• Eureka High School Industrial Arts Building - Eureka CA
    The Industrial Arts (Education) building at Eureka High School was funded in part by the Public Works Administration (PWA).  PWA provided 45% of the money for a set of construction projects by the Eureka Public School District, including this building. A school bond measure provided the balance of the funds. The funding was apparently secured in late 1938, the structure erected in 1939 and the official opening took place with little fanfare in early 1940. The style of the two-story building is Streamline Moderne, with a curved wall made of glass bricks to the left of the entrance and streamline horizontal bars...
  • Eureka Municipal Auditorium - Eureka CA
    The large Eureka Municipal Auditorium was built with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) in 1935-36.  While it retains the old name, etched in bas-relief above the entrance, the building now appears to be used as a gymnasium for youth basketball (2023). The building's design is Classical Moderne, with Art Deco touches.  The classical element is given by the two-story entrance with its 4 full and 2 half-columns (all fluted) and wide stairway.  Flanking the entrance are full-length, recessed vertical bas-reliefs in  abstract Art Deco style.  Two similar bas-relief columns appear on each side of the building.  The effect of...
  • Federal Courthouse Murals - McKinleyville CA
    In 1938, Thomas Laman painted five egg tempera on canvas murals for the Eureka post office and courthouse under the Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP). The murals depict mining, farming, railroad building, and fauna of northern California.    The 0ld Eureka post office and courthouse was privatized (sold off) in 2002 and the murals were in danger of being lost to the public. But public pressure led the   General Services Administration (GSA) to reclaim and restore the murals, which were later transferred to the new federal courthouse in nearby McKinleyville, completed in 2015.
  • Fort Humboldt Restoration - Eureka CA
    Fort Humboldt in southwest Eureka, California, was a military outpost that helped secure northwest California for miners, settlers and the US government, from 1853 to 1867, when it was abandoned.  It began to be seen as worthy of recognition and salvage in the early 20th century as a triumphant landmark of Anglo conquest (a history much in question today by the region's native peoples). Works Progress Administration (WPA) crews of relief workers conducted extensive renovations to Fort Humboldt between 1935 and 1938.  This came after a concerted lobbying effort by local veterans' organizations, which had begun the restoration work on their...
  • Humboldt County Public Health Building - Eureka CA
    The Public Works Administration (PWA) provided funding for the Humboldt County Public Health Building in Eureka, California, built in 1939.   The building was originally the county welfare building and juvenile detention home. It is now used by the county health department. The two-story, Streamline Moderne style building was designed by architect Frank Georgeson.  
  • Mad River Water Supply Project - Eureka CA
    The Public Works Administration (PWA) funded part or all of a major 6-mile long pipeline for the Mad River Water Supply Project.  The pipeline contract was awarded the United Concrete Pipe Corporation of Los Angeles in 1937 for $775,695.] According to the Eureka Times-Standard (Oct 7, 2016), " a 20-year project to build a parallel pipeline was being completed as a failsafe in case the old New Deal era pipes failed. The system goes from a pumping station on the Mad River north of Arcata to the filtration system in Eureka's water treatment facility on W and Hemlock St. The survey company...