California Sites

The Carmel Mission chapel roof was rebuilt in 1936 by Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) craftsmen to enable the roof to be covered in clay tile. This was a correction to a restoration performed in 1882. The full name of Carmel Mission is Mission San Carlos Borromeo del rio Carmelo.  It was established by Father Junipero Serra and his Franciscans monks leading the Spanish settlement of Alta California.  He is buried here.  At the time of the beatification of Father Serra in 2015, there were many protests at the mission.

This elementary school was constructed with Public Works Administration (PWA) funds in 1939. The school is still in use, although recent renovations have altered the school's original appearance. The dedication plaque at the entrance is still visible.

The Carnegie Libraries web page summarizes the history of the structure: "A men's group, the Paso Robles Improvement Club, initiated the first library in 1901, and the ladies auxiliary persuaded the city to establish a free public library in 1903. A Carnegie grant of $10,000 was received in 1906 for the building; the park, a full city block between 11th and 12th and Spring and Pine streets, was selected as the site. William H. Weeks, California's most prolific Carnegie architect, designed the building and R.O. Summers was the contractor. A small addition to the rear was built in 1939 by the...

In 1934, the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) funded a large three-panel mural by artist Arthur Ames, which was displayed in the Carnegie Library in Anaheim, California. The mural has been relocated to the Anaheim Central Public Library in Anaheim, CA. As of October 2023, the two smaller side panels are still there, but they are not viewable by the public due to the threat of vandalism. The central panel is currently viewable to the public for free at the Anaheim Heritage Center, located inside of the Muzeo Museum. The central mural is oil on canvas, 92 by 56...

Carquinez Middle School was constructed as a New Deal project with Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) funds.

From 1933 to 1937, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) workers developed Castle Crags State Park for public use.  CCC enrollees from a camp at Castella built "the park’s roads, trails, infrastructure and buildings in the 'park rustic' style of native wood and stone." (State Parks brochure).  Evidently, some of the CCC workers at Castle Crags were African American (see photo below). The state purchased the land in 1933 from a bankrupt private resort with a mineral springs, "Castle Rock Spring", which had fallen into disrepair.  The CCC workers built a trail down to the river, a new suspension bridge to replace an old, unsafe bridge for...

The WPA worked on Castro St. between 17th and 19th and between 24th and 26th.

This classic one room schoolhouse received repairs courtesy of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). WPA Proj. No. 65-3-3714, December 24, 1935, $1,344 "Repair & paint Grammar school building excavate court & playground." The land was donated to the school by Andrew Cathay in 1879. Thanks to a community effort, when the school was threatened with demolition because of the expansion of the current elementary school, it was moved a mile to the town park. The building still exists and is kept in original shape. Occasionally, it is used to demonstrate older teaching methods to local students. There is an E. Clampus Vitus memorial in front...

Situated on the east side of Ocean Boulevard, in a little valley is the town of Cayucos’s only cemetery. The front of the cemetery is defined by a low masonry wall constructed by the WPA in 1940. It is made of light gray to iron-colored uncut stone laid in random courses. A few stones are arranged in odd patterns to provide visual interest. Approximately 335’ long, it is divided into three sections. Masonry posts topped with concrete balls are placed at intervals along its path. The cemetery improvement project began in the winter of 1940, but stalled for a time because of muddy...

According to an old topographic map, a CCC camp was located near the resort of Trimmer CA in the Sierra National Forest. The camp was involved in forestry work, F-224, Co.1986 was based there starting 10/31/1939. There was also a Works Progress Administration (WPA) camp nearby. Both locations were inundated following the construction of the Pine Flat Dam by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1957. "Company 1986, F-224 was originally organized out of Fort Knox, Kentucky in May 1933 in the start of the CCC program. Before setting up Camp Trimmer, the Company occupied Chiquito in the Sierra National Forest,...

Lassen National Volcanic Park was created in 1916. In the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) worked in the park on buildings, trails, roads and more. Most of this work was done out of three CCC camps at Mineral, the site of Lassen Park headquarters (which lies outside the main park borders).  The CCC was active in the park from 1933 on. Park staff pointed out the site of the CCC camp below the headquarters area, on the south side of state highway 36.  Nothing remains of the camp except a large clearing in the forest and the traces of a...

A Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp was established west of the Baker-Barry tunnel on the Marin Headlands, probably in 1934. The camp consisted of twelve barracks, a mess hall, two shower and toilet buildings, three storage sheds, a cold storage house, and an open garage. Enrollees built the Baker-Barry Tunnel, a single-lane through the Marin Headlands, in 1935.   The CCC camp was closed and turned over to the U.S. Army Ninth Corps in 1936, and used as temporary housing for troops practicing at the Fort Barry rifle range. = As far as we know, nothing of this CCC camp remains today. The site...

"The 'Cees', as they came to be known, were instrumental in building much of the original infrastructure of the Inyo National Forest. They were almost entirely strong, young men who needed work, a paycheck and a direction in their lives. Construction of fire stations, trails, bridges, roads and even airport runway strips were included in their duties. Lillian Guesman of Mammoth Lakes recalls:' ...they were great kids. I'd play the piano and they'd sing...we always had such a good time.'" from: https://www.fs.fed.us/r5/inyo/about/centennial.shtml CCC Camp F-99 (pictured below) was also active in Inyo National Forest.

