Massachusetts Sites

The Civil Works Administration (C.W.A.) conducted tree trimming and tree planting work at Carlisle Town Forest in 1933-4. The Emergency Relief Administration and Works Progress Administration continued work at the site.

Oxford, Massachusetts's old town garage was constructed with the assistance of the federal Work Projects Administration (WPA) ca. 1940. The exact location and present status of the project is unknown to Living New Deal, but it is believed that the structure is no longer extant.

The historic Chester Town Hall was constructed during the Great Depression with the assistance of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. The PWA supplied a grant of $16,830 for the project, whose total cost was $39,713. Construction occurred March 1936 and Feb. 1937. PWA Docket No. MA W1031

Chester, Massachusetts is located along Route 20 in western Massachusetts, about 15 miles west of Westfield State University. It was a site along the Boston and Albany Railroad (B&A) from the mid 1800s due to the presence of quarries in the area and the town had a few small factories in the early 1900s. The population of Chester was approximately 1,400 in the early 1900s and remains almost exactly the same today. In 1935 a fire broke out in the Chester Town Hall and engulfed the entire building. The federal Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) contributed funds toward the rebuilding of the...

Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) labor created a new Town Hall in Salisbury, Mass. WPA Bulletin, 1937: Town business in Salisbury for years has been conducted in homes of officials, rented offices and in the Town Hall which is so small it is impossible to gather all of the municipal offices under its roof. WPA is making a new Town Hall for Salisbury which will be adequate for all municipal needs. The new Hall is being remodeled from a three-story former shoe factory located on Beach Street.  

Stoneham's historic town hall building was built with the assistance of the federal Public Works Administration (P.W.A.). The agency supplied a $75,951 grant for the town hall's construction, whose total cost was $161,225. Construction occurred between Nov. 1938 and Oct. 1939. PWA Docket No. MA W1013

Wareham Town Hall was constructed as a New Deal Public Works Administration (PWA) project. The PWA provided a grant of $72,000 to the town for the project, whose total cost was $194,982. Construction occurred between Feb. 1938 and Jan. 1939. PWA Docket No. MA W1360

The former Town Hall in Blackstone, Massachusetts was developed with the assistance of federal funds during the New Deal. While documentation is not entirely clear, writing suggests that multiple New Deal agencies were involved in the town hall building's initial conversion to municipal use and its subsequent expansion, including the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, the Public Works Administration, and the Works Progress Administration. The building has since been demolished and a new municipal complex built in its stead. PWA Docket No. MA X 1447.

"This Town-owned building of Colonial Revival design is located on the east side of South Main Street and was constructed in 1939 as a Work s Progress Administration (WPA) project with local labor and native materials."

Improvements, including building painting, were made to the old Millbury, Massachusetts town hall (destroyed by fire in 1971) with Federal Emergency Relief Act funds in 1933. 282 Millbury locals were given employment in 1933 as a result of the federal E.R.A.

Ipswich's historic town hall building was originally constructed as the community's high school between 1935 and 1937. The Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) supplied a $105,075 grant for the school's construction, whose total cost was $265,575. Construction occurred between Dec. 1935 and Feb. 1937. PWA Docket No. MA W1068

The historic Wayland Town Hall building was constructed as the town's high school during the Great Depression. It was built as a New Deal project, undertaken with federal Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) funds. The P.W.A. supplied a $30,025 grant for the project, whose total cost was $105,871. Construction occurred between Nov. 1934 and Nov. 1935. The school, designed in Colonial Revival style, was occupied in Sept. 1936. Our primary photo, on display at Wayland Town Hall, shows the building amid extraordinary flooding of the Sudbury River after a historic hurricane in Sept. 1938. (The W.P.A. conducted extensive work helping this region...

