Unmarked Sites

Artist Jason Herron sculpted "Erda" (1936) for South Pasadena High School in South Pasadena, CA, with Federal Arts Project (FAP) funds. The sculpture was painted terracotta. Los Angeles Public Library lists the sculpture as missing. According to a 1937 article in the Los Angeles School Journal, "Jason Herron is a young lady whose art study has included work under Merrill Gage at USC, Chamberlain in Pasadena, and one year of study at various places in Europe" (Wells, p. 25). Herron's extant New Deal–funded works in Los Angeles, CA, include the Power of Water Fountain (1935) at Lafayette Park and a sculpture at...

The former Giddings School at 315 E Street SE, built in 1887, was enlarged  in 1934 with the assistance of a Public Works Administration (PWA) grant to the DC Board of Education.  The J.R. Giddings school is historically significant by virtue of its role as the first all-black public school in Washington DC. The enlargement added 12 classrooms and an auditorium.  It was done in the same brick Colonial Revival style as the handsome old building. While we cannot be certain, it appears that wings were added on both sides of the original building, plus a low wing on the south side. The...

NOTE: none of the sources cited actually mentions the WPA... From the 1840s-1870s, the city of Springfield constructed and utilized an aqueduct system to bring in water from sources to the west of the city. Multiple collection sites, including Ludlow Reservoir, Borden Brook Reservoir, and Cobble Mountain Reservoir, were built prior to 1931 to hydrate the city. The West Parrish Filters project was constructed from 1939-1940 by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) from an expense of $500,000. The project was designed to improve water supply, water quality, and flood control system for local communities and surrounding areas. The project provided work for...

This small airport was part of a massive upgrading of the airports in the state after a January 1934 survey by Capt. Harry M. Jones with the intention of building a chain of airports in coastal towns, inland towns, and lake resorts. The airfield was originally built in 1935 by the Maine Emergency Relief Administration, a state division of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. It built 1 NW - SE 2,300 x 300 graded runway. It was listed as Calais in the MERA report. "St. Croix Airport apparently was closed at some point between 1996-2004."

This WPA Coast Guard Station at St. Simons Island, GA was built from 1935-1937. The building is still in existence, but is now a museum rather than a USCG facility. "In 1933, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, as part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), authorized the building of 45 United States Coast Guard Stations around the country. Later that same year, Georgia Senator Walter F. George, and Georgia Congressman Braswell Deen obtained an $115,000 appropriation from Congress for the new Coast Guard Station and Boathouse to be built on St. Simons Island. Work began in the fall of 1935 and of...

Humboldt Redwoods State Park was established in 1921 with purchases of some of the last remaining Old Growth stands of Coast Redwoods by the Save the Redwoods League. It has since been expanded several times and now includes over 51,000 acres, of which 17,000 are old growth redwood stands.   California did not establish a state parks system until 1928, and little improvement work had been done at Humboldt Redwoods before the New Deal.  When the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) arrived at Dyerville camp in 1933, the young men got to work right away developing the state park.  CCC company 1607 built...

The New Deal contributed many residential buildings for park staff at Rocky Mountain National Park, particularly in the large cluster of housing next to the utility area – the main maintenance station for the park which is near the Beaver Meadows entrance. The National Park Service began construction of the area in the 1920s and completed it in the 1930s with the help of Public Works Administration (PWA) funding and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) labor.  The New Deal agencies built four residences,  renovated six others and left behind some CCC camp buildings. The overall style of the buildings is national park rustic,...

The Forest Service ranger station at Stanley, Idaho was constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1933. It replaced an earlier ranger station built in the 1900s.  The style is Park Rustic, popular for parks and forest service facilities at the time, built with whole logs and a large veranda porch. The Idaho State Historical Society describes the structure as follows: "The Stanley Ranger Station includes a one-and-one-half story log ranger station and a one-story log outbuilding. Both sit on concrete foundations, and their round-log walls employ saddle notching with logs extending well beyond the joint. The 1933 station itself is...

The Alley Dwelling Authority (ADA) funded the construction of the Stanton Court Garages in Washington, DC between 1935 and 1936. This project consisted of seven 1-car garages located in the area bounded by L, M, 23rd, and 24th streets NW, probably in the alley that runs between today’s West End Neighborhood Library and the Gibson Condominiums. It is unknown to the Living New Deal if any remnants of the original Stanton Court Garages still exist, but it is unlikely. 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,...

