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  • 7-D School - Branson CO
    The WPA completed work on this rural school outside Branson in 1937. From the website History Colorado: The 7-D School, constructed in 1936 to 1937 under the Works Progress Administration (WPA) is significant for its association with President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal legislative agenda to rescue the United States from the Great Depression.  The School presents an important record of the federal relief programs administered in Colorado’s Eastern Plains during the Great Depression.  Though the dire economic conditions of the Depression affected all of Colorado, drought and dust storms hit the agricultural-based economy of the Eastern Plains especially hard.  The construction...
  • Adams State College: Rex Center - Alamosa CO
    "The Rex Activity Center is one of twelve buildings designated to Alamosa's Historic Registry... Designed by architect William Bowman and constructed in 1938-39 as a Public Works Administration project, Rex Gym is one of the oldest buildings on campus and an excellent example of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture. The Marvel House (president's residence; built 1931-32) and Richardson Hall (built 1924) were also designed by Bowman."
  • Alamosa County Courthouse - Alamosa CO
    The historic Alamosa County Courthouse was constructed during the Great Depression with the aid of the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA). "The U-shaped complex is one of the county's best examples of the Mission style. The courthouse was the largest of several WPA projects built in the county during the 1930s. Construction began in 1936. Using local clay and sand, more than 450,000 bricks were produced at a kiln located north of Alamosa. The courthouse continues to house a variety of county offices."
  • Alma Town Hall Additions - Alma CO
    This building was originally the Alma School. The school was built in 1925. The PWA funded building additions in 1936. The building now serves as the town hall, library and police department.
  • American Legion Hall, Kiowa County Fairgrounds - Eads CO
    "The American Legion Hall represents the success of local residents and federal relief programs administered on Colorado’s eastern plains during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Providing much-needed employment in Kiowa County, local workers constructed the building between 1937 and 1938 under the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The hall is a rare surviving example of a simple, vernacular building built by the New Deal agency. The building exemplifies the efforts of the WPA to boost moral during the Depression through the construction of buildings that could be enjoyed by the entire community. The building provides a venue for community gatherings,...
  • Arkansas Valley Fairgrounds Stables - Rocky Ford CO
    "The stables, constructed in 1938 by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), are an important record of the federal relief programs administered on Colorado’s eastern plains during the Great Depression. The stables were one of a series of WPA improvement projects at the Arkansas Valley Fairgrounds that provided a significant source of employment. It is the best surviving example of WPA work in Rocky Ford. The WPA used adobe for many of its eastern Colorado projects as it was both inexpensive and labor intensive—a good fit with the agency’s objectives to ensure that most of the money went to labor rather...
  • Aspenglen Amphitheater - Rocky Mountain National Park CO
    The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was active in Rocky Mountain National Park throughout the New Deal era, 1933-42.  Among the other works undertaken by CCC enrollees was the construction of three amphitheaters, at Aspenglen Campground, Moraine Park Museum and Glacier Basin campground.  These were used for educational presentations by park rangers and staff. The Aspenglen and Glacier Basin amphitheaters were built in 1938 (Brock, p. 43), as part of general upgrades to those campgrounds (Brock, p 41).  The amphitheaters were designed by the National Park Service in Rustic Style and meant to blend into the landscape and surrounding trees.  The one...
  • Baca County Courthouse Annex - Springfield CO
    "The current courthouse was built in 1916 after a fire destroyed the first Baca County Courthouse in 1910. The elegant brick addition, which presents the Main Street facade, was designed by the Denver firm Mountjoy and Frewen and constructed in 1929-30. In 1935, WPA workers began construction of a second addition. This two-story, stone building served initially as a jail and sheriff’s quarters, which remained at this site until 1972 when a new jail was built. The WPA plans by E.C. Measel included landscaping and a stone wall around the grounds. The lovely stone building behind the courthouse was built...
  • Bancroft Park Band Shell - Colorado Springs CO
    Bancroft Park in Colorado Springs is still widely used. The bandstand is still in good condition. There are several Pickle Ball courts that are still in use. Previously, there was a large lake that was (probably) constructed by WPA employees. You can still see the remnants of this lake. "Bancroft Park has been a park since the early 20th century when the old Bancroft School was torn down. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the band shell in 1935 and this historic square has been the site of many a concert, event and open-air market since then."
  • Basalt Elementary School - Basalt CO
    The elementary school in Basalt, Colorado was originally built as the town's high school in 1937-38. The school was paid for, in part, with a $20,970 federal Public Works Administration (PWA) grant, which covered nearly half of the $46,504 total project cost.  Alterations to the building were undertaken in 2000, and the original structure is now a part of a larger elementary school complex.  
