgton Village Street." "WPA EXPENDITURES ON PROJECTS LOCATED IN BRIDGTON FROM INCEPTION OF PROGRAM TO DECEMBER...

On 8 Dec. 1938, NC State College signed an agreement with the National Youth Administration for the later to build a training center on campus. The college had no input on the design or construction of the center, which comprised a group of buildings. In 1943 or 1944 the college took control of the facility, which was labeled “NYA Buildings” on maps from that time period. The center was demolished in 1959, and it was located on the eastern portion of present-day Miller Field and the Jordan Hall Addition on the NC State University campus.

This two-story brick building served the Concord School District of Clackamas County when it was built in 1936. The Public Works Administration (PWA) provided a grant and local voters approved a bond for the local contribution in the $60,000 structure's construction. Portland architect F. Marion Stokes designed the simple, modernist style building with pared down classical details. Malarkey & Kallander, Portland contractors, built the school. The local newspaper noted that twenty-five men were put to work in its construction. Concord School served as a grade school until 2014 when the building was acquired by the North Clackamas Parks and Recreation District for...

On August 22, 1933, Public Works Administration (PWA) chief Harold Ickes announced a grant of $1,759,500 for various DC sewer projects. These included an extension of the Northeast Boundary Sewer “intended to eliminate a pollution nuisance in Kingman Lake in Anacostia Park” (Evening Star, 1933). The following March, a contract of $589,000 was awarded to Michael Bell Balso, Inc., to extend the sewer “from Twenty-first and A streets NE to the Anacostia River, south of Kingman Lake” (Evening Star, 1934). The extension was completed sometime in 1935.  The trajectory appears to lie beneath parts of the RFK sports complex west of...

The Public Works Administration (PWA) gave the Arizona State Teachers College a grant of $105,000 and a loan of $313,000 to build housing on the campus – today's Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff.  These were North Hall, expansion of Taylor Hall and Cottage City (see links to these projects at right).  The grant and loan also provided for the  installation of a new heating system for the campus and fire escapes for all buildings.   In addition, a Civil Works Administration (CWA) project in 1933-34 allowed the campus to fence the athletic field and build bleachers, add roads and curbs, and remove an old...

The New Deal provided the funds to build a large group of cottages for student housing – known as "Cottage City" – at what was then Arizona Teachers' College.   The Public Works Administration (PWA) made a grant of $57,900 and the state of Arizona added $20,000 to build 50 2-room cottages.  Construction was done in 1939 by 60 Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees (no doubt from the Mt. Elden camp).  The units were small at 25x14 feet, built with rock walls and cement floors, plus running water.  There were three additional buildings for laundry and showers. More cottages were added...

The Public Works Administration (PWA) gave the Arizona State Teachers College a grant of $105,000 and a loan of $313,000 to build housing on the campus – today's Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff.  These were North Hall, expansion of Taylor Hall and Cottage City. North Hall was constructed in 1935 as a women's dormitory at what was then the Arizona State Teachers' College.  It completed the "Women's Quadragle" at the north end of the college, at a time when most students at the college were women seeking careers as school teachers. The architecture of North Hall is brick Neoclassical, or Georgian, which...

The Public Works Administration (PWA) gave the Arizona State Teachers College a grant of $105,000 and a loan of $313,000 to build housing on the campus – today's Northern Arizona University (NAU) in Flagstaff.  These were North Hall, expansion of Taylor Hall and Cottage City. Taylor Hall had been built in 1905 as a girls' dormitory and switched to men in 1908.  An earlier expansion had added a north wing to the original building (the date of the photograph in NAU library is given as 1937, but that's not possible given the car and clothing in the scene). The New Deal expansion...

One of 6 airports considered very important by the State Military Commission in 1940 for use as a military base. A 1940 Maine State Legislature report records that construction of the base was done by the W.P.A. Under FERA/MERA (Maine Emergency Relief Administration) there were constructed a 2100 x 100 graded sod runway and a 2000 x 100 graded sod runway. "In 1941 the federal government appropriated the local airport, establishing Presque Isle Army Airfield for planes bound to and from Great Britain. Activated as an Army Air Corps military airfield on 15 September... the airfield was de-activated on 20 September 1945...

