Unmarked Sites

W. C. Stripling Middle School was originally constructed as W. C. Stripling High School in 1927. In 1933-34, the grounds were landscaped by the Civil Works Administration (CWA), the Federal Emergency Relief Administration FERA), and the Texas Relief Administration. The landscaping was designed by Hare & Hare of Kansas City, MO.   It created a raised and level area on the north side of the school, held in place by a ~5-foot buff sandstone retaining wall (and steps). There are tennis courts above the wall and a football field with running track below.  It is not certain if those were part of...

Original school erected in 1916. Under the auspices of the New Deal, the Public Works Administration [PWA) administered the School Building-Aid Program that provided funds for much-needed additions to the Adamson High School building in 1938. This project added wings on the east and west ends of the original building, extending the main hallways which provided a long-awaited art room on the first floor as well as a chemistry lab and choir suite. On the east end were a biology lab, physics lab, woodshop, basement facilities for the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC), and a football locker room, so that student...

The picnic area at Wahkeena Falls benefitted from the attention of Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees soon after the program was rolled out in March 1933. Workers from CCC Camp Benson improved a picnic area on the north side of the Columbia River Highway at Wahkeena Falls by adding stone fireplaces, picnic tables and a community kitchen/picnic shelter. As a result, the Wahkeena Falls Picnic Area is the largest day use area on the historic Columbia River Highway. The Wahkeena Falls Community Kitchen, similar to the community kitchen at Eagle Creek, consists of post and beam construction, three to four feet...

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees were brought in as early as 1933 to improve the hiking trail network in the Gorge along with their other forest management and recreation development. The Wahkeena Falls Trail was among the first to be improved, following Wahkeena Creek toward its source on the Columbia gorge rim. Another new trail, along the rim, linked Wahkeena and Multnomah Falls to allow hikers to go from one falls to the other without using the highway. In the 1920s, as part of a larger project giving Columbia River Gorge waterfalls their current names, the Mazamas (a local climbing and...

"Mayor George Walker: In the 1930's, Winter Garden, Florida, was struggling economically along with the rest of the nation. The Great Depression left growers without markets, consumers without spending money, and many without work. It was Winter Garden's fortune to have George Walker as its mayor during this difficult period. Mr. Walker, a native of Savannah, Georgia, came to Winter Garden in 1919, and in the following year opened Walker Electric Company and Appliance Store. An avid sportsman, Walker was the director of the Lake-Orange County semi-pro baseball league and served as the manager of the Winter Garden League in...

Today, The Wallace Bowl is now the home of the Park District's summertime Starlight Theatre, which provides a unique outdoor setting for musical and dramatic performances offered to the public free of charge. The WPA began construction in 1936 of an outdoor amphitheater at the Lakefront. This outdoor stage was officially dedicated as the Wilmette Outdoor Amphitheatre in 1946. The same space would later be named the Wallace Bowl in honor of Gordon Wallace, superintendent of parks from 1936-68. This project was made possible through the generosity of Charles H. Feltman, one of the commissioners of the Wilmette park district. It...

This park and recreational lake was created largely by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and dedicated in 1940. The borough of Eatontown funded $3,500 of the cost of the project and the WPA $35,000. The park is still in use.

In 1929, the developer of the future Warner Mountain Ski Area, Henry Cairns, purchased the area from a man named James Strike. Cairns, having owned a farm in the area, decided to carve slopes into this mountain, located on the eastern side of East Mountain State Forest in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. The trails emptied out into Cairns farm, which became known as the G-Bar-S Dude Ranch; this stood for the nearby Great Barrington Sports. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was employed in the area to carve two trails into the slopes: the more advanced and difficult Taconic Trail and the more...

In 1936, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) completed a paving project at the intersection of 42nd and Warren Streets NW.  The intersection is characterized by a gracious, curving triangle with a small park in the center, likely the result of the WPA's work.  This project was part of a nearly $1 million in WPA road work around the district in 1935-36. The road still exists though the WPA pavement is probably invisible today.