  • Bear Creek Canyon Scenic Mountain Drive - Morrison CO
    Bear Creek Canyon Scenic Mountain Drive is a 2-mile stretch of Colorado Highway 74 between the towns of Morrison and Idledale, just west of Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre. The route is noted for its enclosing granite cliffs and diverse vegetation. During the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) raised the bed of the road, which had originally been built by the Denver Motor Club. The project involved the construction of six 20-foot retaining walls along the edge of Bear Creek.
  • Bear Lake Comfort Station - Rocky Mountain National Park CO
    The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was very active in Rocky Mountain National Park during the 1930s. The Bear Lake Comfort Station, located on the Bear Lake trail, is one of the many structures in the park built by CCC enrollees.   The rubblestone construction is typical of national park Rustic Style of the first half of the 20th century.  The building now serves to house a generator.  It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.
  • Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park: North Rim Road - Montrose CO
    "The Black Canyon of the Gunnison was established as a U.S. National Monument on March 2, 1933. It became a National Park on October 21, 1999. During 1933-35, the Civilian Conservation Corps built the North Rim Road to design by the National Park Service. This includes fives miles of roadway and five overlooks; it is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places as a historic district."   (https://www.hipcamp.com) Funding was provided by the PWA and Emergency Conservation Work.
  • Boulder High School - Boulder CO
    The Public Works Administration (PWA) funded a beautiful new high school for the city of Boulder in 1936-37, replacing an obsolete structure built in 1895. The project cost $550,500.  The school's design is Streamline Moderne (Art Deco) and one of the architects was Glen Huntington, the builder of the noted Art Deco Boulder County Courthouse (which is not a New Deal structure). The exterior facade is done in the same local "Colorado Red" stone as buildings on the University of Colorado campus. The original interior of the auditorium is intact and probably the cafeteria, as well, along with many of the details,...
  • Burlington Gymnasium - Burlington CO
    "The rectangular-plan gymnasium measures 137 x 70. The gymnasium is two-stories tall, with a balcony level above the main gym floor. There is a full basement. The building has a reinforced concrete footing, foundation, and skeleton. WPA-made concrete blocks form the curtain walls and partitions. Adobe blocks are used for some of the basement partition walls. Stucco covers the exterior walls. The gymnasium is covered with a wood truss barrel roof; it is covered with asphalt roll roofing. Flat roofs cover the west and east ends of the building where the lobby and stage are located. The concrete exterior is demarcated...
  • Burro Cañon Bridge - Madrid CO
    "Completed in 1936, the bridge consists of three skewed semicircular arches with multiplates fabricated by the Hardesty Manufacturing Company. It features rusticated stone facing and grapevined mortar joints, trademarks of WPA workmanship in southeastern Colorado. It is Colorado's only WPA bridge of skewed construction employing a multiplate liner."   (www.historycolorado.org)
  • Byron White U.S. Courthouse Sculptures - Denver CO
    Gladys Caldwell Fisher completed these two Indiana limestone sculptures, entitled "Rocky Mountain Sheep" and "White Ram," in 1936 with funds provided by the Treasury Relief Art Project. They are viewable on both sides of the entrance to the Byron White US Courthouse, which was originally the U.S. Post Office Building.  
  • Campground Improvements - Rocky Mountain National Park CO
    The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) made improvements to three of the existing campgrounds in Rocky Mountain National Park: Endovalley, Aspenglen and Glacier Basin.  These three were the most popular campgrounds at the time and their facilities were antiquated, so CCC stepped in to upgrade them (later, they would add  a new campground at Timber Creek on the west side of the park).  (Brock, p 40) The campgrounds were all renovated according to National Park Service standards embodied in the writings of  E.P. Meinecke – Camp Ground Policy (1932) and Camp Planning and Camp Reconstruction (1934).  In 1933-34 CCC enrollees deployed logs and boulders to...
  • Carlson Elementary School - Idaho Springs CO
    The Public Works Administration (PWA) provided a grant of $49,090 for a new high school for the town of Idaho Springs, Colorado. Total cost of the school, which was constructed in 1937,  was $109,885. The school is a 2-story brick Moderne building, with two wings and distinctive horizontal window lines on the central portion of the building.  Near the entrance are glass bricks of the kind popular in the late 1930s and 1940s. The cornerstone gives no information on who built the school, just the name and date.  A cornerstone from a previous high school is laid against the wall below the...
  • Casper Mountain Park Improvements - Casper WY
    The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) conducted improvement / development work at "Casper mountain park."
  • Catch Basin - Alma CO
    The Public Works Administration funded the construction of a catch basin, part of the new waterworks in Alma CO.
