Oakland Sites

The Public Works Administration (PWA) financed the construction of the Hawthorne Elementary School in the Fruitvale area of Oakland, California, in 1940.  The PWA had been incorporated into the Federal Works Agency (FWA) circa 1940 (the plaque does not give a date). The single-story building's design is (PWA) Moderne with bas-relief columns between the windows on the south wing and a decorative scrim above. The north wing is plain. The main entrance has a simple grooved edging.   Because the school lies within the main Latino/x district of Oakland, it has been painted in bright colors, as the community prefers. The effect...

Alameda County courthouse is a striking example of Moderne Architecture. It consists of a large base filling a city block, a setback tower, two further stories of jail set farther back and a hipped roof with observation cupola at the top. The base and tower are white concrete with striking vertical window columns.  The south facade features a large bas-relief eagle over the door (and has been altered for wheelchair access).  The main entrance, no longer used, faces Lake Merritt to the east, with a grand lobby and staircase flanked by large marble mosaics. The interior, housing several floors of...

The former main entrance on the east side of the Alameda County Courthouse leads to an elegant lobby flanked by stairways and two large murals made of inlaid marble backed with gold and silver leaf.   The murals, which measure 10 x 30 feet, were designed by Marian Simpson and sculpted by Gaetano Duccini.  They were paid for by the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). One is called "Exploration" and depicts the Native American and Hispanic history of Alameda County.  The other is called "Settling of California" and portrays the arrival of Anglo frontier settlers.  That entrance and lobby is...

Arroyo Viejo Recreation Center/Park was developed between 1936 and 1939 by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), working with the Oakland Recreation Department.  The WPA funded the project for around $60,000 in 1935 (Chronicle 1935). The 16 acre site on Arroyo Viejo Creek was purchased by the city in pieces, starting in 1935.  The entire purchase cost about $36,000 (Post-Enquirer 1935). The property had belonged to the Japanese Domoto family, who operated a nursery there.  (An interesting sidelight is that Kenji Domoto went on to be a famous landscape architect) The work of creating a new park began with tearing down acres of...

In 1937, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) built an extension of the sanitary sewer up Broadway Terrace from Harbord Drive to Sheridan Road (just below the brow of the hills near Lake Temescal).  (Oakland Tribune 1937) The current state of the sewer line is unknown. Broadway Terrace is a major artery with water, gas, telephone and internet lines, and the concrete roadbed has been repeatedly cut through and repaired.   Judging from the placement of manhole covers, there appears to be two sewer lines running parallel along this stretch of road and another, probably older, line in the old Broadway Terrace...

The original Caldecott Tunnel was built with the aid of the Public Works Administration (PWA). Out of a total cost of $4 million, the PWA provided $1.1 million, the state $700,000 and the highway district sold $2.3 million in bonds, which were repaid from gas tax revenues (Oakland Tribune 1937).  Plans for the tunnel had long been in the works, as automobiles began to replace trolleys after World War I. A Joint Highway District was created in 1929 to undertake the project and money was sought from the federal government from the outset of the New Deal (Tribune 1933).  Once PWA...

The original two-bore Caldecott Tunnel was built with the aid of the Public Works Administration (PWA). Out of a total cost of $4 million, the PWA provided $1.1 million, the state $700,000 and the highway district $2.3 million in bonds, which were repaid from gas tax revenues (Oakland Tribune 1937).  Plans for the tunnel had long been in the works as automobiles began to replace trolleys after World War I.  A Joint Highway District was created in 1929 to undertake the project and money was sought from the federal government from the outset of the New Deal.  Once PWA funding was...

Anthony Chabot Elementary School was originally built as the Claremont Annex School in 1927, but it was renamed in 1930 for Anthony Chabot, an early settler in Oakland who built the first city water works by damming nearby Temescal Creek. The Public Works Administration (PWA) funded a new addition to the school in 1935 and it was built in 1936 and completed in 1937.  It was called the Assembly building at the time, but now serves as the library and is known as the Annex.  It stands on the east side of the original school; both face north. We have not found...

