Arizona Sites

"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."

"To portray 'beauty, toil and simplicity' was the goal of artist, R. Phillips Sanderson, when he designed the 'Copper Miner.' Sanderson had moved to Bisbee during the Depression and worked as a commercial artist. He was paid $30.00 per month by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration during the six months it took to complete the statue. Bisbee native, Lee Petrovitch, posed for the artist. The statue was cast in concrete and covered (metalized) with a thin layer of copper. The statue was dedicated to all of the miners who had worked in Bisbee mines."

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) carried out major work at Colossal Cave and the surrounding park north of Vail AZ (now a suburb of Tucson, but far to the east in the 1930s). They improved access to the cave itself, built a large visitors'/administration center, laid out a campground and picnic area, opened roads and trails and built a water supply system.  The Arizona State Park Service oversaw the work. CCC workers constructed La Selvilla campground and El Bosquecito picnic area below the hillside, as well as a pump house to take water up the hill to the cave and visitors'...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) carried out major work at Colossal Cave and the surrounding park north of Vail AZ (now a suburb of Tucson, but far to the east in the 1930s). They improved access for visitors to the cave itself, built a large visitors'/administration center, laid out a campground and picnic area, opened roads and trails and built a water supply system.  The Arizona State Park Service oversaw the work. Work inside Colossal Cave included widening the entrance and passageways, installing rock walkways and handrails, and added lighting and a water pipeline. This work was done in 1934-37 by...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) carried out major work at Colossal Cave and the surrounding park north of Vail AZ (now a suburb of Tucson, but far to the east in the 1930s). They improved access for visitors to the cave itself, built a large visitors'/administration center, laid out a campground and picnic area, opened roads and trails and built a water supply system.  The Arizona State Park Service oversaw the work. We know that CCC workers built roads and trails in the park.  They almost certainly built the main road up to the visitors' center, plus the parking lot and...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) carried out major work at Colossal Cave and the surrounding park north of Vail AZ (now a suburb of Tucson, but far to the east in the 1930s). They improved access for visitors to the cave itself, built a large visitors'/administration center, laid out a campground and picnic area, opened roads and trails and built a water supply system.  The Arizona State Park Service oversaw the work. The visitors/administrative complex is a massive stone edifice on the side of the hill at the main opening of the cave – one of the most beautiful CCC works...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) conducted extensive development work at Grand Canyon Village, including construction of the Community Building, with funds from the Public Works Administration (PWA) and under the direction of the National Park Service (NPS). The NPS CCC Walking Tour says this: "The two-story wooden building just to the west of the corral is the Community Building. The Public Works Administration funded the construction of the Community Building, while the CCC and the National Park Service provided the labor. Begun in 1934 and completed in 1935, it replaced a structure in another location that had burned the year...

The Public Works Administration (PWA) helped fund the former Coolidge Union High School, now the school district administration building. Ground was broken on April 4, 1936 and the school opened in 1939.  The project cost of $150,000 was divided between a PWA grant and local bonds. This large and handsome building is a melange of Neoclassical and Southwest Pueblo styles.  It is still probably the largest and the most elegant building in the city of Coolidge.  Ironically, the town, founded in 1925, was named after President Calvin Coolidge; it was not incorporated until 1945. The plaque by the front entrance indicates that...

WPA created sidewalks and curbs poured as the neighborhood developed between 1939 and 1942.

"Phoenix has no shortage of projects. The city’s park system is a major benefactor, with huge undertakings in places like South Mountain Park and Encanto Park and smaller projects, such as a bathhouse in Coronado Park...South Mountain Park near Central Avenue and Baseline Road was home to a CCC camp that employed 4,000 young men between 1933 and 1940. They built lookout points, ramadas, trails and bathrooms that are historical and architectural gems today."

