Unmarked Sites

An 840 x 965 ft reservoir that added 82 million gallons of storage to the existing 60 million gallon reservoir that was already on site. The reservoir is lined with 6" of reinforced concrete and the roof has 21/2" slab on concrete joists and girders, supported on circular columns spaced at 25' intervals. It was part of a $12,000,000 improvement program for the SF water supply system (the PWA-funded expansion of the Hetch Hetchy system, which included raising O’Shaughnessy Dam, the Pulgas Water Temple, and more) financed by a bond issue with the aid of a PWA grant in 1933. It...

Batch field house was built in 1936 with the aid of the Public Works Administration (PWA). Set against the football stadium, it is part of the larger University of Colorado athletic complex and still actively used for intramural sports.  "The new field house for the University of Colorado is approximately 144 by 296 feet in over-all dimensions. The large hall has an earth floor with a cinder running track 12 laps to the mile, and is provided with a removable wood basketball floor, 60 by 90 feet. Permanent bleachers seat approximately 2,000, and removable bleachers on both sides of the basketball...

Completed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1939, the Mary Rippon Outdoor theater is located on the University of Colorado campus between the Henderson Building (see post on Henderson Building) and the Hellems Art and Sciences Building.  Mary Rippon is believed to be the first female professor at the University of Colorado and the first woman in the United States to teach at a state university. The theater was designed by George Reynolds, a professor of English and one of the founders of the theater department. The theater was officially completed in 1939, but no plays were staged there until 1944.  Because...

Built in 1937 by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the University's Henderson Building houses the Museum of Natural History.  The building cost nearly $200,000 to build, including furnishings.  In 1951, the building was named in honor of Judge Junius Henderson, appointed curator of the university museum in 1903.  The original layout of the building included archeology and biology halls on the ground floor, an art gallery and geology hall on the main floor; classrooms on the second floor; and laboratories, storerooms, and a darkroom on the top floor. The building is a representative work of noted architect Charles Z. Lauder, who designed...

Murphy Hall may have been a New Deal project dating to the late 1930s. It was constructed between 1938-1940 as a new home for journalism.

Barnard was built in 1938 as a women's dormitory, and attached to existing dormitory Isom Hall, built in 1929. It is currently used to house ROTC at the University of Mississippi. It is defined as a "contributing building" in the historic center of the campus (Master Plan 2009, University of Mississippi).

Kennon Observatory, one of 39 buildings constructed by the PWA on the campus during the years 1936-1941, was designated a Mississippi Landmark in 2011. "Kennon Observatory was constructed in 1939, and once again, R. W. Naef was the architect.  Naef apparently held the reins to all of the New Deal construction on campus during those years."   (https://misspreservation.com/) Dr. William Lee Kennon was "instrumental in securing the funding for Lewis Hall and Kennon Observatory, and conceived the building design (University of Mississippi, Department of Physics and Astronomy history). An adaptation of classicism (J. Baughn, Mississippi Department of Archives and History), the observatory faces due...

The Big Timber Pioneer reported in late 1934 that the Public Works Administration (PWA) approved $181,000 for "improvements and equipment" for what was then known as the Montana Normal College at Dillon. Of that, $100,000 came as a loan and $81,000 as an outright grant. We do not know more about what was done with the federal funding, but we suspect that the Main auditorium was constructed at the time. Mathews Hall and the Business & Technology Building also possibly date to the 1930s. And the project might have included landscaping and paths. More information is needed. Montana...

The Journalism Building on the University of Montana campus in Missoula, now known as Stone Hall, was constructed with Public Works Administration funding in 1936-7.  The three-story brick structure originally housed the Journalism School and the printing press of the student newspaper, the Montana Kaimin, and now is the home of the Department of Geology, the College of Forestry and Conservation and the Central and Southwest Asian Studies Center. According to the Montana Historical Society: "Dean Arthur Stone pitched four tents near the Oval in 1914, thereby founding the University’s School of Journalism. An old bicycle shed and later World War I...

Located on the University of Oregon campus. Work on the ornamental Dads' Gates began in August 1940. They were formally dedicated on February 8, 1941, as part of the 14th annual Dad's Day celebration weekend. The UO Dads Club was the sponsor and underwriter of the project. The Dads Club was a patron-parent organization established in 1927. The concept for the gates began in 1938 and was supported with funding from the Dads Club with additional support from a PWA program. Abbot Lawrence, a UO architecture graduate and son of Ellis Lawrence, created the design that was executed by metal...