  • CCC Camps (former) - Rocky Mountain National Park CO
    The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was active in Rocky Mountain National Park during the whole of its lifetime, 1933 to 1942.  There were at least six camps in the park, three of which were permanent and three seasonal. The camps were labeled NP-1, 3, 4, 7, 11 and 12. The first camp was NP-1 at Little Horseshoe Park in the northeast part of the park.  The second camp was NP-3 located about 12 miles north of Grand Lake at Phantom Valley, a tent camp that only lasted 1933-34. Camp NP-4 built in 1934 in Hollowell Park was the first permanent camp with...
  • Central School Auditorium and Gymnasium - Monte Vista CO
    "A 1938 project supported by the school district, town leaders and a PWA grant resulted in a building used for school and sports functions as well as an auditorium for public gatherings. It is the largest auditorium in the San Luis Valley that continues to serve in the same capacity for which it was built. It is the only Monte Vista example of the work of prominent architect Charles E. Thomas incorporating Mission, Spanish Colonial Revival, and Romanesque elements. The PWA grant provided 45 percent of the building’s cost and WPA workers were involved in some aspects of the project."
  • City Auditorium Mural - Colorado Springs CO
    "Hardrock Miners" "The City Auditorium showcases two New Deal murals that face each other in the curved walls above the ticket counters, and explain the early dichotomy of the city. Archie Musick's "Hardrock Miners" tells the story of the mine laborers who helped create the wealth that flowed down the mountains into Colorado Springs, while Tabor Utley's "The Arts" expresses the city founders' vision of a "Newport in the Rockies," peopled by refined citizens. That same dichotomy between hard labor and the arts defined Colorado Springs during the New Deal era." - gazette.com
  • City Auditorium Mural - Colorado Springs CO
    "The Arts" "The City Auditorium showcases two New Deal murals that face each other in the curved walls above the ticket counters, and explain the early dichotomy of the city. Archie Musick's "Hardrock Miners" tells the story of the mine laborers who helped create the wealth that flowed down the mountains into Colorado Springs, while Tabor Utley's "The Arts" expresses the city founders' vision of a "Newport in the Rockies," peopled by refined citizens. That same dichotomy between hard labor and the arts defined Colorado Springs during the New Deal era." - gazette.com
  • City Hall Mural - Littleton CO
    "North Platte Country against the Mountains" was painted by John H. Fraser in 1940 for the Littleton post office, commissioned by the Treasury Section of Fine Art. It currently hangs in the City Hall.  "When the post office underwent renovations in 1962, the mural was removed, rolled up and stuck in a corner in the post office. It was discovered in the 70s, restored and installed in 1985 in the Littleton City Hall." ( Jimmy Emerson, here)
  • City Office Building Addition - Brighton CO
    Originally the Adams County Courthouse. "The 1906 Adams County Courthouse is an excellent local example of the Classical Revival style. The courthouse exhibits such key elements as a prominent pedimented portico with Tuscan columns, pilasters, and keystones in the window lintels along with a wide frieze and prominent cornice. The building is a direct result of the creation of Adams County in 1902 and the election of Brighton as the county seat. By 1939, Adams County had outgrown the existing building and the county received money for an expansion project through the Public Works Administration, one of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal programs. Denver architects Richard O. Parry and Lester L. Jones designed...
  • City Park - La Junta CO
    "Constructed between 1933 and 1941, the park demonstrates the importance of federal relief programs in Colorado during the Great Depression. The Civil Works Administration project focused on drainage in the park, while the later Works Progress Administration projects involved extensive landscaping that included building the lake; planting trees and building drives; and constructing rustic stone walls, benches and buildings. La Junta City Park is the primary park for the community. Although the land was donated to the city in 1905, few improvements were made. The New Deal projects converted an underutilized and poorly drained park into a location for active...
  • City Park - Pueblo CO
    Multiple New Deal agencies collaborated in the development of Pueblo's City Park (and one of its primary components, the Pueblo Zoo). Stunning stone facilities and walls throughout the park are still in good condition. There are at least two WPA plaques located in the park: one at the entrance and one affixed to one of the stone buildings at the park's tennis court complex. The plaques state: ERECTED THROUGH THE COOPERATION OF FEDERAL STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS BY WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION DEDICATED TO THE ENRICHMENT OF HUMAN LIVES * A RECORD OF * * PERMANENT * * ACHIEVEMENT *
  • Colfax Avenue Improvements - Denver CO
    In 1937 the Works Progress Administration (WPA) "completely paved and modernized" Denver's Colfax Avenue, "and built a new western route which took it over the hill and across ranch land to the entrance of Mt. Vernon Canyon, its present route. Around this time Colfax was designated U.S. Highway 40."
  • Colorado Amphitheater - Golden CO
    "Located on the south side of South Table Mountain, the amphitheater was constructed by the WPA during 1933-35. With an estimated 2,500 seats, it is the second largest of only four known historic open-air amphitheaters in Colorado. The fieldstone and concrete seating area was built on the natural slope below the mesa’s edge. It forms an inverted Ushape that is flanked by concrete mortared stone walls, which are buttressed for support. An associated footbridge, crossing a drainage, provides access from a parking lot."   (www.historycolorado.org) The amphitheater was built to serve Camp George West of the National Guard. One of its primary...
