New Jersey Sites

“KINNELON – Notification has been given the Kinnelon Borough Council that the Works Progress Administration has approved the first project for the Borough with Federal funds. The WPA has approved the application for the widening, straightening and grading of Cutlass road and Jacksonville road. Work on the projects is expected to get started around the first of April.” (March 22, 1937)

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) undertook "access road"construction and improvement work as part of a $66,587 project, in Little Silver, New Jersey, in rough conjunction with development efforts at Fort Monmouth. WPA Official Project Number: 265‐1‐22‐96

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) undertook improvement work on "public access roads" as part of a $1,704,036 project in several towns in Burlington County, in rough conjunction with development efforts at what was then Camp Dix. Work was sponsored by the New Jersey State Highway Department. WPA Official Project Number: 165‐1‐22‐458

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) undertook improvement work on "public access roads" as part of a $1,704,036 project in several towns in Burlington County, in rough conjunction with development efforts at what was then Camp Dix. Work was sponsored by the New Jersey State Highway Department. WPA Official Project Number: 165‐1‐22‐458

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) undertook improvement work on "public access roads" as part of a $1,704,036 project in several towns in Burlington County, in rough conjunction with development efforts at what was then Camp Dix. Work was sponsored by the New Jersey State Highway Department. WPA Official Project Number: 165‐1‐22‐458

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) undertook "access road"construction and improvement work as part of a $66,587 project, in Oceanport, New Jersey, in rough conjunction with development efforts at Fort Monmouth. WPA Official Project Number: 265‐1‐22‐96

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) undertook improvement work on "public access roads" as part of a $1,704,036 project in several towns in Burlington County, in rough conjunction with development efforts at what was then Camp Dix. Work was sponsored by the New Jersey State Highway Department. WPA Official Project Number: 165‐1‐22‐458

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) undertook improvement work on "access roads" as part of a $133,174 project in Red Bank and West Long Branch, New Jersey, in rough conjunction with development efforts at Fort Monmouth. WPA Official Project Number: 265‐1‐22‐96

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) undertook improvement work on "access roads" as part of a $465,476 project in Shrewsbury and Eatontown, New Jersey, in rough conjunction with development efforts at Fort Monmouth. WPA Official Project Number: 265‐1‐22‐119

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) undertook improvement work on "access roads" as part of a $133,174 project in West Long Branch and Red Bank, New Jersey, in rough conjunction with development efforts at Fort Monmouth. WPA Official Project Number: 265‐1‐22‐96

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) worked to improve Roberts Park in Collingswood, New Jersey ca. 1936.

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) conducted improvement work on all school buildings in the city of Bayonne ca. 1939. Work on what is now the Dr. Walter F. Robinson School building (formerly Bayonne's high school) included "painting, repairing, and general improvement work."

The W.P.A. conducted restoration and preservation work at Rockingham, the house at which George Washington "wrote his farewell address to the army."

Roosevelt Care Center in Edison, New Jersey was originally known as the Middlesex County Tuberculosis Hospital. The building was constructed with PWA funds. NJ.com states: "Today, that building is on the National Register of Historic Places. For many years, Roosevelt served as the Middlesex County tuberculosis hospital. In the 1950s, it was converted to a long-term-care facility, and rehabilitation and recreation programs were added. An annex building on the other side of Parsonage Road was completed in 1964, and a major addition to the main building opened in 1982." The structure was reconditioned and converted into affordable senior housing. It opened in April...

Roosevelt Park is located in Edison, New Jersey. It contains a number of picnic groves and sports facilities. The WPA did major work on the park in the 1930s. In addition to general park development, a monument honoring the laborers who built the park was erected in 1933. There is also a WPA sculpture in the park by Waylande Gregory (see linked project page).

Roosevelt Park contains a WPA sculpture by Waylande Gregory entitled "Light Dispelling Darkness." "Most visitors to Roosevelt Park in Edison, New Jersey will pass by this empty fountain thinking not much of it, their attention focused on the globe perched high at the top. However, many fail to notice the evils dispelling from the center, which make the sculpture all the more interesting and relate a bit of creativity that its maker, artist Waylande Gregory envisioned when he designed it in 1937. “Light Dispelling Darkness” was part of a New Jersey Federal Arts Project under the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The WPA...

The federal Works Progress Administration constructed what is now known as Roosevelt Plaza Park (then known as City Hall Plaza) starting in 1936. The project called for "a center fountain, the planting of gardens, placing concrete gutters, building gravel walks and oiled gravel roadways and construction of a controlled parking area for 150 automobiles."

The school was constructed as part of the original Resettlement Administration settlement. Parts of the original school have since been added, but portions of the building are still original. The building houses the town's beloved Ben Shahn mural, as well as a pair of intricate doors designed by Otto Wester in 1938. The doors have been removed from the exterior but are still on display inside the building.

"Roosevelt Stadium was a baseball park at Droyer's Point in Jersey City, New Jersey...It was home to the Jersey City Giants. Roosevelt Stadium was finally built in 1937, as a Works Progress Administration project on the grounds of what was the Jersey City Airport at Droyer's Point. The airport was operated by Eddie August Schneider starting in 1935. It was named for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the author of that New Deal agency. It was designed in Art Deco style. The ballpark's opening was scheduled for April 22, 1937 with the opening of the 1937 International League season... In November 1982, the Jersey...

Union City, New Jersey's old Roosevelt Stadium was constructed by the federal Works Progress Administration between 1936 and 1937. Heavily renovated and modernized during the 1990s, Roosevelt Stadium was demolished and replaced with a new high school building and a new sports facility of the same name. "Originally the site of the Hudson County Consumers Brewery Company, the property was purchased by what is now Union City for $456,000, and turned it into a gated playground. Later, through the efforts of Director of Public Affairs Harry J. Thourot, the stadium’s construction was funded by the federal Works Progress Administration Project, which...

