Nebraska Sites

The Plainview Band Shell was built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in Plainview NE. According to the Architectural Foundation of Nebraska, "The land for the park in which the band shell would be located was purchased in 1935 by the city of Plainview, which used WPA labor to level and grade the land the following year. Norfolk architect Elbert B. Watson received WPA funds in 1938 to design the band shell, and work began in June 1939. Due to other WPA projects taking place in the park, the shell’s construction wasn’t hurried; in fact, in July 1941 – 25 months...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) conducted a substantial park development project in Broken Bow, Nebraska. The WPA constructed various athletic fields, picnic and other facilities, and a fence surrounding the park. The location and status of this project are unknown to Living New Deal.

A special election to decide the question of passing a bond for a new school in Pleasanton was held on October 15, 1935. Although the project had not been given any preliminary approvals by the Public Works Administration (PWA), the community thought that a show of community support would positively influence government officials. The bond issue passed. Contracts for the Pleasanton School were awarded on March 30, 1936, and the community was delighted that the bids for the work came in well under the $36,345.00 estimate. The $2,400 difference was planned to be used to purchase new equipment, according to architects...

The CCC conducted extensive work at Ponca State Park. From the University of Nebraska-Lincoln "Virtual Nebraska" database: "Over the years the Missouri River moved at will. Eventually the town was no longer "a port." In 1934 the American Legion raised money to purchase 220 acres along the river for a park. Over 2,000 people attended the dedication. The CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) built roads, buildings, two shelter houses, and transplanted 5,400 shrubs and trees. In the years that followed cabins were built and electric lights installed. The ferry boat, docked at the Bigley ravine, made regular trips across the river...

Constructed in 1937.

The post office in Auburn was constructed with funds provided by the Treasury Department in 1936. The building, which houses an example of New Deal artwork, is still in service.

"The Crawford US Post Office is located at the northwest corner on 2nd and Main Streets in the commercial district of Crawford, Nebraska. It was built in the Moderne style in the late 1930s from standardized blueprints. Included in the listing are three contributing objects: two ornamental lampposts flanking the staircase to the main entrance and a flagpole. The structure has one story with a basement and measures approximately 60 by 50 feet (18 by 15 m). It is constructed of red brick with a concrete base and topped by a limestone parapet. The main entrance features an aluminum grill...

The post office in David City, Nebraska was constructed with federal funds. The building, which opened in 1935, is still in use today. In 1933, as a part of President Roosevelt’s New Deal, the federal government appropriated $16,678,675 to build 237 government buildings in the United States. Nebraska received $233,600 to build five modest post offices in Wayne, Lexington, Superior, David City, and Seward. Because of the Depression, the federal government and the public found it improper for these post offices to be large so, according to the Wayne Herald, “the plan…is to erect ‘needed post offices of a sensible, utilitarian...

Constructed in 1939.

The Moderne building was constructed in 1937. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. It is also the site of the 1939 mural, "Stampeding Buffaloes Stopping the Train."

The post office in Lexington, Nebraska was constructed with federal funds. The building, which opened in 1935, is still in use today.

Constructed in 1937, this Minden post office is also the site of William Bunn's 1939 mural, "1848, Fort Kearney, Protectorate on the Overland Trail, 1871," painted for the Treasury Section of Fine Arts.

The O'Neill United States Post Office is a one-story, brick building constructed in 1937 in the Georgian Revival style by the US Treasury Department.

Built in 1937 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The post office in Ord, Nebraska was constructed with federal funds. The building, which opened in 1940, is still in use today.

The historic post office in Pawnee City, Nebraska was constructed in 1940 with federal Treasury Department funds. The building, which houses New Deal artwork inside, is still in service.

Built in 1940 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Streamline Moderne building was constructed in 1938, and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

The historic post office in Seward, Nebraska was constructed with federal funds. The building, which opened in 1936, is still in use today.

The post office in Superior, Nebraska was constructed with federal funds. The building, which opened in 1935, is still in use today.

The historic post office in Tecumseh, Nebraska was constructed with federal funds. The building, which opened in 1938, is still in use today.

