• Animas Street Sidewalks - Lordsburg NM
    The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed several miles of sidewalk in Lordsburg during the Great Depression. By 1936, they were building on average 4,000’ of sidewalk per month, with the goal of completing 40 blocks. Adhering to WPA rules, only property owners who paid for materials and incidentals benefited from the program. The work was declared by the Lordsburg Liberal on August 16, 1936 “as something that will be of a lasting benefit to the community.” Animas Street sidewalk work was conducted in 1936 and 1938.
  • City Hall (former) - Lordsburg NM
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed the former city hall in Lordsburg, New Mexico. Operations have since been relocated. The site of the historic New Deal city hall is presently unknown to Living New Deal. "Another city with a list of projects is Lordsburg: Lordsburg City Hall, Hidalgo County Fairgrounds, Animas High School and the Sunset Canal Dam. The Lordsburg-Hidalgo Public Library is one that also originally housed the Health Department and Justice of the Peace. People often stop at the Library to revisit the place where they were married. Windows in the children's section were replaced with stained glass commemorating...
  • Hidalgo County Fairgrounds - Lordsburg NM
    "When Franklin D. Roosevelt took presidential office in 1933, the Great Depression was in its fourth year. He was elected partly because he promised relief for the common man. He enacted the New Deal programs and the Works Progress Administration, which was later called Works Project Administration. The program put unemployed men to work in all areas of the county to build strength and self-respect in the working class. The projects, both in the process of putting people to work and in the resulting buildings, greatly impacted the suffering nation and especially the Southwest, which was also in a severe...
  • Lordsburg-Hidalgo Public Library - Lordsburg NM
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed the historic and photogenic public library building in Lordsburg, New Mexico. NRHP: "The Lordsburg-Hidalgo County Library is a single-story adobe building constructed in 1936-1937 as part of a Works Progress Administration (WPA) cost-sharing program with the Town of Lordsburg and Hidalgo County. The library is situated west of the corner of Third Street and Second Avenue within the town limits of Lordsburg, New Mexico. The library is approximately rectangular in plan, measuring at a maximum 61.0 by 54.3 feet or 3,057 square feet. There have been a minimal number of alterations to the building. With...
  • Sunset Canal Dam - Lordsburg NM
    "When Franklin D. Roosevelt took presidential office in 1933, the Great Depression was in its fourth year. He was elected partly because he promised relief for the common man. He enacted the New Deal programs and the Works Progress Administration, which was later called Works Project Administration. The program put unemployed men to work in all areas of the county to build strength and self-respect in the working class. The projects, both in the process of putting people to work and in the resulting buildings, greatly impacted the suffering nation and especially the Southwest, which was also in a severe...
  • Third Street Sidewalks - Lordsburg NM
    The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed several miles of sidewalk in Lordsburg during the Great Depression. By 1936, they were building on average 4,000’ of sidewalk per month, with the goal of completing 40 blocks. Adhering to WPA rules, only property owners who paid for materials and incidentals benefited from the program. The work was declared by the Lordsburg Liberal on August 16, 1936 “as something that will be of a lasting benefit to the community.” Third Street sidewalk work was conducted in 1938.