New Bedford Sites

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) conducted improvement work at the historic armory in New Bedford, Mass. WPA project details: "Construct garage, storage rooms, kitchen and other rooms, machinery and carpentry work, plumbing, electric" Sponsor: Massachusetts National Guard

Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) workers constructed storage building at New Bedford's City Yard in 1936. WPA Bulletin: The New Bedford WPA City Yard Storage Building Project is designed to store machinery and other city equipment which has been deteriorating from being placed in an open yard. The building is solidly built with concrete piers extending through fill and peat to hard-pan. The exact location and status of this facility is unknown to Living New Deal.

The W.P.A. conducted numerous improvements at the former Fort Rodman in New Bedford, Mass. Project details: "Recondition buildings, grounds, and facilities" Official Project Number: 165‐14‐2‐11 Total project cost: $80,540.00 Sponsor: Commanding Officer, Fort Adams, U.S. Army "Improve grounds and recreational areas" Official Project Number: 265‐2‐14‐179 Total project cost: $38,458.00 Sponsor: Commanding Officer, Fort Rodman, U.S. Army "Improve buildings" Official Project Number: 765‐14‐2‐41 Total project cost: $76,327.00 Sponsor: War Department "Construct rifle range" Official Project Number: 765‐14‐3‐7 Total project cost: $2,404.00 Sponsor: War Department

This small lighthouse bears a plaque showing it was built by the WPA in 1935-36. It no longer functions as a light house. Another more recent inscription shows it was "Relocated and Reconstructed" to its current location in Peter Francisco Memorial Square in 1982.

The Works Progress Administration had an active presence in New Bedford, providing funds for massive construction and city improvement efforts. Suggestions for an airfield near New Bedford first appear in documents from 1936, proposing a route “via Fall River and New Bedford to some centrally located point on Cape Cod. This route would be used mainly for summer traffic.” However, formal discussions do not appear until March of 1939, where it was proposed as a Works Project Administration project. Work on the New Bedford airfields officially began on April 9, 1940. It was dedicated a little over two years later,...

Now part of Fisherman's Wharf, New Bedford's former Pier 4 was renovated and enlarged by Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) laborers. WPA Bulletin: "Pier 4." New Bedford, where fish valued at $2,000,000 is landed annually is being repaired and enlarged by WPA. The old pier, 200 feet long and 95 feet wide, will be extended 60 additional feet. Rotted, worm-eaten wooden piles will removed and replaced with concrete piles reinforced with steel rods. The wooden deck of the pier is being removed and will be replaced with concrete deck slabs a new asphalt deck coating.

WPA Bulletin: "New Bedford — Ten miles of cement sidewalks have been built by WPA to replace old concrete and flagstone walks. Some of the replaced flagstones were as old as New Bedford."

Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) labor constructed the former vocational school in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The location and status of the facility is unknown to Living New Deal.

Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) labor constructed a gym for the former vocational school in New Bedford, Massachusetts. WPA Bulletin: Building materials salvaged from WPA Demolition Projects are used in the New Bedford WPA construction of the Vocational School Gymnasium. Many skilled workmen are busy on this project. The location and status of the facility is unknown to Living New Deal.

A water main construction project in New Bedford, Mass. was undertaken with the assistance of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. PWA Docket No. MA 2038

Between World War I and World War II, the economy of New Bedford changed dramatically. The city’s whaling industry disappeared and textile manufacturing plummeted. In 1937, the city’s unemployment rate was a staggering 32.5 percent. New Bedford was down and out, with many families struggling to survive. The WPA's intervention in New Bedford was intended to boost the city's fishing industry. In 1925, New Bedford fishermen still had to sell their catches at Fulton Fish Market in New York because New Bedford did not have its own fish auction house. Eventually buyers began to come to New Bedford to buy...