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  • Aberdeen Proving Grounds: Officers' Quarters - Aberdeen MD
    "This P.W.A. allotment made it possible for the Quartermaster Corps of the Army to erect 12 field officers' quarters of the type illustrated on this page. Each building provides heater, fuel, and storerooms, and a laundry in the basement; a living room, sun porch, dining room, kitchen, pantry, garage, and maid's room on the first floor; and three bedrooms, two baths, and a dressing room on the second floor. They are frame buildings with exterior walls of native quarry stone. They were completed in February 1936 and the P.W.A. allotment, which involved other buildings at the post, was $688,707."
  • Alms House Superintendent Facility - Forestville MD
    The original Alms House of Prince George's County on this site dated back to the late 18th century. The Alms House provided a place of shelter for indigents, paupers, disabled and other citizens without financial support. Many of these people were also buried in the Alms House cemetery. In 1935, the WPA built a house for the superintendent of the Alms House. The Alms House, and the surrounding structures no longer exist. One grave marker remains at the site of the former charitable facilities.
  • Annapolis National Cemetery Improvements - Annapolis MD
    From the National Park Service: “One of the 14 national cemeteries that date from the Civil War, the Annapolis National Cemetery is the final resting place for many Union soldiers who died in the nearby ‘parole camps’ and hospitals of the Maryland capital” (see source note below). Maintenance ledgers (see image below for an example) show that the WPA did extensive work at the cemetery, such as installing utilities, realigning headstones, removing dead trees, and constructing a utility building. A superintendent’s lodge was built in 1871 and then replaced between 1936 and 1941 with the current lodge. It appears that WPA laborers...
  • Antietam National Battlefield - Sharpsburg MD
    The Battle of Antietam took place on September 17, 1862, and is known as the bloodiest day of the Civil War.  General George B. McClellan and his Union forces faced off against General Robert E. Lee and his Confederate Army at Sharpsburg, Maryland.  When the fighting was done, well over 3,500 men were dead, and another 19,000 wounded. Throughout the New Deal period, Antietam National Battlefield received a large amount of attention, funding, and work from the CWA, PWA, and WPA.  The CWA placed a historical survey group there, circa 1933-34; the PWA funded restoration of large buildings and monuments, such...
  • Baltimore & Ohio Railroad: Lady Baltimore Locomotive Improvements – Baltimore MD
    In 1934, the Public Works Administration (PWA) lent $900,000 to the Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) Railroad, which used it to buy 16 streamlined, lightweight train cars and a new diesel locomotive (see our project page, “Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Locomotive No. 50 – St. Louis MO”), with, “The remainder... set aside to rebuild a steam engine to develop an exceptionally high speed… covered with a streamlined jacket to cut down wind resistance” (The Bangor Daily News, 1934). The rebuilt locomotive was the Lady Baltimore, which played a prominent role in the B&O’s experiments during the 1930s to determine whether the company’s...
  • Baltimore & Ohio Railroad: Royal Blue Train – Baltimore MD
    In 1934, Daniel Willard, president of the Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) railroad, “negotiated a $900,000 Public Works Administration loan which would be used to make B & O’s New York-Washington line an industry-wide proving ground for various types of lightweight train construction and high-speed steam and diesel power” (Harwood, 1990). Among the equipment constructed with this loan was the Royal Blue, a streamline train set consisting of eight cars made out of aluminum and lightweight steel. The Royal Blue was a reincarnation of a popular B&O train service from the turn of the century plus “a quarter of a century of...
  • Baltimore City College Athletic Field - Baltimore MD
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) worked to construct a athletic field at Baltimore City College. Maryland WPA Project #15.
  • Baltimore National Cemetery - Baltimore MD
    According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the land that is now Baltimore National Cemetery was once called the Cloud Capped Estate: "Conversion of the Cloud Capped estate to a national shrine was the responsibility of the War Department, with work accomplished under the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a Depression-era make-work program. The WPA undertook work at several national cemeteries during its lifetime in the 1930s and early 1940s. The Baltimore property—envisioned as Maryland's "Little Arlington"—was to accommodate 40,000 to 45,000 interments…Between 1936 and 1938, nearly $400,000 was expended on WPA improvements to Baltimore National Cemetery. Funds were spent on...
