Silver Spring Sites

The WPA installed water mains on Chicago Ave. and Falkland Dr. in Silver Spring and Blair Subdvision in 1935.

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 16' x 6' oil on canvas entitled "The Old Tavern" was painted by Nicolai Cikovsky in 1937 for the former Silver Spring Post Office, under the auspices of the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. When the old post office closed down in 1981, the mural was moved to the Silver Spring Public Library – which itself relocated in recent years to Wayne Avenue.

Sligo Creek Elementary School in Silver Spring MD – the former Montgomery Blair High School – was built in 1935 with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA). A 1939 report by the PWA provide details: "The building contains 13 classrooms, a special English classroom with a stage, administrative offices, a conference room, laboratories for science and biology, a library, rooms for music and domestic science, and a cafeteria for the students. The school was named for the Postmaster General of President Lincoln's Cabinet. The construction is steel frame with reinforced-concrete floor slabs, exterior walls of red brick trimmed with limestone and wood,...

Sligo Creek Parkway is a landscaped, two-lane roadway in Montgomery County MD that runs parallel to Sligo Creek and the Sligo Creek Trail.  It begins at Maryland Route 650 in Takoma Park, travels through Silver Spring, and ends further north at MD 193.  The Works Progress Administration (WPA) did extensive work on the parkway in 1935-36, including: "building drains along existing concrete roads, ditch digging, laying storm drains, creek cribbing, footbridges, masonry headwalls; clearing, grubbing and seeding park land; building a running track, foot paths, playground equipment, drinking fountains, and shelters."   (Maryland Historical Trust)

According to the index of WPA projects at the National Archives, WPA crews both helped improve the water system and constructed sidewalks in the Woodside Park subdivision.