Unmarked Sites

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) did the initial development work at Point Lobos State Reserve in the late 1930s. The CCC enrollees worked out of a camp at Pfeiffer-Big Sur State Park Because Point Lobos is  meant to guard the environment in a relatively natural state, the CCC work here was minimal, including an access road, a few picnic areas, small parking areas, overlooks and paths (with some stone steps and retaining walls).  

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) did the initial development work at Point Lobos State Reserve in the late 1930s. The CCC enrollees worked out of a camp at Pfeiffer-Big Sur State Park Because Point Lobos is  meant to guard the environment in a relatively natural state, the CCC work here was minimal, including an access road, a few picnic areas, small parking areas, coastal paths (with stone steps and bracing), and a couple ranger residences.    

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) did the initial development work at Point Lobos State Reserve in the late 1930s. The CCC enrollees worked out of a camp at Pfeiffer-Big Sur State Park Because Point Lobos is  meant to guard the environment in a relatively natural state, the CCC work here was minimal, including an access road, a few picnic areas, small parking areas, overlooks and paths (with some stone steps and retaining walls).   The CCC built and renovated a handful of rustic buildings for ranger residences and park maintenance.  Some appear to be the original if modified structures, but public access...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built rock retaining walls in Point Richmond, a neighborhood of Richmond CA.   The most notable wall is found at 220 Bishop Avenue and was built in 1940. It is six feet high and runs the length of the property, about 40 feet.  This wall is constructed of finely-cut, multi-colored stone, which the property owner purchased and gave to the WPA workers to use. Another wall on Bishop Alley is from the same time period.  It consists of three levels: dark stone along the base, then solid gray concrete, and finally colored stone set in concrete....

Records indicate that Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees constructed six stone drinking fountains with gabled shelters around the park in 1935. Five remain. The drinking fountains are classified as Park Rustic. They are not marked; only two sites in the park are marked individually as CCC.   But the old gatehouse is now a CCC Pocket Museum with exhibits and the Nature Center has an exhibit that lists all the structures CCC enrollees worked on.

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees at Pokagon State Park created a series of three fish rearing ponds, originally with dams between them, fed by an existing spring. They were completed in 1935 and used to assure Lake James would be well stocked with desirable fish. Many state parks in Indiana had such fish rearing ponds, most of them constructed by New Deal agencies.  With changes in conservation practices, the ponds were left to languish, but remnants are still visible in the winter months. The former ponds are not marked.  Only two sites in the park are marked individually as CCC; but the...

Around 1937, CCC workers completed a 2½ story service building, which today houses park offices. It is not in a public area.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built overnight cabins at Pokagon State Park in 1940, which are still in use. The four cabins are classified as Parks Rustic. The cabins are not marked as CCC, but there is now a CCC Pocket Museum in the old gatehouse and the Nature Center has an exhibit that lists all the structures CCC enrollees worked on.  

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees completed the Potawatomi Inn bathhouse in 1935.  Records are sparse, so it is unclear whether CCC workers remodeled/completed a building begun by Civil Works Administration (CWA) in 1933-34, or the CCC constructed an entirely new bathhouse. The structure has been used to house boat rentals for several decades. The style is classified as Parks Rustic, although it is a very modest example. The bathhouse is not marked as CCC. But there is now a CCC Pocket Museum with exhibits in the old gatehouse and the Nature Center has an exhibit that lists all the structures CCC enrollees worked on.    

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built the first toboggan slide. The original toboggan slide was built by the CCC 'boys' for their own recreational use while they were working on the park between 1934 and 1942.   It was so popular with the public that it has since been rebuilt, enlarged and remodeled several times, so the current structure is not the original nor contains any part of it. The toboggan slide is not marked as CCC, but the CCC is commemorated in other parts of Pokagon Park.  A permanent exhibit in the Nature Center lists all the structures they worked on and...

According to the park's website: "1940 Jack Zedaker leads boys from the National Youth Administration in building two shelter houses (Zedaker Pavilion and the Shelter House at “Indian Spring” near Gutknecht Entrance), four footbridges, planting of trees, construction of trail markers, improvements to trails, and the creation of a parking area. 18,000 maple trees planted, 50,000 willows along Yellow Creek for erosion control."