The former high school in Northborough, Massachusetts, received a large addition as part of a New Deal Public Works Administration (PWA) project. Construction occurred in 1935. "Without the Public Works Administration's contribution of 45% of the cost, Northborough had little chance of replacing the high-school building destroyed by the 1938 fire." (Northborough website) The former school now houses Northborough Town Hall. PWA Docket No. MA 1412 D S

Town annual report: The following work has been done under projects, since April, 1934: Painting Outside of Town Hall, six men, 1 foreman. Total payroll: 1516.00

The Civil Works Administration (C.W.A.) and/or Federal Emergency Relief Administration (F.E.R.A.) made repairs and other improvements to Ashland, Massachusetts's town hall in 1934. "The interior of the Town Hall has been renovated extensively, and several changes made that have been a great improvement in the building." The E.R.A. repaired/replaced the building's heating plant in 1934. Concrete stairs and walks were installed at the building soon after, and the W.P.A. painted the building's exterior in 1937.

The federal Civil Works Administration (C.W.A.) conducted "much needed repairs" to Dover Massachusetts's Town Hall in 1933. Next year the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (F.E.R.A.) regraded the town hall grounds, and also painted the building.

These three murals "...and 14 others were originally created as public art specifically for Danvers Town Hall. The project began in 1934 under the joint auspices of the Works Progress Administration Artist and Writers Project and the then solidly Republican Town of Danvers. Numerous local citizens, including William C. Endicott, Jasper Marsh, Lester Couch, Harriet S. Tapley, Ivan G. Smith, Victor D. Elmere, William R. Lynch and the local VFW donated cash for the materials used in the project, while the Federal WPA Administration paid the artists' modest salaries. Principal artist of these works of art on canvas was Richard V....

"Ross Moffett studied with Hawthorne and was one of the first year-round painters in Provincetown, moving into Days Lumberyard in 1914. "Gathering Beach Plums" and "Spreading Nets," his large murals in the Town Hall entrance were painted in 1934 under the federal Public Works of Art Project of the Depression era. An easel painter and monotype artist, Moffett undertook only one other mural commission in his career." (IAmProvincetown.com)

The federal Civil Works Administration (C.W.A.) and Federal Emergency Relief Administration (F.E.R.A.) furnished the cost of labor for the painting—interior and exterior—Hatfield, Massachusetts Town Hall. The project employed two painters between March 1 and July 15, 1934. The C.W.A. paid $203.40 for the labor for the month of March, and F.E.R.A. contributed $586.20. The Town of Hatfield supplied only $169.45, the cost of materials for the project.

The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (F.E.R.A.) worked to improve the parking lot at Town Hall in Carver, Massachusetts.

Built in 1871, Wakefield's Lafayette building "was used as the town's high school until 1937, when it was remodeled as part of a WPA project for municipal offices."

The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (F.E.R.A.) conducted improvement work at what was the Town of Maynard's first owned town hall ("town house") building. The exact location and status of the facility is presently unknown to Living New Deal.

In 1934 The Foxboro Reporter wrote that Civil Works Administration labor was used to improve and redecorate the town offices of Foxboro, Massachusetts.

The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (F.E.R.A.) worked to trim trees along Savery in Carver, Massachusetts in 1934.

Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) laborers rebuilt Turner Road Bridge (believed to be at the point where it crosses Little River) in Charlton, Mass. after it was seriously damaged by floods in 1936.

The federal Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) allocated funds in 1936 to the tune of $372,722 (not adjusted for inflation) for the reconstruction of a span across the Connecticut River between the Town of Montague and Gill, Mass. The Turners Falls-Gill Bridge, which was constructed in 1937-8, has since been rehabilitated and is sometimes referred to as the Gill-Montague Bridge. A plaque on the bridge credits the United States Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 and features a project number; it is sometimes overlooked as the information is written in comparatively small lettering at the top of the plaque.

Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) conducted the following road work in Auburn, Mass. WPA Bulletin: This cut-off in Auburn, on the Worcester Turnpike, was washed out by the Spring flood. A WPA construction project is rebuilding the cut-off and 30 feet of the macadam shoulders of the road. The exact location and identification of the road in question is unknown to Living New Deal.

W.P.A. project descriptions: "Veterans of Foreign Wars, West Roxbury, and Turtle Pond Parkways; the roadsides of these parkways were beautified for their entire lengths by grubbing, grading and seeding. Ten miles, or 176,000 square yards of property was reclaimed." "Dedham Parkway and Turtle Pond Parkway; a project in operation at the end of the year will provide a parking area on each of these two parkways in the Hyde Park district."

