New Mexico Sites

According to the Carlsbad Current-Argus, WPA efforts in Eddy County included "landscaping Carlsbad courthouse grounds."

The  Edison School is identified as a project that received New Deal assistance in the form of Public Works Administration (PWA) funds in an article in the Carlsbad Current-Argus.

"Early in the 1930s there was a CCC camp in area and they built the El Caso firetower ..." NRHP nomination form: "This Aermotor MC-24 lookout tower is located on the Quemado Ranger District and was built in 1934. The tower is 30 ft high and has a 12-ft by 12-ft wooden cab. The associated cabin and privy were also built in 1934. This lookout tower is unchanged from its initial construction. It represents one of the best examples of an Aermotor MC-24 tower and cab in the Southwestern Region. Because the lookout tower, cabin and privy retain excellent integrity of...

"This private old hotel has a variety of art work in lobby areas including large murals created by Manville Chapman in 1939 and 6 others done later by his student, Willie Warder, another WPA Project artist. The hotel housed the original WPA Project office for the region and was the location of WPA-supported art classes. This historic hotel is reminiscent of a period when railroad and mining workers boarded in hotel rooms routinely. Paintings and memorabilia are fascinating. The El Portal Hotel suffered a devastating fire in 2009, losing the northern part of the hotel. Until renovations on the remaining rooms are...

"Although the dam was constructed to regulate water flows in New Mexico, Texas and Mexico, the lake became a recreational attraction from its inception. Recreation took off significantly after the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) constructed buildings, landscaping, roads and trails throughout the park from 1934-1940. The CCC also constructed a fish hatchery below the dam which was operated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service until 1965, when it became part of New Mexico State Parks. Visitors to the Dam Site Recreation Area can see this era preserved in buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Visitors to the Dam...

"The library was founded in 1921 in the living room of Mrs. Lorena Mahany’s home at 506 West Arrington in downtown Farmington, New Mexico. Mrs. Mahany offered her services as the first librarian. In 1938 the library was moved to a new building constructed as a Works Progress Administration project located on the small city park at the corner of East La Plata and Orchard. The collection consisted of 2,000 books. This building was remodeled in 1961 and again in 1974. In 1984 the library was moved into the former First National Bank building located at 100 West Broadway in...

"Justice Tempered with Mercy (Uphold the Right, Prevent the Wrong)" by Emil Bisttram was originally installed in the courthouse at Roswell, NM. It was painted with Treasury Relief Art Project funds in 1936 and moved to its present location in 1983. "Cooperation" and "Strife" are two smaller (3' x 3') murals that flank "Justice Tempered With Mercy" to form a triptych.  

"The Pueblo Rebellion of 1680" was painted by Loren Mozley in 1936 with Federal Art Project funds and restored in 1996.  

On August 31, 1935, the county superintendent for Valencia County prepared a WPA project proposal for two, two-room schoolhouses in Fence Lake and Liberty. The schools were to be constructed of logs cut from nearby forests and were to be designed to adhere to the WPA “school house standards” of the day (WPA OP 65-85-466). Added on to the project was a two-room community building in Trechado, an ephemeral community that no longer exists. The supervisor estimated all three buildings would cost $3,737.50, with the WPA providing $2,911.50. During the Great Depression, Fence Lake, a once cattle-raising area, became overwhelmed with refugees fleeing the...

"A number of other APS buildings were built, remodeled, or had additions built as the result of this source of this source of funding. Likewise adjacent school playgrounds, ball fields, etc. were also created. The schools include Armijo, Coronado, Duranes, Five Points School, La Mesa, Lincoln, Los Candelarias, Pajarito, San Jose, Santa Barbara, and Stronghurst. For specific information on each of these refer to the Albuquerque Museum Monograph written by Charles Biebel." -Treasures on New Mexico Trails

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed the walls and entry of the Fort Sumner Cemetery.

Olive Rush painted this fresco, entitled "The Library Reaches the People," in 1934, with funding from the WPA Federal Art Project. Its current location was originally Santa Fe's public library, and is now part of the Palace of the Governors.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) constructed a garage in what is now known as the Carlsbad Caverns National Park Historic District. National Register of Historic Places nomination form, 1988: Warehouse, NPS Bldg #27, probably designed by Ken Saunders, architect, Branch of Plans and Design, Regional Office, Santa Fe; erected in 1940 by CCC workers; formerly also used for storage of supplies and equipment, and as a radio and electric shop, as well as a garage; still used as a garage. Simplified New Mexican Territorial Revival Style; one-story; rectangular plan measuring about 97' x 25'; beige-colored stuccoed adobe walls; flat asphalted roof; concrete floor;...

A plaque installed on the school building notes that the structure was built by the Works Progress Administration. The school name was later changed to Edward E. Torres School. It was closed in 2015 and is now used by Head Start. Note: The author of this entry taught at Garfield School from 1968 to 1971.

