Los Angeles Sites

Under project number 5517, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) graded and improved a national guard airfield on the site of Griffith Park where the zoo and Autry Museum are currently. $28,491 was spent by the federal government with $7,489 by the local sponsor. Total was $35,980. It employed 40 men on average for 8 months. Built in the mid 20's as the Griffith Park Aerodrome, the National Guard Air Service's 40th Air Corps Division (115th Observation Squadron) established a base & laid 2 runways: 3,600' northwest/southeast & 2,975' oil & gravel north/south strips. Training missions were flown from Griffith Park until...

Federal Arts Project (FAP) artist Charles Kassler painted a 50-foot fresco, "Stampeding Buffalo" or "Bison Hunt" (1934), on the east wall of the Children's Court at the Los Angeles Central Library. Damaged by rain runoff over the years, the fresco was painted over in 1963. Kassler's extant FAP works around Los Angeles include a fresco, “Pastoral California” (1934), at Fullerton Union High School, and eight lunette frescoes (1936) at the former Beverly Hills Post Office (the current Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts).

The photo below shows power pumps at a PWA station in Chandler. Exact location and current status of the station not known.

Cienega Elementary School, which opened in 1917, was rebuilt with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) between 1934 and 1935. In January 1934, the PWA allocated $9,380,000 to the Los Angeles Unified School District for the rehabilitation of schools damaged in the severe 1933 Long Beach earthquake.  One hundred and thirty schools would benefit from the system-wide loan and grant, with 2,500 men to be employed in rehabilitation work over 21 months. Upon receiving news of the PWA allocation, Board of Education member Arthur Eckman told the Los Angeles Times, “I am sure that every member of the board agrees with me...

City Terrace Park was planned in 1931 but the park space wasn't completed until 1933, when crews of workers from the Works Progress Administration* finished cutting into three and a half acres of rugged hillside, creating terrace space for the new city park. * While sources cite the WPA, the agency was not established until 1935. 1933 efforts may have been undertaken by a predecessor agency, the Civil Works Administration (CWA). Construction crews terracing designated park land. Arizona red sandstone from the demolition of the former Los Angeles County Courthouse (1891-1936) was re-used in construction of park features. Original 1931 park plans as...

This bridge over Arroyo Seco was constructed by the PWA in 1939.

Dorsey High School's modernistic main building and auditorium were constructed to be earthquake-proof with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA). The central building features glass brick and two single-story wings. The auditorium is located to the south of the three classroom buildings. From Southwest Builder and Contractor, October 8, 1937: "The streamlined appearance of Dorsey High was conceived by architects H. L. Gogerty and C. E. Noerenberg, who declared that the design of the campus was intended to architecturally and structurally express in functional form the outer envelope of a process of public education" (p. 12).

Eagle Rock Elementary School, which opened in 1923, was rebuilt with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) between 1934 and 1935. In January 1934, the PWA allocated $9,380,000 to the Los Angeles Unified School District for the rehabilitation of schools damaged in the severe 1933 Long Beach earthquake.  One hundred and thirty schools would benefit from the system-wide loan and grant, with 2,500 men to be employed in rehabilitation work over 21 months. Upon receiving news of the PWA allocation, Board of Education member Arthur Eckman told the Los Angeles Times, “I am sure that every member of the board agrees with...

Eastman Avenue Elementary School, which opened in 1923, was rebuilt with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) between 1934 and 1935. In January 1934, the PWA allocated $9,380,000 to the Los Angeles Unified School District for the rehabilitation of schools damaged in the severe 1933 Long Beach earthquake.  One hundred and thirty schools would benefit from the system-wide loan and grant, with 2,500 men to be employed in rehabilitation work over 21 months. Upon receiving news of the PWA allocation, Board of Education member Arthur Eckman told the Los Angeles Times, “I am sure that every member of the board agrees with...

The boathouse on the east side of Echo Park Lake was constructed in 1932 with unemployment relief bonds that predated the New Deal program. With the reopening of Echo Park in 2013, after a $45 million renovation, the boathouse now contains a cafe and a boat rental kiosk.

This statue, entitled "Nuestra Reina de los Angeles" ("Our Queen of the Angels") but known colloquially as "The Lady of the Lake," was made in 1934 by Ada May Sharpless with funding from the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP). Rendered in poured concrete, it stands 14' tall at the north end of the lake on a small peninsula. The damaged statue was put into storage on site in 1986, and after restoration reinstalled in 1999.