The Public Works Administration (PWA) funded the construction of the Warsaw Village Swimming Pool in Warsaw NY. The pool has been in continuous use as a public swimming pool since 1939. PWA Project no. N.Y. 1747-F.

Wasatch Boulevard, which runs from Salt Lake City along the base of the Wasatch Mountains down to Big Cottonwood Canyon, was a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project. For years Wasatch Boulevard was a popular scenic route along the base of the mountains to the canyons and recreation areas south of the city, like Big Cottonwood Canyon and Alta ski resort.  In the past, it ran in splendid isolation beneath the formidable Wasatch front. Today, Wasatch Boulevard is overshadowed by the Interstate 215, as well as massive new housing and commercial developments, as metropolitan Salt Lake City has exploded along the Wasatch front.  The photographs...

According to the National Archive's index of Works Progress Administration (WPA) projects, WPA crews performed maintenance and repair work on the two giant water conduits of the Washington Aqueduct. The Washington Aqueduct brings water to the city from the Potomac River at Great Falls. It runs under MacArthur Boulevard (formerly known as Conduit Road) and over Cabin John Creek inside the Union Arch Bridge.  Water arrives at the district's Dalecarlia and McMillan Reservoirs, where it is settled and stored, then treated and distributed by the DC Water and Sewer Authority. The aqueduct is operated by the US Army Corps of Engineers. The exact location...

The Washington at Valley Forge memorial is an equestrian statue of George Washington   (1732–1799), Commander in Chief and first President of the United States (1789–97), sculpted by Henry Merwin Shrady in 1901.  It is the centerpiece of Brooklyn’s Continental Army Plaza. In the 1930s, the memorial was restored with New Deal funding, initially from the Public Works of Art Project and later by the WPA.  The work was overseen by Karl Gruppe, chief sculptor of the Monument Restoration Project of the New York City Parks Department from 1934 to 1937.  The restoration work was filmed and can be found here. The sculpture and...

The Washington Channel is a two-mile long body of water that sits between East Potomac Park and the Southwest Waterfront. There had been a decades-long attempt to improve and modernize the area, but little had been done before the New Deal redeveloped the entire place from 1935 to 1943. Several pieces of New Deal legislation were needed for this massive project, including the River and Harbor Act of 1935 and the War Department Civil Appropriations Act of 1939.  These granted approval and provided initial and supplemental funding for a grand modernization and beautification of the Washington Channel and Southwest Waterfront. This...

According to a Works Progress Administration index card $1,580 was spent to "Improve cemetery on Elm Avenue south of Easton in Fresno County. Work to include trimming, clearing and removing trees, landscaping and grading, together with work incidental thereto. The sponsor is a political subdivision of the state. In addition to projects specifically approved. Washington Colony Cemetery District owned property." The sponsors contribution was $306. The job was begun Dec. 17, 1936, took 2 months to complete and employed 12 people.

The Public Works Administration (PWA) funded the reconstruction of Washington Middle School in Long Beach, CA, after the school was heavily damaged in the 1933 earthquake. The school reopened in 1935. According to the school's website, Washington Middle School was originally constructed in 1921 (with the addition of a shop building in 1926). The architects were W. Horace Austin of Long Beach and John C. Austin of Los Angeles. Curiously, the school history fails to mention the 1933 earthquake and the reconstruction paid for by the New Deal! Yet documents in the National Archives clearly state that the school was rebuilt...

The Public Works Administration (PWA) funded the reconstruction of Washington Middle School in Long Beach, CA, after the school was heavily damaged in the 1933 Long Beach earthquake. The school reopened in 1935. The school's website gives a description of the building's exterior artworks: "Washington's design details combine characteristics from all three phases of the Art Deco and Art Moderne architecture. The exterior has Streamline Moderne details. There is a low-relief profile of George Washington (1732-99) above the main entryway on Cedar Avenue. Recessed double vertical lines create the illusion of a two-story lobby area. The two Cedar Avenue entrances...