The post office in Wayne, Nebraska was constructed with federal funds. The building, which opened in 1935, is still in use today.

"The one-story brick and limestone Modernistic style building, constructed in 1936-1937, is an excellent example of a Class C or D post office built from standardized plans developed in the 1930's." As of 2014, this building is in use as Cherry County Office Building.

New Deal mural entitled "End of the Line" painted in 1939 by Kady Faulkner for the Valentine post office. The PO building is now used as Cherry County Office Building.

Oil on canvas entitled "Winter in Nebraska" painted by Jenne Magafan in 1939. "This mural was painted by Jenne Magafan, whose sister Ethel painted the Auburn mural. Jenne painted other murals in Colorado, Texas, and Utah. She also, with her sister, painted murals for the Social Security Building in Washington, D.C. Jenne, like her sister, also came to Nebraska to do research for this mural, and both Jenne and the mural were warmly received by the people of Albion. In fact, a local "art critic" observed that the mural was "a right nice bit of art", but was upset that the farmer...

The historic New Deal post office in Auburn, Nebraska contains a Treasury Section of Fine Arts mural entitled “Threshing” painted by Ethel Magafan in 1938. She also painted a mural for the Wynne, Arkansas and Madill, OK post offices. "Ethel Magafan, the artist who created this mural, studied at Colorado Springs Fine Art Center at the same time as Nebraska muralist Edward Chavez. Her sister Jenne also painted a Nebraska mural for the town of Albion. Ethel was in her early twenties when she painted this mural. Of the program's 850 commissions for murals, only approximately one-sixth were awarded to women...

"The lobby's most prominent feature is a mural on the upper portion of the east wall. It was painted by G. Glenn Newell, an artist and dairy farmer from Duchess County, New York, and installed by post office workers in May 1940. The piece depicts a wagon train beginning to ford a stream. The lead wagon dominates the scene with other wagons visible in the background, along with local landmark Crow Butte… The edifice's mural, titled "The Crossing" and painted by G. Glenn Newell, was one of hundreds commissioned by the Section of Fine Arts in the late 1930s and early...

The oil-on-canvas mural entitled "Building a Sod House" was painted by Edward Chavez in 1941. "As an artist worked through the assignment, from choice of subject to finished mural, pressure was exerted from many sources. Local groups might suggest a particular theme from the area's history or from local industry, while Section personnel would favor realism over abstraction. Townspeople often expressed their opinions on the details fo the mural design through the editorial page of the town's newspaper. In fact, Geneva residents complained that Edward Chavez's sod house builders are "Chicano, but no Mexicans ever lived here!" Even so, Edward Chavez's...

The oil-on-canvas mural "Stampeding Buffaloes Stopping the Train" was painted by Eldora Lorenzini in 1939. "Eldora Lorenzini studied at the Colorado Springs Fine Art Center. She matched the color of the buffalo hides to the wood framing the doorway to the postmaster's office, making the mural a part of the endwall of the lobby. She did other murals in Colorado and Washington, D.C. and worked as a decorator, printmaker, and illustrator. In Nebraska, a commission for painting a mural in a post office ranged from $570.00 to $1,300. Eldora received $670.00 for this mural. She lived at the YWCA until she...

This oil-on-canvas mural entitled "1848, Fort Kearny, Protectorate on the Overland Trail, 1871" was painted by William E.L. Bunn, 1939. "Minden has the distinction of having perhaps the most ambitious and thoroughly researched of all of the post office murals in Nebraska. The mural, entitled "1848, Fort Kearny, Protectorate on the Overland Trail, 1871", depicts the history of Fort Kearney and the many people who passed through it. When the mural was commissioned, historic Fort Kearny was no longer in existence. Therefore, Bunn recreated a scene of fort buildings and representations of the travelers who passed by the fort through historic photographs,...

"The post office "mural entitled 'Baling Hay in Holt County in the Early Days,' by Eugene Trentham is located on the south lobby wall above the postmaster's door which is flanked by wood framed, glass-enclosed bulletin boards. The oil-on-canvas mural which measures 11 by 4 feet, occupies the typical space for murals commissioned by the Treasury Department's Section of Fine Arts program in a Class C or D post office. The commission was awarded to Denver artist Eugene Trentham in October, 1937, and the completed mural was installed by the artist in May, 1938 (National Archives Record Group 121, Entry...

