Macon Sites

The WPA helped build Bowden Golf Course in 1940. From the Bowden Golf Course website: "The 18-hole Bowden Golf Course in Macon, Georgia is a public golf course that opened in 1940. Designed by W.P.A., Bowden Golf Course measures 6570 yards from the longest tees and has a slope rating of 119 and a 69.7 USGA rating. The course features 3 sets of tees for different skill levels." According to Georgia Public Broadcasting, only the benches and pump house are original to the WPA construction. The course was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.  

Between 1935 and 1938, the WPA performed structural renovation and historic restoration work at this site. From Wikipedia: From 1928, the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Macon Kiwanis Club raised funds to create a replica of one of the blockhouses to memorialize the fort. In 1933 the government began archaeological excavations at the Ocmulgee Old Fields, supported by workers and funding of the US Works Progress Administration (WPA) under President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression. In 1936, one of the archaeologists, Gordon R. Willey, did enough work at Fort Hawkins to establish the original "footprint" of the...

"Macon Downtown Airport has its origins beginning in World War I as "Camp Wheeler". As early as 1925, Huff Daland Dusters, the precursor of Delta Air Lines, based its crop dusting operation at Camp Wheeler. In 1936 the City of Macon purchased 250 acres of airfield for $107,000 to replace its inadequate "Miller Field" to support Eastern Air Transport's passenger and mail service to Macon. Then the Works Project Administration began a $500,000 project that included a hangar, a 24 x 56-ft, administration building, and a concrete apron. The new airport was dedicated on November 11, 1937, and named in...

Numerous New Deal agencies had a tremendous impact on the development of Ocmulgee National Monument, the site of pre-Columbian southeastern settlement dating back millennia. "The largest dig ever conducted in this country occurred here at Ocmulgee and the surrounding area. Between 1933 and 1936, over 800 men in Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration (WPA), Civil Works Administration (CWA), Federal Emergency Relief Administration (ERA & FERA) and later the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) excavated under the direction of Dr. Arthur R. Kelly from the Smithsonian Institute. Kelly was the only archaeologist at the Ocmulgee camp and conducted evening training courses for the men....

The CCC worked to restore Earthlodge at Ocmulgee National Monument. NPS.gov: "At the Earthlodge, enrollees puddled clay in large pits, mixed in straw, and then applied the mixture to the inner concrete wall to simulate the Indian architecture. The public was admitted to this historic structure on November 11, 1937 after the CCC 'boys' completed the steel walkway and installed electric lights."

CCC work at Ocmulgee National Monument included: "preparing trails, including a bridge between the museum and Earthlodge that has become a local landmark." While the wood surface of the bridge has been replaced, the stone base supports are original.

The striking Art Moderne visitor center at Ocmulgee National Monument has New Deal roots, featuring involvement by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The National Park Service (NPS) website has this to say about the visitor center: "Designed by NPS Architect James T. Swanson, the building is an excellent example of the (Art Moderne) style, which grew out of the more well-known Art Deco, and was popular in the 1930s. The style is characterized by smooth surfaces, curving corners and a horizontal effect. The building is a showplace of the Art Moderne style with smooth concrete surfaces,...

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) worked to improve Wesleyan Drive outside Macon in Bibb County, Georgia ca. 1936.