Maryland Sites

The Carderock Division of the NSWC us a center for research, development and testing of Navy ships and technology. Newspaper clippings in the National Archives report that in 1938-39, new construction on the site in the amount of $3,500,000 was done with a mix of "New Deal spending" and "private construction." The funds appear to have been largely spent on the large new headquarters building which can be viewed hear:

CCC-built structures at New Germany State Park, that are still in use today, include a recreation building, cabins, and picnic shelters. According to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, “Today the Recreation Hall (Rec Hall) is the site for many reunions, weddings, and other special events.” The CCC transformed Swauger’s Lake into what is now New Germany Lake. Swauger’s Lake was used for powering a mill and making ice. The CCC drained the lake and cleared it out of logs & stumps, making it safe to swim in. It was then stocked with fish. Other work performed at New Germany State Park...

The public golf course in Oakland, Maryland is one of 254 new golf courses created by the WPA during the Great Depression (they reconstructed or improved 378 others). According to the Golf Club at Oakland: “On January 7, 1937, over 100 Oakland citizens petitioned Mayor Lawrence M. Fraley and the Town Council to build a golf course. In support of the course were F. D. Bittle, Ralph Towler, and local Works Progress Administration (WPA) chief, Henry Tarring, Jr….On March 15, 1937, federal funding was approved from President Roosevelt’s ‘WPA’ and design of the new golf course began…The original design was a par 34,...

The heart of today's Greenbelt, Maryland – popularly known as "Old Greenbelt" – is a large, planned community laid out and constructed during the New Deal. It features community facilities such as a school, theater and community center, a large number and variety of housing, basic infrastructure of roads, water and sewers, and extensive landscaping and an attached forest.  Almost all of the original facilities are still intact. Greenbelt was one of four greenbelt towns initiated by Rex Tugwell, head of the Resettlement Administration (RA). Greendale, Wisconsin, near Milwaukee, and Greenhills, Ohio, near Cincinnati, are other surviving greenbelt towns; a fourth,...

Pangborn Park was one of 8,000 parks built, repaired, or improved by the WPA. Today, visitors to Pangborn Park can enjoy tennis courts, a horseshoe court, an athletic field, a picnic shelter, a children’s playground, and an artificial pond.

"Conservation efforts began in the river valley in 1907 when the Patapsco State Forest Reserve was established. During the Depression years of the 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) planted trees and built trails, picnic areas, campsites and handsome cut-stone pavilions to improve what had by then become "Patapsco State Park". Company 356 of the Civilian Conservation Corps made its encampment near Lost Lake at Camp Tydings in the Avalon Area. The CCC built the stone picnic shelters in Orange Grove and Glen Artney (not visible from the river). The CCC was also responsible for planting trees in...

President Franklin Roosevelt created Patuxent Research Refuge (PRR) with Executive Order 7514, December 16, 1936, and Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace dedicated it on June 3, 1939.  The refuge began with 2,670 acres and has since grown to 12,841 acres. It is “the nation's only national wildlife refuge established to support wildlife research” (U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service). Several New Deal agencies helped to build the extensive facilities at the Patuxent Research Refuge. At the time, wildlife refuges came under the direction of the Bureau of Biological Survey (later merged into the Fish & Wildlife Service).  The Works Progress Administration (WPA)...

This is a small memorial building in Westernport, Maryland, in Philos Cemetery. A plaque on the building reads, in part: "IN MEMORIAM, LEST WE FORGET, This building is dedicated in remembrance of all those who took part in all wars to preserve the freedom and liberty for our country who now sleep in peace in Philos and St. Peter's Cemeteries…Erected in 1937 by WPA labor and funds collected over a long period of time by the Memorial Day Committee of the citizens of the tri-towns Piedmont-Westernport-Luke.  Sponsored by Potomac Camp No. 5 United Spanish War Veterans."

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) reconstructed what was then Pier No. 8 in Baltimore Harbor. Believed destroyed, the exact location of Pier Eight is unknown to Living New Deal. Maryland WPA Project #18.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) conducted repairs to Pier Six in Baltimore. Maryland WPA Project #157.

Pocomoke State Forest (which contains Pocomoke River State Park) consists of over 15,000 acres of “loblolly pine, mixed pine-hardwood, bottomland hardwood, and bald-cypress” trees, and offers opportunities for fishing, hunting, hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding, boating, canoeing, and camping.   According to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources: “In the mid to late 1930's, two Civilian Conservation Camps were located on the Forest. The camp workers did considerable road and trail work, established boundary lines, provided for fire protection and suppression, planted trees and performed recreation improvements…”

The WPA constructed this building in 1936. It originally served as a firehouse, and now serves as the town’s police department headquarters.

The Aberdeen, Maryland post office was constructed with federal funds. The building, which opened for business in 1937, is still in use today.

This New Deal post office was built in 1940.

The historic post office building in Dundalk, Maryland was constructed with federal Treasury Department funds beginning in 1940. The building, which houses an example of New Deal artwork in its lobby, is still in use today.

"It would be difficult to design a small public building better fitted than this to the native architectural traditions of the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The plan is typical of the 'one man' post-office type which can be managed by the postmaster alone. The exterior walls are red face brick trimmed with wood, the roof is covered with slate, and the cupola is wood. The construction is fireproof up to the roof which is of the slow-burning type. It was completed in July 1936. The construction cost was $48,234 and the project cost $63,427."  

This post office "in a Federal Revival style of Port Deposit granite blocks" was constructed with federal Treasury Department funds in 1939. The building is still in use today.

