• Louisiana State Capitol Annex - Baton Rouge LA
    "At the time the Louisiana State Capitol was constructed, it was considered large enough to house virtually all of the administrative offices and departments of the State government. This proved to be incorrect and due to urgent need, the State Office Building, often called the Capitol Annex, was erected about 400 feet distant from the capitol. It is a part four and part six-story building, rectangular in plan, with over-all dimensions of 130 by 260 feet, and in addition to a large amount of office space, housed the official board room and library. It has a...
  • Louisiana State Capitol Annex Murals - Baton Rouge LA
    Conrad Albrizio was commissioned by the Works Progress Administration to paint several murals in the foyer of the Capitol Annex. An exhibit in the foyer today explains that "Albrizio's murals in the Capitol Annex were designed to illustrate 'the achievements of the state program under the administration of' Governor Leche." They depict social security and social well being, industrial prowess, public construction, and health care. The murals have been recently restored by a conservator who "worked on restoration projects in Louisiana, most notably Conrad Albrizio's murals at the Louisiana State Exhibit Museum in Shreveport and his students' frescoes in LSU's Allen Hall....
  • Louisiana State University - Baton Rouge LA
    The WPA, the PWA and the CWA were all involved in working on the LSU campus from 1934 through the late 1930s. As Professor Robert Leighninger Jr. explains in Building Louisiana: "On a typical day I used to drive to work at Louisiana State University (LSU) past a lake reclaimed from swampland by WPA workers... Parker Coliseum (also a WPA project) at the southeastern edge of campus. As I entered the campus, I passed the Student Health Center (WPA) and Himes Hall (a PWA classroom building). Turning into my parking lot, I passed the northern enclosure of the football stadium (WPA). If...
  • Louisiana State University: Parker Coliseum - Baton Rouge LA
    Louisiana State University's historic Parker Coliseum, also known as the Agricultural Center, was constructed by the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1937. The building, which contains numerous artistic details created by artists of the period, is still in use today. WPA Project No. 165-64-2016.
  • Perkins Overpass - Baton Rouge LA
    This 1937 bridge is almost certainly a New Deal structure given the date, style and location.
  • Police Department Administration Building - Baton Rouge LA
    Originally the Louisiana State School for the Deaf, this neoclassical design building is now an administration building for the Baton Rouge Police Department.
  • State Capitol Building (former) Renovations - Baton Rouge LA
    This castle-like building was constructed in the mid-nineteenth century and renovated with WPA help in 1938.
  • University Lake - Baton Rouge LA
    "In the early 1930s, the federal Works Progress Administration converted a thick cypress-tupelo swamp into an urban lake in Baton Rouge's growing southeast environs. A lake was infinitely more appealing than a swamp, local officials believed, especially in the part of the city that now housed LSU. The campus had been relocated to its current site from downtown in 1926, and an eye-catching body of water served as the ideal gateway. University Lake joined the existing City Park Lake, which had been dug a decade earlier. Together, they have formed one of the city's most enduring points of recreational activity and...