The WPA completed a thorough painting of city hall as part of the reducing of welfare rolls in Oakland. WPA Project No. 65-3-1687, Approval Date 10-15-35, $6,496, "Complete painting of interior of City Hall." The current building was completed in 1914. The building was designed by New York-based architecture firm Palmer & Hornbostel in 1910, after winning a nationwide design competition. The building, constructed in the Beaux-Arts style, resembles a "rectangular wedding cake".

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) developed the Davie Tennis Stadium in 1936-37 with an allocation of $65,000.  WPA relief workers built five tennis courts, with lights for night play and bleachers for viewing,  plus a community center in rustic style  that has a WPA plaque in front.  Low stone walls circle the courts and run around the short entrance road; stone pillars flank the park gate.  The park opened to the public on September 1, 1937. The park lies within the city limits of Piedmont CA, itself entirely within the city limits of Oakland!  Piedmont residents opposed the park but Oakland built...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the impressive Recreation Area in Dimond Park at the foot of the Sausal Creek canyon in East Oakland in 1936. In late 1935, the WPA approved $38,000 in grants for this project out of over $1 million allotted for various works in the city of Oakland. WPA workers laid out a recreation area where the Sausal Creek flood plain widens as it exits the canyon, laying out fields, picnic areas, amphitheater seating, benches and retaining walls.   There is a lovely redwood grove where the two main picnic clusters (with BBQ pits) are located, and...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) prepared the way for Dimond Park in 1936, in coordination with the Oakland Parks Department.  The relief workers cleared trees and brush from the steep Sausal Creek Canyon before constructing the Recreation Area, reworking the creek bed and building trails. In late 1935, the WPA approved $38,000 for this project out of over $1 million allotted for various works in the city of Oakland. There are trails running up the canyon on both sides of Sausal Creek from the Recreation Area to just beyond the Leimert Street bridge, which then join and soon climb up the south...

In 1939-1940, the Work Projects Administration (WPA) channelized Sausal Creek as part of creating Dimond Park.  The work consisted of building concrete walls to stop erosion, installing grade control step-downs, and putting culverts to let roads pass over the creek.   WPA stamps are still visible in places.   The work extends from the Dimond Recreation Area in the lower park up past the Leimert Street bridge, where the creek flows out of a canyon in the Oakland Hills. Channelization was a popular method of flood control in the middle of the 20th, much promoted by the Army Corps of Engineers, which...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) set up five camps in the East Bay hills, starting in 1933-34 and carrying on until 1942.  From those camps, the "CCC boys" set out into the newly-created East Bay regional parks to do a wide range of improvements, such as clearing brush, planting trees, building roads and trails, and laying out picnic areas. The first camp was set up at Wildcat Canyon at the present site of the Tilden Environmental Education (Nature) Center.  About 3,500 young men rotated through Camp Wildcat Canyon.  As Eugene Swartling, who supervised the camp, recalls, "these young men were not being...

New Deal work relief and conservation crews cleared hundreds of acres of trees and brush and planted hundreds of thousands of trees and shrubs in three of the original units of the East Bay Regional Parks District (EBRPD):  Tilden, Temescal, and Redwood Regional Parks.   This work was part of a major New Deal effort to aid the newly-created Parks District (1934) in improving  its parks for public recreation, direct by the Parks District's first general manager, Elbert Vail.  The natural landscape of the Oakland-Berkeley hills was mostly grassland, with some oak-chaparral woodlands, riparian vegetation and patches of redwood (all of which had...

