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  • 17th Avenue Improvements - Brooklyn NY
    The federal Work Projects Administration (WPA) undertook several road improvement projects along roads in Brooklyn, New York. One such project involved the removal of malls and other repair work along 17th Ave. from 47th St. to Old New Utrecht Rd.
  • 19th Avenue Improvements - Brooklyn NY
    The federal Work Projects Administration (WPA) undertook several road improvement projects along roads in Brooklyn, New York. One such project involved the removal of malls and other repair work at the intersection of 19th Ave. and Dahill Rd.
  • 19th Avenue Yard Improvements - Brooklyn NY
    The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) undertook a sizable public building improvement project in Brooklyn, New York beginning in 1935.  The project involved the "Improvement of Public Buildings and Offices" at more than 30 locations, including the municipal yard at "19th Ave. and 56th St." The site is still occupied by the Department of Sanitation.
  • 4th Avenue Court Building (former) Improvements - Brooklyn NY
    The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) undertook a sizable public building improvement project in Brooklyn, New York beginning in 1935.  The project involved the "Improvement of Public Buildings and Offices" at more than 30 locations, including the old 4th Avenue Court Building. The building now houses the NYPD.
  • 5th District Magistrates Court Building (former) Improvements - Brooklyn NY
    Beginning in 1935, Works Progress Administration (WPA) undertook a large program of improvements to public buildings in Brooklyn, New York.  The project involved the "Improvement of Public Buildings and Offices" at more than 30 locations, including the old 5th District Magistrates' Court Building (also known as the Williamsburg Bridge Courthouse). The domed, beaux-arts building was originally built by the Williamsburg Trust Company in 1915.  It is located at the northwest corner of South 5th St. and New St. in Williamsburg, facing Continental Army Plaza. A caption for a 1938 photo available at the Brooklyn Public Library states: "The Williamsburg Bridge Courthouse, acquired by...
  • 8th District Magistrates' Court Building (former) Improvements - Brooklyn NY
    The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) undertook a sizable public building improvement project in Brooklyn, New York beginning in 1935.  The project involved the "Improvement of Public Buildings and Offices" at more than 30 locations, including the old 8th District Magistrates' Court Building. The building, which also housed the NYPD's 60th Precinct, is no longer extant.
  • Abraham Lincoln High School Athletic Fields - Brooklyn NY
    On April 23, 1941, the Department of Parks announced the opening "of a new playground and athletic field adjacent to the Abraham Lincoln High School" to be used jointly by the Park Department and the Board of Education. The new construction included: "...four paved tennis courts and two softball diamonds which in the future will be paved with bituminous material to provide all year round usage, including roller skating and ice skating, also a bituminously paved area in which are three shuffleboard courts, two paddle tennis courts, three basketball standards and a basketball court with removable standards. The athletic field consists of...
  • Abraham Lincoln High School Murals - Brooklyn NY
    Artist Seymour Fogel painted two murals, entitled "African Music and European Music" and "Religious and Modern Music", in the Music Room (Room 327) of the Abraham Lincoln High School in 1936-37.  The New York Schools website shows only a portion of the first mural on its excellent Public Art for Public Schools pages, so it is uncertain if the latter mural is still extant.
  • Agnes Y. Humphrey School for Leadership - Brooklyn NY
    Originally constructed as Public School 27 (P.S. 27) in Red Hook, Brooklyn by the federal Work Projects Administration. The school was described by the WPA in 1940: "Will serve the Red Hook Housing Project, was completed in June, 1940. A three-story U-shaped building of colonial design of red brick with granite base and limestone trimmings. Replaces a school built in 1869. Features include a playroom 130 feet by 30 feet, lunch room and kitchen, 22 air-conditioned class rooms, each seating 42 pupils. Radio equipment will pick up the Board of Education's proposed ultra high frequency programs and the regular broadcase programs...
  • Arthur W. Cunningham Junior High School - Brooklyn NY
    The Brooklyn school J.H.S. 234, presently Arthur W. Cunningham Junior High School, was constructed with the assistance of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds.
  • Automotive High School - Brooklyn NY
    Automotive High School in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, facing McCarren Park, was built during the 1930s with funds from the federal Public Works Administration (PWA).  The school was created to train students to be skilled auto repair technicians, to which have been added offerings in Software Engineering and Art and Media. The building has a striking inscription over the main entrance: "Manhood Service Labor Citizenship". Not surprisingly, it has few female students.  The exterior and interior appear to be little changed over the years.    