Report of the Overseers of the Poor, 1934: "The barn and ell were shingled, labor being paid out of the F.E.R.A funds, and cost of materials taken from funds raised for Repairs to Town Buildings." A few years after this FERA project, the town voted to quit using the town farm. The house and buildings were sold off in 1937. The house remains today and is a private residence.

"The Los Angeles Police Gymnasium Building, Work Project No. 5034. Sponsored by the City of Los Angeles, is located in Elysian Park in the city of Los Angeles. The purpose of this project was to create a training center for the Los Angeles Police Department and to provide modern housing, recreational and administrative facilities. The building is located against a steep and wooded hillside and is constructed of reinforced concrete foundations, reinforced concrete exterior walls and floors, steel roof trusses and composition and tile roof. All interior walls, partitions and other framing are of wood.   "The basement, approximately 3200 square...

Funds for road improvements at the foot of Seventh Street in the Port of Oakland were secured through the State Emergency Relief Administration (SERA) in 1935 (Minutes of the Port Commissioners). SERA was funded by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) of the New Deal. The improvements were to serve an expansion of the Albers Brothers milling plant, which had occupied the site alongside the Southern Pacific mole since 1918. Albers Bros. leased the site from the Port of Oakland. The Albers Bros. mill and grain silos (completed in 1940) were a landmark of the port for many years until torn down...

This eventual WPA project was originally begun during the Hoover administration, in 1931. The current $625,000 pier took over 3 years to complete. Not part of the original appropriation, Congress approved the construction of a new pier head light in 1934, and it is likely this that was completed under the WPA. Constructed in what is considered the "Art Deco" style at a cost of $35,000, the light features a huge concrete base to provide increased elevation. Also, the uniquely arched base of the structure provides mariners with an improved view of the surroundings, allowing for safer passage. The original black lantern...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the original Portland Airport (now Portland International, PDX) in the late 1930s. "The present PDX site was purchased by the Portland City Council in 1936. At the time it was 700 acres (280 ha) bordered by the Columbia River in the north and the Columbia Slough in the south. The city council issued $300,000 and asked the Port of Portland to sponsor a $1.3 million Works Progress Administration (WPA) grant to develop the site into a 'super airport'. The project provided badly needed Great Depression-era jobs and was completed in 1940." (Wikipedia) Given subsequent enlargements and improvements...

Doors of the Milwaukie Junior High School opened in November 1936 after the structure's construction with funding from a Public Works Administration grant ($53,118) and a local bond issue ($65,000). The new building replaced a wooden school a short distance away that was demolished for construction of Milwaukie's City Hall. In 2002, the Portland Waldorf School acquired the red brick building and currently occupies it. The Portland based architect Luther L. Dougan designed the Georgian-style school building with Walter E. Kelly serving as the site architect. Portland contractor Joseph H. Anderson won the bid to construct the structure. As noted in...

The Downtown Station post office in Golden, Colorado was constructed in 1940 with federal Treasury Department funds. The cornerstone has been hidden or obliterated during the addition of a ramp, but there is a local landmark plaque put up by the City of Golden. It is a simple single-story building in a Classical Moderne style with a green metal roof. The small tower on top is unusual, as if the architect was undecided between Moderne and Federalist styles.  There is a notable, round metal sculpture over the door and it appears that the entrance has been modified by the addition of...

The Oak Park post office was designed to accommodate the village’s growing population which rose from 39,858 in 1920 to 80,000 in 1930. Congress appropriated $600,000 prior to new deal legislation in 1931 with an additional $70,000 appropriated in 1935 to complete the project which had been delayed. The post office sits on a prominent parcel of downtown Oak Park which was purchased at a cost of $175,000 from the George R. Hemingway brokerage office. The building was dedicated on August 21, 1936 and remains an active post office today.

A post office was built for Redondo Beach, California, in 1935 with Treasury Department funds. According to the December 13, 1935 Redondo Reflex, the Post Office was dedicated on December 7, 1935. The New Deal post office, located at 201 South Catalina Avenue, has since been demolished as part of the 'urban renewal' of the old town of Redondo Beach in the late 1960s. New Deal artworks created for the facility were moved to the current post office.  