This historic CCC structure is located just west of Upper Applegate Rd and on a hillside, across the road from the current ranger station in Jackson County, OR. The building is listed in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). This former ranger office was also constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1934. "The agency utilized Companies 5463, 290 and 926 of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) stationed at nearby Camp Applegate F-41 to build new structures at the Star Ranger Station complex. The CCC construction activity occurred between 1934 and 1936 (Brown 1934-1937; RRNF. Historical Photograph Collection, ·File...

In 1935-36, the Public Works Administration (PWA) paid for the partial reconstruction of a 1913 wooden school building (removal of the 3d floor) and the addition of a new wing that added six classrooms. Verplanck and Graves (p. 113) provide further detail: "Similar to Patrick Henry School, Starr King Elementary was deemed unsafe due to vulnerability to fire and earthquakes. The scope of work for Starr King removal of the third floor and the construction of a reinforced-concrete addition containing six classrooms. The work was designed by City Architect Charles H. Sawyer and completed in 1935 or 1936." The follow-up to the...

Civilian Conservation Corps workers from Camp Canyon Creek constructed a warming cabin to the south of Starr Ridge and just to the east of Highway 395 sometime between 1937 and 1940. The log structure with its impressive fireplace and chimney sits adjacent to a groomed sledding hill.

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 avocational historian worked on the project. 5,000 sites were collected with 440 markers selected by the commission for placement. Most of these along 44 state and federal highways. The money came from the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA). In addition to the markers, a book of the 440 markers was published in a format easy to...

Between 1939 and 1940, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) worked at the state fish hatchery northeast of Huntsville, Texas as part of project 65-1-66-175. The WPA reworked the ponds to remove sediment, added an 8-inch water supply line and concrete drainage boxes. They improved the drainage ditches by digging them out, rebuilding some with rock masonry walls and adding culverts where necessary. They also widened some of the levees around the ponds to allow trucks to drive on them. Years later, the lake that fed the ponds of the hatchery drained when its dam failed in a storm, forcing the closure...

The Work Projects Administration constructed and improved 27.75 miles of SH 16, between Brackeen Drive and State Highway 254, and State Highway 254 in Palo Pinto County below Possum Kingdom Dam between 1940-1942. This section, the corridor from Brackeen Drive to State Highway 254, included the masonry bridge across the Brazos River, a masonry guard wall around Kimberlin Mountain, and 21 masonry culverts. Of the 21, 16 are still in original condition. The guard wall is approximately 1,800 feet long with limestone block crenellations spaced along the wall. Of the 129 original crenellations, 88 remain unaltered or undamaged and in original...

The federal government (probably the Bureau of Public Roads) provided $75,000 for grading and shoulders on 15 miles of the county road between Orland and Willows, closely paralleling the Southern Pacific Railroad tracks.  This is part of today's State Highway 99W, which runs north-south just east of Interstate 5.

The State Highway Division Region 1 Office, originally known as the State Highway Division Office and State Police Headquarters Building, was constructed in 1938 by Works Progress Administration (WPA) employees. The total cost of the building, landscaped grounds, and associated out-buildings was $118,287 with $78,541 provided by WPA funds and the remaining provided by the state. The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) state office building sits adjacent to Pacific Highway 99E, Oregon’s first “superhighway.” This section of the roadway named McLoughlin Boulevard had only been operating for three years when the rustic style building opened its doors for use as the...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) continued work at this facility from the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). WPA project No. 65-3-2140, Approval Date 10-25-35, $1.045, "Paint Int. State Industr. Home. ERA" (Federal Emergency Relief Administration) Excerpt from Oakland Wiki: "The Industrial Home for the Adult Blind (sometimes the Industrial Home of Mechanical Trades for the Adult Blind) was established in 1885 at the corner of Telegraph Avenue and Thirty-sixth Street, on the eastern half of the former Peter Thomson estate. The Home went through a number of changes, and then became the State-operated Orientation Center for the Blind in 1951. In...

As part of 7 initial CWA projects in Somerset County, was $7,000 for a portion of Maine State Route 43 from Farmington to Anson.

The Staten Island Technical High School building was originally constructed as New Dorp High School during the 1930s, with the aid of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds (PWA Docket No. NY 8882). The large building is Georgian Neoclassical in design, bears a 1935 cornerstone, and houses some 1,500 students. It is typical of the dozens of schools built in New York with New Deal aid. These schools were all large, modern facilities, equipped with auditoriums, libraries, cafeterias and gymnasiums, and were often done in sober Neoclassical style. New Dorp was relocated to a new building in 1982 and Staten Island Technical High School...