The Washington Monument grounds – the core area of the National Mall – was substantially altered and improved, including a major reconfiguration of the streets. The work was paid for by the Public Works Administration (PWA) from a fund of over $1 million provided for an overhaul of the entire National Mall.  Labor was mostly provided by Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) relief workers. First, the Washington Monument grounds were raised and reconditioned with new topsoil, followed by reseeding of the lawns. Second, the circular roadway on the north side of Monument was eliminated and a highway in the line of...

The Washington Monument, one of the most beloved memorials in the country, was completely renovated during the New Deal. No repair work had been done since the monument was finished in 1884 and the exterior had cracked and spalled, resulting in leaching of mortar and leaking through the walls. The Public Works Administration (PWA) provided a grant for the work in 1934. Soon, a tubular steel scaffold was erected, which completely covered the shaft of the monument. Workers repointed, repaired and cleaned the entire shaft from top to bottom. The work was completed in February 1935. The cleaning, pointing, and repair...

Before November 1936, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) installed sewer lines along Washington 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 small frontier town of Washington, Texas entered history on March 2, 1836 when representatives of the largest settlements in Texas met inside an unfinished building near the banks of the Brazos River to declare independence from Mexico. When independence was gained, some of those delegates lobbied to designate Washington as the permanent capital of the new Republic of Texas. However, that honor went to Austin, and by the end of the nineteenth century, Washington was little more than a ghost town. In the 1910s, community groups and influential citizens lobbied Texas legislators to make the state acquire sites related...

"In January, 1937, the community of Avila, consisting of 75 people, installed the first wastewater collection system for the community at a cost of $10,670. This included 5,000 feet of 6” sewer lines, 18 manholes, 1 flush tank, 2 septic tanks and 200 feet of cast iron sewer. This became a WPA project with $8,464 contributed from the WPA resulting in a net cost to the community of $2,206."

Construction for Watauga State Park began in 1939 with the CCC arrival to survey, clear land, and begin dam construction and other facilities (Van West, 2001). Kingsport Times (Sept. 18, 1939) indicated the name Watauga was rejected due to so many nearby projects with the name Watauga, and the park was to be named Kettlefoot State Park, but other records indicating a name change were not located. The CCC camp was expected to be completed by October, 1939, and landscape architects were developing park designs. Watauga State Park was developed as one of four Recreation Demonstration Areas for Tennessee (Jones...

Works Progress Administration (WPA) records in the National Archives report that in 1937 WPA labor was used to "erect a brick building in the city to be used as a combination carpentry and blacksmith shop by the Sewer Department." The location was not given, but is very likely to have been at the old Sewer Department site on the Anacostia River in the southeast quadrant of the district.   Next to the still-extant Water and Sewer Authority garage is a group of brick buildings of the same era at the junction of First Street and Potomac Avenue. Any one of these,...

In 1936 Work: A Journal of Progress reported that in 1933-34 the Civil Works Administration (CWA) relief workers constructed 245 feet of seawall at the Sewer Division property yard and a cable shed at the garage. The exact site was not specified. Nevertheless, the Water and Sewer Authority (then known as the Sewer Division) owns a large waterside property at the foot of First Street on the Anacostia River that would be a likely place for such a seawall.  This is further confirmed by a later report in Work: A Journal of Progress that the Works Progress Administration (WPA) was soon...

A waterworks/sewer construction project in Carlin, Nevada was undertaken during the Great Depression with the aid of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. The PWA supplied a $77,800 loan and $22,574 grant for the project, whose total cost was $101,906. Work occurred between July 1934 and January 1935.  

Sponsor - City of Reedley WPA Proj. No. 686-08-_-174, November 19, 1938, $1,600, 2,516 man hours, Average employed 14, Total Federal and Sponsor funds $1,900 "Improve fire protection facilities on North Avenue and an alley between G and F streets in the city of Reedley, Fresno County, including removing old and laying new water mains and hydrant loads, installing shut-off-valves, and performing appurtenant and incidental work. No taxes or assessments will be levied to cover the amount of Federal funds expended on this project. In addition to projects specifically approved. City owned property."  