  • Avenue S Improvements - Brooklyn NY
    The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) undertook several road improvement projects along roads in Brooklyn, New York. One such project involved the removal of malls and other repair work along the modest stretch of Avenue S from Avenue T to E 54th St.
  • Avenue U Improvements - Brooklyn NY
    The federal Work Projects Administration put many men to work starting in 1935 with a $197,000 street repair and maintenance project, along what were then dirt roads, throughout the borough of Brooklyn, New York. Roads improved included the 0.9-mile stretch of Avenue U from Flatbush Ave. to Gerritsen Ave.
  • Avenue V Pumping Station Improvements - Brooklyn NY
    The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) undertook a sizable public building improvement project in Brooklyn, New York beginning in 1935.  The project involved the "Improvement of Public Buildings and Offices" at more than 30 locations, including the water pumping station at 84 Avenue V, which is still in use today.
  • Banneker Playground - Brooklyn NY
    "Banneker Playground is named in honor of Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806), a noted African-American writer and mathematician... This playground is located on Marcy Avenue between Kosciusko Street and Lafayette Avenue. The site was formerly owned by the Board of Transportation, which held it as part of its property for the G subway line. After 1937, the city maintained a park on the site under a permit from the Board of Transportation. The park was originally built by the WPA (Works Progress Administration), a federal program that built 850 airports, 120,000 bridges, and 125,000 public buildings, in addition to its 8,000 parks nationwide." The...
  • Bath Beach Park - Brooklyn NY
    Bath Beach Park, named for the surrounding neighborhood, was acquired by the City in 1937. In 1941-1942, the WPA completed extensive work on the park. A press release announcing the opening explained: "Located on a knoll on the center line of 17 Avenue extended is a semi-circular overlook sitting area commanding an unobstructed view over Gravesend Bay and the Lower New York Bay. A concrete ramp skirts the brick surfaced retaining wall which supports the overlook and connects with a 30 foot wide tree and bench lined mall... The smaller western section which is subdivided into six use areas by fencing, benches...
  • Bedford Avenue Widening - Brooklyn NY
    The federal Work Projects Administration (WPA) undertook several road improvement projects along roads in Brooklyn, New York. One such project involved the widening of the 0.9-mile stretch of Bedford Avenue from Willoughby St. to Fulton St.
  • Belt Parkway - Brooklyn NY
    Originally called the "Circumferential Parkway, "this roughly 25 mile stretch of highways forms a "belt-like circle around the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens." What is now known officially as the "Belt Parkway" is comprised of three other parkways: the Shore Parkway, the Southern Parkway and the Cross Island Parkway (formerly the Laurelton Parkway). (wikipedia) Plans for the parkway were originally raised by Robert Moses in 1930, but construction did not begin in 1934. It was completed in 1941. In addition to $16,000,000 in city appropriations, the PWA provided another $12,000,000 in federal funds for the construction of the parkway.
  • Belt Parkway Pedestrian Bridges - Brooklyn NY
    In 1940, as the construction of the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn was nearing completion, two pedestrian overpasses were constructed leading from Shore Rd. over the Parkway to the waterfront promenade. The pedestrian bridges, located at 92nd St. and 81st St. are still in use. An August 1940 press release from the Department of Parks described the work: "The approaches consist of steps, walks and ramps. The overpass opposite 92 Street has four spans over the parkway and two spans of stepped ramps parallel to the parkway leading to the wide promenade at the water's edge... The overpass at Old Glory Overlook, approximately...
  • Bensonhurst Park - Brooklyn NY
    The bulk of present day Bensonhurst Park was first established in 1895. Two further parcels were added later. In 1942, the WPA completed major work on the park: "The Department of Parks announces the completion of work in connection with the reconstruction of Bensonhurst Park and the addition of a new playground, baseball fields and other recreation facilities… The old park area has been increased in size. Fifteen acres were added at the time that the Belt Parkway was constructed. This was done by pumping sand beyond the seawall which was erected at the outshore end of the property… The two previously undeveloped...
