• Cochise County Courthouse Art - Bisbee AZ
    "The Cochise County Courthouse contains several pieces of New Deal art. 'A Cavalcade of Cochise County History' is depicted in six bas-reliefs that line the entryway. R. Phillips Sanderson was funded by the Federal Art Project under the Works Progress Administration to produce these plaster sculptures. On the second floor landing hangs another WPA commission, an impressive relief map of Cochise County created by artist George Sellers. Forty-four pounds of screws, nails, tacks, and over 2,000 cups of plaster were used to create the map."
  • Locklin Pool Facility Improvements - Bisbee AZ
    The facilities and area at the Locklin Avenue swimming pool, including access stairs from the canyon below and changing rooms were built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1938-39. The pool was completed in 1923, well before the advent of the New Deal, and has since been abandoned. According to the Bisbee Daily Review, “Bath house to be remodeled: New change rooms proposed at city swimming pool as WPA project. Bisbee swimming fans may soon have new changing rooms provided for them at the city swimming pool, officials revealed yesterday. Remodeling of the old wooden building at the swimming pool to...
  • OK Street Paving - Bisbee AZ
    The Works Progress Administration carried out street paving in Bisbee. Pictured is a finished section of Okay Street in Bisbee. The street is incorrectly referred to as “Okay Street” while the name today is “OK” Street. Historically it was never written out. Early records of Bisbee show businesses and home owners utilizing “O.K.” Street. A search of “OK Street” through the digitized newspapers of Chronicling America on March 4, 2018, produced 34 results; a search of “Okay Street” utilized no results in the Bisbee Daily Review. The Bisbee Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in July...
  • Playground Improvements - Bisbee AZ
    Garfield School, a public school located on upper Tombstone Canyon at the intersection of Pace Avenue, was completed in 1917. In 1939 the Works Progress Administration (WPA) enlarged the playground and tennis courts, and built retaining walls that contain multiple WPA stamps set in the concrete. A bronze WPA plaque can be found on the road on Pace Avenue, in front of the playground. Today, the former school serves as a bed and breakfast. Official Bulletin of the Works Progress in Arizona Volume I, No. 2: February 1936, p. 8: “Complete tennis court at Lowell School, Bisbee: Construction of a concrete doubles tennis...
  • Public Staircases - Bisbee AZ
    "In the hilly city of Bisbee the first public stairs were made of wood. They linked parallel streets and provided access to upper and lower neighborhoods. Using funds from the Works Progress Administration, the city replaced a significant number of its public stairs in 1938. The new concrete stairs were designed to a high standard and constructed with uniform treads and risers and well-finished surfaces. Most of the stairs are signed with the USA/WPA logo in the top and bottom landings." (content.library.arizona.edu)
  • Pumphouse and Reservoir - Bisbee AZ
    In 1936 the Works Progress Administration built the Pumphouse in Bisbee, Arizona. A dam was built above the Pumphouse to hold water which fed underneath the Pumphouse and supplied the city’s fire hydrants. The Bisbee Daily Review, October 2, 1935, reported the city engineer, Ralph Motz, and the CCC engineer, Frank Brunel, “spent yesterday morning looking over the site of a dam to be constructed in wood canyon for flood control and to prevent erosion. ..Water impounded during rainy seasons will be pumped into the city reservoir and stored for use of the fire department.” The pumphouse bears a distinctive oval WPA...
  • Sidewalks - Bisbee AZ
    The W.P.A. constructed sidewalks in Bisbee, Arizona, including on Bisbee Road.
  • Street Parking - Bisbee AZ
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built street parking in Bisbee. The City of Bisbee was built on an uneven topography made of canyon walls and floors. The WPA leveled and regraded the streets to build “benches” that accommodate parking. This work mitigated the city’s parking problem.
  • Street Paving - Bisbee AZ
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) paved numerous streets in Bisbee, Arizona, from 1935 to 1938. According to the Official Bulletin of the Works Progress in Arizona Volume I, No. 5, May 1936, “A project of Works Progress Administration sponsored by the City of Bisbee and providing for the paving of nearly all unsurfaced city streets is estimated at 65% completed by project officials. Widening and other improvement work has been completed. Work has been completed on O.K. Street, Howell Avenue, Shearer, Dubacher Canyon, Temby Avenue, Quality Hill, High Road, Higgins Hill, Quarry Canyon, Mayor Street, Swimming Pool Road, Opera Drive, Roberts...
  • Turquoise Valley Golf Course and Clubhouse - Naco AZ
    The Civil Works Administration (CWA) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) built a clubhouse and completed improvements at the Warren District Country Club, located between Bisbee and Naco. The CWA began the project and the WPA finished it. The University of Arizona Libraries Digital Collections describe the work done by the WPA: "The first nine holes at the Turquoise Valley Golf Course were constructed with funds from the Works Progress Administration. They remain largely unchanged -- still challenging -- since their completion in 1936. The Turquoise Valley Golf Course is the oldest continuously operated course in Arizona. The Clubhouse, constructed from...
  • Warren Ballpark Grandstands - Bisbee AZ
    The Works Progress Administration  (WPA) built grandstands for the Warren Ballpark in Bisbee. The stadium was built by the C&A Mining Co. in 1909. By the 1930s, the Phelps Dodge Corporation had purchased the C&A Mining Co. and had inherited the Warren Ballpark complete with old wooden grandstands that needed to be replaced. In 1936, the Bisbee Unified School District purchased the ballpark from the mining company for $10. It turned the ballpark into public property eligible for WPA improvements. The superintendent of the Bisbee Unified School District was R.E. Souers. In addition to being the superintendent, he was also the president of the...
  • Warren Flood Control - Bisbee AZ
    The Bisbee suburb of Warren is located approximately three miles southeast of Bisbee. The community was conceived by the Calumet & Arizona Mining Company in 1905 and designed in 1906 by landscape architect and city planner Warren Henry Manning based on the City Beautiful Movement. Warren would be a sanitary and modern community for families—symmetrically aligned streets, electricity, underground plumbing, churches, schools, and a large park which ran through the middle of the development. In 1959 the town of Warren was annexed into the Bisbee city limits. The WPA constructed numerous water diversion channels in Warren in beginning in October 1935...
  • Water Diversion Channels - Bisbee AZ
    In October 1935, a flood control project began in Bisbee, directed by A.O. Grant of the federal soil conservation service. According to the Arizona Daily Star, January 18, 1936, the project included the construction of “hundreds of check dams in canyons, erection of miles of rubble masonry walls and repairing the Tombstone Canyon subway.” It was reported that in Moon Canyon, 500 check dams were built, and hundreds of feet of rubble masonry walls were constructed on OK Street and Brewery Gulch. The newspaper reported 220 men will have worked on the project from October 1935 to January 1936.