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) provided almost $20,000 in funding and labor to install some 4500 feet of water mains and 72 fire hydrants in Porterville CA.   How much of this work remains in place is unknown.

The Works Progress Administration contributed $3,356 toward the construction of water mains in Anchorage, Alaska, between 1939 and 1940.  We have no further details on what was done or where. The photo of a fire hydrant is purely symbolic.

In 1936, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) assisted the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) in laying a 36" diameter water main from 25th Avenue and East 20th St in Oakland to Estudillo Boulevard in San Leandro.   Running more than five miles, the water pipeline replaced infrastructure that had been put in place almost fifty years earlier.  

In 1935, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed 2,600 feet of reinforced concrete water pipe in Pico Rivera, CA. The project was constructed at a total cost of $23,283 on the west bank of the San Gabriel River between Beverly Blvd and Siphone Road.

In 1938, the Public Works Administration (PWA) gave a grant to the city of Martinez to help construct a 500,000 gallon water supply reservoir.  This is the old Mountain View reservoir (which is no longer in service) at the end of Harbor View Street, according to former City Engineer Tim Tucker.  (A second storage tank, still in service, can be found farther south at the end of Shady Glen Street) The City Council minutes for August 4, 1938 indicate that this was PWA Project #1749F. On August 17, the council transferred $7,000 to the PWA project account and another $2,097 was...

Rebuilding the water supply system was part of the massive amount of public works projects undertaken in this small industrial city. In the winter of 1993/34, under the Civil Works Administration, the Mayor said "work was accomplished at great odds, inclement temperature, ground frozen to a depth of over four feet in some places. Let me, very briefly, tell you what work was accomplished: 4100 feet of six inch water pipe was laid on Sabattus Road. 8500 feet of six inch was laid on Webster Road. 600 feet of six inch water pipe on South Avenue. 4400 feet of eight inch water pipe at Barkerville,...

In August 1938, the city of Juniata was awarded a grant of $20,090.00 by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) for the construction of a water supply system.

In the development of the Denver water supply system, the WPA and PWA helped with construction of tunnels. "1935 — Construction began on Moffat Water Tunnel Diversion Project, which was part of the New Deal’s Public Works Administration program; the Moffat Tunnel was enlarged and partially lined. 1936 — The first delivery of water through the Moffat Water Tunnel took place. This, during the height of the Dust Bowl drought and continuing population explosion." The January 1937 Western Construction News has a article on a PWA built tunnel "Contract awarded to Broderick & Gordon, 1900 31st St. Denver CO, $553,622, by the Manager...

The Water Utility Well No. 7 in Madison Wisconsin was constructed in 1939. The project proposal began in 1938 and was completed a year later by McCarthy Well Company. The construction of the project experienced several delays due to weather and other complications. Upon its completion, it began to provide the surrounding area, mainly Bluff Village with clean and sanitary water. Initiation and partial funding for the project was provided by the WPA of Madison. The original well constructed in 1939 contained a 135,000 gallon reservoir along with a well capacity of 2,100 gallons per minute. Inside the well house...

The Public Works Administration (PWA) funded the construction of waterworks in Hampden ME in 1938. The PWA provided $58,950 while the Hampden Water District's contribution consisted of a bond issue of $140,000. Excerpt from the Bangor Daily News, 1938: "Standpipe In Hampden Has Been Completed Has Capacity of 370,000 Gallons; An Unusual Test Made The erection of the standpipe for the Hampden Water District, financed by the Public Works Administration, was completed Thursday, Inspector H. S. Yergey, resident engineer, announced yesterday. The steel standpipe is thirty feet in diameter, seventy-five feet high, and has a capacity of 370,000 gallons. A departure from the usual riveted...

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).

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...

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.