Colorado Sites

The Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) assisted in the financing of two bridges over Monument Creek in Colorado Springs's Monument Valley Park. "The two other major construction projects in the park during the 1930s were the replacement of the Uintah Street and Mesa Road bridges which had been washed out by the Memorial Day flood. The city received a Public Works Administration (PWA) loan and grant totaling $99,133 to cover the cost of the bridges. Each Art Deco style bridge was a 242-foot, three span, concrete and steel structure with concrete abutments and two concrete piers in the streambed.  Given the widening...

"The original historic log ranger station was constructed between 1916 and 1936, on the rim of the Uncompahgre Plateau west of Montrose. Originally it had a living room, kitchen, hall, and two bedrooms. The structure burned down in 1977, but the new modern Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) cabin and garage build in 1936 still remain. The property includes a log cabin and a picturesque barn and pastures. The Silesca Ranger Station’s significance is manifested in the materials and construction style of the structures present in the surrounding landscape. Silesca reflects the regional style mandated by the Forest Service for woodland areas during the CCC-era. ...

"Constructed in 1929, the two-story, blond brick Union High School served as the first high school for the Westminster community. It functioned in that capacity from 1929 until 1949. In 1939, the school district constructed the gymnasium and classroom addition by taking advantage of Public Works Administration funding. The building is now used as an alternative education center."   (www.historycolorado.org) The Union High School building is currently part of a larger educational complex known as the Alternative Center of Education.

Batch field house was built in 1936 with the aid of the Public Works Administration (PWA). Set against the football stadium, it is part of the larger University of Colorado athletic complex and still actively used for intramural sports.  "The new field house for the University of Colorado is approximately 144 by 296 feet in over-all dimensions. The large hall has an earth floor with a cinder running track 12 laps to the mile, and is provided with a removable wood basketball floor, 60 by 90 feet. Permanent bleachers seat approximately 2,000, and removable bleachers on both sides of the basketball...

Completed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1939, the Mary Rippon Outdoor theater is located on the University of Colorado campus between the Henderson Building (see post on Henderson Building) and the Hellems Art and Sciences Building.  Mary Rippon is believed to be the first female professor at the University of Colorado and the first woman in the United States to teach at a state university. The theater was designed by George Reynolds, a professor of English and one of the founders of the theater department. The theater was officially completed in 1939, but no plays were staged there until 1944.  Because...

Built in 1937 by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the University's Henderson Building houses the Museum of Natural History.  The building cost nearly $200,000 to build, including furnishings.  In 1951, the building was named in honor of Judge Junius Henderson, appointed curator of the university museum in 1903.  The original layout of the building included archeology and biology halls on the ground floor, an art gallery and geology hall on the main floor; classrooms on the second floor; and laboratories, storerooms, and a darkroom on the top floor. The building is a representative work of noted architect Charles Z. Lauder, who designed...

The library of the University of Colorado was built with financial aid from the Public Works Administration (PWA) in 1939.  It is still actively in use.

A Women's Club building was added to the campus of the University of Colorado in 1937, paid for by the federal Public Works Administration (PWA). "Before the construction of the new women's club, the University of Colorado had no suitable facilities for the holding of social functions by women. The building is two stories in height and contains on the first floor a living room, approximately 40 by 25 feet, a dining room, reception room, manager's office, kitchen, and pantry. The second floor is devoted to bedrooms. Construction is fireproof with a reinforced-concrete frame and floor slabs, exterior walls of native stone, and...

The University of Northern Colorado received WPA support for at least two projects: remodeling the library in 1938, and constructing an Art Deco extension for the Student Union (also known as Gray Hall) in 1939.

The utility area is the principle maintenance station of Rocky Mountain National Park. It is located near the Beaver Meadows entrance at Estes Park CO. It is a large complex of functional buildings, including offices, shops, garages, and storage, centered around a maintenance yard and machine shop (plus a substantial residential area for park employees).  The National Park Service began construction of the area in the 1920s and completed it in the 1930s with the help of Public Works Administration (PWA) funding and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) labor.   The CCC was present in the park from 1933 to 1942 and...

The Bureau of Reclamation constructed the Vallecito dam and reservoir in 1938-1941, with assistance from the WPA, as well as from enrollees at the nearby CCC camp. "The Project constructed Vallecito Dam to manage the flow of the Pine River partly for local irrigation needs and partly to address Ute water claims based on the Hunt Treaty of 1868 and ratified by a Federal Court decision in 1930." (www.co.laplata.co.us)

During the Great Depression, the federal Public Works Administration (PWA) supplied a grant enabling development of the old sewage disposal plant in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. The exact location and status of the building are presently unknown to Living New Deal. PWA Docket No. CO 3995

In the development of the Denver water supply system, the WPA and PWA helped with construction of tunnels. "1935 — Construction began on Moffat Water Tunnel Diversion Project, which was part of the New Deal’s Public Works Administration program; the Moffat Tunnel was enlarged and partially lined. 1936 — The first delivery of water through the Moffat Water Tunnel took place. This, during the height of the Dust Bowl drought and continuing population explosion." The January 1937 Western Construction News has a article on a PWA built tunnel "Contract awarded to Broderick & Gordon, 1900 31st St. Denver CO, $553,622, by the Manager...

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) financed construction of a water works plant for the town of Pagosa Springs, Colorado. Part of the plant houses the San Juan Historical Society Museum. Free water is still offered from a spigot along North 1st Street elevation.

"The three-story Italian Renaissance Revival style building was constructed as a post office in 1918. James A. Wetmore served as the supervisory architect. The walls are of Indiana limestone, and the tall first floor windows are set in rounded arches. A 1940 addition, funded by the PWA, extends from the rear of the building. In 1972, Congress renamed the building in honor of Wayne N. Aspinall who had a distinguished career as a U.S. Representative from Colorado from 1949 to 1973."   (www.historycolorado.org)

Crescent shaped oil on canvas, 5' x 7'9". " The Harvest", by Louise Emerson Ronnebeck (1901-1980), portrays a young man and woman working together harvesting peaches provided by the rich Colorado soil. A water/paddle wheel in the background represents modern irrigation which made the abundant harvest possible. The mural also depicts the Ute Indians leaving the valley on the right side and the white settlers pushing them out from the left. By 1973, the mural was in need of a cleaning. It was shipped to Washington DC for restoration and subsequently forgotten. Until 1991, its whereabouts were unknown. The building manager...

Believed to be presently abandoned, this historic rural school is located at the intersection of County roads 191 and 30, southwest of Kim, Colorado. "Built in 1921 and expanded in 1936 under the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the school exemplifies oneroom schools constructed in eastern Las Animas County during the homesteading boom of the 1910s and 1920s. The school addition and its adjacent WPA-constructed barn, intended to store coal and shelter student’s horses, reflect Depression era New Deal efforts to improve rural education facilities in eastern Las Animas County. The WPA constructed new schools and barns for several rural school districts...

"The park is associated with several Great Depression era federal relief programs. Constructed between 1933 and 1938 under the Civil Works Administration (CWA), the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA), creation of the park provided a source of employment in Lamar during much of the Depression. Willow Creek Park was Colorado’s first CWA project and the first planned park in Lamar, providing a location for active and passive recreation activities. A prominent feature of the city, the park’s buildings and stone features are good examples of the Rustic style as interpreted by New Deal agencies....