The East Bay Regional Parks District (EBRPD) was formed in 1934 and acquired land for parks from the East Bay Municipal Water District in 1936.  The first parks were Tilden, Sibley, Temescal and Redwood in the East Bay Hills behind Berkeley and Oakland CA.   The New Deal provided extensive aid towards improving the new parks for public recreation, working with the Parks District's first general manager, Elbert Vail. Overall, the New Deal agencies spent roughly $3 million on the East Bay parks, about double the tax funds available to the EBRPD over the same period  (Stein 1984, p. 18) Even before the parks...

The East Bay Regional Parks District (EBRPD) was formed in 1934 and acquired land for parks from the East Bay Municipal Water District in 1936.  The first parks were Tilden, Sibley, Temescal and Redwood in the East Bay Hills behind Berkeley and Oakland CA.   Even before the parks were acquired, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) set up camps in the hills in 1933-34, and they operated in the parks for the entire New Deal decade, 1933-42.  A unique contribution to the parks by the CCC helped win public approval for the district's creation. As Gray Brechin notes: "CCC boys at Camp...

The East Bay Regional Parks District (EBRPD) was formed in 1934 and acquired land for parks from the East Bay Municipal Water District.  The first parks were Tilden, Sibley, Temescal and Redwood in the East Bay Hills behind Berkeley and Oakland CA.   Even before the parks were acquired, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) set up camps in the hills and operated in the parks for the entire New Deal decade, 1933-42. The first camp was in Wildcat Canyon at the present site of the Nature Center. The first road built by CCC work crews was the Loop Road at the center...

In 1942, the Oakland Recreation Department dedicated the newly renovated Recreation House at Park Boulevard and Newton Street – now the Recreation Center at Francis Marion Smith Park – which was completely remodeled with the help of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) (under the Federal Works Administration). The brick structure contains a large, open hall in Craftsman style and a kitchen on the first floor; there are play and club rooms in the basement (Oakland Tribune 1942).  It had previously been known as the Park Boulevard Clubhouse, a popular site for weddings, meetings, lectures and entertainments.   It remains in good condition. A...

Oakland's Fremont High School was destroyed by arson in 1930 and rebuilt in 1931. A new gymnasium for the school was financed with a 45% Public Works Administration (PWA) grant in 1938 and completed in 1939. The total cost was $192,000. The 1939 gym was built in a rather stern Moderne style.  It had collapsable bleachers so that it could serve both for sporting events and as an auditorium.  Carl N. Swenson Company was the builder. No trace of the old gym remains, as Fremont High is undergoing a complete renovation in 2020.    

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) did painting and reconditioning work on the former Oakland Civic Auditorium c. 1936. (Further confirmation is needed) Kaiser Convention Center is a city-owned, multi-purpose arena that included a 5,550-seat arena, a large theater, and a ballroom.  The Beaux-Arts style landmark,  built in 1914, was designed by Pittsburgh architect Henry Hornbostel, designer of Oakland’s City Hall, and a local associate John J. Donovan. It was renamed in honor of Henry J. Kaiser, Oakland's greatest industrialist, after a 1984 renovation. The facility has seen many events over the years, such as speeches by Presidents  Woodrow Wilson and Bill Clinton....

The High Street bridge crosses the Oakland Estuary to link up the cities of Oakland and Alameda near the south end of the later.  Alameda was originally a peninsula connected to Oakland, but a cut was made to extend the estuary in 1902 and improve tidal circulation. The two cities are now linked by bridges and tunnels. The High Street Bridge was built jointly by the federal government and Alameda County, with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA). It is a double leaf bascule draw bridge that cost $750,000 to build and was completed in 1939.  