Cascades Camp in Yosemite Valley was one of the two hubs of Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) activity in Yosemite National Park from 1933 to 1941; the other was Camp Wawona.  There were around a dozen smaller CCC camps (seasonal and stub camps) added around the park, as well.  Overall, around 7,000 enrollees served in Yosemite. Camp Cascades was officially camp YNP 6 (the 6th camp established in Yosemite) or NP 20 in the western region.  CCC Companies 920 and 942 operated out of Camp Cascades during the decade.  (Co. 942 was integrated up to 1935, as seen in the photograph) The first Camp...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) established a camp on Mount Tamalpais in October 1933 and CCC enrollees did extensive work around Mount Tamalpais in Marin County CA, north of the Golden Gate.  They carried out improvements in Muir Woods National Monument on the south flank of the mountain, Mt. Tamalpais State Park which encircles the summit and Marin Water District on the north side of the mountain.  The National Park Service says this about the camp: "October 1933: Often called the "busiest month" in the history of Muir Woods, this month saw the arrival of the Civilian Conservation Corps, or the CCC,...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) established Camp SP-10 in Strawberry Canyon in the hills behind the main campus of the University of California, Berkeley.   Camp SP-10 was home to CCC Company 751 from October 5, 1933 to May 31, 1934. H.C. Merrick was the Commanding Officer. This was an integrated CCC camp, based on photographs of the enrollees. It is believed that the camp was at current location of the parking lot across from the university botanical garden.

Camp Wawona, at the south end of Yosemite National Park, was one of two hubs for the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the park during the New Deal era, 1933-42 (the other hub was at Camp Cascades in Yosemite Valley).  The Wawona area had only been added to the park in 1932 and there was much work to be done to improve that part of the park. The first two camps at Wawona, YNP #1 and 2, were established in May 1933 and were the first CCC camps in the West. These early camps were located at the far end of...

Humboldt Redwoods State Park was established in 1921 with purchases of some of the last remaining Old Growth stands of Coast Redwoods by the Save the Redwoods League. It has since been expanded several times and now includes over 51,000 acres, of which 17,000 are old growth redwood stands.   California did not establish a state parks system until 1928, and little improvement work had been done at Humboldt Redwoods before the New Deal.  When the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) arrived at Dyerville camp in 1933, the young men got to work right away developing the state park.  There were three CCC...

The Cedar Avenue Complex was constructed in 1938 with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA). It began life as a county civic center in Lancaster CA, forty years before that city was incorporated (1977).   It included a library, memorial hall, courthouse and sheriff's office, as well as an older jail from the 1920s.  The simple Art Moderne (Art Deco) design was by Los Angeles County architect Edward C. M. Brett.   The Cedar Avenue Complex was successfully nominated for listing on the National Register of Historic Places in the 1990s. The entire complex was renovated by the city in 2014 and...

The WPA improved Center St. and the intersecting Church St. in 1938. These streets run directly in front of the Santa Cruz City Hall, Civic Auditorium and Fire Station No. 1, all PWA projects.

The Public Works Administration (PWA) funded the central electric substation for the City of Alameda, which has its own municipal electric power system.  It cost over $200,000, a considerable sum at the time.  It also served as the central fire alarm switching center for the city. It is a steel-reinforced concrete building in Moderne style, rather narrow and high.  It has two large plaques on the front, one honoring the city's board of public works and one the PWA (which was originally called the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works).   Short & Stanley-Brown (1939) provide more detail about what the building...

The WPA built the music hall at this high school. This hall still functions as a music classroom, as well as a storage space for textbooks.

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).

Also known as Mustang Hall, the Central School auditorium was built by the WPA in 1939. A 2013 report on the school's history explains: "Mustang Hall also exemplifies the architectural characteristics of the Art Deco style with Mission Revival influences executed in a WPA institutional building... The Mission Revival style characteristics displayed include: the terra cotta tile roof, the stucco wall finish, and the gable roofs. Some of the Art Deco style characteristics include the flat roofs, vertical entry porch, and the chevron patterned tiles."

The Works Progress Administration built restroom facilities in Central Park in Davis, in 1937. Davis Wiki: "The WPA Building houses the public restrooms on the northeast corner of Central Park. It was built in 1937 as a WPA project and was the first public restroom in Davis. It is also the only WPA building in the City of Davis, lending it additional historical significance." In 2011, the Davis City Council approved the demolition of the WPA building with the intention of building a "History Plaza" in its place. The proposal gave rise to public disagreement and many local writers and residents expressed support for the conservation of...

The Central Valley Project (CVP) was originally conceived of in the 19th century, but took shape as the "State Water Project" in 1919.  The federal government turned it down in the 1920s, after which it gained approval from the state legislature in 1933.  The Great Depression made it impossible for the state to sell the bonds to finance the system, however, so the federal government stepped back in. Initial financing was provided under the Emergency Appropriations Act of 1935 with the Army Corps of Engineers in charge, but control and construction passed to the US Bureau of Reclamation in water project legislation by Congress in 1937. The...