The Works Progress Administration project 65-1-66-2583 removed the streetcar rails from Houston and Commerce Streets in downtown San Antonio in 1940. San Antonio streetcar service began on June 22, 1878. San Antonio's streetcar system reached its peak at ninety miles of track in 1926. As the Great Depression took hold, the declining amount of people living in downtown San Antonio, where the bulk of the streetcars' ridership occurred, were less able to buy tickets. Buses and automobiles were also adding to the competition for riders. San Antonio became the first major U.S. city to abandon streetcar service. The last car ran...

The Public Works Administration (PWA) approved the Crook County School District's request for funds to construct a new high school in September 1935. A local bond raised $29,000 for the project and PWA funds provided the rest. Over the years, this one-story building has served several purposes, including its use as the school district's high school from 1936 to 1951. It is currently the Steins Pillar Elementary School. Portland area architect John Ernest Tourtleotte designed the $52,000 building in a style commonly known as PWA Moderne. The simple, modern lines of the school are accented with details that include both the...

The Works Progress Administration built the Stenner Creek Bridge in San Luis Obispo. The work included the following: "Demolish old bridge and construct timber truss bridge, over Stenner Creek on Foothill Boulevard, near the city of San Luis Obispo, in San Luis Obispo County. Not on Federal Aid Highway. County owned property." WPA Proj. No. A10-7-36, Oct. 19, 1936, Total sponsor and Federal funds $14,529, Months Spent 10, Average Employed 41. According to a NOAA Technical Memorandum, Stenner and San Luis Obispo creeks suffered destructive flooding on January 18, 1971, which likely damaged or destroyed the bridge. The current bridge is similar to...

One of the several areas of Groton State Forest developed by the CCC was Stillwater State Park: "This Park was originally a picnic area with stone fireplaces. In 1938, four campsites, a central bathroom, a picnic shelter with fireplaces on both ends, and a small caretaker’s house were built. All facilities are still in use."

A 1939 report on WPA work in Southern California described the construction of Stocker Avenue: "Work Projects No. 1638 and 7240, sponsored by Los Angeles County, was constructed to provide outlet facilities to Crenshaw Boulevard for the residents of the Baldwin Hills District, lying between Crenshaw Boulevard and La Brea Boulevard and is a link in the route from this district to Inglewood and the beaches. The work consisted of grading and surfacing with rock and oil approximately 612,000 square feet of roadway and installing a drain consisting of 300 lineal feet of concrete pipe, ranging from 30" to 54" in diameter,...

Stolte Memorial Field was constructed in 1939-1940 with labor provided by the W.P.A. Funding was provided by the Alumni Association and private donations. Town reports describe the project as follows: 1939: "The project has been carried on with W.P.A. labor. The splendid co-operation of the town officials has made it possible to push forward this work. Incidentally, this has given employment to many men who would otherwise have gone on the relief rolls and the material used has been furnished without cost to the town. Many citizens have been much interested in this project and it is planned, this spring,...

The CCC built bleachers and a surrounding rock wall for Fredericktown's high school baseball diamond. The project features a tall rock wall with periodic columns for strength that is capped with concrete. It surrounds 3 sides of a large baseball field. One of the corners has a curved façade.

The Stone Cottage in Addison, Texas, originally called the Addison Community Building, was built by the Work Projects Administration (WPA) between 1939 and 1940 as the permanent meeting place for the Addison Home Demonstration Club. The official project number was 65-1-66-362. The building originally cost $4,600, which the Addison Home Demonstration Club helped raise through bake sales. The building is rock veneer construction on a concrete foundation. It had a kitchen, restrooms and fireplace. The building was the original home of the Addison Centre Theatre until it fell into disrepair. In 1998 the City Council voted to remodel the cottage at a...

The Public Works Administration (PWA) funded the rural Stonybrook School (of the then Stonybrook School District) in southeast Alameda County.  It replaced a wooden, one-room schoolhouse (see photo). Unfortunately, the PWA record does not give an exact location or date for the school. We surmise that it was built somewhere in Stonybrook Canyon, north of Niles Canyon, in southeastern Alameda County – still a very rural area in the 1930s. A 1924 map of school districts in the county shows a Stonybrook District in that area (see below) and there is no other place anywhere in Alameda County with the name...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)  built the Storm Mountain Picnic Area in the lower reaches of Big Cottonwood Canyon, a major recreational area for Salt Lake City.  The CCC young men, supervised by the US Forest Service, laid out picnic sites, built a footbridge over Big Cottonwood Creek and rip-rapped the creek.  They also constructed two stone comfort stations (restrooms), which are no longer in use.   The Storm Mountain picnic area includes a beautiful stone amphitheater. The picnic area is not marked as CCC in origin, but the amphitheater is.  The small dam just above the Storm Mountain picnic area is part...