In 1933, the Public Works Administration (PWA) authorized a loan to the Northern Pacific Railway for $1,250,000 to purchase new locomotives. The Interstate Commerce Commission then issued a certificate of approval for the loan, although for a slightly lesser amount - $1,220,000. The loan allowed the Pacific Railway to purchase ten A-2 class locomotives from the Baldwin Locomotive Works. They were delivered in 1934, numbers 2650 to 2659.  These engines would carry passenger trains between Jamestown, North Dakota and Missoula, Montana – a 906 mile-long route, one of the longest in the U.S. at the time. On October 13, 1934, The Missoulian...

In 1940 and 1941 respectively, Works Progress Administration (WPA) workers constructed two tunnels approximately a quarter mile apart from one another to improve vehicular movement through Portland’s Forest Park in the city’s west hills. As with the Rocky Butte tunnel, local basalt was used to face the arched tunnels and adjacent retaining walls. The tunnels themselves are concrete and allow a travel lane in each direction and sidewalks for pedestrians on either side. The dates of completion are inscribed above the entrances. At the beginning of the 1930s, approximately eighty percent of Portland's residential growth had taken place on the city's...

The second of two tunnels on NW Cornell Road constructed by WPA workers, the 250 long Tunnel 2 was completed in 1941. It was prioritized among infrastructure improvements as a means of opening up residential development in Portland's West Hills. As an element of the City's infrastructure, its design was intended to fit into the beautiful and rough landscape of the West Hills by using local basalt on its portals that were finished in the National Park Rustic style. The crew of masons on the project were employed by the Oregon WPA and supervised by Raffale (Ralph) Curcio, who had two decades...

There is a unique building within the historic district, the Ravenswood Community Center (JA-0177 and JA-177A). It was constructed by the National Youth Administration, a program under the “New Deal” program of Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the Great Depression. The “NYA Hall” was built in 1938 in the Art Deco Style with the cooperation of the City of Ravenswood and the program was geared towards employing younger adults. At some point, it was connected to the McIntosh House via an elevated, brick hyphen. The McIntosh House was built c. 1890 and is Colonial Revival style. It is now used as a community center, either hosting city events...

Sculptor Richard "Dick" O'Hanlon created two wooden bas-relief panels for the Salinas, California post office and federal building -- now called the Steinbeck Station Post Office.   The works were funded by the Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP) and installed in 1936.  One is titled "Cowboy and Bull" and the other "Cowboy and Horse."  They are carved in black walnut. The reliefs hang at either end of the long lobby. They appear to be in very good condition. Originally from Long Beach, California, O'Hanlon (1906-1985) joined other young California artists like Frederick Olmsted apprenticing with Diego Rivera at the San Francisco Art Institute...

The Alley Dwelling Authority (ADA) funded the construction of the O’Brien Court Parking Lot in Washington, DC, ca. 1935-1938. The lot was located in the block bounded by E, F, 20th and 21st streets NW, on the E Street frontage. Then, in 1943, the ADA and the Federal Works Agency (FWA) created the O’Brien Court Houses on the same site. 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 does not appear that any remnant of the homes or parking lot...

Bas relief murals depicting agricultural and economic themes were completed between 1938 and 1940 by the Works Progress Administration (WPA).

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) made important improvements to the facilities of the Oakdale Irrigation District (OID) in 1940-41.  The work was done in two separate projects and consisted of upgrading irrigation canals and their gates, valves and pumps. The OID was formed in 1909 for the purpose of delivering irrigation water to over 80,000 acres of agricultural lands in Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties. Today, it operates over 330 miles of canals and pipelines, along with deep wells and lift pumps. Its headquarters is in the town of Oakdale. The WPA projects cards provide further details of the work to be...

New Deal agencies did a variety of work on the five hangars at the Oakland Municipal Airport (now the North Field of the Oakland International Airport) and later built a new hangar for the Naval Reserve Air Base at the northern tip of the field. In 1935, State Emergency Relief Administration (SERA) workers painted four of the five hangars then existing at the Oakland Municipal Airport   They also installed a gasoline storage tank for United Air Lines.  SERA was funded through the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) in the early years of the New Deal. Minutes of the Oakland Board of Port...

