1 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42
  • Waterworks - Inverness MS
    PWA W1061 supported the construction of an artesian well, water main, and waterworks distribution system. A loan of $4,000 and a grant of $3,501 was approved 9/25/1935. Contracts were awarded 11/18/1935. Construction began 1/20/1936 and was completed 4/4/1936. Even though there was a rush for overtime in September to complete applications by the deadline, Mississippi halted work for an hour "out of respect to Mrs. Harold L. Ickes, wife of the national administrator, killed in an automobile accident in Texas Saturday night" (Workers pause, 1935, p. 10).
  • Waterworks - Linden TX
    In 1933 Linden, the county seat of Cass County, had no sanitary water or sewer systems. When fire broke out in the county courthouse in August of that year, the only way to try and extinguish it was by hand pumping water from local wells and citizens forming bucket brigades to get water to the site. In the same year, typhoid fever plagued the town. This was blamed on the water wells being shallow and ofte n located close to barns and outhouses. The city commissioners made a decision to build a city-wide water and sewer system, which was to include...
  • Wawona Airport (discontinued) - Wawona CA
    A 3000' sod airfield that operated from 1925 to 1941 next to the golf course, After 1927 supplies were regularly flown in to supply the large hotel complex. A WPA project Oct. 10, 1935 mentions construction both at Mariposa and Wawona. WPA project 79697. The amount spent was $86,554.
  • Wawona Covered Bridge Repair - Yosemite National Park CA
    The Wawona Covered Bridge is one of only 12 covered bridges in California and the only one in Yosemite. It was originally built by Galen Clark as a modified queen post truss without a cover in 1868, making it the oldest surviving bridge in the state. After being sold to the Washburn group of investors, it was covered with Douglas fir cladding in 1878, enclosing the Ponderosa pine structure and its iron tie rods. The adz marks on the beams are still visible. Additions were completed in 1900 when extensions at each end brought the bridge to its current length of 138 feet. The...
  • Wawona Elementary School - Yosemite National Park CA
    The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built a school house at Wawona in 1937. The enrollee work teams came from the nearby Wawona CCC Camp YNP #7. The building is a shingled, rustic wood structure set on a stone foundation, with large windows for good interior lighting. Its appearance is unchanged over the years. A new, large school has replaced the New Deal building sometime around 1970, built in a modern style at odds with the old idea of park rusticity.  The old CCC school was used for many years as a community center, until that, too, was replaced by a new, larger,...
  • Wawona Ranger Station Offices - Yosemite National Park CA
    The New Deal made possible the construction of a ranger station in the Wawona area, which was added to Yosemite National Park in 1932.  The present complex includes a ranger station and an interpretation office, as well as two ranger residences, that date back to the New Deal.  The ranger station and interpretation office have different origins, however.  The latter building was the original ranger station at Wawona, built in 1934 or 1935 (Greene), which has been modified over time and repurposed.  The former was moved here from  the former Chinquapin ranger station site, built in 1934, which was eliminated decades ago...
  • Wawona Ranger Station Residences - Yosemite National Park CA
    The New Deal made possible the construction of a ranger station in the Wawona area, which was added to Yosemite National Park in 1932.  The ranger station complex includes two ranger residences and accompanying garages.  These buildings still exist, but are now used for different purposes. According to the Superintendent's Monthly Report of December 1934, the Public Works Administration (PWA) provided the funding to the National Park Service (NPS) for the ranger station complex (Broesamle 2022). This contradicts the 2012 NPS report on design in the park, which attributes the buildings to the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) (see quote below).  The latter...
  • Wawona Road Completion - Yosemite National Park CA
    New Deal agencies played a major role in the transformation of the narrow and dangerous Wawona wagon trail into a safe and comfortable route into Yosemite Valley. The route from the South Entrance to the Valley floor is 27 miles.  It is one of three access roads to Yosemite Valley, along with the El Portal road and Big Oak Flat Road. The National Park Service and the Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) signed a Memorandum of Agreement in July 1925, authorizing the planning and construction of new roads within Yosemite National Park. Surveying was begun in 1928 and initial construction was...
