Massachusetts Sites

The W.P.A. conducted improvement work at the South Boston Naval Annex, which was located in South Boston. W.P.A. project details: "Improvements at Boston Navy Yard, So. Boston Annex, and Lockwood Basin" Official Project Number: 154‐3‐14‐529 Total project cost: $568,252.00 Sponsor: U.S. Navy Department "Improvements at Boston Navy Yard, So. Boston Annex, and Lockwood Basin" Official Project Number: 165‐2‐14‐426 Total project cost: $179,140.00 Sponsor: U.S. Navy Department

Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) workers constructed a sea wall in South Boston, Massachusetts. From a W.P.A. Bulletin: Designed to hold back destructive water at flood tides, to keep drifting sand from the adjoining roadway and non-bathers from encroaching on the beach area a WPA Sea Wall Project, Columbus Park, South Boston, extends for more than half a mile along the beach. The status of this structure is unknown to Living New Deal.

South Cemetery in Wayland, Mass. was improved by Federal Emergency Relief Administration (F.E.R.A.) labor. Work included the rebuilding of cemetery stone walls.

Multiple New Deal agencies conducted improvement and repair work at the facilities at Boston / East Boston South Ferry facilities.

Federal Emergency Relief Act funds assisted the town of Millbury in the construction of a South Main Street bridge. It is probable that the bridge spans the Blackstone River; the status of the structure is unknown to Living New Deal.

Federal labor (likely from the Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.)) demolished the obsolete South School in Ashland, Mass.

Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) labor constructed a water main along South St. in Rockport, Mass.

Southampton St. in Boston, Mass. underwent reconstruction as part of a Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) project.

The Civilian Conservation Corps Camp S-60 from Brimfield built a supervisor's residence in the Spencer State Forest in 1937-38.

Springdale Park in Holyoke contains a large brick building constructed by the WPA in 1935-36. The building is currently used for storage by the Parks Department.

The Springfield Armory began "as a major arsenal under the authority of General George Washington early in the Revolutionary War" and "began manufacturing muskets in 1794." (www.nps.gov.) Renovation and repair was conducted under the Works Progress Administration (WPA), including razing some building and replacing others with fireproof structures, as well as strengthening and repairing the floors. The details—including description, Official Project Numbers, total costs, and sponsors—of more than two dozen W.P.A. projects undertaken at the historic armory can be found in the DoD Heritage Assessment cited below.

NOTE: none of the sources cited actually mentions the WPA... From the 1840s-1870s, the city of Springfield constructed and utilized an aqueduct system to bring in water from sources to the west of the city. Multiple collection sites, including Ludlow Reservoir, Borden Brook Reservoir, and Cobble Mountain Reservoir, were built prior to 1931 to hydrate the city. The West Parrish Filters project was constructed from 1939-1940 by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) from an expense of $500,000. The project was designed to improve water supply, water quality, and flood control system for local communities and surrounding areas. The project provided work for...

Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) laborers constructed a toboggan slide at St. Moritz Park in Quincy, Mass.

Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) workers constructed a sizable sea wall in Gloucester, Massachusetts. From a W.P.A. Bulletin: More than 3500 tons of stone set in cement were required in the construction of this 1100 foot WPA sea wall at Stage Fort Park, Cressey Beach, Gloucester. The wall preserves teh beach area by preventing water and driven sand from flooding the park property.

Multiple New Deal agencies worked to develop Ashland, Massachusetts's Stone Park. The Civil Works Administration (C.W.A.) constructed toilet facilities and bleachers in 1934. The Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) continued work in 1935. Federally funded labor also improved the park's drainage and conducted other repairs.

W.P.A. project description: 1937 Massachusetts Metropolitan District Commission annual report: "Stony Brook Reservation; 8 miles of bridle roads in the reservation were improved by widening, grading and the application of gravel"

A sizable storm sewer construction project in Springfield, Mass. was undertaken with the assistance of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. PWA Docket No. MA 1177

A sizable street construction project in Salem, Mass. was undertaken with the assistance of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. PWA Docket No. MA 797

A sizable street construction project in Springfield, Mass. was undertaken with the assistance of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. PWA Docket No. MA 1176

A sizable street construction project in Worcester, Mass. was undertaken with the assistance of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. PWA Docket No. MA 1217

Framingham's former Sturtevant Library was improved by federally funded labor during the Great Depression. According to local sources the library was located at the site of the former Framingham Memorial School. The Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) painted the library, cleaned the floors and furniture in 1936.

Boston, Massachusetts's Suffolk County Courthouse was constructed between 1936 and 1939 with federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. The PWA contributed a grant of $2,151,000; the final cost of the project was $4.9 million. PWA Docket No. MA 1142.

The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (E.R.A.) worked to improve Summer Hill Road in Maynard, Massachusetts, including the construction of a wall (no longer apparent), in 1934.

A Boston Public Works Department report cited Federal Emergency Relief Administration (F.E.R.A.) labor as conducting the following work: "Summer Street Bridge (over Fort Point Channel), approach spans chipped, cleaned and painted."

