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  • Rapides Parish Courthouse and Jail - Alexandria LA
    The Rapides Parish Courthouse was undertaken in Alexandria, Louisiana during the Great Depression with the assistance of funds provided by the Public Works Administration (PWA). The facilities were part of the largest wave of courthouse construction in Louisiana history, with eleven total courthouses erected in the period of  1936-1940. The courthouse featured a "streamlined bas-relief characterization of justice" (Leighninger, 2007b p. 96) and "Moses, staring sternly forward, law books in his lap" (Leighninger, 2007a, p. 117). It was, along with the Natchitoches Parish courthouse, one of only two Louisiana courthouses erected during the period to feature heavy use such of bas-relief...
  • Rayville Light & Water Plant - Rayville LA
    The Public Works Administration (PWA) provided funds for the completion of the Rayville Light & Water Plant in Rayville, Louisiana during the Great Depression. The plant had been under construction for many years prior to the PWA appropriations, with plans for electrification dating back to 1913. The waterworks/sewerage were completed in 1939 at a cost of $26,921. The light plant was completed in 1940 at a cost of $77,464.
  • Ruston High School - Ruston LA
    Described as "an Art Deco gem" (Leighninger, 2007, p. 78), in which "simple geometric forms predominated" (p. 80), Ruston High School was constructed by the PWA in 1939-1940. The original building included an auditorium wing and the central core of classrooms. A second wing was added to match the auditorium wing in the late 1960s. "One of the best examples of this style in the state", the architectural features were duplicated in the changes (Dailey & Pfister, 2000). The building is still in use as the high school, and is well-maintained.
  • Saint Bernard Parish Courthouse - Chalmette LA
    "The St. Bernard Courthouse in Chalmette was built with funds from the Public Works Administration (PWA) project. The building was designed by the architectural firm of Weiss, Dreyfous, and Seiferth."   (knowla.org) The cornerstone dates the courthouse to 1939. KnowLA writes that the 11 parishes that received new courthouses attributable at least in part to the PWA are: Caldwell, Cameron, East Carroll, Iberia, Jackson, Madison, Natchitoches, Rapides, St. Bernard, St. Landry, and Terrebonne. As of 2014 each of the courthouses is in active use.
  • Sewer System Enlargement - Bastrop LA
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) undertook an extension of the sewerage system in Bastrop, Louisiana during the Great Depression. Approximately two thirds of all WPA spending on public utilities during this period was dedicated to the construction and repair of sewerage systems, which represented a significant public health concern. The WPA provided an initial appropriation of $35,000 for enlargement of the Bastrop sewerage system in the Morehouse Parish of Louisiana. The project employed 175 men.
  • Southeastern Louisiana University: Fayard Hall Murals - Hammond LA
    This series of seven oil-on-canvas murals, painted by Xavier Gonzalez in 1937 and entitled "Strawberry Farming," were hung in the post office until 1970, when they were moved to Southeaster Louisiana University. "Much of Gonzalez's work was commissioned by the Treasury Section of Painting and Sculpture… and its smaller affiliate, the Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP)." (knowla.org)
  • St. Bernard Avenue Public Housing - New Orleans LA
    St. Bernard Projects were constructed 1940 as one of New Orleans' "Big Four" high-density urban public housing projects. Initially comprised of 744 units in 74 buildings constructed on 30.9 acres, the project was bordered by St. Bernard Avenue to Gibson Street and Senate Street to St. Denis Streets. Architects Herbert A. Benson, George Christy, and William Spink designed the buildings "to echo the brick townhouses of the Vieux Carre" (Historic American Buildings Survey, 1933). Similar to other public housing units in New Orleans, they reflected elements of the period including porches and balconies with metalwork and canopies. Unlike other units,...
  • St. Helena Parish Courthouse - Greensburg LA
    The St. Helena Parish Courthouse was undertaken in Greensburg, Louisiana during the Great Depression with assistance of funds provided by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The Greensburg courthouse was one of two Louisiana courthouses built with WPA funds instead of support from the Public Works Administration (PWA) (Leighninger, 2001).
  • St. Landry Parish Courthouse and Jail - Opelousas LA
    The St. Landry Parish Courthouse was undertaken in Opelousas, Louisiana during the Great Depression with the assistance of funds provided by the Public Works Administration (PWA). The facilities were part of the largest wave of courthouse construction in Louisiana history, with eleven total courthouses erected in the period of  1936-1940. Constructed with "Mayan setbacks at the top" and "deco light fixtures" (Leighninger, 2007), the courthouse cost $481,794.