  • Bergen Avenue Improvements - Brooklyn NY
    The federal Work Projects Administration put many men to work starting in 1935 with a $197,000 street repair and maintenance project, along what were then dirt roads, throughout the borough of Brooklyn, New York. Roads improved included the stretch of Bergen Avenue between Ralph Ave. and what was then known as Island Avenue (location and current name unknown to Living New Deal).
  • Berry Playground - Brooklyn NY
    Berry Playground is a pocket park tucked along a side street in Brooklyn, which was constructed in 1937 by the city Parks Department with the help of the New Deal, most likely Works Progress Administration (WPA) labor. The site had recently been acquired "...for $18,000 from the Brooklyn Eye and Ear Hospital in 1936. It immediately came under the jurisdiction of Parks..." (NYC Parks) A new playground opened on the site on November 13, 1937, as explained in the Parks Department Press Release at the time: "...the new playground is for small children and has swings, see-saws, slides, playhouses, sand tables, a play...
  • Betsy Head Park - Brooklyn NY
    Five years after the WPA built a new pool and bathhouse in Betsy Head Park, the Parks Department announced the completion of the rehabilitation of the south section of the rest of the park, bounded by Livonia and Dumont Avenues, Strauss Street and Hopkinson Avenue: "The remainder of the plot, to the west of the pool has been entirely reconstructed to meet the needs of a district well supplied with children and young people and under-privileged in the matter of play areas. The new plan, designed by the Department of Parks, called for the reconstruction of the baseball diamond, football field...
  • Betsy Head Pool - Brooklyn NY
    In 1936 the Betsy Head Park in Brooklyn, New York, "was redesigned extensively and the Olympic-sized swimming pool was constructed. Architect John Matthews Hatton’s pool house exemplified the sleek Art Moderne style with liberal use of glass block and a parasol roof. One of eleven pools built by the Works Progress Administration during the summer of 1936, the pool is a relic of the New Deal era. The construction project, organized by Parks Commissioner Robert Moses, and funded by the federal government, was part of a citywide effort to erect recreational facilities in under-served neighborhoods. The pools represented the forefront of...
  • Bill Brown Playground - Brooklyn NY
    The Department of Parks announced the opening of this new playground on Bedford Ave. on October 14, 1935. As researcher Frank da Cruz explains here, almost all New York City Parks Department projects between 1934 and 1943 were accomplished with New Deal funds and/or labor. After its inception in 1935, the WPA quickly became the main source of relief funds and labor for the NYC Parks Department. In a 1939 study, The Works Progress Administration in New York City (pp. 101-102), future Columbia University professor John Millett describes the WPA's deep involvement: “The city Parks Department planned all work-relief activities in city...
  • Borough Hall Improvements - Brooklyn NY
    The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) undertook a sizable public building improvement project in Brooklyn, New York beginning in 1935.  The project involved the "Improvement of Public Buildings and Offices" at more than 30 locations, including Brooklyn's Borough Hall.
  • Borough Hall Murals (missing) - Brooklyn NY
    "During May and June 1946, two 900-square-foot murals depicting three centuries of local history were unceremoniously removed from the cavernous two-story rotunda of Brooklyn Borough Hall less than a decade after their creation. The murals, titled "Brooklyn Past and Present," were the work of a relatively unknown artist named Alois Fabry Jr., who had been commissioned to produce them through the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration. Sprawling and detailed, interspersed with touches of whimsy and based on three months of prodigious research, they imbued the borough's central administrative office building with a sweeping monumentality." The murals are missing and...
  • Brizzi Playground - Brooklyn NY
    New York City's Parks Department writes: ", formerly named the 43rd St. Playground, is bounded by 42nd and 43rd Streets and 10th & New Utrecht Avenues. It was acquired through condemnation and assigned to Parks for playground purposes in 1938. The playground was designed and constructed the same year by the Works Progress Administration ..." The completion of the playground was officially announced on March 18, 1939.
  • Brooklyn Army Terminal Improvements - Brooklyn NY
    Now an industrial park, the Brooklyn Army Terminal at 140 58th Street, which was previously known as the Port of Embarkation, was improved through numerous projects conducted by the federal Work Projects Administration during the 1930s and early 1940s.
  • Brooklyn Botanic Garden Sculptures - Brooklyn NY
    "In the rotunda of the are bronze busts of Linnaeus, Darwin, Mendel, Asa Gray, Robert Brown, and John Torrey--the work of WPA sculptors."