In 1936, the Federal Writers’ Project (FWP) hired Roswell, New Mexico resident Georgia B. Redfield, an unemployed writer of local history, to collect stories and facts on her community. Like thousands of writers, editors, researchers and clerical workers on relief during the Great Depression, Redfield performed hours of spadework to fill a few pages of a state WPA guide. Georgia Brigham Redfield (1877-1956) moved from Louisiana to Roswell in its pioneering days. She had published a book, “Our Mammy, Her Songs” in 1934. Working for the FWP, Redfield roamed Roswell, gathering stories on ethnic groups and pioneers, floods and fires, the town’s...

The Catwalk National Scenic Trail had originally started out as a line that brought water from the mountains down to a mill in the valley. "This initial pipeline was constructed in 1893 and an additional 18-inch pipeline was added during 1897. The pipeline was closed in 1913 and fell into disrepair until the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was assigned the task of rebuilding it in 1935. The CCC-built Catwalk served the public until 1961. Major storms and floods had taken its total on the CCC-built Catwalk and, early in 1961, the Forest Service began reconstruction of this most unusual trail....

In addition to "Science," a large New Deal mural, ENMU's Golden library is the home of several smaller commissioned ("portable") examples of New Deal paintings, including: Gene Kloss: "Penitente Friday" and "Acoma" Stuart Walker: "Black and White Sawmill" and "Abstract" Cady Wells: "Mesas" (which may not be New Deal-sponsored) Brooks Willis: "Sawmill" According to Flynn, the ENMU’s Department of Music Building had housed these examples of New Deal oil paintings. They, too, were more recently housed at Golden Library. Three oil paintings done around 1934 by Nils Hogner grace the walls of the staff lounge. They are colorful Navajo Indian scenes. We understand that one has disappeared....

The abstract mural titled "Science," by Raymond Jonson, was funded by the WPA's Federal Art Project. It is in ENMU's Golden Library. Nearby, the university's administration building houses this mural's twin, titled "Art". Flynn: They were planned as a pair, with the aim of serving as spiritual stimuli for the students. Regarding these panels, Jonson wrote in 1937: "My desire is to have a fine quality in these works based on, as a starting point, "Art" and "Science." One panel will place the emphasis on Art—the other on Science (note: my aim is to develop a series of rhythms and forms that can function as...

"Goodson Memorial School represents one of many federal relief efforts to lift devastated areas of Union County out of the effects of the Dust Bowl and Depression. Located in the northeast corner of New Mexico, Union County was situated near the heart of the Dust Bowl of the southern High Plains, with its small ranching and farming and homestead communities, devastated by successive waves of drought years. Along with federal aid given locally to farmers and ranchers to keep them out of foreclosure, the Works Progress Administration worked actively to build infrastructure in small communities throughout Union County by constructing...

"Graham Gymnasium at Western New Mexico University in Silver City was built and other buildings were remodeled with WPA funds. The sidewalks, streets and the riverwalk park were a part of the projects. The banks of the Mimbres River in the walk area are shorn up with rock work, a trademark of much of the WPA construction." -Phyllis Eileen Banks

"In Silver City, the PWA built Sixth Street School, the old James Stadium at WNMU, and the now-gone Western High School and Hillcrest Hospital buildings. The WPA constructed miles of local sidewalks and also funded the historic murals in the Grant County Courthouse by Theodore Van Soelen." -Silver City Museum "The art deco-style Grant County Courthouse, at the top of Broadway...houses two WPA murals: Chino Mines and The Round Up, both painted by Theodore Van Soelen." -New Mexico Off the Road

"W.P. A. funds matched by special bonds were approved to build a facility to house the hospital on donated land. The Town Council authorized Dr. Randolph Watts to travel to St. Louis and ask Mr. William Swift to donate land he owned." "A new 25-bed facility was completed on several acres located near Highway 180 and Juniper Street in Silver City utilizing the W.P. A. program. At that time, it was renamed Swift Memorial Hospital. " -Gila Regional Medical Center

The historic (former) Amistad School Gymnasium was built by the Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) in 1937. The Mission-style structure is made of concrete, stucco, and metal. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.

"The Harwood, originally the home of the Harwood Girls School (1925-1976), is housed in a 1925 neo-classical Revival style building just north of downtown Albuquerque on the Mountain Road side of the Sawmill-Wells Park neighborhoods. The original girls school campus consisted of the main Harwood building, a one story classroom building constructed during the WPA, and Hudd Hall built in 1940. Today, Harwood occupies most of the main building with artist studios, galleries, classrooms and offices. Harwood also owns and operates the old church building at the corner of Mountain Road and Sixth Street as an art studio/classroom. Escuela del Sol Montessori...

"Heights Community Center was the first community recreation center in the city and has served generations of Albuquerque residents. It was constructed between 1938 and 1942 as a National Youth Administration Project, one of several New Deal programs active in Albuquerque during the Great Depression. NYA projects were intended to give youth thorough vocational training and revive their interest in education. At the time, it was considered the largest NYA project in the country. Much of the work for the center was carried out by volunteers using donated or salvaged materials. Several different civic groups in the Heights thought up the...

"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...