Artist Lorser Feitelson painted a mural in three panels at Edison Middle School in Los Angeles, CA. He was funded by the Federal Arts Project (FAP). "The central panel pictures the great inventor and some of his contributions. On the left are Edison's predecessors, Farraday , Henry, and Maxwell, and their original instruments, together with an allegory showing the genii of the new knowledge, aroused to create the electrification of the modern world. On the right are the developments growing out of Edison's electrical improvements and the men who contributed to the conquest of time and space in the long-distance...

Stanton Macdonald-Wright designed the mosaic "Early (Spanish) California" for Edison Middle School in Los Angeles, CA, in 1937. It was funded by the WPA Federal Art Project (FAP) and hangs in the school auditorium's foyer. Albert King likely executed the tile work. The mosaic depicts vaqueros wrangling cows, miners panning for gold, and workers building a railroad. A “Californio” couple stands in the center of the image. Tiles of different shapes give the mosaic a variety of textures. Macdonald-Wright was supervisor for the Southern California division of the FAP from 1935 to 1943. He is considered “an important proponent of the nonrepresentational styles of...

Elysian Heights Elementary School (today an Arts Magnet), which opened in 1915, was rebuilt with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) between 1934 and 1935. In January 1934, the PWA allocated $9,380,000 to the Los Angeles Unified School District for the rehabilitation of schools damaged in the severe 1933 Long Beach earthquake.  One hundred and thirty schools would benefit from the system-wide loan and grant, with 2,500 men to be employed in rehabilitation work over 21 months. Upon receiving news of the PWA allocation, Board of Education member Arthur Eckman told the Los Angeles Times, “I am sure that every member of...

As part of a grant to the Pueblo before it became the City of Los Angeles, Elysian Park is the oldest and second largest park in Los Angeles at 600 acres. A section of the park Montecillo De Leo Politi is a limited use area available by reservation. In 1936, the WPA constructed two tennis courts and two comfort stations there. Under project number 9907, it was sponsored by the City of Los Angeles, the cost was $211,942, and provided 358 men on average per month with employment for 9 months.

From Wikipedia: "Emerson Middle School's main building was designed by architect Richard Neutra in the International Style of Architecture, and built between 1937 and 1938. It is a two-story, steel-framed structure with strong horizontals. The first-floor classrooms have large, 15-foot glass and steel sliding doors that open to extend the spaces to the outside, while the second-floor classrooms have stairs leading to rooftop terraces. Due to its streamlined and clean appearance, "Emerson Middle School was considered a leading example of 1930s Modernism," along with Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater House and Walter Gropius's House."

This cast stone sculpture by Donal Hord was funded by the PWAP in 1934. The sculpture depicts a man crouching behind a wheel filled with gears and is variously known as "Man and the Wheel" or "Wheel of Industry" or "Man and the Machine." The sculpture's dimensions are 6'8" height x 5'6" width x 4' deep, and the base is 4'h x 5'w x 4'd. The piece seems to have originally been made for the museum in Exposition Park. It is currently in storage: "The sculpture was constructed as part of the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP). It may have been...

In 1939, Rex Sorenson sculpted two 12-foot stone sculptures of Theodore Roosevelt and George Washington for Fairfax High School in Los Angeles, CA. Each was mounted on a three-to-four foot pedestal. Both sculptures were subsequently destroyed.

Fifty-Ninth Street Elementary School, which opened in 1924, was rebuilt with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) between 1934 and 1935. In January 1934, the PWA allocated $9,380,000 to the Los Angeles Unified School District for the rehabilitation of schools damaged in the severe 1933 Long Beach earthquake.  One hundred and thirty schools would benefit from the system-wide loan and grant, with 2,500 men to be employed in rehabilitation work over 21 months. Upon receiving news of the PWA allocation, Board of Education member Arthur Eckman told the Los Angeles Times, “I am sure that every member of the board agrees with...

Fifty-Second Street Elementary School, which opened in 1926, was rebuilt with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) between 1934 and 1935. In January 1934, the PWA allocated $9,380,000 to the Los Angeles Unified School District for the rehabilitation of schools damaged in the severe 1933 Long Beach earthquake.  One hundred and thirty schools would benefit from the system-wide loan and grant, with 2,500 men to be employed in rehabilitation work over 21 months. Upon receiving news of the PWA allocation, Board of Education member Arthur Eckman told the Los Angeles Times, “I am sure that every member of the board agrees with...

Figueroa Street Elementary School, which opened in 1923, was rebuilt with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) between 1934 and 1935. In January 1934, the PWA allocated $9,380,000 to the Los Angeles Unified School District for the rehabilitation of schools damaged in the severe 1933 Long Beach earthquake.  One hundred and thirty schools would benefit from the system-wide loan and grant, with 2,500 men to be employed in rehabilitation work over 21 months. Upon receiving news of the PWA allocation, Board of Education member Arthur Eckman told the Los Angeles Times, “I am sure that every member of the board agrees with...