  • Welfare Housing - Houlton ME
    The Civil Works Administration (CWA), the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) supported the construction of welfare housing in Houlton ME between 1933 and 1935. Excerpts from the Annual Town Reports, Houlton Maine: 1933 Partial Cost of Houses Constructed For Welfare Department 13 people involved and the Houlton Planing Mill $1,337.83 Welfare Department – Labor Expenses 41 men employed as laborers $1,525.00 paid from R.F.C. Account. ADMINISTRATION Besides the High School lot, the Chairman personally supervised the building of six small houses which were occupied when built by those unable at that time to own or rent homes. Report of Federal Activities...
  • Wertz Field (demolished) Improvements - Institute WV
    The Works Progress Administration extended and built additional facilities for the Wertz Airport in Charleston. The additions included an administration building. The airport serves today under the name Yeager Airport. In 1930 Wertz field was developed in Institute. Operated by West Virginia Airways, Inc the field was named after Charleston Mayor W.W. Wertz. Commercial flight began with American Airlines in 1933 from the same field. The field was a popular site for air shows. The WPA added improvements to the airport with “grading, ditch-digging and other work” by late 1936. Just after this West Virginia State College began the Civilian Pilot Training Program in...
  • West Buxton Bridge - Hollis/Buxton ME
    The West Buxton bridge is a 607 foot Metal Continuous Rivet-Connected Polygonal Warren Through Truss with fixed and Approach Spans: Metal Stringer (Multi-Beam) that carries the West Buxton Road (Moderation Street) over the Saco River. This was one of 26 bridges that were badly damaged or destroyed by a 500 year flood in March 1936. A 1936 report by the state highway commission 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. This bridge is one of only three...
  • West Oakland Water Lines - Oakland CA
    In 1936, 550 Works Progress Administration (WPA) workers helped lay 25,000 feet of water pipe around 34th and Adeline Streets in West Oakland, under the auspices of the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD).  In 1937-38, 400 WPA workers helped the EBMUD lay 15,000 feet of 36" and 30" water main "between 22d and Adeline Streets and Fourth Avenue and East 11th Street", according to a report in the Oakland Tribune.  Since those are both intersections, the implication is that the lines ran from West Oakland across downtown to inner East Oakland; but that needs to be verified. In any case, the newspaper...
  • West Seattle High School Mural - Seattle WA
    In 1937, the WPA's Federal Art Project commissioned Jacob Elshin, an immigrant/refugee artist from Russia to produce a 3-panel historical mural for display in the West Seattle High School in Seattle. The panels of the mural illustrate the landing of settlers at Alki on the outskirts of Seattle, and show trade with the Seattle area native population and the development of a logging industry. The panels were originally installed in the entranceway to the high school auditorium, but were taken down prior to a remodeling in the 1950s and were temporarily lost. The Seattle Public Schools Archivist was able to...
  • West Virginia Avenue NE Water Main - Washington DC
    In 1938-1939, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) installed a new Water Main on West Virginia Avenue, north from Mount Olivet Road NE. The Annual Report of the DC government provides details: “A 16-inch main, totaling 780 linear feet, in West Virginia Avenue north from Mount Olivet Road NE. It is proposed to extend this main in the future to Rhode Island and Montana Avenues NE, tying in with the 30-inch trunk main at this location, thereby effecting a major feed through the Trinidad-Woodridge area of the second high service. This main was undertaken as a W. P. A. project." Presumably, the main was later connected...
  • Western Avenue Improvements - Washington DC
    In 1935-36, Civil Works Administration (CWA) and Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) carried out repairs to a half-mile segment of Western Avenue, from Wisconsin Avenue to Fessenden Street.   The road was paved with “temporary material consisting of broken-concrete base, broken stone, and slag. These large aggregates are choked with smaller material, and an application of asphaltic cement completes the operation. This construction forms a very good temporary roadway.”   The work is likely still extant, but invisible beneath subsequent repaving.  
