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  • Williamsburg School Gymnasium and Teacher's House (construction and improvements) - Collins MS
    The school at Williamsburg was destroyed by fire and a new building was erected. Works Progress Administration (WPA) projects approved in the amount of $13,604 in July 1935 included construction of a gymnasium and improvements to the teacher’s house. Fifty-eight men were employed on the project, which included grading and graveling the road to the school. The school building is still extant and has been in use as a furniture company since 1959 after the school closed. The status of the teacher's house and gymnasium are unknown.
  • Oakland Airport (North Field): Runways - Oakland CA
    New Deal agencies were called upon several times to expand the runways at the growing Oakland Municipal Airport (now the North Field of the Oakland International Airport). In the early 1930s, this involved bringing in quarried stone for fill to expand the runway area, leveling the surface and finishing off crushed stone. Later in the decade, the runways would be surfaced with asphalt and concrete. In early 1934, a team of 112 men from the Civil Works Administration (CWA) began work on the runways, laying 8500 cubic yards of rock (Minutes of January 8, 1934, p. 114).  When the CWA was...
  • Lake - Gitano MS
    A chain of lakes for the hill counties of Mississippi was proposed in 1936 by Si Corley, director of conservation of the State Game and Fish commission. Funds from the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in concert with the sponsorship of the Game and Fish commission began the construction of a series of lakes adjacent to cities in the hill counties including a small artificial lake near Gitano. Exact location is unknown.
  • Street Improvements: Tree Planting - Oakland CA
    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. 
  • Michigan (former Concord) Avenue NW Improvements - Washington DC
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) improved a segment of Concord Avenue N, from North Capitol Street to Third Street.  This was a WPA curb and gutter project: “This constitutes the first step in the development of this roadway to connect North Capitol Street and Georgia Avenue.” Concord Avenue was later renamed Michigan Avenue and further improvements have been made.
  • The Pentagon: Access Roads - Arlington VA
    The Pentagon is America’s Department of Defense headquarters and the largest office building in the world.  It was constructed from August 1941 to January 1943 in order to centralize the administration of the U.S. armed services during World War II.   The site of the Pentagon had previously been a barren area, so the Public Roads Administration, a division of the New Deal’s Federal Works Agency (FWA), supervised a “$7 million network of highways to serve the and adjacent areas” (Sunday Star, 1942). While it may not appear to be a typical New Deal public works project, the Pentagon was built...
  • Broadway Terrace Sewer Extension - Oakland CA
    In 1937, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) built an extension of the sanitary sewer up Broadway Terrace from Harbord Drive to Sheridan Road (just below the brow of the hills near Lake Temescal).  (Oakland Tribune 1937) The current state of the sewer line is unknown. Broadway Terrace is a major artery with water, gas, telephone and internet lines, and the concrete roadbed has been repeatedly cut through and repaired.   Judging from the placement of manhole covers, there appears to be two sewer lines running parallel along this stretch of road and another, probably older, line in the old Broadway Terrace...
  • Fremont Elementary School - Riverside CA
    A $40,000 building was built at Fremont Elementary School under the WPA, the most extensive work done on any Riverside school. In the field of education, WPA relief was limited to repair and construction work. The WPA did work on seventeen Riverside area schools, with such tasks as painting Lincoln Elementary School, improving the Bryant Elementary School playgrounds, and rebuilding the Riverside City College chemistry lab. It appears from Google photos that the building constructed by the WPA is no longer extant. Newer looking buildings comprise the elementary school today.
  • Oxon Run Interceptor Sewer Extension - Washington DC
    In 1939, the Public Works Administration (PWA) contributed $70,375 towards an extension of the Oxon Run Interceptor, a large sewer line in southeast Washington DC. This was part of a large-scale New Deal program of new and extended sewers (storm and sanitary) for the District of Columbia. The original section of the Oxon Run Interceptor had been installed in 1938-1939 using municipal funds only (i.e., not PWA). It started at the Blue Plains wastewater treatment plant and from there ran in an easterly or northeasterly direction. PWA funds extended the Interceptor another 4,925 feet, from roughly 1st Street to Thirteenth Street SE....
  • Macomb Street NW Divorcement Sewers - Washington DC
    In 1938, the Public Works Administration (PWA) allotted $47,870 for the Macomb Street Divorcement Sewers project. Two new sewer lines were installed in the area of Macomb Street and 38th Street NW, running southwest in the direction of Massachusetts Avenue for a length of about 5,000 linear feet (nearly one mile). These divorcement sewers separated domestic sewage from storm water run-off (two products that had previously collected in a combined sewer line), allowing the sewage to be treated at the new Blue Plains facility and reducing pollution caused by periodic overflow during rain storms. The divorcement sewer project was completed in early-to-mid...
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