A 1939 report on the WPA's progress in Southern California described the agency's extensive involvement in a major roads project helping to connect Los Angeles to the Glendale-Pasadena area by improving Figueroa St.: "The Figueroa Street Improvement, Work Project No. 4201, sponsored by the City of Los Angeles, provided for the improvement of Figueroa Street between Bishops Road and Sunset Boulevard; and Castelar St. from Figueroa Street to College Street. Both streets are units in the major highway plan of the City of Los Angeles and form an important part of an arterial highway leading from the San Fernando Valley and...

"FOR, many years the city of Los Angeles has felt the need of an additional through traffic highway to the north to relieve congestion on North Broadway. Figueroa Street, one of the main north and south arterials in the city was the logical street to be extended. A barrier formed by the Elysian Park hills and the Los Angeles River made this undertaking very expensive. However, the project has been carried forward one step at a time as funds became available. The first step was taken in 1928 when plans were ordered for the first tunnel under Elysian Park. The final...

Streamline Moderne architecture built by the WPA in 1940.

"FOUR grade separation projects were recently completely in Los Angeles. These projects have a been financed from funds set aside by the Federal Government to be used on grade separation projects. On these projects the State acted as an agent for the Federal Government, contracting and supervising the construction. The projects were intended to relieve labor and carried the condition that as far as practical, labor was to come from the relief rolls and that labor be confined to one hundred thirty hours per month. It also stipulated that railroad work could be done by the railroad forces." "The Firestone Boulevard Grade...

In 1941, the Works Projects Administration (WPA) built a viaduct to take First Street over the Pacific Electric interurban trolley tracks that ran along Glendale Boulevard in Los Angeles, CA, at the time.  The viaduct is still in use, though Pacific Electric disappeared long ago. "Designed to eliminate a major traffic problem on the Northwest side of Los Angeles," the caption to a WPA photo notes, "the First and Glendale viaduct, a $475,000 WPA construction project, is scheduled for completion, under city sponsorship, approximately July 15, 1941. A WPA crew of 270 workers are now engaged on the job. The viaduct...

"This P.W. A.Moderne style school was constructed from 1937 to 1939 to plans drawn by architects John C. Austin and Frederick M. Ashley. The P.W.A. Moderne married the symmetry and classicism of earlier eras with elements culled from the fashionable Art Deco and Streamline Moderne idioms." - https://www.laschools.org/employee/design/fs-studies-and-reports/download/LAUSD_Presentation_March_2002.pdf?version_id=1895945

Ford Boulevard Elementary School, which opened in 1923, was rebuilt with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) between 1934 and 1935. In January 1934, the PWA allocated $9,380,000 to the Los Angeles Unified School District for the rehabilitation of schools damaged in the severe 1933 Long Beach earthquake.  One hundred and thirty schools would benefit from the system-wide loan and grant, with 2,500 men to be employed in rehabilitation work over 21 months. Upon receiving news of the PWA allocation, Board of Education member Arthur Eckman told the Los Angeles Times, “I am sure that every member of the board agrees with...

Forty-Ninth Street Elementary School, which opened in 1913, was rebuilt with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) between 1934 and 1935. In January 1934, the PWA allocated $9,380,000 to the Los Angeles Unified School District for the rehabilitation of schools damaged in the severe 1933 Long Beach earthquake.  One hundred and thirty schools would benefit from the system-wide loan and grant, with 2,500 men to be employed in rehabilitation work over 21 months. Upon receiving news of the PWA allocation, Board of Education member Arthur Eckman told the Los Angeles Times, “I am sure that every member of the board agrees with...

In 1934, Leo Katz painted a three-panel mural in the lobby of Frank Wiggins Trade School (today's Los Angeles Trade-Technical College) in Los Angeles, CA. Katz was assisted by artists Tyrone Comfort and Ben Messick. The side panels were funded by the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP); the central panel was completed at Katz' own expense following the termination of the PWAP in May 1934. The April 1937 issue of Los Angeles School Journal noted that an "unsuccessful attempt" was made by a first artist before Katz took over. Having "just returned from Mexico filled with enthusiasm from his study...

One of the oldest parks in Los Angeles County, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park was a product of WPA efforts. Located in the unincorporated "census-designated" community of Florence-Graham, CA in southern Los Angeles County, the park continues to serve as a vital center of community life, with basketball courts, children's play areas, a community room, a computer center, a fitness zone, a gymnasium, picnic shelters, a senior center, a soccer field, a swimming pool, a skateboard park and tennis courts.