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...

This New Deal Civilian Conservation Corps camp was built to house CCC laborers as they assisted with infrastructure development and upkeep for the East San Francisco Bay Area water system. In addition to work on water infrastructure, CCC workers at Chabot built fences and managed second growth stumps in the nearby eucalyptus grove.

"Milford Zornes (1908-2008), a California watercolor artist, is perhaps the most recognized artist of the early California style of watercolor painting. During the early 1930s Zornes worked for the federally funded Public Works of Art Project, producing watercolors to be displayed in public buildings."   (https://chaffeyart.wikispaces.com) The four watercolors shown here were all created for Chaffey College in 1934. Each is about 15" x 20". They are located on the main floor of the campus library.

The first building on this campus was opened as part of the Chaffey College of Agriculture in 1885. It became the Ontario High School in 1901 and the present Chaffey High School in 1911. In 1916, the Chaffey Junior College of Agriculture was added as a postgraduate department to the high school. The junior college maintained a presence on the campus until 1959 when it moved to its present location in Alta Loma. After the destructive Long Beach earthquake of 1933, first SERA and then the WPA were extensively involved with the construction of a number of buildings on the...

"Funds from the WPA were used to construct four buildings and upgrade airfield infrastructure at Chandler Field in 1936-1937. An Administration Building (terminal), Administration Building annex, bathroom building and electrical control building, in varying styles, were added under this campaign. Each building was designed by different architects, most likely to offer employment to as many people as possible for the project. Chandler Field/Fresno Municipal Airport is notable as being one of the most intact WPA-funded airports in the United States." - https://www.fresno.gov/NR/rdonlyres/E7AF14FA-1440-4DBC-9B55-503662716B33/0/HPCNewDealBrochure.pdf "The Administration Building (Terminal and Restaurant) is one story with a small former control tower penthouse on the north elevation....

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

Now known as the Chandler Station post office, this historic former main post office building was constructed with Treasury Department funding. Note that the building is sometimes mis-attributed to the Works Progress Administration (WPA). "The construction of new postal facilities throughout our country was an integral part of Roosevelt's New Deal. The Democratic president's WPA (Works Progress Administration) put thousands to work, including the many artisans and laborers who built the NoHo Post Office. Take time to examine the building's interior and exterior. On the face of the building rests a handsome cornerstone, bearing the name of James A.Farley, Post Master...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) improved the Charles H. Lee Elementary School building(s) and graded/leveled the grounds.

In 1933, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built a campground and picnic area at Charlton Flat in the Angeles National Forest, CA. The same CCC Company was responsible for building the campground, ranger station, and maintenance facilities at nearby Chilao, as well as the fire lookout on Mount Vetter.

Stockton, California’s Charter Way railroad underpass was constructed with the aid of federal funds during the Great Depression. The underpass is still in use today. "At Charter Way, U. S, 50, crossed at grade a total of eight separate railroad tracks, one of the Western Pacific and seven of the Southern Pacific, all within a distance of five hundred feet. Design studies were made to determine the most satisfactory structure for the problems involved, which included the separation of the highway and eight railroad tracks and the maintenance of accessibility to adjoining improved property. To this end an undergrade...

Chatsworth Park Elementary School Urban Planning/Community Development 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...

Rex Brandt was commissioned by the PWAP to paint five murals for Chemawa Junior High School in Riverside, CA. At the time, Brandt was a student at Riverside Community College. When the school was remodeled in 1973, the murals were presumed lost. However, four of the five have happily since been found. Two now hang in the refurbished school, and two are in storage at the Riverside Art Museum. The Riverside Unified School District is still hoping to find the fifth. An attempt to have the murals restored is also currently underway. "The panels in storage are 48 inches by 60 inches...

Works Project Administration (WPA) project No. 7214, sponsored by the city of Glendale. "This project provides for the construction of a reinforced concrete distributing reservoir of 5,000,000 gallon capacity with connecting pipe lines, and a roadway for maintenance and service. It will replace a series of wooden tanks, now serving this isolated district, which are not at the proper elevation to tie in with the rest of the reservoir system. This project also provides for the connecting of the new unit with the Park Manor reservoir, which will bring another isolated territory into the system. The availability of interconnected reservoirs will...

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) worked on the Chico airport in 1934 and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) improved and finished the work in 1935. The specifics of what they did are only partially known to the Living New Deal. WPA job cards at the Fresno Public Library describe some of the work completed by the WPA: "WPA Project No. 65-3-1920, Application date 9-25-35, $12,365 'Airport Improvements.' Presidential Letter #866 - 10-24-35 - Rescinded $12,365 Project Rescinded. O.P. 115-03-4508 Takes the place of the above project - See application folder for accepted G.A.O. Description" "WPA Project No. 65-3-1920, Application Date 11/5/35, $12,365, 'Continuation of...