  • Beechfield Avenue Repairs - Baltimore MD
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) conducted repairs on Beechfield Ave. in Baltimore. WPA Project #14.
  • Beltsville Airport (former) - Beltsville MD
    In 1941, the Works Progress Administration  (WPA) conducted improvement work on a grass airstrip at Beltsville MD. The Washington Post reported in April that “clearing, grubbing, grading, draining, construction of runways, seeding and installation of lighting facilities" had begun.   Two hangars were slated to be constructed, as well, but probably were never built – since they were still not present at the site in 1945, according to Abandoned and Little-Known Airfields website. In 1980, the airfield was decommissioned and bulldozed. The site is now part of the giant Henry Wallace Beltsville Agricultural Research Station and occupied by USDA Animal and Plant Health...
  • Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School - Bethesda MD
    "This senior high school has been built on a plot of ground not only large enough for athletic fields and tennis courts but of sufficient size to allow for future buildings when the school needs to expand. The main building contains 13 classrooms, English classrooms with stages, laboratories for science and biology, rooms for music and domestic science, a library, and a cafeteria. The construction is steel and concrete, with exterior walls of brick trimmed with stone and wood. It was completed in September 1935 at a construction cost of $218,440 and a project cost of $287,419."
  • Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center: Gates Mural - Bethesda MD
    Robert F. Gates painted the mural, "Montgomery County Farm Women's Market," in 1939 for the Bethesda post office, which was closed in 2012. It shows a woman feeding animals next to women selling produce at the Farm Women’s Market, which opened on Wisconsin Avenue in 1932.   The mural was commissioned by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. Robert Gates later became head of the Art Department at American University. In 1938, Eleanor Roosevelt visited the Procurement Division of the Treasury Department to look at the sketches of the Gates mural. She later wrote in her diary the sketch was “charming,” and “I think...
  • Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge - Cambridge MD
    In 1933, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) achieved considerable infrastructural and land management improvements at the formerly-named Blackwater Migratory Bird Refuge near Cambridge Maryland. Maintained by the U.S. Biological Survey, the refuge covers an area of 8,241 acres, including marshes and waters where black ducks and blue-winged teal breed and mallards and pintails concentrate. The site is also refuge to a variety of shorebirds and other wild animals. In a December 1933 press release, the U.S. Department of Agriculture outlined the role played by CCC workers at the refuge: “C.C.C. camps were established…with a view to making the refuges more attractive...
  • Bladensburg High School - Bladensburg MD
    The school built by the PWA in 1936, and in 1937, the WPA also did extensive work on the school including: "Improve the high school building and grounds in Bladensburg…by grading athletic field, constructing soccer field, running track, steps to front entrance and bus unloading spaces; and performing appurtenant and incidental work." (National Archives) In 2001, the New Deal facility was torn down and a new facility was built in its place in 2005.
  • Camp David Development - Thurmont MD
    "One public service site that the public rarely sees because of its very private purpose is in the Catoctin Mountain Park recreational area, sixty miles north of Washington, D.C. This site was developed by the New Deal's Works Progress Administration and the CCC and was used first as a camp for crippled children, followed by a few other purposes, until FDR visited it in 1942 and claimed it, naming it his 'Shangri-La.' The cooler mountain climate provided the president and his family a chance to get some relief from the humidity and heat of the capital in those days before...
  • Catoctin Mountain Park - Thurmont MD
    From the National Park Service website for Catoctin Mountain Park: “President Franklin D. Roosevelt created programs to give people a chance to rebuild their lives from the Great Depression. The Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps gave this land a second opportunity and through re-growth, a new role as a recreation area (https://www.nps.gov/cato/index.htm)... Historic structures and products of the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps, along with the site of our nation's first Job Corps Center, are tangible reminders of the capability of vigorous youth programs to strengthen the nation's economic and social fabric. The totality of resources found...