  • Western Park Grandstand (former) - Vernal UT
    The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built a grandstand at the Uintah County fairgrounds, now known as the Uintah County Western Park.  We do not know the year of construction. A report on historic sites in and around Vernal, Utah, says that there were several New Deal projects, including street work and sewers in Vernal, work at the dinosaur quarry at Dinosaur National Monument,  41 reservoirs, 150 miles of roads and 20 bridges.  These were done by various New Deal agencies, which are not specified here in that report (Lufkin 2004, p 6).  The county fair grandstand would have been built by the...
  • Westfall Station - Fish Camp CA
    Westfall Station was a former Sierra National Forest station that housed "Type III wildland fire engines that are typically staffed with five to seven firefighters. Our specialized engines carry equipment to spray water and foam and are equipped to respond to a variety of incidents." (USDA Forest Service) Constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), it consists of "a collection of 12 buildings located 12 miles north of Oakhurst, CA in high-canopy forest at 4,580 feet in elevation. Eight of the structures were constructed between 1933 and 1938, as were stone walls and steps around the site." (The Sierra Historic Restoration...
  • Wetzel County Garage - New Martinsburg WV
    Also known as State Road Commission District 6 garage, the structure was built by the Works Progress Administration and sponsored by the Department of Highways. Across West Virginia, the Department of Highways sponsored district headquarters and garages constructed by the Works Progress Administration. All utilized a similar airfoil design, a variation on the Quonset hut design. The structures were built of stone. Although the Wetzel County Garage is not marked with a metal plaque, and there is a gable date is covered by the DOH signing, it is believed this is part of the same design used at other locations ca. 1939-1941. Other garage...
  • Wharfinger Building - New Bedford MA
    Between World War I and World War II, the economy of New Bedford changed dramatically. The city’s whaling industry disappeared and textile manufacturing plummeted. In 1937, the city’s unemployment rate was a staggering 32.5 percent. New Bedford was down and out, with many families struggling to survive. The WPA's intervention in New Bedford was intended to boost the city's fishing industry. In 1925, New Bedford fishermen still had to sell their catches at Fulton Fish Market in New York because New Bedford did not have its own fish auction house. Eventually buyers began to come to New Bedford to buy...
  • Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge - Decatur AL
    The Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge (WNWR) covers 35,000 acres  along the Tennessee River near Decatur, Alabama.  The Wheeler Migratory Bird Refuge was established by Executive Order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1938 to provide habitat for wintering and migrating birds in the eastern  United States (the name was changed to the present NWR in 1940). The refuge was made possible by the Tennessee Valley Authority's (TVA) construction of Wheeler dam (1933-1936) and the creation of Wheeler Lake.  It became the first National Wildlife Refuge associated with a multi-purpose reservoir, which provides for navigation over the Muscle Shoals area, flood control, electricity production, and...
  • Wheelwright Park Trails - Cohasset MA
    In 1935, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) created Wheelwright Park trails in Cohasset, Massachusetts. The area was already a public park but the WPA greatly improved the accessibility. The trails that were cleared are about 4,000 feet or .7 miles long and traverse an area of 232 acres of land known as Wheelwright Park. The trails were constructed of gravel but have since become covered in leaves and pine needles. The park has trails that have natural rock formations in the midst of them as well as beside them. At parts there are natural rocks carved to be stairs in...
  • Whitaker Park - Reno NV
    Four blocks west of the University of Nevada, Reno is Whitaker Park, one of the few parks that had work done to it during the New Deal that still has its tennis courts. The New Deal brick restrooms are gone, but the trees that were planed are still standing.
  • White Point Outfall Sewer Tunnel - Carson CA
    Between 1935 and 1937, a six-mile long sewer tunnel was constructed between the Los Angeles County Sanitation District's former Joint Disposal Plant in Carson, CA, and an ocean outfall at White Point on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. The project received funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA). According to an October 1933 article in the Los Angeles Illustrated Daily News: "Definite action toward construction of a main outfall sewer, generally known as the White Point outfall project, to drain the district south of Los Angeles, was taken yesterday when an application for $2,820,000 was filed with the state advisory board of...
