New Jersey Sites

Dunellen, New Jersey's historic borough hall building was constructed during the Great Depression by the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) ca. 1937. The building is still in use today.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the borough hall of Emerson in 1938-9. The building also houses numerous examples of New Deal artwork.

The historic Emerson Borough Hall houses numerous (11) examples of New Deal artwork commissioned by the Federal Art Project (FAP). "Three of the murals are located in the Lower Level Conference Room; one in the Gun Room; one in the Radio Room; four in the two previously utilized jail cells, now part of the Evidence Locker; and one large mural in the former stage area." The murals, listed on the Certification of Eligibility, are: Located on the basement level in the former fireman's lounge: — "Call back the years" — "All right you guys, break it up" — "Pepe's Gang" — "Firefighters of the Gay Nineties" —...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) improved Brighton Avenue in Neptune and Wall Townships, a $92,756 project. WPA Official Project Number: 265‐1‐22‐129

The federal Works Progress Administration paved Broadway in Camden, New Jersey between Federal Street and the city line at Newton Creek. The project took 242 man-hours of work and required 4,000 tons of material.

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) worked to reconstruct a broken sewer line along and around Broadway in Passaic, New Jersey ca. 1936. The project would provide 150 men work for six months. Most of the cost of the work was borne by the federal government.

"Hackettstown is receiving full value of Federal work relief money and is accomplishing a much needed improvement. The clearing and widening of the brook that flows back of Park Avenue, then through the dump meadows on Franklin Street before it empties into the Musconetcong, is a worthwhile project from a sanitary point."

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) completed improvements in Brookdale Park NJ (Essex County) in 1937. Initial construction of the park began in 1928 following an Olmstead Brothers’ design. “The basic work was in place by 1930,” suggests the Essex County Parks Department. But hen the Depression hit, the work that was originally estimated to take only a few years was extended to many years. Construction became dependent upon labor available from the WPA and ERA agencies, who completed the major work by 1937. The result is one of the County's most beautiful parks.” The WPA provided most of the funds and labor...

The federal Works Progress Administration constructed bulkheads in Surf City, New Jersey ca. 1936 to mitigate soil erosion. WPA N.J. Project No. 5-248.

A local newspaper reported that, “Sixty Morristown and ten Morris Township men went to work this morning on placing a rock bottom in Burnham Park swimming pool. This was one of two federal-aid projects approved for immediate start here in order to give unemployed work….Forty of the men are at Brookside Reservoir racking up the rock with which the bottom of the pool will be rip-rapped and 30 at Burnham Pool preparing it for the fill. It was at first hoped to be able to construct a concrete bottom but as this would involve too much material and not enough...

“BUTLER – An endeavor to employ local county men on PWA work now in progress around Butler finally met with success….Thus the aim of the Borough to engage its own citizenry for its own projects, reducing town unemployment slack to non-existance , is achieved. Men eligible for PWA in this section have been transferred from district No. 6, comprising Morris and Union Counties, to District No. 1, comprising Passaic County, to make possible their employment on the new reservoir now under way in Kinnelon. This project, to be called the Butler Kikeout Reservoir, will take nine months to complete and...

"The bowling greens at Cadwalader Park are kept in playing condition by the personnel." The WPA conducted major work at the park as well.

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) worked to renovate the old Municipal Building in Pennsauken, New Jersey in 1936. The project was completed with no direct expense to local taxpayers. The exact location of the old building is unknown to Living New Deal; it was demolished in 1986.

Situated near Greenwood Lake in upper West Milford, NJ, Camp Hope was initially developed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Company 1201 as Camp S-68 to house workers working at the Newark Waterworks. Following the closure of the worker’s barracks, the cabins sat abandoned for roughly two years. Freedmen Ernest T. Scheidemenn pushed for the County of Passaic to grant them access to the cabins at Smith Mills (now West Milford) instead of demolishing them to turn them into a children’s summer recreation camp “for the undernourished and underprivileged children of Passaic County.” (Paterson News, February 7, 1938, 1) After being...

The Work Projects Administration (WPA) undertook development work at an unidentified location in or near New Brunswick, New Jersey. As two projects were sponsored by the War Department, Living New Deal believes these projects to be involved with the development of Camp Kilmer, an installation that straddled Piscataway and Edison, within two miles of New Brunswick. Rutgers University's Livingston Campus resides on part of the old Camp Kilmer site. WPA Official Project Numbers: 713‐2‐128 ("Improve and rehabilitate buildings, systems, and facilities"), and 13‐2‐22‐92 ("Repair and rehabilitation of building)

The WPA conducted a large-scale reconstruction project at the Cape May Naval Air Station, located at the easternmost part of Cape May. A thorough history of the installation can be found at Abandoned & Little Known Airfields (airfields-freeman.com). There are few traces of the New Deal- and WWII-era installation remaining, though an abandoned runway is still visible. The facility is now the U.S. Coast Guard Training Center. Cape May County Gazette wrote in 1936: “One of the finest WPA projects granted this section is the rebuilding of the U.S. naval Air Station at Cape May, on which work has already been started....