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed a central clinic building in the Highland Hospital in Oakland in 1935 or 1936.  The exact location and design of that building are unknown. There is no evidence that the WPA clinic building is still standing; it was undoubtedly demolished during recent construction of a large new hospital building behind the original hospital of 1927. The photo here shows the entrance to the 1920s hospital, which was built in florid Spanish Revival style.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the club house at the Lake Chabot Municipal Golf Course in 1939-40, in conjunction with the City of Oakland Parks Department. The Mission Revival style building is still intact, including most of the interior.  It has a lovely main hall with a bar and behind that, the Chabot Cafe.  The entrance hall has a closed-off fireplace and original tile work.  In front, there is a Mission-style breezeway with tiled floor. Decorative stone walls line the road, both entry paths, and the practice putting green next to the clubhouse. In 1939, the WPA was brought under the umbrella...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) improved and enlarged every hole at the Lake Chabot Municipal Golf Course, in conjunction with the City of Oakland Parks Department.  The WPA workers also construction a two level parking area with stone walls. It is an 18-hole course that serves a diverse population from Oakland, including many African American and Asian American golfers.  A 36-hole disk (frisbee) course has been added in recent years. One claim to fame for the course is that it served the young Tony Lema, an Oakland native, who was taught by the course pros and elder statesmen.

A photograph in the National Archives indicates that the Works Progress Administration (WPA) built a boat dock on Lake Merritt, which appears to be at what is now the Lake Merritt Chalet, a bar and restaurant.  Evidently, the dock has been rebuilt over time. This work would have been part of the extensive park and civic improvements done by the WPA around Oakland in the second half of the 1930s.  

The park has Works Progress Administration-built stone benches and a waterfall that connects Cottonwood Creek in Beaconsfield Canyon to Cobbledick Creek and eventually Sausal Creek in Dimond Park.

Melrose Leadership Academy, a public school in the Oakland Unified School District, occupies the former Sherman Elementary School building  –  named for Margaret Sherman, a teacher and principal in the Oakland school system. Melrose Academy is a K-8 dual language immersion school and has two locations. The former Sherman school is the K-2d grade half of the academy.  Melrose Academy has used the old Sherman school since 2007. Sherman Elementary was built in the 1930s with the assistance of the Public Works Administration (PWA).  The exact construction date is unknown to us.

The seven-acre Montclair Park in Oakland was built with the aid of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1938-40.  This gem of a park lies just north of Montclair Village in the Oakland hills and below Montclair Elementary School.   At the center of the park is a large, oval, stone-lined pond that is home to ducks, turtles and koi carp (giant goldfish), as well as occasional Canada geese.  The pond is an extension of the Lake Merritt bird sanctuary and therefore protected by federal wildlife laws.   The park also includes extensive rock walls and stairs, large lawns and trees, tennis courts,...

The seven-acre Montclair Park in Oakland was built with the aid of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1938-40.  This gem of a park lies just north of Montclair Village in the Oakland hills and below Montclair Elementary School.   The park features a picnic area, children's playground and a play area under a group of large trees, as well as a large lawn area for general play.  The park also includes a recreation center, duck pond, baseball field, tennis courts and extensive rock walls and stairs.   The City of Oakland Recreation Department put in $90,000 for the park and recreation...

The seven-acre Montclair Park in Oakland was built with the aid of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1938-40.  This gem of a park lies just north of Montclair Village in the Oakland hills and below Montclair Elementary School.   The Recreation Center is a fine Mission Revival building at the north end of the park, built in 1939-40 by the WPA. The park also includes a duck pond, extensive rock walls and stairs, large lawns and trees, tennis courts, a baseball field, picnic area, children's play area, and more.   The City of Oakland Recreation Department put in $90,000 for the park and...

The seven-acre Montclair Park in Oakland was built with the aid of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1938-40.  This gem of a park lies just north of Montclair Village in the Oakland hills and below Montclair Elementary School. The park includes a recreation center, duck pond, large grass fields, a baseball field, pickleball courts, a picnic area, children's playground and a play area under a group of large trees.     The most striking feature of Montclair Park is its extensive stonework, which has held up admirably over the years.  The west side of the park, along Moraga Avenue, has a...