The Treasury Department funded the construction of the United States Post Office in Jacksonville, Texas. The building continues to serve the community as an event venue, and other private businesses are located there as well, including (as of 2023) a coffee shop. The 1933 Jacksonville Post Office is a significant example of the small town post office designs produced by the U.S. Treasury Department. The first federal building constructed in Cherokee County, it represents the local effects of a substantial new program of public building construction undertaken by the federal government. Under the guidance of U.S. Supervising Architect James A. Wetmore,...

Sometimes mis-attributed to the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the historic former post office at 501 5th Avenue in Longmont, Colorado was a New Deal project funded by the Treasury Department. The building presently (as of 2018) houses the Aspen Center for Child Development. This building is the most visible local symbol of the Federal Government's efforts to provide economic relief to the nation during the Great Depression. In 1933, the Roosevelt Administration initiated the National Recovery Act. One facet of this program was to stimulate industrial production by pouring money into the economic life of the nation through a program of public...

"It is an excellent example of Neo-Classical architecture in a small Federal building. The simple brick building exhibits the Greek elements of Doric columns supporting an unenriched architrave at its main entry. Built in 1935 under the auspices of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Louis Simon, Supervising Architect. After the passage of the Public Buildings Act of 1926, there was an increase in the construction of Federal Buildings in the United States. Public building construction was expanded in the 1930s to provide jobs during the Depression. It was during this period that the courthouse was built. Originally designed for use...

The impressive neoclassical brick post office in Little Falls, New York was originally constructed in 1907-09. A much plainer annex building was added as part of a New Deal project, 1938-40, carried out with federal Treasury Department funds. Jerry Gleason was the contractor for the work, which consisted of the building extension and remodeling.

The Salina United States Post Office and Federal Building (c. 1937-1938) is located at 211 W. Iron in Salina, Saline County, Kansas. The two story, flat roofed, limestone building has a northern facade orientation. The building measures approximately one hundred and twenty feet from east to west and one hundred and seventeen feet from north to south. The facade of the building is comprised of three groups of three multipaned, metal windows. These are linearly aligned windows with inset marble panels between the first and second levels. The Section sculpture projects from the building on the wall space that flanks...

Four plaster bas-reliefs, depicting a buffalo, bear, ram, and lion, decorate the exterior of the Inglewood CA main post office. They sit between the first and second floor windows of the front of the building. These sculptures were created by Gordon Newell and Sherry Peticolas in 1937 and funded by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts (not the arts programs of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), as sometimes thought). The artist and provenance of the abstract relief with an eagle over the entrance of the post office is unknown to us. The 1940 granite statue of the dog "Rex" in front of the...

The historic Burley post office houses an example of New Deal artwork: an oil-on-canvas mural entitled "Pioneers on the Oregon Trail along the Snake River," painted by Elizabeth Lochrie in 1938. The work was commissioned by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts.

A mural by Henry La Cagnina, created under the Treasury Bureau's Section of Fine Arts program, was completed and installed in the post office in 1943 at a cost of $700.00. "Harvest" illustrated the important truck farming industry in the Crystal Springs, Mississippi area in the 1930s (Enzweiler, 1992). La Cagnina's mural featured farm workers and women packers preparing vegetables for shipment. Crystal Springs was known as the "tomatroplis of the world" during that period, and shipped vegetables all over the US via train, apparently providing employment and income that benefitted the community during the years of the Great Depression (Nelson-Easley,...

Isidore Toberoff's mural, "Erosion, Reclamation and Conservation of the Soil" was completed in 1942. The oil-on-canvas work was completed under the auspices of the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. Toberoff was a 1942 Pulitzer Prize winner in art, and while himself recovering from war injuries, helped to provide therapy for wounded soldiers in the occupational therapy program at Fort Benjamin Harrison in 1943 (Bower, 1984).

This mural was painted in 1945 by Thomas Savage in the Eupora, MS post office. He was a farmer from Iowa who excelled in painting farm scenes; in later years he would work as a commercial artist. He did three Treasury Section of Fine Arts murals, one in Jefferson, Iowa, one in New Hampton, Iowa and this lesser known one in Eupora. The title is "Cotton Farm".