  • Cecil County Courthouse - Elkton MD
    The groundwork for a new, enlarged courthouse for Cecil County was put in place in 1935, when the General Assembly of Maryland authorized the county to "expend $5,000 for a lot of ground on which to build a new courthouse whenever it was needed," which the county "visualize to be built with the aid of Federal funds".  A site on East Main Street, about 200 yards east of the then-courthouse, was selected for the new building. In December 1938 the contract for the construction of the Cecil County Courthouse was awarded by the PWA to Laachi Construction Co., a Baltimore contractor,...
  • Cecilton Elementary School - Cecilton MD
    Contracts for the construction of two high schools in Cecil County (Cecilton and Chesapeake City) were awarded to the Lang Brothers of Baltimore by the PWA in December 1938.  The $136,190 contract for the Cecilton high school called for "a two-story and part basement semi-fire proof, consolidated school building to accommodate 450 pupils." According to The Cecil Democrat, the contract called for "modern heating, plumbing, and electrical work." The facilities were as follows: Basement: A cafeteria, kitchen, boiler room, fuel storage room, and storage room. First floor: Six classrooms, a teacher room, an auditorium with stage and dressing rooms, and bathrooms. Second floor:...
  • Cedarville State Forest - Brandywine MD
    The nearly 2,700 acres encompassing what is now Cedarville State Forest was originally purchased as a forest demonstration area by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources in 1930. Located in Charles and Prince George’s County, CCC project S-54 was initiated here in May of 1933, with Camp 335-C building roads and trails for fire protection and increased recreational access within the park. Camp 335-C was one of only a handful of African American units in Maryland. The Cedarville camp numbered 192 men, and a camp work list dated from October 1934 included the construction of truck trails, forest stand improvements,...
  • Chambers Park - Federalsburg MD
    From a 1993 “Maryland Register of Historic Properties Internal Listing Notice” (prepared by Dr. Conrad Gregory): “The Chambers Park Log Cabin is significant as an example (of) New Deal park architecture more commonly associated with western Maryland parks than those on the eastern shore…The log cabin is located inside Chambers Park…While the NYA constructed the log cabin, another recovery alphabet program, the Works Progress Administration (WPA), developed the rest of the park and the lake.” (The land for the park was a gift to the town of Federalsburg by Thomas H. Chambers, mayor of Federalsburg from 1915-1947.) Today, “Chambers Park offers tennis...
  • Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Canal National Historical Park - Georgetown DC to Seneca MD
    Under the New Deal, the defunct Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O) Canal was acquired by the federal government and restored from Georgetown in the District of Columbia (where it enters the Potomac River) to Seneca MD, a distance of 22 miles.  This lay the basis for the future C&O Canal National Historical Park.   The C&O canal, built between 1824 and 1850, is historically significant as one of the best preserved remnants of the great canal boom of the first half of the 19th century. Today, it functions as one of the major recreational assets of the greater Washington DC area. The canal...
  • Chesapeake City Elementary School - Chesapeake City MD
    Contracts for the construction of two high schools in Cecil County (Cecilton and Chesapeake City) were awarded to to Lang Brothers of Baltimore by the PWA in December 1938.  The $134,800 contract for the Chesapeake City high school called for "a two-story and part basement , designed to take care of 490 pupils." According to The Cecil Democrat, the contract called for "modern heating, plumbing, and electrical work." The facilities were as follows: Basement: A cafeteria, kitchen, boiler room, fuel storage and engineer's room, and industrial arts rooms. First floor: Six classrooms, a teacher room, doctor's office, an auditorium with stage and dressing...