The Works Projects Administration (WPA) built the first hanger, runway and road for the Navy Reserve Air Base at the Oakland Municipal Airport (now the North Field of the Oakland International Airport). Then, in 1940 the WPA authorized $237,000 for construction of a new hangar for the Naval Reserve Air Base.  The Port of Oakland only had to contribute $17,000 in materials (Tribune, 1940).  This was clearly part of the military buildup toward World War II, with Oakland airport only one of 24 in Northern California being funded by the federal government in 1941 (Tribune, April 1941). In mid-1941, a further grant...

New Deal agencies were called upon several times to expand the runways at the growing Oakland Municipal Airport (now the North Field of the Oakland International Airport). In the early 1930s, this involved bringing in quarried stone for fill to expand the runway area, leveling the surface and finishing off crushed stone. Later in the decade, the runways would be surfaced with asphalt and concrete. In early 1934, a team of 112 men from the Civil Works Administration (CWA) began work on the runways, laying 8500 cubic yards of rock (Minutes of January 8, 1934, p. 114).  When the CWA was...

In 1936, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) installed a fire-fighting water supply system and laid drainage tile under the Oakland Municipal Airport (now the North Field of the Oakland International Airport). The drainage system covered 3.6 million square feet and included almost 60,000 linear feet of drainage tile and concrete pipe, for a cost of $104,000. The fire protection system involved over 7,000 linear feet of 4 and 6-inch mains, for a cost of $18,000. Both are presumably still in place and functioning (we spotted old hydrants and storm grates that suggest as much). Earlier, it had been announced that over $200,000 had...

A WPA project involved "Improving the Exposition Building", WPA Project No. 65-3-1779, Approval date 10-23-35, $5,673 The Oakland Exposition Building was a hall the Kaiser Convention Center. The California Garden Show was held there, as well as horse shows, midget car races, and other events. The building was constructed in 1931, funded using Agricultural District money that comes from horse racing (which also funds county fairs in California). 1 The design was by Reed and Corlett. It was torn down to build some of the infrastructure for BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) c.1967. Now the land is part of Laney College.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) made improvements to the Oakland city zoo in 1935-36 when it was located in Sequoia Park (now Joaquin Miller Park). In 1939, the zoo relocated to its present site in Durant Park in the East Oakland hills. WPA project cards show the approval of  $4,791 toward "Enlargement of elephant paddock in Sequoia Park; clearing out young Acacia growth in Park" in 1935  and $17,940 for "Landscaping - Sequoia and Heights Parks - Oakland, etc." in 1936 The WPA also built the Woodminster Amphitheater and Cascade in Joaquin Miller Park later in the 1930s.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed retaining walls in Long Beach, CA, between Ocean Boulevard and the Pacific Ocean. The existing wooden bulkhead "was not of sufficient height to protect adjacent streets and private property from ground swells which at high tide, deposited sand, flooded streets and blocked traffic on this main thoroughfare" (Connolly & Farman). Eighty six men were employed over seven months to construct a nine-foot high, 1900-foot long concrete wall. The eastern terminus is at Granada Avenue; the western terminus is at Bennett Avenue.

The Ogden River Project provides irrigation water for 25,000 acres of land along the Wasatch Front around Ogden UT, as well as supplemental water for the City of Ogden. The anchor of the project is Pineview Dam in Ogden Canyon and the resulting reservoir created from the waters of Ogden Creek.   Pineview Reservoir feeds a system of distribution canals to water users on the plains in and around Ogden.   The system is fed by the 5-mile long Ogden Canyon Conduit running down the north side of the canyon wall.  From there, a 25-mile long Ogden-Brigham Canal runs north toward Brigham...