In 1935 when a baseball park was constructed near McArthur Court, plans got under way to create formal gates and entrances. The park was named Howe Field for Herbert Crombie Howe, an English professor and athletics supporter. Early on, Fred Cuthbert, UO's landscape architect, and Orion B. Dawson, blacksmith, were involved in the designs. Dawson was concurrently working on iron projects at Timberline Lodge. Funding for the project came from the Works Projects Administration, several UO classes, the Soldiers' Memorial Fund, and the Associated Students of the University of Oregon. The gates, sometimes known as the Soldiers' Memorial Gates, also...

The Public Works Administration paid for the construction of the United States Bureau of Mines building on the University of Utah campus in 1939-40.  It was designed by Cannon and Mullen architects.  The building was demolished recently to make way for the new Frederick Albert Sutton building of the College of Mines & Earth Sciences – or, more specifically, the parking garage for the Sutton complex. In 1938, the land had been deeded to the U. S. Government by the University of Utah, so a federal facility could be built on the campus.  In 1981, the Bureau of Mines property was deeded back to the university, along...

James Watrous painted a tempera-on-gesso mural cycle consisting of nine 6' tall panels, called "The Story of Paul Bunyan,"  in the UW Memorial Student Union. The works were painted in 1935 with funds provided by the federal government, and given the date the murals were probably commissioned by the Federal Arts Project (FAP) of the Works Progress Administration.  That needs to be confirmed. The murals used to hang in the Paul Bunyan Room, but have disappeared. 

The Civil Works Administration built two bridges in 1934 to carry Shoal Creek Boulevard over Shoal Creek. The Upper Shoal Creek Bridge structure consists of a shallow concrete arch between concrete piers. The Lower Shoal Creek Bridge structure consists of flat concrete slabs between concrete piers. The two lane bridges are open to traffic and are contributing structures to the Old West Austin Historic District, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 12, 2003.

In 1933, the Public Works Administration allotted $15,000 for the construction of an Upper Potomac Interceptor extension. The Evening Star described this project in its September 3rd (Sunday Star) edition: “This will complete the last link of a sewer located along the north shore of the Potomac between Rock Creek and the District line to intercept sewage discharging directly into the Upper Potomac. The section to be built is in the line of Newark street between the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal and Conduit road .” In 1934, the District awarded a contract for the work to the Peter D’Amato Construction Company,...

The Union Creek Historic District on the upper Rogue River in Union Creek, Oregon, is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places because it is a fine representative of a type of rustic resort popular in the early 20th century and has been little altered since the 1930s.   There are almost one hundred buildings and other facilities in the Union Creek Historic District, almost all of which conform to the Forest Service plans of the 1920s and 30s.  Roughly a third were constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) from 1933 to 1942.   CCC enrollees worked during summer...

An article in the December 5 1935 Bangor Daily News reported that the Agriculture Dept. had approved 5 grade crossing elimination projects in Maine submitted by the State Highway Commission. "ON MAINE CENTRAL RAILROAD Androscoggin and Kennebec counties, between Leeds and Monmouth, on federal-aid highway route 1, construct grade separation strcuture, state funds, $475, federal funds $79,013." Route 1 was changed to US-202 and the former Maine Central RR following 1970's deregulation was merged into Guilford Transportation Inc./Pan Am Railways and recently into CSX Railroad.

An article in the Bangor Daily News reported that "The Department of agriculture announced today that presidential approval of five Maine grade crossing elimination projects involving $396,922 of the state's $1,425,861 quota for that purpose. The projects were submitted by the state highway commission.... Cumberland County, at Freeport on Federal-aid highway route 13, construct grade separation structure, state funds $2,197, federal funds $84,411." The TRIP organization lists this bridge as the 25 most heavily traveled structurally deficient bridges in Southern Maine with 12,946 vehicles traversing the bridge daily. Visually from google street view, one can see significant crumbling of the reinforced...

An article in the January 3rd, 1935 issue of the Mariposa Gazette mentions road work completed by a local Civilian Conservation Corps company, the Bootjack Camp No. 1925. "IMPROVING ROAD -- Under Richard Browne, camp foreman at Camp Bootjack CCC camp, from 100 to 125 boys have been at work on the 12 - mile fire road leading southeast from Usona to Mist. The road leaves the main Mariposa- Wawona road at Crumb Ranch and connects with the Raymond Road at Mrs. Heaton's place. It opens up a fine agricultural fruit and stock country, and a mining and timber area. It...

A 1941 article in the Washington Post reported the imminent start of paving on Utah Avenue NW between Nebraska Avenue and Pinehurst Circle at the Maryland border, to be conducted by the Bureau of Public Roads, a division of the Federal Works Administration (FWA).

