Iowa Sites

"Along the Upper Mississippi, WPA employees built ... Municipal Stadium (now Modern Woodman Park) in Davenport, Iowa ..."

"In 1942 Dubuque's 2.5 miles of street car tracks were ripped up for the war effort. The Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) removed the rails and replaced the pavement. Interstate Power Company agreed to supply some of the needed equipment. Money raised from the sale of the estimated 282 tons of metal was given to the W.P.A."

An inventory of WPA project photographs compiled by Becky Jordan at Iowa State University includes reference to numerous public works projects undertaken by the agency in Iowa between 1935 and 1940. The collection of 1,271 photographs documents the variety and extent of New Deal related efforts undertaken in the Hawkeye State. Improvements at what was then the Sunnycrest Sanatorium in Dubuque (Project 469) are included among the many WPA projects described in the collection. The facility now serves as Sunnycrest Manor, a senior living center.

"The Villisca Swimming Pool was built in 1936 by the Works Progress Administration, (WPA), which was a government program that found work for those unemployed by the Great Depression. This was at a cost of approximately $40,000."   (https://www.villisca.com) The WPA also built an athletic field as part of the same project, which is probably the field still next to the pool today.

“Built in a public park in 1931, the Sylvan Theater Historic District reflects a movement that took place throughout the United States in the 1930s. It was a movement to expand the facilities of parks beyond the passive enjoyment of natural and cultivated landscape, and playground and sports activities, to include facilities for pageants, drama, music, and other cultural interests. The outdoor theater was the natural solution to providing such facilities to all citizens at a minimum cost, and many, like the Sylvan Theater in Des Moines, were built in this period. In Des Moines, as elsewhere, its outdoor theater...

Once a U.S. Federal Courthouse & Post Office, the building at 101 S 1st St. in Cedar Rapids, Iowa now serves as the city hall. The courtroom is now the chambers for the city council, and is the location for four murals generated under the Treasury Relief Art Project between 1936-1937.

"The University of Iowa Theatre Building was completed in 1936 during the depths of the Great Depression. How did a public university in Iowa, a state hard-hit by economic collapse and unemployment, ever see fit to build a theatre at such a time? The answers are unique to the time: “New Deal” politics, a surge of pride in regional art and arts, and E.C. Mabie, “the Boss,” who had big plans and the drive to see the plans through... The Federal Theatre Project (FTP), also part of Federal One, was formally announced in Iowa City at the National Theatre Conference in...

The Public Works Administration funded the University of Northern Iowa Women's Gymnasium Improvements and Pool Addition in Cedar Falls IA. The building now houses the university's Innovation Teaching and Technology Center. "In August 1935, the Board of Education announced plans for a large remodeling project for the Women's Gymnasium.  The basement would be devoted entirely to dressing rooms.  New floors and fireproof stairs would be installed.  And an addition would be put onto the west side of the building to house a 36 X 90 foot swimming pool, with seating for five hundred spectators.  The pool would be three feet six...

"During the 1930s, the Civil Works Administration crews altered the plan of Vander Veer Park by removing corner entrances at Brady and Lombard, and at Harrison and Lombard."

"George Veenker Memorial Golf Course is located just two blocks north of the Iowa State campus. The 18-hole course was constructed in 1938 from the design of world renowned golf course architect, Perry Maxwell (re-designer of the seventh and 10th holes at Augusta National Golf Club in 1937. ). The golf course was built with WPA and Athletic Council funds, and cost $122,373."   (wikipedia.org)

The PWA provided funds for the construction of Washington Elementary School in 1939-1940. From Wikipedia: In addition to Lincoln, the new elementary schools included Monroe, Madison, Washington, Jefferson, and McKinley. Lincoln was the only new facility to be built on the location of one of the older buildings. The floor plans for all six school buildings was designed by the Chicago architectural firm of Smith & Childs, and they are all similar in layout. Local architects were employed to design the stylistic features for each building.  

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) constructed 3,100 feet of water mains in Hopkinton, Iowa: "bout 500 feet near the school, a 300-foot extension just south of the business section and several blocks running east to the water tower ... In this latter stretch it was necessary to dynamite solid rock the entire depth of the ditch for 300 feet."

This suburban Des Moines elementary school was constructed in 1939 under the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works. In 2018 it was adaptively reused as the Phenix School Apartments, which provides live-work space to artists.

An inventory of WPA project photographs compiled by Becky Jordan at Iowa State University includes reference to numerous public works projects undertaken by the agency in Iowa between 1935 and 1940. The collection of 1,271 photographs documents the variety and extent of New Deal related efforts undertaken in the Hawkeye State. Included among the many WPA projects described in the collection is the West High School stadium (Project 1055) in Waterloo, Blackhawk County.

An inventory of WPA project photographs compiled by Becky Jordan at Iowa State University includes reference to numerous public works projects undertaken by the agency in Iowa between 1935 and 1940. The collection of 1,271 photographs documents the variety and extent of New Deal related efforts undertaken in the Hawkeye State. The Mason City park retaining wall on Willow Creek in Cerro Gordo County, Iowa (Project 3650) is included among the many WPA projects described in the collection.

The county courthouse was built in 1893. The Works Progress Administration enlarged and remodeled the facility in 1939. One Romanesque tower was completely replaced.