Chicago Sites

This large five-part mural "History of the New World" by Ralf Henricksen was completed with the help of WPA Federal Art Project funds in 1938.

Artist Lucile Ward painted two extensive friezes for the Pasteur School in 1937, with funding from the WPA Federal Art Project. "Numbers" is a 2'6" high frieze covering four walls of Room 112. "The Alphabet" (4′ high) covers all four walls of the kindergarten room.

Portage Park is located between West Irving Park Road to the South, West Berteau Avenue to the North, North Long Avenue to the East, and North Central Avenue to the West; it occupies four city blocks and has an area of 37 acres . It was established in 1913, as a means to increase property values for the neighboring homes and provide residents with space for recreational and cultural activities. Originally, the park was essentially its own park district, one of 22 individual “districts” existing in Chicago at the time. In 1934, William Martin was elected as head of the Southwest...

"...the Point was a part of the famous Daniel Burnham Plan for Chicago of 1909, was developed in the 1920s and landscaped in 1937 as a WPA project by the late Alfred Caldwell... One of its major aspects is a continuous edge of stratified limestone along the shore of Lake Michigan. This feature is typical of the Prairie Style of landscape architecture..." (Hyde Park Herald, 2001) "In the mid-1930s, an infusion of labor and money from the new Deal's Works Progress Administration (WPA) led Donahue to approve the development of the Promontory. The Point's distinctive fieldhouse was designed by park district architect...

"In 1934, Ravenswood Manor Park became part of the newly-formed Chicago Park District. Using federal relief funds, the park district rehabilitated the park's landscape, planting hundreds of shrubs and an impressive perennial garden."

"This is one of the more interesting post-office buildings in which the design avoids tradition. It is fireproof except for the roof, which is slow-burning construction. The exterior walls are a blue-gray brick trimmed with Indiana limestone and the spandrels are aluminum. The lobby has a terrazzo floor and base and a wainscot of American butternut. The workroom has an area of 8,600 square feet. The building was completed in August 1936 at a construction cost of $90,047. The P.W.A. allotment was $121,804.67 and the cost of the site $12,250."

The two 6' x 8' panels of this mural "Discovery of America" by Irene Bianucci. They were completed with WPA Federal Art Project funds in 1940 and restored in 1997.

The five panels of this mural depicting the "History of Chicago" are titled: "Father Marquette," "Fort Dearborn," "Great Chicago Fire of 1871," "World's Columbian Exposition of 1893," and "Century of Progress World's Fair of 1933." They were painted by Lucile Ward in 1940 with funds from the WPA Federal Art Project. It was restored in 1997.  

George Melville Smith painted two 9' x 9' murals for the Schubert School: "The Life of Franz Schubert" and "The Hurricane." They were painted in 1938 with WPA Federal Art Project funds.

The South Side Community Art Center (SSCAC) located at 3831 South Michigan Avenue on the South Side of Chicago, provided a permanent space for the creation and preservation of artwork made by African American artists from the surrounding community. The SSCAC is one of two WPA funded Art Centers that has never closed its doors, and is also the earliest African American Art Center to be created in the United States. The federal government primarily funded the project, but it was financial support from the African American community that made the idea of an Art Center a reality. According to the...

The State Street subway line was one of two initial subway lines to open in the city of Chicago, IL. Running from north to south, the project began in conjunction with the construction of the Milwaukee-Dearborn subway line and was made possible by both the Public Works Administration (PWA) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The subway line has undergone major expansions and alterations since the 1930’s, but it still exists today as a portion of the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) Red Line subway system. State Street property owners were the first to call for the State Street Subway, but despite...

The bridge carrying S. Torrance Avenue across the Calumet River constructed as a Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) project. Completed in 1936, the "vertical lift bridge is the only non-bascule bridge built by the Chicago Public Works Department (now CDOT). The primary design requirements for this bridge called for a 200 ft clear channel width with a 21 ft clearance over the entire channel." P.W.A. Project No. IL 9625-X

"The last of three Public Works Administration projects commissioned in Chicago as part of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, Trumbull Park Homes is arguably one of the CHA's most historically significant buildings in its housing portfolio. Built in 1938, the development features a low-density design of two-story rowhouses and three-story apartment buildings spread out across 21-acres."