The Ogden River Project provides irrigation water for 25,000 acres of land along the Wasatch Front around Ogden UT, as well as supplemental municipal water for the city of Ogden. The anchor of the project is Pineview Dam in Ogden Canyon and the resulting reservoir created from the waters of Ogden Creek.   The project includes a distribution system of canals branching off from Ogden Creek where it leaves the canyon: the Ogden-Brigham Canal, the South Ogden Highline Canal, and the lesser irrigation ditches that supply the farmers of the Weber Basin Conservancy District. The Ogden River Project was officially approved by...

The Farm Security Administration build this camp in 1939 to house black farm workers from the Caribbean. While there is still housing here, this is no longer a camp.

A 1943 article in the Washington Post reported paving and sewer work underway by on Oklahoma Avenue along Anacostia Park in Northeast DC, between Benning Road and C Street.  The work was being done by the Federal Works Agency (FWA).

Before turning off onto the main road that enters Okmulgee State Park, be sure follow state road 56 until you come to the spillway cascade. The Okmulgee Spillway, built in 1939-1940 by the Work Projects Administration, sits at the northeastern most point of the Lake Okmulgee Dam. The 40-foot-high by 250-foot- long cascade which is being nominated, is a series of upwardly rising limestone steps which buttress the original 1927-28 spiliway (built by a private contractor), on the dry side of the dam. Stone retaining walls buttress the dry side cuts that were made into the dam to accommodate the...

The Shelter House/Chapel was constructed with native limestone in 1937 as part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) project and renovated in 1984. The one-story, asymmetrical Mission-style chapel now houses the cemetery office. Oriented west, the building features an L-shaped footprint. The facade, located on the west elevation, has a parapet roof with a bell tower capped with brick trim. Two angel sculptures sit on each side of the bell tower. Two replacement doors are centered at this elevation. An opening with a replacement window also is located at the main elevation near the southwest corner of the chapel. An...

The Old Fort Community Building was built in 1937 with aid from the Works Progress Administration. Native river stone was used in its construction. It served as a community center and later an inn. Since 1973 the building has been home to the Mountain Gateway Museum and Heritage Center administered by the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. The museum interprets the history and culture of the mountain and foothills regions through exhibits and educational programming.

The Washington Post, September 8, 1933, reported on a Public Works Administration (PWA) disbursement for a number of federal buildings, including $3,121 for roof renovation on the old Post Office Department Building. On October 11, 1933, the paper also reported that: "Five Government buildings will get new window fixtures here at a cost of $77,324. The departments sharing in this grant are Post Office, Interstate Commerce, Labor, Justice and the auditorium which connects the Interstate Commerce Commission and the Labor Buildings. The work is expected to provide 150 men with jobs for three months." The building referred to in these articles is the...

Various sources reference the construction of the old, now abandoned high school gym as being done under the WPA. Local people refer to it as the Rock Gym referring to the rock on the school and surrounding wall that was quarried locally. All sources reference 1934 as the construction date, further research needed on project. It appears to have been constructed in the Art Deco style. No marker exists; however, holes on the south side of the building appear to be spaced to coincide with a plaque and a WPA marker.

On the east corner of Staunton Avenue and 7th Street in Parkersburg, Wood County, West Virginia (New Deal Era US 21, US 50 and WV 2) is the New Deal Highway Maker. In the same location there are two non-New Deal markers -- The Toll House which was marked by the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1925. This site was also marked with a Old Tollgate House State Historical marker in 1965 for the Old Toll House. The West Virginia historical marker program began in 1934 with the beginning research for the markers with the intention of placing markers around...

A new $17,800 school building at Olfen, Runnels county, was dedicated 3/26/39. The modern six- room structure was completed March 22. Attending the dedication was E. C. Grindstaff, county school superintendent; John C. Becker, architect who designed the building; the Rev. O. A. Boockman, Catholic priest at Olfen; Hugh Horn, of the Abilene Construction company, general contractors, and Glenn A. Rector, PWA engineer and inspector. The building was made possible by a 55 per cent PWA grant.

A 1940 edition of the Fresno Bee reported that Porterville had received $15,000 from the federal government for the Olive School Building. This was apparently a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project, finished in either 1940 or 1941. The New Deal portion of the building is now used as an annex to a newer school building.