This oil-on-canvas mural entitled "Long Horns" was painted by Frank Mechau in 1938. "Painted in muted green, gray, and brown tones, the mural depicts a cowboy driving a herd of longhorns. The cattle occupy almost the entire foreground of the mural with crowded shapes that suggest the enormity of the herd. The artist utilized elongated shapes for the horse and cattle, particularly in the animals' heads which imparts a sense of motion. The cowboy is almost devoid of features which emphasizes the landscape and directs the viewer's gaze into the scene. The broad sweep of the landscape reinforces the sense of...

The historic post office in Pawnee City, Nebraska houses an example of New Deal artwork: "The Auction," an oil-on-canvas mural painted by Kenneth Evett in 1942. "Kenneth Evett studied with Henry Varnum Poor and George Biddle. Besides "The Auction" at Pawnee City, Evett painted two others in Colorado and Kansas. He taught at Cornell from 1948 to 1979, returning to Nebraska in 1954 to paint three murals in the rotunda of the State Capitol in Lincoln. Evett was not happy with the subject matter of the mural that he was asked to paint in Caldwell, Kansas: that of cowboys driving cattle. In...

Oil on canvas entitled "Wild Horses by Moonlight" painted by Philip von Saltza in 1940. "Swedish-born Philip von Saltza, a resident of Maine in the 1930's, painted post office murals in Vermont and New Hampshire. This mural was not originally created for its location in Schuyler, Nebraska. It was originally entered in an Arizona post office competition, but the government assigned the unchanged design to Schuyler in eastern Nebraska. When local residents complained about tall cacti in the landscape, von Saltza superimposed cottonwood trees! As a result,this change made the citizens of Schuyler much happier with their mural." (https://communitydisc.westside66.org)

The post office contains three tempera murals painted by Archie Musick in 1941, titled "Loading Cattle," "Stockade Builders" and "Moving Westward." "Archie Musick, born in Kirksville, Missouri, was a student of Thomas Hart Benton and of Boardman Robinson. In the Red Cloud murals, his elongated forms in motion echo Benton's style rather than Musick's. Musick also completed other post office murals in Colorado and Missouri and in his later years, taught in Colorado. He said that his first two mural commissions were 'scenic pot-boilers on restaurant walls, (which) were happily destroyed by fire.' His first important mural was a 5' x 14'...

The Leander C. and Laurel L. Pritchard Memorial Auditorium in Falls City, Nebraska was constructed as a $100,000 Works Progress Administration (WPA) project in 1939.

A reservoir development project in Crawford, Nebraska was undertaken with the assistance of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. The exact location and current status of the reservoir is unknown to Living New Deal. PWA Docket No. 2379

A reservoir development project in Curtis, Nebraska was undertaken with the assistance of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. The exact location and current status of the reservoir is unknown to Living New Deal. PWA Docket No. 2078

The first rehabilitation farm project to be established in Nebraska, and among the first in the country, was established at Kearney. Fifty-seven acres of land were purchased by the Rural Rehabilitation program. The land lay just north of the north line of East Lawn and east of the branch line tracks. Eight homesteads of about seven acres each were established on this track, and work subdividing the land, erecting fencing, homes and other improvements began in the summer of 1934. Under provisions of the act regulating the rehabilitation farmsteads, tenant families assigned to the homesteads would rent the property for...

In mid July 1935, an application was filed with the PWA for aid in constructing a $45,000.00 school in Riverdale. The new building, designed by Hugh McClure of Kearney, was planned to be brick with a reinforced concrete frame. The first floor would include a combined gymnasium and auditorium measuring 48 by 66 feet. Adjacent to the gym would be two grade rooms, the home economics and Smith-Hughes laboratory and shop, and dressing rooms. The second floor was to house a science laboratory, offices, assembly hall and classroom space. In September 1935, architect Hugh McClure was notified that final approval of...