Jerome Sites

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was active in Jerome, a copper mining town hit hard by the Great Depression.  The WPA hired out-of-work miners for several projects in Jerome and nearby towns. In 1937, the WPA relief workers built retaining walls to prevent erosion and collapse of the hillside below the Little Daisy Hotel – which was not a hotel but a workers' residence hall built by the owners of the Little Daisy mine in 1918.  The mine failed in 1938 and the building was closed. At some later time, the top floor was removed and the next floor gutted, leaving only...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was active in Jerome, a mining town hit hard by the Great Depression.  The WPA hired out-of-work miners for several projects in Jerome and nearby towns. One of those projects was building concrete sidewalks.  One local resident told us, "Oh, they are everywhere," but in our brief time in Jerome we found only one example of the telltale WPA stamps in the sidewalk along School Street. There are several stairways between streets in town because Jerome was built on the side of mountain next to its copper mine.  These certainly look like WPA, but there are no...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was active in Jerome, a copper mining town hit hard by the Great Depression.  The WPA hired out-of-work miners for several projects in Jerome and nearby towns. One of those projects was planting trees to stabilize the steep hillside on which the town is built (like so many western mining towns).  The favorite tree for the job was the tough, fast-growing Ailanthus, or Chinese Tree of Heaven. Since the species readily spreads by root suckers, they are all over the town to this day.  But the harsh climate of Jerome, varying from winter snow to desert heat,...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was active in Jerome, a copper mining town hit hard by the Great Depression.  The WPA hired out-of-work miners for several projects in Jerome and nearby towns, c. 1937-38.  One of those projects is "Upper Park" on the hillside between upper Main Street and Clark Street. The parks consist of two parts.  Along Main Street a spacious, curving bank of stone risers is flanked by stairways and stone walls, with a short pair of central stairs and a metal drinking fountain.  The stairways lead up to a small area with grass and trees, backed by a...