Modesto Sites

Burbank Elementary School was built in 1939 by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The original school appears to consist of three buildings, all long and low in the style of Spanish mission residential buildings.  All have covered, pillared breezeways along the entire front, with door to each classroom opening onto those outdoor corridors. The school has had additions and underwent a major renovation in recent years, according to a staffer who spoke to us in 2023.  The original design had tile roofs, as shown in 2010 photo, which have been changed to metal roofs.    

The old downtown post office – officially, the Federal Building – was built in 1933 by the Treasury Department in Modesto, California.  The project has a long pre-history and was to be built as part of a sweeping catalogue of federal buildings around the country in the 1920s.  It finally got underway in the early 1930s.  The design was drawn up in the Treasury Department in 1931 and bids for construction were advertised in late 1932.  The contract awarded to Murch Brothers Construction Company of St. Louis, a large firm that built several other post offices around the country. The project was continued as...

Enslen Elementary School in Modesto, California apparently gained a new building in 1935 with aid from the New Deal.  That aid may have come as Public Works Administration (PWA) funding or relief work by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The original school building is a long, single-story structure with red-tile roof (Mission Style) and ample window openings onto classrooms.  It is a close (identical?) match to the Wilson Elementary School in Modesto. We have a photograph from the National Archives and Records Administration of an unidentified school building in Modesto that matches the basic lines of the Enslen and Wilson schools. Further information...

The Public Works Administration (PWA) helped pay for major improvements to the irrigation canals of the Modesto Irrigation District (MID), created in 1887. "MID ditches were vastly improved during the Depression. One project in 1937, was funded by a $380,000 federal grant from the PWA. It would bring the miles of improved ditches up to about 100 miles (out of a total of about 450 miles). Fifty ditches were involved in this project and over 500 men were employed for about five months. The federal government furnished about 45% of the cost of the manpower and materials." (Osborn, p. 46)

The El Viejo Building in Modesto, California, features a splendid series of murals painted by Roy Boynton.  This was originally the downtown post office and Federal Building, and the murals were commissioned by the Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP) and mounted in 1936. The murals are arrayed high on the walls of the lobby. Boynton and several assistants painted a series of thirteen tempera murals depicting agricultural scenes in the Central Valley. Ten are lunettes and three are placed on the end wall to make a single, large mural. As one local reporter explained: "These are the scenes of the Central...

According to a report from the regional office in 1940, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) had recently constructed rock walls in Stanislaus County, California. Unfortunately, nothing more specific is known about this project, neither the location nor the purpose of the walls.  WPA reports could be maddeningly vague about some of their minor projects.

The Stanislaus County Hall of Records in downtown Modesto, California, was constructed in 1938 with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA).  It stands directly across from the old Modesto Post Office (now the El Viejo Building). The building has a central 5-story highrise section and one long, 3-story wing. The design is strikingly Modern, looking more like a structure built in the 1950s than the 1930s.  It remains in fine condition, serving its original purpose.