Miami Sites

"Coral Way School, built as Coral Way Elementary School in 1936, is a K-8 school located in Miami, Florida, USA... The school building was designed by August Geiger, a noted South Florida architect who worked for the Dade County School Board. The architecture is in a Mediterranean Revival style with arcaded walkways around interior courtyards resplendent with lush foliage. It was constructed under the auspices of the Works Projects Administration and completed in 1936."   (wikipedia) The school also received numerous WPA artworks, including several mosaics of local animals and Art Deco mosaics of figures picking oranges.

"Edison Courts, is a Miami-Dade 345-unit public housing apartment complex just west of the Little Haiti (Lemon City) neighborhood of Miami, Florida. Edison Courts is bound at the south by North 62nd Street/Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard, at North 67th Street to the north, West Second Avenue to the east, and West Fourth Avenue to the west. The 345-unit low rent housing project Edison Courts, completed in 1941 and designed by the firm of Paist and Stewart with associate architects Robert Law Weed, Vladimir Virrick and E.L. Robertson, provided public housing for white people. It was similar in scale and design...

This Art Deco fire training tower was built in 1933-34 by FERA, a precursor to the WPA. The tower was used by the city of Miami to train local fire fighters for many years. The tower is still standing, but is not currently in use.

The Kendall Home for Children was constructed by FERA in 1935. The home was later run by the Catholic Church and then by Dade County. Residents have since reported a history of child abuse at the site. By 2007, the buildings were demolished or in ruins.

"Liberty Square (colloquially referred to as the Pork & Beans) is a 753-unit Miami-Dade public housing apartment complex in the Liberty City neighborhood of Miami, Florida. It is bordered at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard/North 62nd Street to the south, North 67th Street to the north, State Road 933 (West 12th Avenue) to the east, and West 15th Avenue to the west. Constructed as a part of the New Deal by the Public Works Administration and opening in 1937, it was the first public housing project for blacks in the Southern United States." The project was integrated in the 1960s....

The New Deal funded improvement work in the Long Branch Marsh in the vicinity of Jacksonville FL.  

This small airport was originally built as Glenn Curtiss Field in the early 1900s and became the Miami Municipal Airport in 1928. It was later renamed Amelia Earhart Field "in honor of the famous aviatrix stopping there on her ill-fated flight around the world in 1937." The airport closed in the 1950s. (www.pbase.com) The archival photo pictured here describes WPA improvements to the site in the 1930s: "A view from the Control Tower recently erected by the WPA at the Miami Municipal Airport showing the work which has been done. In front of the hangar is the new apron from which...

By 1935, FERA had done significant work at Moore Park, including installing a sprinkler system, 11 tennis courts and a fence. Moore Park remains a popular tennis spot.

Miami's old Northwest 27th Avenue Bridge was constructed with federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. The bridge was completed 1939; however, it was largely replaced upon renovation during the late 1980s. Living New Deal believes the moving bridge is PWA Docket No. FL W1343; the PWA supplied a $188,100 grant for the project, whose total cost was $386,012. Construction occurred between October 1938 and November 1939. Interestingly, upon replacement the old tender house was, instead of being destroyed, removed, relocated, and reconstructed to the front of Miami's Wolfsonian—FIU museum. Soulofmiami.org: "The hexagonal, stainless-steel Bridge Tender House was built in 1939 for the Northwest 27th...

Originally known as the Roddey Burdine Stadium, the historic former Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida was built with federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds in 1936-1937. The structure was demolished in 2008.

"The David W. Dyer Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse, formerly known simply as the U.S. Post Office and Courthouse, is an historic United States Post Office and federal courthouse of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida located at 300 Northeast 1st Avenue in Miami, Florida... The mural Law Guides Florida Progress completed by artist Denman Fink in 1941 is located above the judge's bench and is flanked by two pairs of Ionic marble pilasters. The mural depicts the positive impact of justice guiding Florida's economic development. Fink included a likeness of himself as a draftsman and...

"As time progressed and the city grew, Shenandoah's population increased creating a need for a new, state of the art building. By 1940, land was purchased on 19th Street and 19th Avenue, construction workers were hired with the help of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), and the construction began. Students were then moved in as soon as it was completed. Shenandoah became of the most modern and well-equipped schools in the South. Meanwhile, the "old" building became Shenandoah Elementary. On December 11, 1942, the beautiful new building was formally dedicated with great fanfare. Since then, the school has been slightly modified...

The Public Works Administration funded the construction of a waterworks system in Miami FL. The location and condition of this facility are unknown to the Living New Deal.