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  • Walter Reed General Hospital (former) Improvements - Washington DC
    The Civil Works Administration (CWA) and its successor, the Works Progress Administration (WPA), both engaged in improvement projects at the old Walter Reed General Hospital (as it was then known).  The entire army medical complex, covering around 80 acres, was closed down in 2011 and Walter Reed Army Medical Center  (as it came to be known) moved out to Bethesda MD.    The former site has been repurposed as the Children's National Hospital and a huge mixed commercial and residential development, The Parks at Walter Reed. CWA crews painted buildings, planted trees, and helped build an elevator shaft at the center...
  • Randall Recreation Center Grading - Washington DC
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was charged with two rounds of improvement of the parks and recreational facilities in Washington DC.  A major program of parks improvement was undertaken in 1935-36 and a second, lesser round occurred in the early 1940s, when the WPA was under the Federal Works Administration (FWA). The approved works in the second round were tennis courts at Palisades Playground, Edgewood Playground, and Reservation "C" on the Mall; grading, filling, and constructing tennis courts at Turkey Thicket playground; excavating cinders from west parking area and surfacing east parking lot at Takoma Recreation Center; spreading topsoil on south...
  • Turkey Thicket Recreation Center Tennis Courts - Washington DC
    Works Progress Administration (WPA) project cards at the National Archives show that the WPA was charged with another round of improvement of recreational facilities in the city of Washington, DC in the early 1940s.  This followed on a major program of parks improvement by the WPA in 1935-36. The approved works included: building tennis courts at Palisades Playground, Edgewood Playground, and Reservation "C" on the Mall; grading, filling, and constructing tennis courts at Turkey Thicket playground; excavating cinders from west parking area and surfacing east parking lot at Takoma Recreation Center; spreading topsoil on south field at Banneker Recreation Center; and...
  • Washington Navy Yard Improvements - Washington DC
    Many improvements were made to the U.S Navy Yard and Naval Ammunition Depot (now called the Washington Navy Yard) throughout the New Deal, from 1934 to 1941. In 1933, the Washington Post reported that $325,000 had been allotted by the Public Works Administration (PWA) to improvements at the Navy Yard; the funds were dispensed in 1934 for the modernization of the heating plant.  A 1937 Navy report provides specifics on that work: “new concrete foundations, structural steel boiler supports, air-cooled boiler settings, stoker-fired furnaces, smoke breeching, coal chutes, forced-draft fans, operating platforms and walkways, boiler plant accessories, piping and electric wiring;...
  • Langdon Park Improvements - Washington DC
     During the 1930s, Langdon Park was upgraded as part of a larger Capital Parks improvement program undertaken by the Public Works Administration (PWA), Civil Work Adminstration (CWA), Works Progress Administration (WPA), and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). A Washington Daily News article from 1936 described New Deal work in the park: "Wading pool built; new walks, picnic groves and parking area completed." In this case, the improvements were most likely done by the WPA, which was at work on a million-dollar program of parks renovation in 1935-36.  Langdon Park today contains a swimming pool and pool building, basketball courts, tennis courts and as...
  • Edgewood Recreation Center Improvements - Washington DC
    During the 1930s, Edgewood Playground, as it was then known, was upgraded as part of a larger Capital Parks improvement program undertaken by the Public Works Administration (PWA), Civil Work Adminstration (CWA), Works Progress Administration (WPA), and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). At Edgewood, the WPA graded and constructed tennis courts and may also have built a baseball diamond and other recreational facilities.  The CCC also did unspecified work there, probably landscaping. Today, Edgewood Recreation Center still has tennis courts, basketball courts, a field house and traces of an old baseball diamond (in satellite view).  It is unknown how much evidence remains of...
  • Constitution Avenue Expansion - Washington DC
    In 1933, the Washington Post announced the approval of several road surfacing projects funded by the Public Works Administration (PWA) : "Among projects approved here are paving of Sixteenth street, Constitution Avenue, Michigan Avenue, Columbia Road, Foxhall Road, Good Hope Road, New Hampshire Avenue, Benning Road and Conduit Road, widening of E Street back of the White House and widening of Thirteenth Street" (October 9, 1933). Records at the National Archives indicate that the Works Progress Administration (WPA) had approved the widening and paving of Constitution Avenue from Virginia Avenue to the Arlington Bridge approach. New Deal workers were also to...
  • Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling: Bolling Field (former) Improvements - Washington DC
    The present Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling is the site of the former Anacostia US Naval Air Station and the former Bolling Air Field, both founded in 1918.  Bolling Field was absorbed into the Naval Air Station in the 1940s and a new Bolling Air Force Base constructed just to the south in 1948.  Those facilities were merged again in 2010, and the joint base is currently home to several functions, including a naval facility, a large heliport and a Secret Service base.   From 1933 to 1942, New Deal agencies were busy at the two older facilities, making improvements of various kinds....
  • Arlington National Cemetery Improvements - Arlington VA
    Project cards in the National Archives index describes extensive work to be undertaken by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in Arlington National Cemetery in 1938-41.   "Reconstruct and improve roads and streets in Arlington National Cemetery Reservation located near Fort Myer in Arlington County; Improve buildings, grounds and utilities of the Arlington National Cemetery by painting, brick and carpentry work, razing old buildings, grading, top soiling, seeding, planting trees, spraying and shrubs, setting and realigning headstones, rebuilding rubble masonry wall, rip-rapping streams, laying drain pipe; Improve and enlarge existing facilities and improve grounds at Arlington National Cemetery. The work includes installing...
  • Anacostia Drive SE Improvements - Washington DC
    Anacostia Drive, which runs through Anacostia Park and alongside the Anacostia River, was almost certainly worked on during the New Deal – more than once – though the evidence is not conclusive.  According to a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project card on file in the National Archives, the WPA office approved a project to grade Anacostia Road (now Drive) in 1935. This work has not been confirmed, but since the WPA did almost $1 million worth of road work in the district in 1935-36, including roads like Good Hope SE, and also did extensive work on Anacostia Park during that time, it...
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