• Benton Grammar School (former): Walt Disney Murals - Kansas City MO
    Walt Disney contributed drawings for WPA murals at the former Benton Grammar School (the school he attended as a boy, later renamed D.A. Holmes Elementary). The murals were completed by WPA artists and delighted children for decades. The school was located on East 30th Street between Benton Blvd. and Chestnut Ave., and is now a senior living facility.
  • Blenheim Park improvements - Kansas City MO
    Blenheim Park was founded in 1922. In the late 1930s, Works Progress Administration (WPA) workers made improvements to the park.
  • Brush Creek Flood Control - Kansas City MO
    Pictured is some of the remaining original paving installed by the WPA along Brush Creek as a flood control project in 1935. The project has a controversial history due to its relation to political machine boss Tom Pendergast's Concrete Company. "Other buildings built with Pendergast concrete were the Municipal Auditorium and Police Headquarters. Paving Brush Creek began November 1935 at a cost originally estimated at $1,395,000 and employing at one time 1,647 WPA workers. Concrete was laid eight to 10 inches thick and 70 feet wide." (www.kclibrary.org) The rumor is that there are bodies under the concrete, though with further improvements, no...
  • City Hall - Kansas City MO
    "Kansas City has a well-studied plan for its civic center and the city hall block in area and consists of a rectangular base six stories high from which a tower rises to a height of 429 feet above the basement floor. The building is planned not only to meet the space requirements of the present city government but to meet increased future requirements based on the expected normal growth of the city. The construction is fireproof throughout and consists of steel framing adequately wind-braced and encased in concrete. The exterior walls are carried on spandrel beams and are faced with limestone. The...
  • City Hall Sculptures - Kansas City MO
    Artist Carl Paul Jennewein created a series of fountains flanking the walkway to the PWA city hall entrance, descending to the south away from the city hall with a winged horse followed by shells and fantastical creatures. C. Paul Jennewein, Ulric Ellerhusen, and Walker Hancock also carved a series of 16 bas relief friezes surrounding the Kansas City Hall depicting the history and people of Kansas City Paul Jennewein was born In Stuttgart and immigrated to the United States in 1907, apprenticed with Buhler and Lauter, studying at the Art Students League of New York at night. Although he worked as a...
  • City Market - Kansas City MO
    This covered market was completed with WPA assistance in 1940. An on-scene information sign describes the market's history: "January 1940 saw a totally new City Market. As compensation for teh deterioration this area had suffered since the First World War, the Ten Year Plan of 1931 provided $500,000 for improvements in the City Market. Lake any good plan, the city's bond money was merely seed capital to encourage additional investment. The federal Works Progress Administration of the New Deal made a contribution, private investors added more, and railroad companies spent at least a million dollars building a perishable foods terminal that brought...
  • De Lano Alternative School - Kansas City MO
    "This school is for crippled children and for children who are deficient in sight or hearing or who are cardiac cases. A partial basement provides a manual training department, a playroom, and three unfinished rooms. The first floor has four divisions: (a) Administration, library, and assembly rooms; (b) five classrooms and kindergarten; (c) home economics, restrooms, and lunchroom; (d) hydrotherapy, physiotherapy, and occupational therapy. The construction is fireproof. No stairs are used, ramps taking their place. The building will accommodate 125 children. The estimated construction cost was $324,775 and the project cost was approximately $362,396."
  • Delbert J Haff Circle Fountain - Kansas City MO
    The Works Progress Administration built the Delbert J Haff Circle Fountain in Kansas City MO, in 1940.
  • Jackson County Courthouse - Kansas City MO
    "On June 9, 1933, the Jackson County Court awarded a $2,073,609 contract to the Swenson Construction Company for construction of the Jackson County Courthouse.  The opulent Art Deco-style 300-foot tall building would reside alongside Kansas City's skyscrapers and provide much-needed space for the court system.  Equally important, its construction along with dozens of other projects completed as a part of Kansas City’s “Ten Year Plan” would provide jobs to hundreds of beleaguered Kansas City residents then suffering from the economic catastrophe of the Great Depression..."   (https://www.kclibrary.org) The courthouse was completed in 1934 with PWA support.  
  • Jackson County Courthouse Bas-Reliefs - Kansas City MO
    This PWA courthouse is decorated by several exterior bas-reliefs and a bronze statue of Andrew Jackson, all created by artist Charles Keck. "Bas-relief friezes are located at about the 6th floor level on the north (front of the courthouse), east and west facades. The central panel of the north facade discloses the figure of Contentment with other figures bearing palms signifying peace. This is attained by coming through Law; the east (left) panel showing the laws of Moses broken and the Quarrels resulting. Wisdom advises that Contentment and Peace be attained by going through Law. The west (right) panel shows Avarice...