Under the auspices of the WPA Federal Art Project (FAP), artist Eugenia Everett sculpted a statue for Fries Avenue Elementary School in Los Angeles, CA. The sculpture is of "Wynken, Blinken, and Nod," characters in Eugene Field's Dutch lullaby. George Washington Preparatory High School (Los Angeles, CA) has a copy of the same statue. According to a 1937 article in the Los Angeles School Journal, "Eugenia Everett is a wistful young lady, working in her aunt's studio on Manhattan Place" (Wells, p. 25).

Garvanza Elementary School, which opened in 1899, was rebuilt with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) between 1934 and 1935. In January 1934, the PWA allocated $9,380,000 to the Los Angeles Unified School District for the rehabilitation of schools damaged in the severe 1933 Long Beach earthquake.  One hundred and thirty schools would benefit from the system-wide loan and grant, with 2,500 men to be employed in rehabilitation work over 21 months. Upon receiving news of the PWA allocation, Board of Education member Arthur Eckman told the Los Angeles Times, “I am sure that every member of the board agrees with me...

Elise Seeds painted a mural, "Prehistoric Animals," for a school in Los Angeles, CA, with funding from the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) and—upon the termination of the PWAP in 1934—the Federal and State Emergency Relief Administrations (FERA/SERA). The mural was subsequently relocated to the George Page Museum. Elise Seeds' other New Deal work in the region is a mural, "Air Mail," at the post office in Oceanside, CA.

George Washington Carver Middle School—formerly William McKinley Junior High School—was rebuilt with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) between 1934 and 1935. Having originally opened in 1904, the school was renamed in 1943 "to foster racial harmony." Some PWA buildings appear to have survived subsequent reconstruction, but confirmation is needed. In January 1934, the PWA allocated $9,380,000 to the Los Angeles Unified School District for the rehabilitation of schools damaged in the severe 1933 Long Beach earthquake. One hundred and thirty schools would benefit from the system-wide loan and grant, with 2,500 men to be employed in rehabilitation work over...

George Washington Preparatory High School, which opened in 1927, was rebuilt with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) between 1934 and 1935. In January 1934, the PWA allocated $9,380,000 to the Los Angeles Unified School District for the rehabilitation of schools damaged in the severe 1933 Long Beach earthquake.  One hundred and thirty schools would benefit from the system-wide loan and grant, with 2,500 men to be employed in rehabilitation work over 21 months. Upon receiving news of the PWA allocation, Board of Education member Arthur Eckman told the Los Angeles Times, “I am sure that every member of the board agrees...

Artist Ross Dickinson painted two murals for George Washington Preparatory High School in Los Angeles, CA. "Valley of California" (25' x 7') is located at the north end of the school library; "Mankind's Achievements" is on the landing of the main stairs (Wells, p. 21). Both were completed in 1934 and funded by the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP). Dickinson's other New Deal–funded works in the region include a mural, “History of the Recorded Word” (1937), in the Thomas Jefferson High School library (Los Angeles, CA).

Presumably under the auspices of the WPA Federal Art Project (FAP), artist Eugenia Everett created a bust made of Belgian black marble depicting a woman with her hair gathered at the back of her neck. It is now located in the library at George Washington Preparatory High School in Los Angeles, CA. According to a 1937 article in the Los Angeles School Journal, “Eugenia Everett is a wistful young lady, working in her aunt’s studio on Manhattan Place” (Wells, p. 25). Everett also created sculptures for Brockton Avenue School and Fries Avenue Elementary School in Los Angeles, CA.

Under the auspices of the WPA Federal Art Project (FAP), artist Eugenia Everett sculpted for Brockton Avenue Elementary School in Los Angeles, CA, a statue now located at George Washington Preparatory High School. The sculpture is of "Wynken, Blinken, and Nod," characters in Eugene Field's Dutch lullaby. Fries Avenue Elementary School (Los Angeles, CA), has a copy of the same statue. According to a 1937 article in the Los Angeles School Journal, "Eugenia Everett is a wistful young lady, working in her aunt's studio on Manhattan Place" (Wells, p. 25).

Helen Lundeberg, assisted by Donald Totten, painted a two-panel mural at George Washington Preparatory High School in Los Angeles, CA. The panels, titled "Valley Forge, 1777" and "Yorktown, 1781," are located in the auditorium's interior foyer. Completed in 1941, the mural was funded by the Federal Art Project (FAP). "Valley Forge, 1777" depicts George Washington against a snowy background as he assists a fallen soldier towards a fire. "Yorktown, 1781" depicts George Washington standing before a church with a pen in his right hand and a sword in his left. Both murals are made of plaster and petrochrome and feature the...