"In Clovis, the Curry County Court House is listed as one of the buildings built in 1936. Twila Ky Rutter, Grant Facilitator and Procurement Clerk, unable to locate a photograph of the building as it was originally, referred me to Don McAlavy, a local historian. He didn't have the photo I was chasing but he gave me other valuable information: i.e., the sunken garden and the arch over Hillcrest Park as WPA projects. The City provided materials, much of which were found in the area, and WPA provided manpower. There are other evidences of WPA work in Clovis but remodeling...

"The Historical Center for Southeast New Mexico houses four bronze busts done by John Raymond Terken in 1937. The busts are of prominent Roswell citizens John S. Chisum, Joseph C. Lea, John J. Hagerman, and Amelia Bolton Church." -New Mexico Off the Road

On February 26, 1936, the Quay County Board of Education prepared a WPA project proposal to build a four-room school in House, a remote dry farming settlement on the Caprock, approximately 40 miles south of Tucumcari, the county seat. The building was to be constructed of adobe on a masonry foundation with plaster walls “inside and outside” (WPA OP 65-85-1480). The Board estimated the federal share of the construction to be $5,955.56, of which employment unskilled labor would be the highest cost (26%) of the project. In 1941, near the end of the New Deal, the Quay County Board of Education would again...

From Elmo Richardson, Natural Resources Journal, April 1966: The construction of Hyde State Park afforded the first, as well as the best, example of the role of the CCC in state recreation programs. Activities and problems encountered in constructing Hyde State Park were illustrative. Of work projects elsewhere in the New Mexico and in the five-state CCC area. During the first two years, the shortage of local enrollees kept the company at the Hyde site short of the desired 200 total; not until 1938 was that figure attained. Two years later these boys were combined with a company of workers...

"When passing through the Village of Quemado in southwestern New Mexico, don't miss the New Deal rock jail built in 1934 by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). These letters are chiseled over the entry area and the building is located at #5 First Street in the center of town."

"The work of the CCC influenced virtually every national forest. While the architectural style was consistently rustic, featuring stone and massive timbers, regional variations that reflected cultural context and the availability of building materials did occur. For example, in the Juan Tabo and La Cueva Picnic Area on the Cibola National Forest in New Mexico and in Sabino Canyon on the Coronado National Forest in Arizona, picnic shelters, restrooms, and bridges are made entirely of large granite boulders and native stone. These fit well within the rocky, arid character of the site."   (https://www.fs.fed.us)

The Atlas of Historic New Mexico Maps, produced with assistance from the New Mexico Humanities Council and the New Mexico Chapter of the National New Deal Preservation Association, lists a number of New Deal schools in Raton Kearny Elementary, Longfellow Elementary, Columbian School, and Raton Junior-Senior High School are all listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

"King Stadium is a WPA project originally built to house equestrian events for the U.S. Calvary. Today, the stadium rests in near ruins. Luna Community College hopes to renovate the stadium and hold events - possibly rodeos - there, once more."

"The Old Officer's Club on this base was originally the Sandia Girls School, a private school built by the Simms family. It had art and furniture created specifically for it but most has been lost. Six of the pieces created by Lloyd Moylan were conserved and still hang in the cocktail lounge of the East Officer's Club. They are a series of different Indian dances including Buffalo, Butterfly, Clown, Deer, Eagle and Matachinas. Originally there were at least seven paintings and maybe more, but the missing paintings may have disappeared during a fire. Other unusual craft items also missing are...

"The cabin of local limestone was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) around 1930. The cabin was planned by a local Kiwanis group." "The SBAC has determined that the CCC ruins are potentially a nationally significant historic intrinsic quality; however, the only visible site access and interpretation is at the Kiwanis Cabin. Therefore, the SBAC considers this intrinsic quality to be only regionally significant at this time. The Kiwanis Cabin is located seven tenths of a mile from NM 536 Milepost 13.6 (Sandia Crest). There is adequate parking, a visitors center, and an improved path to the site. The U.S....

"A number of other APS buildings were built, remodeled, or had additions built as the result of this source of this source of funding. Likewise adjacent school playgrounds, ball fields, etc. were also created. The schools include Armijo, Coronado, Duranes, Five Points School, La Mesa, Lincoln, Los Candelarias, Pajarito, San Jose, Santa Barbara, and Stronghurst. For specific information on each of these refer to the Albuquerque Museum Monograph written by Charles Biebel." -Treasures on New Mexico Trails

Quoting from a supplement issued 30 years prior, the Carlsbad Current-Argus stated in 1970: "Through the assistance of WPA the city has just completed a $50,000 improvement program at Municipal Beach park. This includes a beautiful bath house of natural rock design and complete landscaping of the park area with walks, trees and grass." The park, which was constructed during the late 1930s by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), lines a reservoir along the dammed Pecos River. Its riverwalk currently extends for miles along either side of the lake. The original "beach park" was located along the western side of the...

Carlsbad Current-Argus: "Local employees are now engaged in ... refurbishing Lakewood school at Lakewood. ... Second story of Lakewood school will be removed, a new roof and teacherage - will be built, and rooms will be redecorated."

ENMU's Lea Hall was constructed as a New Deal project in 1936.  The Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) provided a $46,000 loan and $37,636 grant for the project, whose total cost was $85,034. P.W.A. Docket No. N.M. 7048