The Cottonwood Community Club House – also known as the Community Center or Civic Center – was built in 1939 with the help of the Works Progress Administration (WPA).  The WPA hired the relief workers to do the labor, many of whom came from the local area, while funds for materials did not come from city government, as was usual, but through volunteer subscriptions by local citizens. The local effort was led by the women's Cottonwood Community Civic Club, for which the club house was intended (on land donated to them three years earlier). The building is eye-catching, with walls of large, round...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built an addition to the County Hospital, also known as the Southside District Hospital in Mesa. The hospital was built in 1923 as a 12-bed facility with emergency and surgical services. The hospital expanded to 37 beds after the Works Progress Administration (WPA) built an addition. This was the only hospital facility in Mesa at that time. The building was designed in the Mission Revival style, with typical architectural elements such as arched openings and clay tile roof. Pictured are hospital facilities such as an x-ray room, an operating room, and the nursery. The exact location...

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) built the curving bridge over the Creosote Wash on North Main Street in Cottonwood AZ in the winter of 1933-34. The bridge is built of reinforced concrete with river stone cladding. The upstream side features a handsome arch, while the downstream side reveals the underlying concrete substructure. Creosote Wash is an episodic creek that is dry much of the year.  It used to be called Blowout Wash (and is still marked as such on some online maps).

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) conducted extensive development work at Grand Canyon Village, including construction of a stone culvert at Village Loop Drive just west of its intersection with Center Road, and north of parking Lot C. CCC Walking Tour: "Civilian Conservation Corps crews installed this culvert and made many roadside improvements in the area from 1933 to 1937. This culvert has required little maintenance over the last 65 years."

The Works Progress Administration paved Curry Road in Tempe, Maricopa County, circa 1937. Pictured is a finished section of Curry Highway (presently Curry Road) at the intersection with Scottsdale Road.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built a short bridge on North Main Street across Del Monte Wash in Cottonwood AZ.   The bridge is concrete dressed with the same river stone from the Verde River as the nearby Cottonwood Community Club building and was almost certainly built at the same time, 1938-39.  It is mentioned on the historical plaque in front of the Community Club.

In 1937, the Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) provided a grant to contractor, G. Clay Gates, to build a metal guardrail on part of the Cameron-Desert View approach road to Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. "G. Clay Gates, Thermopolis, Wyo., $18,122 low to Bureau of Public Roads, Phoenix, Arizona, for performing the work for placing metal plate guardrail on Sections A, B, C, D, and E of the Cameron-Desert View Approach Road to Grand Canyon National Park, Coconino County, Arizona."  Western Construction News. There are still guard rails along much of Desert View Road, but the road has pretty clearly been...

The historic Diamond Point fire lookout tower was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). NRHP Nomination Form: "This 30 ft high steel Aermotor MC-24 tower with a 12 ft by 12 ft cab is located on the Payson Ranger District and was erected in the fall of 1936 by a CCC crew. The wood frame cabin was built in 1941. The lookout tower has been modified. Metal steps were added in 1984 and at an unknown date the original windows were replaced with sliding aluminum windows and the wooden shutters removed. The wood frame cabin with a simple gable roof and...

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed a drainage canal in the vicinity of Buckeye, Arizona during the 1930s. The exact location and present status of the canal is unknown to Living New Deal.

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) worked to develop and improve Phoenix, Arizona's East Van Buren Street during the 1930s.

The park was originally called Phoenix Park, renamed Eastlake Park in 1903, and bought by the City of Phoenix in 1914 (City of Phoenix African American Historic Property Survey pp 29-30). The survey further states that: "In 1937 Works Progress Administration funding provided for the construction at Eastlake Park of a bathhouse, showers, and dressing rooms for the pool. Two years later, the city added lights, swings, sandboxes, sports facilities, and equipment." "...the park was a significant site for civil rights rallies and the starting point of all civil rights marches to the Capital; until it grew too large to continue...

The W.P.A. constructed sidewalks in Phoenix, AZ, including at "Encanto & First Ave."

"The revival of interest in listening to music out of doors has not been overlooked by the city of Phoenix in its park improvement program, and this band shell in the Dorris-Norton Park provides a place where the bands and orchestras of the city can play. The shell is constructed entirely of wood covered with stucco and has been designed to reflect and amplify the sound over a large area of the park. It was completed in June 1937 at a construction cost of $5,400 and a project cost of $6,731 which did not include electrical connections for lighting or...