The historic Hagerstown post office was constructed with federal Treasury Department funds in 1935. The building, which houses a grand example of New Deal artwork, is still in service.

"The Hyattsville Post Office is a one-story brick building constructed over a full basement, located on Gallatin Street in Hyattsville, Prince George's County, Maryland. The Colonial Revival building consists of a central, three-bay block flanked by smaller one-bay flat-roofed pavilions. It was constructed in 1935 and remains in active use."

A cornerstone on the Oakland, Maryland Post Office shows it to be a project of the Federal Works Administration from 1940.

The U.S. Post Office building in Pocomoke City, Maryland, is a U.S. Treasury project from 1937. It is one of the many hundreds of post offices built during the New Deal era that still serve Americans today.

The Towson Post Office was built circa 1936-1937, as a U.S. Treasury Department project.

Constructed by the Treasury Department in 1938. The post office eventually moved to Blum Court. This building now houses the Historical Society of Harford County.

The historic New Deal post office building in Bethesda MD – sometimes misattributed to the Works Progress Administration (WPA) – was constructed with Treasury Department funds in 1937. The Neo-Georgian building was constructed out of native stone trucked in from Stoneyhurst Quarries on River Road... (www.bethesdamagazine.com) The post office remained in use until 2012, when "faced with mounting financial difficulties, the USPS  closed it in 2012 and sold it for $4 million to the Donohoe Companies." The New Deal mural from the post office has been restored and was relocated to Bethesda-Chevy Chase Regional Services Center in 2013.

The historic former Ellicott City post office was constructed ca. 1940 with federal Treasury Department funds. The building, which houses an example of New Deal artwork, presently serves as Howard County's Tourism & Promotion building.

The historic (former) Havre de Grace post office was constructed in 1936 with Treasury Department funds. The building is now privately owned.

Constructed by the Treasury Department and PWA in 1938, and now used as a city police station. "By the mid-1930s, Rockville’s population was about 1,500, County government had erected the Grey Courthouse, and across the street arose a stately bank in the Art Deco style.  It was time for Rockville to have a permanent post office. The Federal Government paid $35,000 for the lot on the corner of Montgomery and Washington Streets, then demolished the small frame buildings that had housed the Sentinel newspaper since 1855.  Construction began in November 1938 and cost $42,000. Rockville celebrated the dedication of the Post Office on July...

The historic post office building in Silver Spring MD was constructed in 1936-37 by the Treasury Department. Its construction is sometimes mis-attributed to the WPA (Works Progress Administration).   It is a typical Colonial Revival style building, often used in the eastern states for post offices during the interwar period. The U.S. Postal Service sold off the building in 1981, which is now privately owned and occupied by a medical office.  The interior was completely redone by the new owners. The Silver Spring Historical Society is in possession several items salvaged from the renovation. A New Deal mural originally installed in the post...

This 1942 Section of Fine Arts tempera on plaster mural depicts "Scenes of Old Ellicott City." The mural is 4' by 12' and was painted by R. Dunne for what was the then-new (and now former) Ellicott City post office.

The oil-on-canvas mural "Sugarloaf Mountain" was painted for Rockville, Maryland's old post office, which is now a police station. From the Peerless Rockville blog: "The interior of Rockville’s Post Office is beautiful as well as functional.  Fifteen foot ceilings look down on terrazzo floors and walls, the original bulletin boards and postal boxes, bronze grilles, and a handsome mural.  Most striking is the mural of Sugarloaf Mountain by Judson Smith, which was sponsored by the Treasury Department’s Fine Arts Section with funds based on one percent of the total construction cost."   (https://www.peerlessrockville.org/)

The carved and painted wood bas relief "Power of Communication," by Perna Krick, hangs in the lobby of the Pocomoke, Maryland post office. It was funded by the federal Treasury Section of Fine Arts.

The Section of Fine Arts mural entitled "First Performance of Edwin Booth," painted by William Calfee, was completed for the former Bel Air post office in 1938. It now hangs in the current post office at Blum Court.

This mural "Incidents in the History of Catonsville" by Avery Johnson was completed with Section of Fine Arts funds in 1942.

Alexander Clayton painted "Arrival of the Post, 1780" (oil on canvas) for the Elkton post office with funding from the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. During renovations in the 1970's, the mural was removed. It was restored but has remained in storage in the basement of the post office. The postmaster is glad to show it off.

Robert F. Gates completed this tempera on canvas mural, entitled "Buckwheat Harvest," in 1942 with funds provided by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts.

New Deal mural entitled "History of Transportation" painted by Nicolai Cikovsky in 1939. The mural is composed of five tempera panels.

The post office contains a set of three murals entitled "Transportation of the Mural." The murals were funded by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts and painted by Frank Long in 1938. The murals are a set of 3 panels showing mail delivery by rail, one showing the mail bag to be picked up by the moving train, unloading mail bags from a train, and a busy mail room. The mail room is a consummate work with the diverging and converging lines with mail in slots and workers in the center. Frank Long was born in Knoxville, TN, studied at the Art...

1938 New Deal frescoes by Eugene Kingman, depicting the agricultural heritage of Prince George's County, decorate the post office lobby. The frescoes are tempera on plaster, and consist of multiple small panels, some oddly shaped.

The historic post office in Dundalk, Maryland houses an example of New Deal artwork: a Section of Fine Arts-commissioned relief entitled "Welding," produced in 1942 by Harrison Gibbs.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) conducted improvement and restoration work in Preston Gardens in Baltimore. Work included grading, planting, and the restoration of green space in the park. Maryland WPA Project #16.