Survival: Extant

The Seattle Park Department acquired the land for Colman Playground in 1910, shortly after the opening of nearby Colman School. A regrading project in the early 1910s made the site suitable for picnics and baseball, but otherwise the Park Department made few improvements to the site prior to the 1930s. When WPA funding became available, several neighborhood organizations joined together and convinced the Park Board to upgrade the playground. Major work on improving Colman Playground started in 1937, when WPA workers began constructing the two-story, reinforced concrete shelter house that stands near southwest corner of the playground. As construction of the...

During the late 1930s, with funds from the WPA, the Seattle Park Department upgraded Colman Playground. The largest component of the improvement project was the construction of a new shelter house near the southwest corner of the playground. WPA workers began constructing the shelter house in 1937. Designed by Seattle architect Arthur Wheatley, the two-story, reinforced concrete structure housed a playroom, caretaker's room, and storage room on its lower level, and a social room, office area, and restrooms on its upper level. A plaque on the north side of the building reads: "Built by Works Progress Administration, 1936-1937." Despite the...

The rock gymnasium at the Winnsboro School was built by the WPA in 1938-1939.

The Texas Highway Department and the United States Bureau of Public Roads designed and financed several underpasses on Nogalitos Street in San Antonio, Texas. Built in 1937 by Brown & Root, the project took Nogalitos Street under Cassiano Street, The Texas & New Orleans Railroad tracks, Lachapelle Street, and the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad tracks. The street bridges were steel stringer design and the railroad bridges were steel plate girder design. The Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad tracks have been abandoned, but the other three bridges and the underpass are still in use.

Mackenzie Field is located in Holyoke, Massachusetts, next to Holyoke High School. In 1938, the concrete bleachers on the 1st base side of the field are a WPA project done at a cost of $35,392.

This Caroga Lake golf course was opened in 1929. In the 1930s, WPA workers cleared underbrush, built bridges and benches, and installed tennis courts at the course.

This small bridge over Elk Creek was built in 1925. It was improved by the WPA in 1942.

F. D. Roosevelt State Park is the largest state park in Georgia: "Many facilities within the park were built by FDR’s Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression, including stone cabins overlooking the mountain, a Liberty Bell-shaped swimming pool, and the arched bridge at Hwys. 190 and 354. A small lake is open to fishing and canoeing, and picnic shelters are available for group gatherings."   (www.pinemountain.org)

Naperville's Centennial Park beach received a bathhouse during the New Deal, which is still standing today: "In 1934, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) completed the bathhouse, built from limestone taken from the quarry at the facility’s western edge. The completed bathhouse had stone steps leading down to the swimming area. The shallow section included a sandy area and the deep section had three anchored rafts, a 12-foot diving tower, two spring boards and one lifeguard stand." The bathhouse was recently renovated: "One of the top priorities was to preserve the historic bathhouse and much care was taken to ensure that its character remained...

From 1934 to 1935 the Bronx Terminal Market expansion project took place with New Deal support. The Market was one of eight indoor markets that New York Mayor Fiorella LaGuardia built or expanded with federal support. It was part of the Mayor's campaign to clear unregulated pushcart vendors out of the streets and into sheltered, regulated markets. The Market Expansion project improved and provided new facilities for receiving and distributing produce throughout upper Manhattan and the Bronx. The Greenwich Village Historic Preservation Society tells us that the new markets created by LaGuardia "...used federal WPA funds to create...indoor markets that were required...