"In order to provide its citizens and its large transient population with better park facilities, the city of Phoenix undertook the rehabilitation and beautification of existing parks and the acquisition of lands for the creation of new mountain and city parks. The type of buildings erected in these parks was similar in all cases and their character and design blend with the brilliant sunshine and the native foliage. The illustration on this page is a view of the club house in the Dorris-Norton Park. It is one and part two stories in height and contains a large public dining room,...

Archaeological excavation and restoration of the prehistoric settlement at Wupatki began in 1933 under the guidance of Harold Colton, founder and director of the Museum of Northern Arizona.  In the winter of 1933-34 Civil Works Administration (CWA) provided the relief labor to continue excavation and restoration.  Next came a Navajo Indian CCC mobile unit formed under a joint program between the Park Service and the Indian Service (later the Bureau of Indian Affairs) to do stabilization work on indigenous ruins in Chaco Canyon, Navajo, Tonto, Aztec Ruins, Montezuma Castle, and Gran Quivira national monuments, as well as Wupatki (Paige 1985, Ch...

The Federal Building in downtown Flagstaff was constructed as the city's main post office in 1935-1937. Plans had originally called for a combination Post Office and Federal Building, but they were dropped in 1931 by the Hoover Administration for lack of funds (Cline, p 311). When the New Deal came in, funding was restored in 1934. The Federal Building is a gem of Moderne/Deco style architecture of the period. The basic form is a simple, two-story, rectangular box, but the facade is exceptional, consisting of three tall vertical openings (entrance and flanking windows) featuring gleaming copper panels and vertical bands. The...

This New Deal post office is now known as the Federal Building: MesaAZ.gov: "The Federal Building was built in 193 by the Federal Government Department of Treasury to become Mesa's first 1st-class post office and one of the finest buildings in the City at its completion.  The significance of the building was substantiated by the arrival of the Postmaster General, James A. Farley, who attended the dedication of the building as the guest of honor at a banquet at the Mezona Hall.  Local postal officials, Democratic leaders, and other community leaders from all parts of Arizona also attended the function.  James...

The former Phoenix Federal Building and Post Office (now owned by ASU) was designed by Phoenix architectural firm Lescher and Mahoney in the Spanish Colonial Revival style. Construction had begun in 1932, before the advent of FDR's presidency (and thus prior to the New Deal); however, the building bears a 1935 cornerstone, which places it well within the time of FDR! Wikipedia explains: "A site was chosen in 1931 and Phoenix architects Lescher and Mahoney were commissioned to design a six-story building that was intended to house all of the federal services in the city. Construction was begun on the foundations....

The historic former Federal Building and Post Office in Phoenix, Arizona houses examples of New Deal artwork. In 1937 the U.S. Treasury’s Section of Fine Arts commissioned artist La Verne Nelson Black to create two murals for the east wing of the post office, respectively entitled "Historical Background" and "Progress of the Pioneer." The murals present images of Anglo-American settlement and industrialization. Black moved with his family to Phoenix for health reasons and focused his painting and sculpture on the historic West and Native Americans. Another three murals funded by the Section were painted by Oscar Berninghaus. They hang in...

"Named for the historic mining district, the Crown King Ranger Station includes numerous structures and buildings built by the Civilian Conservation Corps between 1934 and 1938. The office and residence were designed in the Bungalow/Craftsman style with timbered gables and wide front porches fronted by square columns on pedestals. The buildings were designed according to standard Forest Service plans. Each complex is unique however -- modified to make use of local materials and to adapt to the landscape itself. Horsethief Basin facilities were funded by the Public Works Administration as part of a large recreation project for Phoenix residents. CCC...

In 1934, Coconino county used federal funds to help widen, surface and oil three miles of dirt road from the north end of Beaver Street in Flagstaff to the city's reservoirs.  This was the first county road to be paved.  It fostered bigger ideas from Flagstaff's city fathers, who had long wanted a more direct route to the Grand Canyon around the west side of the San Francisco Peaks. In 1936, county engineer Clyde Etter proposed improving the old forest road through Fort Valley and extending it 50 miles to the Williams-Grand Canyon road (today's Highway 64).  The Works Progress Administration (WPA) agreed to...