  • Wickiup Campground - Malheur National Forest OR
    Wickiup Campground, located approximately sixteen miles south of Canyon City on the banks of Canyon Creek, is one of two campgrounds built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees from Company 1231, Camp Canyon Creek. Members of Company 1231 spent nearly five years engaged in numerous improvements for the Malheur National Forest, including maintenance of fourteen campgrounds as well as construction of the two new ones. Today's Wickiup Campground offers nine trailer sites and four picnic sites.
  • Wild River Rehabilitation - Shelburne NH
    This project was undertaken by the 156th Company of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). In 1933, CCC supervisor Robert Monahan wrote his parents about this work:  "My job the past two days has been to supervise some 78 men in the task of beautifying the bank of the Wild River, which the Forest Service road parallels for nine miles. As you may have noticed the banks of many of our streams have been lined for years with debris deposited there by the 1927 flood. It was a stupendous task to restore the appearance of these stream banks but with 80 men at one's disposal,...
  • Wildcat Creek Bridge - Carmel Highlands/Big Sur CA
    Wildcat Creek bridge was built during the New Deal as part of the Big Sur highway project (former state highway 56, now state highway 1 or the Cabrillo Highway). It is one of several New Deal aided bridges and highway segments along the route.  Wildcat Creek bridge was probably begun just before the New Deal but was completed in mid-1933. The California coast highway was an ambitious project begun in the early days of automobiles and state highway building, in which California was a leader.  The first efforts to build the road took place in Southern California in the early 1910s....
  • Wildcat Mountain Ski Area - Gorham NH
      Wildcat Mountain Ski Area, near Jackson, NH, in the Mt. Washington Valley, is one of the best-known alpine skiing resorts in New England, with lifts from the base on NH Rt. 16 in Pinkham Notch 2,112 feet (644 m) up to the summit ridge. The area has 49 trails on 225 acres (91 ha), including the 2.75-mile (4.43 km) Polecat Trail — the longest ski trail in New Hampshire." (Wiki)   July 17, 1933: "'Inspected ski trail locations with Charlie Proctor. Started work on 1 1/2-mile ski trail climbing 2,000 vertical feet to Summit E with Ed LeBlanc in charge'….Ed LeBlanc was...
  • Wildfire Prevention Work - Oakland CA
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) undertook several wildfire control projects in the hills behind Oakland, including brush clearing, fire breaks, fire patrols and fire trails.  Given the natural frequency of fires in California's dry summers – such as the massive Oakland Hills fire of 1992 – this kind of work was undoubtedly valuable for fire control. Seven projects were approved in 1935-36, as described in WPA project cards detailed here. Approved projects were not always carried out, however, and in this case one was defunded, another deleted and two were superseded.  It is almost impossible to confirm that the other work...
  • Wildrose Summer Headquarters - Death Valley National Park CA
    The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was present in the newly-minted Death Valley National Monument  from 1933 to 1942.  As one of their many projects, the CCC 'boys' constructed a summer headquarters and residential area for the National Park Service at Wildrose, high in the Panamint Mountains.   Summer heat made the regular headquarters and CCC camp at Cow Creek unliveable, so another CCC camp was added at Wildrose in 1935 so that the men could work year-round (at that time there were not permanent NPS staff in the monument yet). As the monument gained a permanent staff, the Superintendent made plans...
  • Wildwood Elementary School Additions - Piedmont CA
    Wildwood Elementary School in Piedmont CA was expanded under the New Deal, with the addition of new classroom buildings and an auditorium. Prior to that, about one-third of Piedmont students were being taught in temporary buildings (derisively called 'shacks' by the locals). There had been three previous efforts in the 1920s to replace temporary school buildings in Piedmont but the bond issues lost (Tribune 1942).   After the school board sought and gained a promise of $83,000 in funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) in 1933, a new bond issue for $233,000 passed in December of that year.  Of the...
  • Willamette Primary School (destroyed by fire) - West Linn OR
    Among several school projects proposed for Clackamas County in 1935, the Willamette Grade School project moved ahead to construction with approval of a grant from the Public Works Administration (PWA). The federal contribution was approximately $30,000. The school opened in September 1936 and served the Willamette neighborhood of West Linn until destroyed by fire in 1949. The New Deal era school consisted of eight classrooms, a cafeteria, kitchen, and playroom. The collegiate-Gothic style building was red brick building with stone trim.  Portland-area contractor W. A. Hunt directed construction of the building. The local newspaper the Oregonian reported that eighteen men were...