This 8' x 12' mural "Map of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign" was painted by Rainey Bennett in 1938, with the help of Federal Art Project funds.

These two limestone sculptures "Asclepius" and "Hygeia" were created by Edouard Chassaing in 1938 with the help of WPA Federal Art Project funds.

This mural of oil washes and casein tempera on multiple glass panes depicts "The History of Anatomy." It was painted by artists Rainey Bennett and Ralph Graham with the help of Federal Art Project funds in 1938. It was restored in 1981.

The "Great Men of Medicine" depicted in this New Deal fresco of nine 1' x 1' panels  include Pare (shown in photo), Pasteur, Darwin, Lister, Jenner, Koch, Virchow, Melpighi, and Harvey. The frescoes were painted by Edwin Boyd Johnson in 1938 under the WPA Federal Art Project.  

This mosaic mural "Signs of the Zodiac and Heavenly Bodies" was created by John Stephan in 1936 with the help of WPA Federal Art Project funds.

This 3'6" x 5' sculpture entitled the "Spirit of Medicine Warding Off Disease" was created with Federal Art Project funds and has been relocated multiple times.

In 1937, Jefferson League painted five murals for the College of Pharmacy depicting "The Story of Natural Drugs": "Digitalis," "Opium," "Cinchona," "Quinine" and "Coca and Peyote." The murals were funded by the WPA Federal Art Project.

This PWA building was originally the Dental College Building for the University of Illinois - Chicago. It was project #1057. Construction of the Dental Building began in 1935 when the project was proposed and backed by the PWA under Illinois director Carl H. Bauer. The Public Works Administration funded the project with a grant of $366,000 and a 20 year loan of $1,091,000. The University Foundation directed by Glen M. Hobbs awarded the contract to the J.W. Snyder company for $952,610. Other contracts amounting to $370,500 were given to Haughton Elevator and Machine Co (elevators), Divane Brothers (electric wiring), O’Callaghan Brothers...

The historic Uptown Station post office in Chicago, Illinois was constructed in 1939 with federal Treasury Department funds. The building is still in service and houses an example of New Deal artwork.

The Uptown Post Office Murals “Carl Sandburg and Louis Sullivan” were WPA New Deal Art Projects completed in 1943 by Henry Varnum Poor. These are significant murals created by the WPA which celebrates both agriculture and poetry (Uptown PO Chicago). At the time the murals were created, Poor was an established artist - one of the few non-relief artists who was allowed on the project because many unemployed craftsmen could be put to work executing his designs. His notability also gave the projects an air of respectability (Bernstein). Poor, who was born in Chapman, Kansas, studied art at Stanford University and...

Henry Simon painted a series of murals entitled "The Founding of McKendree College, Lebanon, Illinois." The murals were intended for that institution but never installed. "The Circuit Rider," "Bishop McKendree at the Site of the College" and "Peter Aker's Prophecy" were painted in 1941 with funding from the WPA Federal Art Project.  

This three-part mural "American Youth" by Florian Durzynski was completed with WPA Federal Art Project funds in 1937 and restored in 1999.

The West Pullman School was established in the late 19th century. During the 1930s, the WPA funded two murals for the school auditorium. The roughly 5' x 10' oil on canvas murals, by Ralph Christian Henriksen, are entitled "American Educational System" and "Americanization of Immigrants." The school closed at the end of the school year in 2013. Current status and future plans for the murals are unknown to the Living New Deal.

A Public Works Administration grant, along with local tax revenues, funded the construction of Sherman Elementary School at West 51st Place and South Morgan Street in Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood. It replaced the former Sherman School, built in 1884, that was located on the same site. The new, two-story, brick structure cost approximately $125,000 and included ten classrooms and a gymnasium. It was designed by Chicago Board of Education architect John Charles Christensen. The architectural style of the building, characterized by a low horizontal profile, wide window openings, and geometric brickwork patterns, is similar to that of many...