  • Brooklyn Botanic Garden: Herb Garden (demolished) - Brooklyn NY
    The New Deal supported various improvements to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden during the Great Depression, among which was the Herb Garden: "Works Progress Administration (WPA) labor was used to build the 1938 Herb Garden, a Caparn design taken from a 1577 Elizabethan knot garden." The herb garden is no longer extant. Other New Deal-funded efforts, such as bronze busts of noted naturalists that reside in the Laboratory Building rotunda, also grace the Botanic Garden.
  • Brooklyn Botanic Garden: Osborne Garden - Brooklyn NY
    The New Deal supported various improvements to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden during the Great Depression, among which was the Osborne Garden. "Works Progress Administration (WPA) labor was used to build the 1938 Herb Garden, a Caparn design taken from a 1577 Elizabethan knot garden. The Italian-style Osborne Garden was also constructed with labor from the Civil Works Administration and the WPA in 1939." Other New Deal-funded efforts, such as bronze busts of noted naturalists that reside in the Laboratory Building rotunda, also grace the Botanic Garden.
  • Brooklyn Children's Museum Assistance - Brooklyn NY
    According to a Brooklyn Children's Museum history: 1930s "The Work Progress Administration (WPA) brings more than 200 docents, artists, carpenters, printers, and clerks to work at the Museum during the Depression. Over 200 volunteers support museum projects including the construction of exhibits, wooden jigsaw puzzles, and collection boxes. "
  • Brooklyn College - Brooklyn NY
    Brooklyn College was created in the 1930s with the assistance of the New Deal.  The five original buildings, including a library and gymnasium, were built with PWA funding and the grounds were landscaped by WPA workers. The college's web page tells the story as follows: “Founded in 1930, Brooklyn College was New York City’s first public coeducational liberal arts college. The school was envisioned as a stepping stone for the sons and daughters of immigrants and working-class people toward a better life through a superb — and at the time, free — college education… Despite being in the throes of the Great Depression,...
  • Brooklyn College: Boylan Hall - Brooklyn NY
    Boylan Hall is one of the original buildings on the Brooklyn College campus, serving originally as the Administrative and Academic Building.  It was constructed as part of a massive federal Public Works Administration (PWA) project undertaken during the Great Depression.
  • Brooklyn College: Heating Plant - Brooklyn NY
    The Heating Plant at Brooklyn College is one of the original buildings on the school's campus, constructed as part of a massive federal Public Works Administration (PWA) project undertaken during the Great Depression. Construction was completed c. 1936.
  • Brooklyn College: Ingersoll Hall - Brooklyn NY
    Ingersoll Hall is one of the original buildings on the Brooklyn College campus, constructed as part of a federal Public Works Administration (PWA) project undertaken during the Great Depression, 1935 t0 1937.
  • Brooklyn College: Landscaping - Brooklyn NY
    The buildings of Brooklyn College were financed by a massive federal Public Works Administration (PWA) project undertaken during the Great Depression. After the buildings were constructed, Works Progress Administration (WPA) laborers worked on improving the campus, primarily through landscaping efforts, beginning in 1938. The above image of WPA workers doing landscaping on the Brooklyn College campus comes from the Brooklyn Public Library. The caption reads: "Planting new shrubs on the grounds of Brooklyn College, between the hockey field and proposed tennis courts, has kept WPA gardeners busy these fall days." The WPA even maintained a plant nursery and a tulip garden on the campus, as the lower image...
  • Brooklyn College: Library - Brooklyn NY
    The Brooklyn College Library is one of the original buildings on the campus, part of a massive federal Public Works Administration (PWA) project undertaken in 1935-37. Construction on the library building began in 1936. The library houses WPA murals by Olindo Mario Ricci.
  • Brooklyn College: Library Murals - Brooklyn NY
    Brooklyn College Library contains two WPA Federal Arts Project murals entitled "Famous Libraries of the World" painted by Olindo Mario Ricci in 1936-1939. A plaque on the wall near the murals reads: "Gracing the Library's grandest reading room are murals of two of the ancient world's greatest libraries: Egypt's Alexandrian Library and Rome's Augustan Library. Muralist Olindo Maria Ricci wanted students to 'feel as if they are in the company of the greats as they read the classics' and thus included many illustrious figures, including the mathematician Euclid and the poet Virgil.  Ricci began the murals as a WPA artist and completed them...
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