  • Colorado Mental Health Institute - Pueblo CO
    "This project for the State Hospital for the Insane at Pueblo included the construction of 3 dormitories, a dining hall, and an addition to the nurses' home. The dormitories are 2 stories in height and will accommodate approximately 300 patients. The dining hall (shown in the upper illustration) is T-shaped in plan with over-all dimensions of 131 by 135 feet and contains separate dining halls for men and women. The nurses' home addition provides 38 bedrooms, lounges, administrative offices, and sitting rooms. All of these buildings are fireproof with concrete floor slabs, exterior walls of brick, and roofs either of...
  • Colorado National Monument: Devils Kitchen Picnic Shelter - Grand Junction CO
    The Devils Kitchen Picnic Shelter in Colorado National Monument was built by  the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1941. It is unusually large, with three sandstone fireplaces, and includes a comfort station (restrooms). The shelter was built in National Park Service Rustic style. Much of the material came from Rim Rock Drive construction. Construction was carried out by CCC enrollees from Camp NM-2-C in the monument and led by LEMs (Local Experienced Men) with the requisite craft skills, reputedly stonemasons of Italian descent.      
  • Colorado National Monument: Rim Rock Drive - Grand Junction CO
    The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) constructed the 23-mile Rim Rock Drive from one end of the Colorado National Monument to the other.  It is a remarkable road that winds along the top of the cliffs, with spectacular views of the Colorado Plateau countryside below. Construction of the road was a risky undertaking, with three tunnels through the cliffs, the longest of which is 530 feet.  Apparently, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) also participated in the construction of the road and the Public Works Administration (PWA) provided funding to the National Park Service for the road, but that needs further confirmation. Rim Rock road...
  • Colorado National Monument: Saddlehorn Caretaker's Residence - Grand Junction CO
    "The Saddlehorn Caretaker's Residence and Garage are located at the intersection of Rim Rock Drive and Saddlehorn Loop Road, approximately 5 miles from the west entrance of Colorado National Monument. Both buildings are rectangular, one-story structures designed by the National Park Service and constructed of native red sandstone masonry by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1935 and 1936. The style exemplifies National Park Service Rustic Architecture. The buildings are in good condition and maintain integrity of location, setting, design, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association from the historic period.
  • Colorado National Monument: Saddlehorn Comfort Station - Grand Junction CO
    "Built by the CCC in 1937, to accommodate the recreational needs of visitors to Colorado National Monument, the station is significant for its association with ...  relief programs during the Great Depression. It is a strong example of National Park Service Rustic style architecture." (www.historycolorado.org)
  • Colorado National Monument: Saddlehorn Utility Area Historic District - Grand Junction CO
    "Significant for its association with the CCC and WPA, the district includes four good examples of National Park Service Rustic style architecture. The structures were constructed of locally quarried sandstone by the CCC with Emergency Conservation Works funding. The 1937 Roads and Trails Shop, 1938 Oil House, and 1941 Open Storage Building functioned as garages, warehouses, storage facilities, and maintenance buildings for the park. Completed in 1942, the Building and Utilities Shop housed the primary administrative offices for Colorado National Monument until 1963, when a Visitor Center was completed."   (www.historycolorado.org) The utility area is located at the intersection of Rim Rock...
  • Colorado State Fairgrounds - Pueblo CO
    "The fairgrounds have long been a gathering place for the state’s agricultural community and have also served as a vehicle to educate, promote and entertain the public about Colorado agriculture. Since 1901, farmers and stock men and women have come to the annual exposition at this location to display and compare their products, to see and learn about the latest advances in agricultural technology and techniques, and to purchase quality livestock. The 4-H club, a youth organization orientated toward agriculture education, has maintained a steady presence at the fairgrounds since 1918. The complex benefited from a number of Depression-era New...
  • Colorado State Museum Exhibit - Denver CO
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built an exhibit for the Colorado State Museum in Denver. WPA workers built a model of the Union Pacific Stage in the Transportation series.
  • Colorado State University: Wagar Building - Fort Collins CO
    "Designed by two important Colorado architects, Frank W. Frewen and Earl C. Morris, the 1939 building, with its 1957 addition, has a long association with Dr. I. E. Newsom and agricultural education at the college.  From its construction in 1939 through 1979, the building contained the classrooms and laboratories of the Department of Pathology and Bacteriology.  The Public Works Administration, a New Deal era agency, partially funded the construction."   (https://www.historycolorado.org) The building was formerly known as the Veterinary Medicine Building. It now appears to contain the Department of Fish and Wildlife Biology.
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