  • Liberty Memorial Improvements - Kansas City MO
    Now known as the National WWI Museum and Memorial, what was then the Liberty Memorial was the recipient of efforts on the part of multiple New Deal agencies. National Register of Historic Places nomination form: Numerous small-scale features are located throughout the site. While each feature alone may see insignificant, together they enhance the character of Liberty Memorial and contribute to the significance of the overall site. These features include stone steps, walks, and retaining walls; a brick and concrete swale; iron gates with stone walls; improvements at the Dedication Wall; lights and flagpoles. The stone features throughout the site consist of rubble stone,...
  • Lincoln High School - Kansas City MO
    When built by the PWA in 1936, Lincoln was the only high school available for black students in this segregated school system. It was built on a hill overlooking the vibrant 18th and Vine entertainment district that boasted some of the best jazz venues in the country and was close to the stadium of the Kansas City Monarchs. It was expanded in 1965. The building now houses the Lincoln College Preparatory Academy.
  • Municipal Auditorium - Kansas City MO
    The Kansas City Municipal Auditorium was built by the PWA in 1934-35. "Municipal Auditorium is a large, multi-purpose facility in Kansas City, Missouri with three halls: The Arena, Music Hall, and Little Theatre. It opened in 1936 and features Streamline Moderne and Art Deco architecture and architectural details... The streamline moderne architecture was designed by the lead architectural firm of Gentry, Voskamp & Neville to appeal to new visitors with cool and confident restraint. True to its name, the style promised to envelop the visitor in modernity, assuring him/her that Kansas City was a rising star in the country, a place to...
  • Municipal Auditorium Artwork - Kansas City MO
    The Kansas City Municipal Auditorium facade is decorated with three bas relief carved medallions depicting classic themes. The medallions were created by Albert Stewart in 1934 as part of the PWA construction project. Albert Stewart was born in Kensington, England, immigrated to the United States in 1908 and was orphaned soon after arriving. He studied at the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design and the Art Students League of New York as a result of the support of Edwin Bechtel. He was an assistant to Paul Manship after WWI. He taught at Scripps College, moving to California where he lived until his...
  • National Archives, Central Plains Region Murals - Kansas City MO
    Edward Buk Ulreich painted two murals for the Columbia, Missouri, post office in 1937: "Indians Watching Stagecoach in the Distance" and "Pony Express." He was paid $1,580 for his murals, commissioned by the Department of the Treasury's Section of Painting and Sculpture. After the post office moved to a new location, the murals were moved to city offices where they stayed from 1967-2004. In 2010, they were installed at the National Archives at Kansas City, located in Missouri.
  • R J Delano High School - Kansas City MO
    R. J. Delano High School was completed in 1939 with funds provided by the Public Works Administration (PWA), after a design by the architectural firm of Keen & Simpson. It is dominated by a tall tower with rock or concrete accents adjacent to the entry hallway. Above the entry is an inscription: “Let naught but happiness and contentment dwell within these portals”. Designed as a school for “handicapped” children, it had most recently been utilized as an alternative school, but recently closed and is for sale.  
  • Southeast High School - Kansas City MO
    Kansas City's Southeast High School was constructed as part of a New Deal project during the Great Depression. The Public Works Administration (PWA) supplied a grant of $500,000 toward the construction of multiple school buildings, for which construction occurred between 1934 and 1938. Total construction cost for the multiple-school project was about $1.75 million. Southeast High School bears both a cornerstone and plaque dating it to 1937. PWA Docket No. 2409.
  • Switzer School Addition - Kansas City MO
    This addition to the Switzer School was to the north of the building constructed in 1899 and replaced the original Switzer School which was built in 1882. The addition was completed in 1939 with funds provided by the Public Works Administration (PWA) and designed by Nate Downes. The entry is marked with cut stone and Switzer School in raised lettering. It has a brick modern deco style and consists of 12 classrooms, 6 to a floor and a large hall on the first level. It is in the process of being repurposed.
  • Swope Park Swimming Pool - Kansas City MO
    The swimming pool in Kansas City's Swope Park was built in 1941-1942 as a Work Projects Administration (WPA) project, "sponsored by the City of Kansas City. James D. Marshall and M. Dwight Brown, architects and engineers, developed the plans for the pools and the building. Hare and Hare, landscape architects, designed the landscaping. The pool opened on July 30, 1942. Closed in 2003 for renovations, the pool reopened in 2004."
  • U.S. Courthouse and Post Office (former) - Kansas City MO
    Now an apartment building, the old Art Modern United States Courthouse and Post Office in Kansas City housed the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri until 1998. The GSA lists significant events in the building's development: 1935: Congress appropriates $3,300,000 for the construction of the new U.S. Post Office and Courthouse building. 1938: The ceremonial cornerstone is laid and construction begins under the supervision of local architects Wight & Wight. 1939: The building opens for business.
  • William Cullen Bryant Elementary School Additions - Kansas City MO
    The original parts of this school were constructed in 1915 with a cut rock base, brick and cut rock accents. The north side of the school, which faces the paved playground/parking area, is the main entry to the school. In 1939, the Public Works Administration (PWA) completed additions on the south side of the building, which has a predominately brick façade.