  • Chestertown Town Hall (formerly Fire House) - Chestertown MD
    According to a wayside marker at the current Chestertown Firehouse (see photo and source note 1 below), the Chestertown Town Hall, at 118 N. Cross Street, was Chestertown’s firehouse for forty years (1938-1978). The old Chestertown Firehouse was one of 325 new firehouses built by WPA workers between 1935 and 1943. And, in addition to these new constructions, WPA workers engaged in hundreds of other projects to repair or improve existing firehouses (Federal Works Agency 1946). There can be little doubt that thousands of fires across America have been responded to, and put out, thanks in part to facilities built or improved...
  • Choptank River Bridge - Cambridge MD
    The PWA completed this bridge across the Choptank River at Cambridge in 1935. In 1987, a more modern bridge was built, rendering this bridge superfluous. The steel spans were removed, and the two sides now serve as fishing piers.
  • Coast Guard Cutter “Taney” - Baltimore MD
    The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Taney, now a museum ship in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, was built in 1935-1936, with funds from the Public Works Administration.  During World War II, the Taney was outfitted with extra weaponry and saw action in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters of operation.  She was also present during the Pearl Harbor invasion (docked in Honolulu Harbor), where she fired at enemy aircraft and disrupted an attack on a power plant.  She is the last surviving ship that saw action on that infamous day.  After World War II, the Taney returned to normal Coast Guard duties:...
  • Cunningham Falls State Park - Thurmont MD
    The land that is now Cunningham Falls State Park used to be part of the Catoctin Recreational Demonstration Area (now called “Catoctin Mountain Park”).  The land was turned over to Maryland in 1954.  The land was originally worked and developed as a New Deal project, by the WPA & CCC. Today, visitors to Cunningham Falls State Park can enjoy swimming, hiking, picnicking, boating, hunting, fishing, and camping.
  • District Training School for the Feeble Minded - Laurel MD
    In 1938, the Washington Post reported funding allocations for work at the District Training School for the Feeble Minded, which opened in 1925: "About 70 men will be employed on the construction of the hospital and administration building at the District Training School for Feeble Minded at Laurel, Md." The site was later known as the infamous Forest Haven Asylum, which closed in 1991 amid scandal over patient abuse and neglect. The sprawling facility still stands, and is a popular place for photographers and "ghost hunters." Unfortunately, few if any photos exist of the years when the facility was...
  • Eastern High School for Girls (Former) - Baltimore MD
    The PWA constructed this building to house the Eastern High School for Girls in 1936-38. In 1979, it became a coeducational school. The school closed in 1986. The buildings were renovated in the 1990s and are now being used for offices by the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. The PWA's 1939 buildings survey described the new school as follows: "This high school…occupies a site of 24 acres in Venable Park, which is developed into an athletic field, a quarter-mile running track, fields for archery, handball, tennis, and badminton courts.   Of the 75 classrooms, 25 are equipped for special instruction. There are also a...
  • Elk Neck State Park - North East MD
    At Elk Neck State Park, visitors can enjoy swimming in the Chesapeake Bay, boating on the Elk River, fishing, crabbing, camping, hiking, and biking. Hunting is also allowed, in-season. Of course, this recreational resource did not always exist. It was developed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (Camps S 5, Company 1363) beginning in 1937. The CCC boys built trails, roads, parking areas, water fountains, and fireplaces. The work of the CCC continues to serve people who visit and enjoy Elk Neck State Park today.
  • Ellicott City Jail (former) Repairs - Ellicott City MD
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) supplied the labor to conduct repairs to the former Ellicott City Jail. Maryland WPA Project No. 181.
  • Fairlead Academy I - Lexington Park MD
    Fairlead Academy I is part of the St. Mary’s County Public Schools system. It used to be called Great Mills School and was built by federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) workers in 1936. It originally served as an elementary school, and now serves as a school that helps young adults prepare for their post-high school lives. Another example of how the great work of the WPA continues to be utilized.
