Reno Sites

Billinghurst Junior High school named after long time Reno superintendent of schools (1908-1935), Benson Dillon Billinghurst had improvements made during the New Deal Era consisting of two new double tennis courts and a rock and cement retaining wall around the school playing fields. The rock walls are there today, but the tennis courts are now basketball courts. The school is no longer there. The site has become part of a large public park in the middle of Reno.

At Evans Park the WPA and the City of Reno built a circular cement wading pool fifty feet in diameter. A sprinkling system was installed and gravel walks laid out. Today the park which sits just to the south of the University of Nevada, Reno is a grassy lawn with horseshoe pits. Students are found there enjoying the space.

In 1938 the WPA workers assisted in the construction of Geiger Grade lookout and Park along Geiger Grade Road which, in 1936, also underwent a WPA road improvement project. The photos here show typical WPA rock work. In their book entitled Building Nevada's Highways, Jennifer E. Riddle and Elizabeth Dickey tell us that "...the Highway Department and the WPA worked together to construct a park along Geiger Grade (Route 341), that snaking section of roadway that was the historic lifeline between supplies in Washoe Valley and Comstock Bullion. 'WPA boys' and highway department day laborers used local stone to build barbecues, wells,...

Sitting one mile west of the city limit on the Reno Truckee highway (today West 4th Street). Most of the sand and gravel used in New Deal projects in Reno came from here. The CWA and NIRA gave the city of Reno $14248.00 for development and operation of this pit.

The PWA constructed a swimming pool at Idlewild Park in Reno in 1937.

This steel and concrete bridge was constructed in 1937 through the Public Works Administration (PWA) for a cost of $108,729.44 (PWA grant, $10,636.00; Federal-State Highway Funds, $32,593.44; City of Reno, $65,500.00).

The Reno Main Post Office no longer occupies this building and has moved to a location on Vassar Street.  The original post office (the subject of this post) was sold to a local development group in August 2012 and, after extensive and careful renovations, is now being leased as a "modern workspace" for businesses. "Designed by Frederick DeLongchamps in 1932, this post office is one of the best examples of Art Deco design, specifically Zig-Zag Moderne, in Nevada. MacDonald Engineering constructed the building, with the assistance of the Civil Works Administration (CWA), one of President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal programs. The...

Located on the southern portion of the campus of the University of Nevada, Reno is a long concrete dam and irrigation canal that travels east/west through the campus. The dam is located at the southern portion of Manzanita Lake on campus. On the northern wall on the east side of a bridge that spans the canal leading north onto campus is a bronze plaque that reads: 'BUILT BY W.P.A. - 1940 - SPONSOR - UNIV. OF NEV.'. No other information about the canal and dam's history has been located by the Living New Deal. A survey of Google Maps revealed that...

An elementary school built in the Mission Style in 1909, McKinley Park School had its playground rebuilt under the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Public Works Administration (PWA) programs. Walkways around the building were also built. Today the playground is a parking lot and the school houses an arts center.

Mount Rose Elementary School is one of two remaining Mission Revival style schools the other being McKinley Park School. The school was built in 1912 and designed by local architect G Ferris. Work was done under the new deal projects to improve the playgrounds.

This steel and concrete bridge, crossing the Truckee River in downtown Reno, Nevada, was completed in 1937 by the Public Works Administration (PWA).

"The Southside School annex was built in 1936 to provide additional classrooms for the Southside School, which was built in 1903 and demolished in 1960 to make way for Reno's City Hall. The school annex was built with Works Progress Administration (WPA) funds and labor, and housed the kindergarten, and the fifth and sixth grades. The WPA programs were initiated under President Franklin Roosevelt and the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935. The program employed nearly nine million people over an eight-year period; in Reno, both unemployed professionals and laymen contributed to the construction of the new Southside School Annex....

Stewart Park, formerly a city dump, was completed in 1937 through the Works Progress Administration (WPA).

Virginia Lake Park south of Reno was constructed by the WPA in 1936-1938. The park is both a recreational site and serves as a detention reservoir for flood control and irrigation. "Thanks in part to night work crews, the WPA quickly created what became known as Virginia Lake Park south of Reno. The lake was designed for swimming and wading with an average depth of five and a half feet. It was one of many Nevada parks created."   (https://www.newsreview.com)

The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) each worked to develop the Washoe Country Club in Reno, Nevada. The historic golf course is still in use today. Work began in May 1935 (by the FERA) and the course was completed in October 1936 (by the WPA).  The course was built on the site of the original Reno airfield.

Four blocks west of the University of Nevada, Reno is Whitaker Park, one of the few parks that had work done to it during the New Deal that still has its tennis courts. The New Deal brick restrooms are gone, but the trees that were planed are still standing.

This park was built on land donated by George Wingfield, a Nevada banker and miner. During the late 1930s the WPA made improvements to the facilities, including building retaining walls to support the island banks. Today the park is a center for some of the city’s most popular events. One of the main features of Wingfield Park is the amphitheater where various plays and concerts take place during the summer months.