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) made extensive improvements to the Utah State Hospital for the mentally handicapped in 1936-37.  WPA workers constructed a Recreation Center (now the Castle Amphitheater) and a Superintendent's Residence (now the Hospital Museum), as well as remodeling the Central Administration Building, upgrading the heating plant, and doing maintenance work on the 320-acre grounds of the hospital.    The former Central Administration Building was a large Victorian structure and apparently the WPA renovation work included removal of gothic spires from the old building. Unfortunately, that historic building has been demolished and replaced by a modern administration building of...

Lund Hall on the Utah State University campus in Logan, Utah, was constructed in 1936-37 with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA). Architect of this Women's Residence Hall was the Salt Lake City-based firm of Young & Hansen and the general contractor was Frank Campion. It was "...one of over 230 public works buildings constructed in Utah under various New Deal programs during the Depression years of the 1930s and '40s. The construction of public works buildings, of which only 130 are extant and well preserved, not only offered temporary work relief, but also provided long-term benefits in the form...

The utility area is the principle maintenance station of Rocky Mountain National Park. It is located near the Beaver Meadows entrance at Estes Park CO. It is a large complex of functional buildings, including offices, shops, garages, and storage, centered around a maintenance yard and machine shop (plus a substantial residential area for park employees).  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 CCC was present in the park from 1933 to 1942 and...

The Alley Dwelling Authority (ADA) funded the construction of the V Street Houses in Washington DC between 1936 and 1938. It appears that the V Street Houses no longer exist. They were described as being constructed “in the square directly west of that containing the Williston Apartments” (National Capital Housing Authority report, 1945). Today, however, that area contains houses and apartments that are part of the larger Kelly Miller housing complex. (Note: It is possible that some of the V Street Houses still exist, in modified form, as part of the Kelly Miller townhomes . More research, and a possible on-site evaluation, would probably...

The WPA helped with a few projects at this Veterans Health Care facility in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. Ongoing Projects Proj. 9870 - Veterans Admin. Facil. Improve Grounds San Fernando - Federal Funds $15,815 - Men employed per month 39 - Months Duration 6 Proj. 11024 - Vet. Admin. Facil. Paint Building and Equipment, San Fernando - Federal Cost $12,354 - Men Employed per Month 35 - Months Duration 5 Completed Projects Proj. 6322 - Vet. Admin. Facil. Paint Hospital Building San Fernando - Federal Cost $3,845 Sponsor Costs $1,311 - Men Employed Per Month 8 - Months Duration 4 Proj. 6963 -...

The Valley View Golf Course is a municipal course located in Utica's extensive Roscoe Conkling city park.  The course was originally built in the mid-1920s, then redesigned by famed golf architect Robert Trent Jones, Sr. with financial aid (and probably workers) from the Works Progress Administration (WPA).  The works appears to have been done in 1939 and the course reopened in 1940.   A 1936 article in Golf Digest notes that: "Utica, N.Y.—Muny course to have WPA $40,000 in improvements and alterations. Robert Trent Jones, Jr., golf architect."  The WPA's role is forgotten on the course's official site, which states that, "The...

Van Damme State Park in Mendocino County CA was purchased by the state of California for its newly-established state park system in 1934, after the death of the landowner, Charles Van Damme. As with so many of the original California state parks, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) moved in to develop the site for camping and recreation in the 1930s.  According to Engbeck, CCC Company 572 built a new access road and a water system, expanded the campground by adding tables, stoves, and cupboards, and added a picnic area.  They also built a park staff residence and a community recreation hall,...

Before November 1936, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) installed sewer lines along Venable Avenue, between 15th and 20th Streets, in the Kanawha City area of Charleston. It appears that work crews left behind such muddy conditions that Chamberlain Junior High (now Elementary) principal complained in a letter to WPA officials. At the time, the streets were known as 15th (now 44th Street) and 20th (now 49th Street). 20th Street was also known as Main Street.  

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the Vernon Gym in Vernon IN. Originally K-12 school with a gymnasium. Now a community building offering classroom and studio space and the gymnasium.  