Access to the Carranza Memorial in Tabernacle, New Jersey was difficult prior to the advent of the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA). The WPA widened and reconstructed what had been a seven-foot-wide sand road, clearing brush and trees along the way. The end result was a 33-foot-wide graded road. The project was completed ca. May 1937.

The WPA and NYA worked to construct a large wading pool in what is now known as Carver Park, in 1936. The pool is no longer extant. Paterson, New Jersey's Evening News wrote on May 8, 1936: Thirty Negro workers of the National Youth Administration pulled the last piece of brush from a 5-lot tract at the corner of Second and Clay streets today, and began the second half of excavation for a wading pool 315 feet in circumference. The work is part of a WPA project, sponsored by the city. Workers there reported the five lots cleared and a 155-foot ditch...

“An additional 75 men will be put to work in Morristown tomorrow, making about 375 who have been given employment under the CWA and other relief projects, it was announced this morning by Town Clerk Nelson S. Butera, Deputy Director of Relief. The men will be put to work at Cauldwell Memorial Playground, fixing up tennis courts, the wading pool and handball court."

Built in 1939 as a public school in Holmdel NJ. Excerpt from the July 27th 1939 Red Bank Register: "Nearing completion at Centerville in Holmdel township is a new public school, the construction of which is being done entirely by WPA mechanics The Holmdel township board of education is supplying most of the materials and the WPA is supplying the labor, sand, gravel and concrete." Today the building is used for professional offices.

The Public Works Administration (PWA) provided a grant for the construction of a bridge to carry Central Avenue over the train tracks in Clark, New Jersey ("Picton"). The project was undertaken as part of a larger grade crossing elimination initiative during that era. The PWA provided a grant of $26,230 for the project, whose total cost was $118,963. PWA Docket No. NJ 4162

The Bureau of Public Roads provided funds for the grade separation of Central Avenue and the Central Railroad of New Jersey, in Westfield. New Jersey Board of Public Utility Commissioners: "A "Works Program-State Highway Department" project on which the Board initiated proceedings and on October 2nd, 1935, issued an order to eliminate the grade crossing. Construction started April 13, 1936, and the project was opened to traffic October 9, 1937. Funds from the Bureau of Public Roads were allotted to meet the entire cost of construction. Costs of property acquired and of property damage are shared equally by the State and Railroad Company."

The New York Times wrote the following in 2003 in a retrospective article of New Jersey-based artist Michael Lenson: " moved to Newark and applied at the W.P.A. office on Halsey Street ... Soon, Mr. Lenson was designing and executing murals for the state W.P.A. program. He went on to become assistant state supervisor in charge of the other muralists in the agency." While not confirmed, Michael Lenson purportedly painted a mural at Newark's Chancellor Avenue School: "nother Lenson mural might be hiding behind the wall paint in a windowless room at the Chancellor Avenue School in Newark. According to a retired teacher...

The New York Times wrote the following in 2003 in a retrospective article of New Jersey-based artist Michael Lenson: " moved to Newark and applied at the W.P.A. office on Halsey Street ... Soon, Mr. Lenson was designing and executing murals for the state W.P.A. program. He went on to become assistant state supervisor in charge of the other muralists in the agency. By the time the federal W.P.A. closed in 1943, Mr. Lenson had created six murals and supervised the execution of 15 more in New Jersey by other artists. He also made one mural in West Virginia." "Three of Mr. Lenson's...

According to a Works Progress Administration (WPA) Information Division document, a new museum was built in the park. As well, “Five miles of road and 20 miles of trail have been completed by WPA workers, with large auto parking spaces and picnic grounds, open air fireplaces with tables and benches and shelters…a ten-acre lake, formed by damning streams in the vicinity will provide boating and bathing facilities. A 600 foot earthen dam is being constructed, and the muck in a lowland area is being dredged out of for the lake bed…The western edge of the lake will be filled with...

An 8'7.5"-span stone arch bridge on Church Road, in Holland Township, New Jersey, was widened by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The structure is/was located approximately 240 feet east of the intersection with Amsterdam / Crab Apple Hill Road.

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed an addition to Hackensack, New Jersey's old River St. City Garage in 1936. The addition was used as a truck storage shed. As part of the project a brick wall was constructed between the new and preexisting structures and other work was undertaken at the facility. Visual analysis of old photographs places the garage along River St. near East Kansas St. The structures are no longer extant.