Rotary Island, in the middle of the Delaware River and primarily located in Trenton, New Jersey, was improved by the federal National Youth Administration (NYA) ca. 1936. Quote "The Dawn," a monthly WPA newsletter, July 1936: Forty youths are working on Rotary Island, where the Mercer County Health League camp for children is maintained. Considerable damage was done to the island by the Spring floods, and NYA workers are cleaning up the debris, in addition to grading and painting and making necessary repairs to buildings.

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) worked to improve roads and highways in Winslow Township, New Jersey. Improvements to the 2.4-mile stretch of what was then known as Egg Harbor Road between Davis Avenue and Florence Road were part of a greater construction program to "connect eight farm roads ... into a network of feeders to the White Horse Pike and other market arteries." Federal funds: $263,631; sponsor funds: $18,505.

Glassboro State Normal School, founded in 1923, trained South Jersey women and men to be elementary school teachers. In 1935, when they received federal funds, there were 330 students at the school. Today, Glassboro State Normal School is Rowan University. A rapidly growing institution with a full complement of University undergraduate subjects, two medical schools, a nursing school, and a new school of veterinary medicine, Rowan has bounded beyond its origins as a Normal School. In the summer of 1935, Dr. J. J. Savitz received approval from the Works Progress Administration of Camden County 8th District for several Improvement projects for...

54 WPA workers were employed in reconstructing the athletic field and tennis courts at Roxbury High School.

Works Progress Administration (WPA) artist Alfred Poledo Boonton created a series of 21 paintings — "Reconstructions" — for the Geology Museum of Rutgers University, ca. 1936. The present status of this work is unknown to Living New Deal.

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) worked on a land reclamation and shore beautification project on the south shore of Perth Amboy, New Jersey. As part of the project Water Street was improved and an all-new road, then named Raritan Parkway but now called Sadowski Parkway, was constructed by federal labor. Along the new road 8,800 feet of sidewalks were laid and 9,225 feet of curbing was installed.

The Public Works Administration (PWA) provided a $23,392 grant for construction of a new school building in Bloomsbury, New Jersey. Constructed in 1936, the total cost of the project, which still operates as the Bloomsbury Public School, was $52,312. PWA Docket No. NJ 1156

The Public Works Administration (PWA) provided a $36,000 loan and $29,413 grant for construction of a school in Green Brook, New Jersey, in 1938. Total cost of the project was $65,608. The location and status of this facility is presently unknown to Living New Deal. PWA Docket No. NJ 1055

The Public Works Administration (PWA) provided a $37,636 grant for construction of a school in Leesburg, New Jersey. Total cost of the project was $86,205. The location and status of this facility, which was completed in 1937, is presently unknown to Living New Deal. PWA Docket No. NJ 1060

The Public Works Administration (PWA) provided a $54,219 grant for construction of a school in Millburn, New Jersey. Total cost of the project was $121,436. The location and status of this facility, which was competed in 1936, is presently unknown to Living New Deal. PWA Docket No. NJ 1056

The Public Works Administration (PWA) provided a $34,740 grant for construction of a new school building in Ringoes, New Jersey. Completed in 1939, the total cost of the project, which still operates as part of a larger educational campus for East Amwell Township, was $75,957. PWA Docket No. NJ 1346

The Public Works Administration (PWA) provided a $28,000 loan and $22,909 grant for construction of a school in Spring Lake Heights, New Jersey, in 1938. Total cost of the project was $54,942. The facility has since been expanded. PWA Docket No. NJ 1121

The Public Works Administration (PWA) provided a $27,000 grant for construction of a school in Washington, New Jersey, in 1936. Total cost of the project was $59,153. Living New Deal believes this to be what is now known as Warren Hills Regional Middle School. PWA Docket No. NJ 1107

The Public Works Administration (PWA) provided a $274,909 grant for construction of a new School 18 building in Paterson, New Jersey. Completed in 1937, the total cost of the project was $616,398. PWA Docket No. NJ 1147

The federal Works Progress Administration constructed sidewalks and landscaped school grounds in Oakhurst, New Jersey ca. 1936. It is unclear to Living New Deal whether these projects were related / located at the same facilities. WPA N.J. Project No. 5-233.

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) worked to modernize Bordentown, New Jersey's sewage disposal plant in 1936. The plant had "been in need of drastic changes for years the city ha not been financially able to stand the cost." The plant discharges into Black Creek, which forms the southern boundary of Bordentown Township.

“The WPA renovated and reconditioned sewage disposal plant here was turned over to City officials yesterday afternoon in ceremonies sponsored at the plant site. The project…included the cleaning of two large beds, totaling more than 2 acres. During the past seven months more than 1,250 tons of stone were taken up, cleaned and replaced, and augmented by 500 tons of new filter stone; 250 tons of sand were dug up, and replaced with 2,850 tons, of which 850 tons were furnished by WPA, and 2,000 tons by Morristown. Fifteen workers were employed on the project since it began….” (July 31,...

'The sewage treatment plant... cares for the sewage from the south district of the settlement, and the process consists of primary sedimentation, aeration, secondary sedimentation, and chlorination. The project included also a main intercepting sewer. The character of the concrete structure is a departure in the design of a treatment plant.'

In 1936, after an earthwork dam that protected local roads from being flooded by Shadow Lake washed out, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) re-built it.

The Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works built a bridge over the Shark River between Avon NJ and Belmar NJ. The bridge is still in use.