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built a new baseball field, with grandstand and dugouts, for the people of Hamilton, Montana.  We are not certain of the year, but it was probably in 1935 or 1936. The National Youth Administration (NYA) added a quarter-mile running track and a skating rink to the recreation area, but we did not find those in a visit in 2023. The baseball field is still in active use as "Vester Wilson Athletic Field", home of the Bitterroot Red Sox, often regional and state baseball champions, as painted proudly on the back of the old grandstand.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) performed minor repair work at the old wooden Veterans Memorial Building in Walnut Creek, California. "Dedicated in 1925, Walnut Creek’s Veterans Memorial Building served as a meeting place for local veterans and other organizations and frequently hosted dances in the second-floor ballroom. For a number of years, the building also doubled as a County courthouse. The building was razed in 2006, and local veterans have a new building in Lafayette." WPA Project No. 65-3-2793, App. Date 11/20/35, $302, "Cleaning interior woodwork and painting interior rooms, halls and floors of Memorial Building." WPA Project No. 65-3-2703, App. Date 2-3-36,...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) conducted work at the Veterans Memorial Building in Concord, California. "Constructed in 1929, The Veterans Memorial Building served briefly as city hall. Today, numbers of community meetings and social gatherings are held there." concordhistory.com WPA Project No. 65-3-2740, $302, App. Date 11-20-35, "Cleaning interior wood works, painting interior wood works in the county owned Memorial Building." WPA Project No. 65-3-2740, $225, App. Date 2-3-36, "Cleaning interior woodwork & painting interior rooms, halls & floors of the County owned Memorial Bldg. located in the town of Concord."

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) employed 14 persons during the Great Depression in a WPA painting job on the 1932 Veterans Memorial building. According to posts on the building Facebook page, the building continues to house many community events. WPA Project No. 165-3-2146, App. Date Apr 2, 1937, $1,217, Total Funds $1,484, Average Employed 14, Federal Man-Hours 1,096, "Paint the Municipal Buildings in the city of El Cerrito, Contra Costa County and perform work incidental thereto. Exclusive of projects specifically approved. City owned property."

The Public Works Administration funded the construction of the Park Museum and Headquarters at the National Military Park inVicksburg MS. the building is currently vacant. "The 1934-35 PWA allotments provided for new combination administration/museum buildings in five eastern parks: Chickamauga and Chattanooga, Guilford Courthouse, Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Morristown." "Predictably, those designed by Service architects without knowledge of museum requirements proved ill-suited to their purpose. The Vicksburg building resembled so well an antebellum plantation mansion that a later superintendent converted it to his residence and packed the museum off to utilitarian frame structure elsewhere in the park."

San Antonio's Board of Commissioners created the San Antonio Housing Authority (SAHA) on June 17, 1937. On September 1, 1937, President Roosevelt signed the United States Housing Act of 1937. This created the United States Housing Authority (USHA) and provided $500 million for subsidies to be paid from the U.S. government to local public housing agencies (LHAs) like SAHA to improve living conditions for low-income families. SAHA made applications to the USHA for funds and the USHA agreed to provide financing for five projects; Alazan Courts, Apache Courts, Lincoln Heights Courts, Wheatley Courts and Victoria Courts. San Antonio enforced segregation in...

The Annual Report from 1932-33 of the Los Angeles Board of Park Commissioners records extensive federal aid in developing the park: "Victory Vanowen Park is one of the largest parks in the San Fernando Valley, with an area of a little over ninety acres. This park is bounded by Whitsett Avenue, Laurel Canyon Boulevard, and Calvert Street. An enormous amount of improvement work was done here with the help of the R.F.C. and County Welfare labor. New roads, a length of 6,110 feet, were constructed, which required the grading of 4,072 cubic yards of dirt, and installing 8,850 feet of redwood...

The Village Bridge is 94 foot Warren pony truss bridge over East Branch Sebasticook River on ME 69/ME 220 in Detroit Maine. It was one of 26 bridges that were badly damaged or destroyed by a 500 year flood in March 1936. A Maine state Highway commission report notes that the reconstruction of these bridges were U.S. Works Program Flood Relief projects and were handled under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Public Roads, U.S. Department of Agriculture. All bridges were placed under construction in 1936 with labor supplied to some by the Works Progress Administration.

The Village hall, as of now situated off River Road and 66th Street, was worked in 1934 through the assistance of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), as per "History of Inver Grove Heights: Minnesota's Treasure 1858-1990," by Lois Glewwe. Its area was once home to Inver Grove School, and a few blocks from the old fashioned were utilized to develop the new structure. It filled in as the gathering place for the town of Inver Grove before the village converged with Inver Grove Township to make what is presently known as Inver Grove Heights. Before it fell into neglect during...

This public elementary school was built in 1935 with funds in part from the Works Progress Administration. Its facade is in the popular Art Deco style of that time. The architect of record was J. Robert Pierson & Son. 

The Public Works Administration (PWA) gave grants to the Hyde Park Central School District to build three school buildings: Hyde Park Elementary School, Haviland Middle School (originally dedicated as the Franklin Delano Roosevelt High School but later renamed when a new high school building was constructed) and Violet Avenue Elementary School. The latter is in Poughkeepsie NY, not the town of Hyde Park.  The cost of the three historic buildings was $1,300,000, with $585,000 coming from the PWA. Construction began December  1938 and was finished in December 1939.