  • William Cullen Bryant High School Sculpture - Queens NY
    The school grounds contain a small New Deal sculpture by Hugo Robus entitled "Girl Weeding." It was made in 1938, probably under the auspices of the Federal Arts Project of the WPA.
  • William S. Cohen School - Bangor ME
    "Two new junior high schools in Bangor were built and equipped at the cost of $740,000. Every cent of this was paid by the W.P.A. (Works Projects Administration) City Manager Wallace designed the two school grounds." Original name was the Garland Street Jr. High School. Name changed in 1997 to the William S. Cohen School, named after former Secretary of Defense William Cohen who was born and grew up in Bangor . It is located at 304 Garland Street in Bangor Maine. "The Cohen school and its sister school, the James F. Doughty School were both built with funds from the Works...
  • Williams City Hall - Williams CA
    The city hall of the small Sacramento Valley town of Williams was built in the Spanish Revival Style, presumably with a Public Works Administration grant. It includes a fire station on the side.
  • Williams Playground - Bangor ME
    A small park in Bangor with playground equipment, a basketball court and non functioning tennis court with plans to convert it into a Pickleball court. When constructed by the WPA as part of their comprehensive city-wide work program it originally contained a tennis court, concrete wading pool, playground area, baseball diamond and football field. According to various people who grew up in Bangor, the playground was a very important part of their lives and memories. "We always called it Newberry St. Park. Had a lot of fun there." "My Dad's family, the Burke's lived on Gridley St. and he (Bobby Burke)...
  • Williamsburg Child Health Clinic - Brooklyn NY
    Originally called the Williamsburg-Greenpoint Health Center, it was the fourth of eight clinics to be built in New York City with federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funding during the Great Depression. The project was part of a city-wide public health initiative that focused on providing low-cost health care in poor neighborhoods where residents could not afford their own doctors. The Brownstoner reports that "..it was state of the art, and the only health center built in the entire country by the PWA that had a complete range of health and educational programs." The 1937 opening was presided over by Mayor LaGuardia, and, according to the...
  • Williamson Avenue Underpass - Winslow AZ
    The Williamson Avenue underpass beneath the Santa Fe railway line was built with the aid of the Work Progress Administration (WPA), c 1937. "Construction of the Williamson Avenue underpass was a fine example of cooperating agencies (Works Progress Administration, Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, the State of Arizona, and the City of Winslow) to fund and develop an important engineered structure to improve Winslow's traffic flow." The underpass has been repainted in recent years, probably as part of Winslow's effort to attract more tourists.
  • Willis Street Bridge - Prescott AZ
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built a bridge across Granite Creek on West Willis Street (at Granite St), just northwest of downtown Prescott AZ, in 1937. It is a simple concrete span with a central pillar and low railings.  It still stands. The WPA project card in the National Archives is mislabeled as the Virginia Street bridge – an understandable error, given that there are two WPA bridges, one on West Willis and one on East Willis Street (the Virginia Street bridge is not actually on Virginia Street, just next to it).
  • Willowcreek Community Church Murals (CCC Camp Vale Murals) - Vale OR
    In 1949, the Willowcreek Community Church purchased the former CCC Camp Vale's Recreation/Commissary Building for use as their gathering space. Renovations changed the building soon after its purchase, including the addition of a living space in the back of the building and placing sheet rock on the church's interior walls. Over thirty years elapsed when, in the 1980s, an effort to insulate the building required removal of the sheet rock. That renovation work revealed the original walls and, to the church members' surprise, the murals painted by Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollee Frederick H. Kluemper. That discovery sparked an interest among...
  • Wilson Elementary School Addition (demolished) - Logan UT
    The Public Works Administration (PWA) funded the construction of an addition for the Wilson Elementary School in Logan, Utah.   The PWA Docket number was 1004-R (Utah). The architect of record was K. C. Schaub. The old Wilson School has been replaced by a new structure in recent years.
1 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42