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) conducted miscellaneous improvements and repairs at Bayonne's old City Hall during the 1930s.  One project involved painting tens of thousands of square feet of interior walls and exterior trim; another included work on trim doors, closets, ventilators, and windows. Additionally, the WPA beautified the grounds, replacing the topsoil and grass and planting bushes; constructed a retaining wall along the northeast side of the building to prevent soil erosion; and constructed a stone 'turret' around the flagpole. Professional projects included municipal document and map indexing, numbering, and copying. Bayonne's old City Hall has since been demolished.

The annex to Bayonne, New Jersey's old City Hall was town down by federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) workers. The building had been condemned, was in danger of collapsing, and the job of demolition was deemed "imperative" by Bayonne's Evening Times. The paper continued, "no one who saw the City Hall annex in recent years will have anything but applause for the assignment of these relief workers." The annex was in fact an addition to the west side of Bayonne's City Hall, which was located at Avenue E and 30th St.

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) demolished an abandoned cement block stable on Bayonne's Avenue F between East 29th St. and East 30th St.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) undertook multiple projects in Livingston, New Jersey. "Among the local WPA projects are a sewing project for women, road building, the laying of water mains and the clearing of lands at the Civic Centre Park." Living New Deal believes the park in question to be that encompassed by Robert H. Harp Drive.

Then the main post office for Clifton, New Jersey (and later known as Clifton's Main Avenue Station post office), what is now the Clifton Recreation Center received a six-panel oil-on-canvas mural titled "Transportation". John Sitton was awarded the contract for the development, painting, and installation of the murals through a National Competition, for which he was awarded $1,700. Further details can be found on the contract dated October 19, 1936 (see image). The murals were installed at the end of 1937. Clifton Postmaster G. A. Keenan pleaded for two additional murals to be painted around the office lobby, but further funds were...

The Public Works Administration (PWA) provided a grant for grade separations of Colonia Boulevard and "Sucker Brook Road," from the train tracks, in Colonia, New Jersey. The project was undertaken as part of a larger grade crossing elimination initiative during that era. The PWA provided a grant of $99,585 for the project, whose total cost was $243,391. New Jersey Board of Public Utility Commissioners: "Execution of the order of the Board to eliminate these crossings ... In the meantime funds to aid in the construction of the project became available through a 45% grant from P.W.A. Work was started by railroad forces on...

The Bureau of Public Roads provided funds for the construction of a span to carry Comly Road over the railroad in Lincoln Park, New Jersey. The project was undertaken as part of a larger grade crossing elimination initiative during that era. New Jersey Board of Public Utility Commissioners: "A "Works Program-State Highway Department" project on which the Board initiated proceedings and on October 2nd, 1935, issued an order to eliminate the grade crossing. Construction started April 14, 1936, and the project was opened to traffic in January, 1937. Funds from the Bureau of Public Roads were allotted to meet the entire cost of construction."

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed three tennis courts at what was known as Cookerow Park / playground in Boonton, New Jersey. The exact location or status of the facility is unknown to Living New Deal.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) helped construct the Cooper River Park in Pennsauken Township NJ in 1940. “A WPA project to give Pennsauken, N.J., its first public park and recreation facilities costing $350,000 has been approved,” a reporter for Parks & Recreation noted in March 1940. “Included in the plans are provisions for a swimming pool, wading pool, tennis, basketball, volleyball, handball, quoit and shuffleboard courts, picnic grounds, baseball diamonds and playground equipment for children. The Camden Park Commission is sponsoring the project.” According to the Cultural Landscape Foundation, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) work crews as well as the WPA “provided design...

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) conducted unspecified work along the Cooper River in New Jersey ca. 1936.

An old unsatisfactory wagon road, connecting the village of Dennisville with Cape May Court House, New Jersey, was converted into a farm-to-market road in Middle Township, New Jersey, with approximately 100 federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) workers. "The entire cost of the work is $33,425.00. Of this amount, the WPA will furnish $29,035, leaving $4,590 to be contributed by Middle Township. The project will continue for seven months." The road in question is most likely what is now known as Court House-South Dennis Road.

In the mid 1930s the new Cranford High School building was constructed with assistance from the Federal Public Works Administration (PWA). In their photographic history of Cranford, New Jersey, Robert Fridlington and Lawrence Fuhro tell us that the high school building was dedicated on January 3, 1938. At the time, it was a six year school serving seventh through twelfth graders. In the words of Fridlington and Fuhro, "he forty-nine-classroom building cost $850,000, nearly half the amount coming from the New Deal's Public Works Administration." (1996: 98)

The federal Works Progress Administration constructed dam and spillway, presumably as a mechanism for flood control, to serve the people of Lacey Township, New Jersey ca. 1936. The exact location and status of the facility is unknown to Living New Deal. WPA N.J. Project No. 5-51.