  • Federal Building and Post Office Murals - Salisbury MD
    Jacob Getlar Smith painted three oil-on-canvas murals for the Main Street Maude R. Toulson Federal Building and Post Office in 1939:  "Salisbury," “Stage at Byrd’s Inn” and “Cotton Patch.” From an onsite plaque: “Jacob Getlar Smith was born February 3, 1898 in New York City, and died there in October 1958. He studied at the National Academy of Design in New York, as well as independently in Europe. He exhibited at institutions around the country, including the Carnegie Institute, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and the Virginia Museum of...
  • Federal Building Extension - Salisbury MD
    The Salisbury Post Office, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, was originally built in the 1920s.  The U.S. Treasury commissioned an expansion of the building circa 1936 “which included a second floor and…an additional two bays on each end of the original five-bay building” (from a Maryland Historical Trust report). The Treasury Section of Painting and Sculpture also commissioned artist Jacob Getlar Smith to paint three murals for the building circa 1939. “These three murals were commissioned by the U.S. Treasury Section of Painting and Sculpture at the suggestion of the Wicomico County Historical Society.  The artist took his subject matter...
  • Fifth Regiment Armory Building - Baltimore MD
    National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form: "The Fifth Regiment was the first armory built by the State for the National Guard. ... The original structure cost $450,000 to build and had a barrel vault roof over the drill hall floor, which was apparently finished with sheet metal. After a series of damaging fires, the roof and interior of the entire building were completely destroyed by an uncontrollable blaze in 1933. Wyatt and Nolting were recalled to the site to rebuild all but the exterior shell of the first floor and balcony. Operating under tight budget constraints ($1.4 million was...
  • Flag House Restoration - Baltimore MD
    "Sites of WPA projects to preserve historic shrines include ... Flag House, Maryland."
  • Forest Park Golf Course - Baltimore MD
    In 1936, WPA crews expanded the Forest Park Golf Course from 9 holes to 18 holes.
  • Fort Foote Preservation Project - Fort Washington MD
    A HABS Survey Report describes CCC work at Fort Foote Park: “Constructed as part of a ring of Civil War fortifications surrounding Washington, DC, and intended to replace the aging Fort Washington located a few miles down the river, Fort Foote is the best-preserved Civil War-era fort in the area.  Some of its ramparts are fully readable and two massive Rodman cannon are still fixed on the river.  The CCC constructed a sea wall below the fort along 958 feet of Potomac River shoreline.  Built to prevent erosion of the bluff on which Fort Foote sits, the rip rapping entailed 1942...
  • Fort Frederick State Park - Big Pool MD
    "The men of the CCC developed this park by building roads, pavilions, shelters, outdoor grills, restrooms, and more.  They rebuilt the deteriorated walls of Fort Frederick (now a National Historic Landmark) and the barrack foundations inside the fort (the barracks were fully restored in the 1970s).  The park now offers historical reenactments of 18th century life, camping, boating, fishing, and hiking."
  • Fort Hill High School - Cumberland MD
    The PWA helped in the construction of the main school building, while the WPA was responsible for the school's football stadium, tennis courts and much of the surrounding grounds. "New Deal funding relating to Fort Hill was formally initiated in November 1934 and September 1935, respectively, when the PWA committed federal funds not to exceed $230,000. The project was labeled PWA Docket #7323. Other sources brought the total amount pledged for the school to $600,000... While the PWA's funding provided for a major portion of the cost of Fort Hill High School, it was a $60,000 WPA funding package that initiated the...
  • Fort Washington Park - Fort Washington MD
    Fort Washington was built to defend the river access to Washington D.C. in the early 19th century. In the 1930s, both the WPA and the CCC made general improvements to the Fort and surrounding park. The WPA made "general improvements to building and facilities at Fort Washington…including rehabilitating school, barracks, kitchens, latrines, gymnasium, and officers' club, including facilities, replacing sanitary sewers, altering and enlarging target facilities, improving roads by widening, straightening, resurfacing, and constructing curbs and gutters." (National Archives) A HABS Survey describes CCC activity at the Fort: “CCC work occurred during two periods at Fort Washington, first by Camp NP-6-VA (Fort Hunt),...
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