Improvements were made to the Millbury, Massachusetts's old Union School (high school) building and grounds with the assistance of federal New Deal funds. The old high school is now the Mary Elizabeth McGrath Educational Center. The Civil Works Administration provided labor for a grounds grading project begun in 1933. At the same time Federal Emergency Relief Act funds enabled a retaining wall repair project and other building improvements, including the painting of the "outside woodwork." The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) redecorated the interior of the building in 1937 and continued retaining wall reconstruction. The National Youth Administration conducted miscellaneous improvements...

W.P.A. project description: "Blue Hills Reservation at Unquity Road and Canton Avenue, Milton; to develop an area of eighteen acres for playground and skating use." The location and status of these facilities is unknown to Living New Deal.

From the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs: “This 2660 acre forest offers visitors a natural diversity of flora and fauna accented with historically significant contributions of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The focal point of the forest is located at 205 Westboro Road in Upton, where visitor parking, the main trail head and park information is available. One has the opportunity to survey the grounds and exterior of a number of CCC structures located at this site."

A large Art Deco design constructed with federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds in 1936. It was designed by S. Wesley Haynes & Associates of Fitchburg. In 2012 it became McCloskey Middle School when a new high school opened.

Construction of Veterans Field was one of dozens of projects undertaken with federal labor at the beginning of the New Deal era during the 1930s. "In 1934, initial plans called for a skating/hockey rink, ball field, tennis court and a general playground, with the work to be performed by the Civil Works Administration (CWA) which later became the ERA, a program designed to 'give relief to needy people through direct work or work relief.' These work projects were later shifted to the Works Projects Administration (WPA). The North Avenue - Church Street project was one of 92 completed projects carried out...

W.P.A. Bulletin, 1937: "he Memorial Athletic Field in the rear of King's Highway School is rapidly nearing completion. Last April the field was rather ugly, idle land. Now there is a quarter-mile cinder track, circling a seeded oval, portable bleachers, a memorial plot of war veterans with flagpole, a driveway from the highway to the field, a football field, a drainage system and a fence enclosing the athletic field."

Two plaques at the entrance gate explain the heritage of Veterans Memorial Stadium: Northerly plaque: "This site is part of the grant known as Merrymount Park / Given to the People of Quincy by Charles Francis Adams In the Year 1885 - The Football Field and the Stadium known as Pfaffman Oval was Built at the time when George E. Pfaffman was Chairman of Quincy Park Board." Southerly plaque: "Quincy Municipal Stadium / Dedicated to the Youth of Quincy / As a Memorial to War Veterans / 1937 Erected 1938 - Thomas S. Burgin Mayor - Designed and Constructed under the Direction...

W.P.A. project description: "Veterans of Foreign Wars, West Roxbury, and Turtle Pond Parkways; the roadsides of these parkways were beautified for their entire lengths by grubbing, grading and seeding. Ten miles, or 176,000 square yards of property was reclaimed."

W.P.A. Bulletin, 1937: "In the middle 1800s a two-story wooden building on Stevens street, Peabody. served as a town hall and later as the city's first high school (after Peabody became a city). But population increased as the city's leather business prospered and the old building became inadequate for changing conditions. So it was abandoned and seemed to sadly view the passing parade of modern life. Fidelity Post, 1011, 'Veterans of Foreign Wars, needed a clubhouse. City fathers donated the old town hall and high school for the purpose. A WPA project built a cement floor in the cellar, adding shower baths....

"The Sanitary Division, through a W. P. A. grant, started a complete renewal of the siding of the Disposal Station at Victory road. Included in this work was a general overhauling and repairing of the superstructure." The operation was located at the eastern end of Victory Road.

"In the 1930s, as part of a WPA project, the Brook was widened and deepened from its original shallow, narrow bed from Hayes Lane to Emerson Road, all in Lexington. This was to better use it for irrigation purposes. (Today, much of the brook bed is reverting to its natural size, gradually filling back in with silt.) In addition, it was culverted from Hayes Lane back upstream to Vine Brook Road in Lexington." Some materials for the project came from excavation and grading work conducted at the recently completed (and P.W.A.-financed) school in Burlington, Mass.

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.