During the latter half of the 1930s the federal Works Progress Administration furnished the labor for the construction of a stormwater runoff channel at Gay Street in Rockland, Maine. Rockland's 2011-12 annual town report brings to light a problem with an old New Deal project. "Since 1987 there have been increasing reoccurrences of major flooding of Lindsey Brook caused by: deterioration of a 74-year-old system built as a Depression Era WPA project"

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) planted around 400 street trees in the city of Martinez in the winter of 1933-34. The plantings consisted of walnuts and sycamores.  (Henderson 2014) Susana Park had just been deeded to the city by the Masonic Lodge, which stands nearby.  Many of the trees in the park are probably planted by the CWA.  Rock work at the entrances to the park may well be CWA, but that cannot be confirmed (benches connected to the low rock walls were removed in a recent renovation of the park). A special ceremony was held at Susana Park to plant trees...

Many street improvements were made in Prescott, Arizona during the Great Depression under a project funded by the federal Public Work Administration (PWA). It is difficult today to appreciate the importance of this kind of generic public works in a day when many city streets were still dirt or gravel. It is usually impossible to pinpoint the streets that were improved (leveling, widening, paving, gutters, storm sewers, etc.) without going into the archives of the local public works department, and most streets have been redone more than once over the last 75 years.  

A project to improve pedestrian and vehicle safety at 12 intersections in the city of Oakland was undertaken with the assistance of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which provided relief labor for the job. State funds came from a 1/4 cent gas tax.  The improvements – called "traffic channelization" at the time – involved adding median strips, boulevard dividers, corner dividers, and so on.  Some of the work is still in place, but most of the intersections have been greatly altered or have even disappeared beneath freeways since the 1940s. Frank C. Myers and John G. Marr designed the projects and City...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) undertook a program of planting 10,000 street trees around the City of Oakland in 1938 to 1940.  Some $113,000 was earmarked out of a large grant of over $1.5 million for parks improvements in the city made by the WPA in 1938.  The work was supervised by Edgar Sanborn, City Forester. We do not have detailed information on which streets enjoyed the benefits of this program. 

The May 31, 1934 issue of the Illustrated Daily News reports on New Deal help with installing street lights in Madison, Maine. Powerful Street Lights Mounted on 31 Ornamental Poles Illuminate Madison New Street Light System Recently Installed Under Direction of E. W. Adams Extends From Hunnewell Corner to M.C.R.R. Crossing -- Real Credit To Town   An important epoch in the history of Madison Improvement was brought to completion of Monday evening May 21st with the turning on for the first time of the new ornamental street lights which have been in the process of installation since last November, the powerful lights giving...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) paved numerous streets in Bisbee, Arizona, from 1935 to 1938. According to the Official Bulletin of the Works Progress in Arizona Volume I, No. 5, May 1936, “A project of Works Progress Administration sponsored by the City of Bisbee and providing for the paving of nearly all unsurfaced city streets is estimated at 65% completed by project officials. Widening and other improvement work has been completed. Work has been completed on O.K. Street, Howell Avenue, Shearer, Dubacher Canyon, Temby Avenue, Quality Hill, High Road, Higgins Hill, Quarry Canyon, Mayor Street, Swimming Pool Road, Opera Drive, Roberts...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) paved streets on the south side of Palestine, Texas in the fall of 1940. Some of the streets paved were Angelina Street, Michaeux Avenue and Highland Avenue. The WPA used an iron ore base with an asphalt top.

By 1923 only about five miles of Tyler's 130 miles of street were paved and most residential streets remained unpaved. A bond for street paving passed in 1925 by Tyler provided funding for continued street paving, some of it in south central residential areas. When Federal money became available in the 1930s, the City applied for grants to continue the paving efforts. Paving using both brick and asphalt was conducted by the Civil Works Administration (CWA), the Progress Works Administration (PWA) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the mid-to-late 1930s (City of Tyler Engineering Records). By 1942 about 20 miles...

A substantial street improvement and paving project was undertaken in Flagstaff, Arizona during the Great Depression with the assistance of federal Public Work Administration (PWA) funds.  It covered 86 blocks in the central area, now the historic district of the city, and included curbs and gutters.  The start date for the project is uncertain but the major work was done in 1938-39. "A major improvement that would have been long delayed without federal assistance was installing curbs and gutters and paving streets. The project began with a $30,600 PWA grant matching a city 10-year, 3 percent bond issue of $22,000 for curbs and...