The historic post office building in Hubbard, Ohio houses an example of New Deal artwork, Hubert Mesibov’s painting, "Steel Industry for Hubbard." The work, one of 19 commissioned for northeastern Ohio post offices, was commissioned by the federal Treasury Section of Fine Arts.

The oil-on-canvas mural "History of California" is a seven-part mural spanning the large lobby of the historic Huntington Park Post Office. It was painted by Norman Chamberlain, assisted by Jean Swiggett and Ivan Bartlett, in 1937 with funding from the Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP). "The scene of a racially integrated workforce on the south wall is noteworthy because this kind of depiction is rare in southern California New Deal murals" (Dunitz, p. 229).  

The Lancaster CA post office contains a striking oil-on-canvas mural by Spanish-born painter Jose Moya del Pino, who moved to San Francisco in the 1930s and worked on the famous Coit Tower murals. It would have been commissioned, like all post office murals, by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts, and was installed when the post office was completed in 1941.  The mural is called "Hauling Water Pipe through Antelope Valley" and depicts a long mule-team hauling carts full of pipes through the Mojave Desert. This theme is quite distinctive compared to most historical murals showing scenes full of local notables...

An oil-on-canvas mural entitled "The Uncovering of the Comstock Lode" was painted in 1940 by Ejnar Hansen and installed in the lobby of the Lovelock NV post office.  It is still in place today, reminding people of the immense role of the silver boom in the history of Nevada (and, indeed, the United States as a whole).

The Martinez downtown post office contains an oil-on-canvas New Deal mural, "The Road to Eldorado" by noted California artists Edith Hamlin and Maynard Dixon. It was funded by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts in 1939. The subject matter of the mural appears to be a selection of early settlers of Martinez, with the city and the Carquinez Strait in the background (at the edges), including a Californio (Indian?), prospector and sailor on the left and a businessman and town women on the right, with a postal rider in the middle (in buckskin).  The title seems deftly ironic, but not critical. F0r...

"The Crossroads Town" was painted by Emil Bisttram, a Hungarian-born New Mexico artist who served as the New Mexico supervisor of the first federal art project (PWAP) (Flynn, 2012). "Even the most peaceful scene--the townscape in the Ranger, Texas, Post Office, from 1939--has a story to tell. The artist found Ranger a virtual ghost town but gave hope to the former boomtown with a picture of the clean, prosperous place it could once again become. Hope on the wall, for a mere $880 (the artist's unprincely fee!)" (Marling, 2004).

"LaSalle's Quest for the Mississippi" was painted in 1939 by Elsie Driggs and "...depicts the story of LaSalle's travels just before he discovered the mouth of the Mississippi" (Kimmerle, 2008, p. 37). Driggs painted primarily in the Precisionist style, although "she adjusted...in order to make the mural more suitable as a work of public art using a more narrative composition" in the post office mural (Fine Lines, 2009, p. 9). Driggs began the study in 1936 as a watercolor on paper, and the completed work was hung in Rayville in 1939.

Lucile Blanch (aka Lucille Blanch, Lucile Lunquist Blanch, Lucile Lundquist-Blanch, & Lucille Lundquist-Blanch) painted "Rural Mississippi-From Early Days to Present" for the Tylertown, Mississippi post office. According to Deborah Purnell (2004), it was "actually a fresco painted directly onto the wall" and Blanch was "one of the few artists who actually painted the mural in the same town for which the work was commissioned. She took great pleasure in talking to townsfolk about the progress of the painting, and they, in turn, enjoyed seeing places they knew develop in the work." The mural was completed in 1941. Blanch, born in Hawley,...

Henrietta Shore painted a mural, "Monterey Bay," for the Monterey Post Office in 1937, with support from the Treasury Section of Fine Arts.  Unfortunately, Shore's mural has disappeared and its whereabouts are unknown to us.

The Post Office in Ford City houses a New Deal artwork titled "Glass Making" by Josephine Mather. The ivory colored bas relief was made using Carrara structural glass.