  • St. Roch Market Improvements - New Orleans LA
    Established in 1875, in a Creole neighborhood northeast of the French Quarter, St. Roch Market is one of several public markets improved by the WPA in New Orleans in the late 1930s. By that time, the city supported 19 public grocery markets, many of which had fallen into disrepair and were threatened by demolition. The city turned to the WPA, which financed the improvement of eight public markets under the Market Rehabilitation program. This included making interior and exterior upgrades to six neighborhood markets and building two new ones. For the St. Roch Market, the WPA gutted the interior, replacing...
  • St. Thomas Public Housing - New Orleans LA
    St. Thomas was one of six public housing projects constructed under the Housing Act of 1937. It was constructed 1938-1941 and contained 920 units of two or three story brick buildings. The architect's rendering for the St. Thomas Street project was "planned to provide maximum light, space and air; buildings about a central court, with cool porches" (Slum Clearance, 1938, p. 68). The housing authority began demolition and redevelopment in the late 1990s, but five or the original buildings were saved "for historical purposes" (St. Thomas Development Neighborhood). The buildings are on the corner of Felicity and St. Thomas streets...
  • 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.
  • Stuart Pine Orchard - Pollock LA
    The Stuart Nursery was established in 1934 by the Kisatchie National Forest (KNF) in conjunction with the creation of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Although KNF employees managed the nursery, nearby CCC camps with 200 young men each provided manpower for its operation and field planting (Barnett and Burns 2012). Nursery seedling production was about 25 million annually with most of these seedlings shipped to CCC projects that had reforestation emphases. Wakeley’s research, now located at the nursery, took advantage of the CCC crews to apply a variety of nursery cultural practices and to establish outplanting studies. Over the 9-year...
  • Tad Gormley Stadium, City Park - New Orleans LA
    Constructed in 1935-37 with WPA labor, the 26,500-seat stadium came as part of a massive New Deal project to expand New Orleans’s City Park. Richard Koch, an architect on the park board and the architectural firm of Weiss, Dreyfous and Seifert, designed the stadium. The architectural firm had reached national exposure after Governor P. Huey Long selected it in 1934 to design the new Art Deco State Capitol in Baton Rouge. Built of poured reinforced concrete, the stadium’s upper seating rests on a series of stout columns arranged in an oval, allowing for curved seating. The space between the terrace seating and...
  • Terrebonne Parish Courthouse - Houma LA
    The Terrebonne Parish Courthouse in Houma, LA was one of 11 in the state attributable to the PWA. KnowLA writes that the parishes that received new courthouses are: Caldwell, Cameron, East Carroll, Iberia, Jackson, Madison, Natchitoches, Rapides, St. Bernard, St. Landry, and Terrebonne. As of 2014 each of the courthouses is in active use. A supplemental courthouse has been constructed opposite School Street to the 1937 building. The 1937 courthouse's cornerstone reads: Terrebonne Parish Court House Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works Project No. LA. 1053-D -------- Erected by the police jury of the Parish of Terrebonne Dr. M. V. Marmande, President 1937
  • Thomastown Community, Ladelta Co-operative Association Farm Settlement - Tallulah LA
    The Farm Security Administration established a resettlement project called the Ladelta Co-operative Association at Thomastown, Louisiana in 1938. The project was for African American families who had been sharecroppers. The project included 147 individual farmsteads, with five-room house, barn, smokehouse, and poultry shed. The project also included the school building, and cotton gin. The project encompassed 21,876 acres in East Carroll (Transylvania) and Madison (Thomastown) parishes. Bids were solicited for the community center construction in May 1939. The high school at Thomastown graduated its first class in 1944. The building was destroyed by fire in 1972, but the elementary school...
  • 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...
  • Upper Pontalba Building Renovation - New Orleans LA
    The Pontalba Buildings flank Jackson Square in the heart of the French Quarter in New Orleans.  The Upper Pontalba Building lies on the west side of the square along St. Peter Street, the Lower Pontalba Building on the east side on St. Ann Street.  Both are block-long structures, four stories in height, built of brick and graced with the ironwork typical of buildings in the French Quarter. They were originally built in the 1840s. The two building were the gift of the Baroness de Pontalba, who wished to improve the appearance of Jackson Square – then the center of the city....
  • Water System Extension - Oak Ridge LA
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) undertook an extension of the water system in Oak Ridge, Louisiana during the Great Depression. Public utilities projects, including such water supply and purification systems, accounted for ten percent of all WPA spending during the period. The Oak Ridge water system project in the Morehouse parish employed 37 men.
  • Water, Light, and Power Project - Rayne LA
    The Public Works Administration (PWA) undertook a public utilities project in Rayne, Louisiana during the Great Depression. The cost of the project was $86,169.
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