Mobile Sites

Mobile, Alabama's Bankhead Tunnel carries Government Street under the Mobile River. "Named for John Hollis Bankhead, construction of the Bankhead Tunnel began in 1938. Financed by the Public Works Administration, the tubes for the tunnel were made by workers at the Alabama Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Company with construction overseen by the firm of Wilberding and Palmer. The tunnel travels more than 3,000 feet under the Mobile River and is still heavily used."

The Works Progress Administration completed landscaping and grading work in Bienville Square in Mobile.

"The WPA commissioned John Augustus Walker -- a native of Mobile, Alabama -- to create a series of oil on canvas murals in the city's Old City Hall/Southern Market complex. They memorialize a range of Mobile's historic events, from the ship that brought the last payload of African slaves into the United States in 1859 to the importance of education and science to the city. Hurricane Katrina, which slammed into the city in August 2005, damaged the Museum of Mobile, where the murals are now located. The murals were not harmed, and the museum reopened in March 2006."

The Works Progress Administration built an addition for the Crichton Elementary School in Mobile. The architect of record was Fred W. Clarke. The school was permanently closed. The current state of the structure is unknown to the Living New Deal.

The Works Progress Administration constructed Mobile's Davis Avenue Community Center. The center opened in 1936 and it included facilities such as tennis courts and a pool. Today, the facility is known as the Davis Avenue Recreation Center. The center holds historical significance for the African American history in Mobile and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 27, 2011.

The Works Progress Administration built an armory in Mobile, circa 1937. The structure still serves as the Alabama National Guard Armory.

The Works Progress Administration converted a stable building into a facility that housed the Health Center and the Board of Health in Mobile. The exact location and condition of the structure is unknown to the Living New Deal.

Built as the U.S. Court House and Custom House from 1932 to 1934, this building was Renamed the John Archibald Campbell United States Courthouse in 1981. A 1939-1940 New Deal construction project involved the extension of the building to the west.

The Works Progress Administration built tennis courts in Lyons Park in Mobile. The park is still in service today under the name Lyons Park Tennis Center.

Multiple New Deal agencies were involved in the development of what is now known as Mobile Regional Airport. The Works Progress Administration built runways; and the Civil Works Administration oversaw the construction of terminal buildings and hangars.

In 1934, the Interstate Commerce Commission approved a $1 million loan to the Gulf, Mobile & Northern Railroad Company (GM&N), from the New Deal’s Public Works Administration (PWA).  Out of this money came two streamliners: Rebel trains 352 and 353.  The Rebels ran a route from Jackson, Tennessee to New Orleans, from 1935 to 1954.  They appear to have been scrapped in 1962. (Note: In 1940, GM&N was merged into the new Gulf, Mobile & Ohio (GM&O) Railroad.) The red and silver Rebels were designed by Otto Kuhler and constructed by American Car & Foundry.  The locomotives (“powercars”) had 660 horsepower Diesel...

The Public Works Administration built new State-owned docks that replaced the old docks in the Mobile Channel.