"One of the primary goals of the Federal Art Project was to bring different kinds of art to the American people. Sculptor Kathleen Wilson was funded by FAP to create 12 three-foot statues representing historic priests. Local teenagers were hired with National Youth Administration funds to build the shrine structures for the “Camino de los Padres.” With the support of local Chambers of Commerce, the statues were placed along Arizona roadways. This statue with its stone grotto outside of Nogales has attracted much devotion since construction in 1939. Most statues have subsequently disappeared and many of those that are left...

"The Geronimo Surrender Monument commemorates the final surrender of the famous Chiricahua Apache Chief Geronimo and the last of his band to General Nelson A. Miles on September 4, 1886. That surrender marked the end of more than 20 years of warfare between the Chiricahua Apache and American settlers and the U.S. Army. Geronimo and his fighters, along with those Chiricahua already settled on the San Carlos Reservation, were forcibly removed to a prison camp in Florida. The monument was constructed by the City of Douglas on Highway 80, then the main east-west route, as a point of interest for...

The Works Progress Administration built tennis courts for the Gilbert High School in Gilbert, Maricopa County. The original Gilbert High School, now the Gilbert Historical Museum, is located at 10 South Gilbert Road and was built in 1917. The building pictured in the background of the tennis court construction is still in place. Looking at the arrangement of windows and roofline, the courts would have been south of the building. That space is now occupied by a newer building meaning the tennis courts are no longer extant. 

The Prescott National Guard Armory was built from 1936 to 1939 by the relief workers of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Today, it is called the Grace Sparkes Activity Center and the Prescott Parks and Recreation offices are located on the lower floor. The former armory is a large building constructed of reinforced concrete that was meant to provide a large interior hall for drills.  The exterior is sheathed with cut native stone. Sandstone lintels are used over windows set deeply into the walls. The front entrance features a medieval style gate over the double doors and different color and pattern of stone...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was extremely active in Grand Canyon National Park throughout the New Deal. The CCC enrollees worked under the direction of the National Park Service (NPS) and some of the projects were funded by the Public Works Administration (PWA).  The first CCC camp was established on the South Rim, where Company 819 started working on improvements to the facilities around Grand Canyon Village, the main visitor center for the park, c. 1933-1937. The CCC enrollees built a stone wall along the Rim Trail, the Kolb Studio stairs, the Community Building, rock pillars on Navajo Street, and various paths, culverts,...

"Grandview Lookout Tower stands over 80 feet in height. The tower was constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1936 in order to locate forest fires in their early stages of development. The tower is part of a series of fire watch structures including Kendrick Mountain and Bill Williams Mountain lookouts that survey the northern portion of the Kaibab National Forest. The tower is still staffed today during fire months in the summer and is open to visitors during that time. The view from the top includes a large portion of the Grand Canyon and nearby San Francisco Peaks and...

"A major park that African Americans on the west side frequented was Grant Park, located at 3rd Avenue and Grant Street. Grant Park existed as an empty lot with grass and trees until the city Parks and Recreation Department renovated it in 1934 through Civil Works Administration funding. In 1937 Works Progress Administration funding provided for the construction at Eastlake Park of a bathhouse, showers, and dressing rooms for the pool. Two years later, the city added lights, swings, sandboxes, sports facilities, and equipment. The park added a bandstand, tennis courts, and a recreation hall where teens in the 1950s...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) conducted extensive development work at Grand Canyon Village. At the same time, the lesser-known and short-lived Civil Works Administration (CWA) of winter 1933-34 developed a path at the village in early 1934. A period photograph shows this as being a stone-lined path near Navajo Road. The information and photograph are consistent with the Grand Canyon Village Greenway.

The Winslow Headstart building, originally the Winslow Clubhouse, was built in 1937 by relief workers employed by the Work Progress Administration (WPA).   "The Winslow Clubhouse (now Headstart) is a good example of the Winslow community’s desire for adaptive reuse. The building features many interesting details: hand-carved doors, inset "steer-head" designs in the stone wall, and hand-painted tiles gracing the patio steps... The clubhouse and the stadium were constructed in 1937 and funded by the WPA."