The Sunderland Bridge is a 1,177 foot deck truss bridge that carries Massachusetts’ Route 116 across the Connecticut River between the neighboring towns of South Deerfield and Sunderland. This bridge is an integral part of the Franklin County landscape, especially when tied together with its neighboring landmark, Mount Sugarloaf. The bridge was completed with Works Progress Administration funding to replace a steel girder bridge that was destroyed during a 1936 flood. The governor of Massachusetts at that time, Charles F. Hurley, and the commissioner of the Department of Public Works, William F. Callahan, hired the contracting company C.J. Maney Co. Inc. to...

Sutton State Forest is located in Sutton, Massachusetts. Portions of the forest area were owned by the state of Massachusetts prior to the creation of the New Deal programs, but the Civilian Conservation Corps made large scale improvements to it. Sutton State Forest is most well-known for Purgatory Chasm, a natural rock feature, and Purgatory Chasm State Reservation is located within the boundaries of Sutton State Forest. However, Purgatory Chasm had already been transformed into a sightseeing destination in the early 1900s, so the CCC did not work on that attraction. CCC Camp S-84 came to the forest in the fall...

According to one comment on an article regarding New Deal work in this part of Massachusetts, "In Wrentham the tennis courts in Wm. H. Sweat Park, in the center were built with WPA funds and labor after filling in a small pond and the original spring. The walls along Bank St. for the park along with the masonry walls around the thn Town Offices/Center School lot were also reconstructed at that time."

The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (F.E.R.A.) and Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) constructed a swimming pool for Ashland, starting in 1935. The pool was built along what was then municipal land along Granite Street, which no longer exists. A late-1800s map of the town suggests that the pool might have been located either along what is now Raymond Marcheti St. or at the approximate location of what is now David Mindess School. WPA Bulletin, 1937: Water, water everywhere but not a place to swim ... a paradoxical predicament provoking to Ashland residents will be solved next season when the Ashland WPA Swimming Pool...

WPA Bulletin, 1937: "On a misty, dismal day last April, a WPA crew started work on the wild and undeveloped 70-acre Bemis tract of land in the rear of the Chicopee High School, which is being converted into the city's first public recreational field. Today the physical change of a large part of the land is decidedly noticeable. Here workmen have graded, leveled and filled this area into a huge flat field which will contain a football and baseball field, a running track, eight tennis courts, three basketball courts, a field house and service building, a grandstand and a parking...

WPA project photo caption: "Exciting moment at Tashmoo Baseball Field, built by WPA at Tisbury." The location and status of this facility is presently unknown to Living New Deal.

Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) conducted substantial improvement work along Ten Mile River in North Attleborough, Massachusetts. WPA Bulletin: Ten Mile River at North Attleboro Construction work that is eliminating a serious health menace, reclaiming hundreds of acres of swampland, safeguarding scores of homes against flood damage, and transforming an unsightly and malodorous watercourse into a source of civic pride, is going steadily forward under WPA on the Ten Mile River in North Attleboro. The pitch of the river bed, in the two-and-one-half miles between Whiting's Pond at the north end of the town and Falls Pond at the south end, was little more...

"Still-visible stone walls enclosing the banks of the Ten Mile River in parts of Attleboro and North Attleboro attest to the CCC's flood control efforts." Some stone walls are visible, for example, from West Street in Attleboro.

As part of a Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) project a combination sewer was built along a 1,019-foot stretch of Tenean Creek (since filled in / destroyed) from Pope's Hill St. north to the train tracks. P.W.A. Docket No. Mass. 4193-L

Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) labor constructed more than two dozen tennis courts in Malden, Mass. WPA Bulletin: Your observer always believed that rock salt was something used in hand-turned ice cream freezers or on street car tracks on icy days. Recently he came across another and most unusual use for the product when he investigated reports that rock salt had been used successfully on a WPA constructed tennis court in Maiden. The report was correct, so correct in fact that the mixture is to be used on 28 other courts in the city. The salt mixture gives a hard, even surface,...

Three murals were commissioned for Tewksbury Hospital by the Federal Art Project. The works presented scenes related to the heritage of the area, and were created by: Maurice Compris (looms); Samuel F. Hershey (quarries and factory work); and W. Lester Stevens (farm work, boat building, and fishing).

Thomas Crane Public Library in Quincy, Massachusetts received a sizable addition as part of a New Deal Public Works Administration (PWA) project. The PWA provided a $89,958 grant for the work, whose final cost was $183,999. Construction occurred between Oct. 1938 and Dec. 1939.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) constructed the Thunderbolt Ski Shelter, atop Mount Greylock, in 1940.

According to the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, “The CCC improved the nation’s natural and human resources and also created opportunities for the public to recreate and appreciate a healthy outdoor experience. At Tolland ‘Pinecone Johnnies’ built access roads, bridges, trails, the peninsula campground, beach, picnic area and parking lot. Visit the beach and see the bathhouse they built in 1939.”

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) conducted drainage work at Tom Nevers Pond in Nantucket, constructing an outlet channel.

"The town of Topsfield received a bequest for the purpose of building a public library. The P.W.A. aided in the enterprise with a loan and grant totaling $15,300 which represented about 40 percent of the project cost. The building as constructed is T-shaped in plan and can accommodate the 17,000 volumes already owned with space for expansion. There are adult and children's reading rooms, delivery room, a librarian's office, and 2 stack rooms. The construction is semifireproof. The foundation walls are concrete, the walls above grade are brick with some cast stone and some wood trim,...