The seven-acre Montclair Park in Oakland was built with the aid of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1938-40.  This gem of a park lies just north of Montclair Village in the Oakland hills and below Montclair Elementary School.   The park features large grass fields, a baseball field, and 4 pickleball courts – originally a single tennis court (renovated c. 2021).  There are two ranks of stone bleachers on the hill above for viewing.  The tennis courts by the school are much more recent. The park also includes a recreation center, duck pond, picnic areas, play areas and extensive rock walls...

The Morcom Amphitheater of Roses – originally known as the Municipal Rose Garden – is one of the grandest city rose gardens in the country.  It began as a project of the Oakland Businessmen's Garden Club in 1930 and the main force behind it (and the later Berkeley Rose Garden) was Dr. Charles Vernon Covell, a dentist and member of the Garden Club. The New Deal played a vital role in building the rose garden, but it was not the Works Progress Administration (WPA) that did the work, as commonly thought. Instead, help came from the State Employment Relief Administration (SERA),...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) modernized and expanded the administration building at the original Oakland Municipal Airport (now the North Field of Oakland International Airport). The project was sponsored by the Port of Oakland and cost $70,000. The work added 8500 square feet, doubling the floor space of the building in order to house new offices of the Civil Aeronautics Board, including airway traffic control, air carrier section, private flying division, air safety board, airway communications station, and general inspection section, plus an office for the US weather service.  The building also served as passenger terminal for a time. The renovated building...

New Deal agencies did a variety of work on the five hangars at the Oakland Municipal Airport (now the North Field of the Oakland International Airport) and later built a new hangar for the Naval Reserve Air Base at the northern tip of the field. In 1935, State Emergency Relief Administration (SERA) workers painted four of the five hangars then existing at the Oakland Municipal Airport   They also installed a gasoline storage tank for United Air Lines.  SERA was funded through the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) in the early years of the New Deal. Minutes of the Oakland Board of Port...

The Works Projects Administration (WPA) built the first hanger, runway and road for the Navy Reserve Air Base at the Oakland Municipal Airport (now the North Field of the Oakland International Airport). Then, in 1940 the WPA authorized $237,000 for construction of a new hangar for the Naval Reserve Air Base.  The Port of Oakland only had to contribute $17,000 in materials (Tribune, 1940).  This was clearly part of the military buildup toward World War II, with Oakland airport only one of 24 in Northern California being funded by the federal government in 1941 (Tribune, April 1941). In mid-1941, a further grant...

New Deal agencies were called upon several times to expand the runways at the growing Oakland Municipal Airport (now the North Field of the Oakland International Airport). In the early 1930s, this involved bringing in quarried stone for fill to expand the runway area, leveling the surface and finishing off crushed stone. Later in the decade, the runways would be surfaced with asphalt and concrete. In early 1934, a team of 112 men from the Civil Works Administration (CWA) began work on the runways, laying 8500 cubic yards of rock (Minutes of January 8, 1934, p. 114).  When the CWA was...

In 1936, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) installed a fire-fighting water supply system and laid drainage tile under the Oakland Municipal Airport (now the North Field of the Oakland International Airport). The drainage system covered 3.6 million square feet and included almost 60,000 linear feet of drainage tile and concrete pipe, for a cost of $104,000. The fire protection system involved over 7,000 linear feet of 4 and 6-inch mains, for a cost of $18,000. Both are presumably still in place and functioning (we spotted old hydrants and storm grates that suggest as much). Earlier, it had been announced that over $200,000 had...

A WPA project involved "Improving the Exposition Building", WPA Project No. 65-3-1779, Approval date 10-23-35, $5,673 The Oakland Exposition Building was a hall the Kaiser Convention Center. The California Garden Show was held there, as well as horse shows, midget car races, and other events. The building was constructed in 1931, funded using Agricultural District money that comes from horse racing (which also funds county fairs in California). 1 The design was by Reed and Corlett. It was torn down to build some of the infrastructure for BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) c.1967. Now the land is part of Laney College.