New York City Sites

The Madison Square Station post office in New York, New York "was built in 1935, and designed by consulting architects Lorimer Rich for the Office of the Supervising Architect." (Wikipedia) Professor Dolkart of Columbia University School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation tells us that "Madison Square Station is a Modern Classical structure with an important interior layout, modeled after that of a bank (it was published in the architectural press at the time)." (Dolkart) Wikipedia states that "...the building is a two-to-three story building clad on its main façade with "Dakota Mahogany" granite....The main facade features six two-story Doric order piers and pilaster...

The interior of New York's Madison Square Station post office features eight tempera-on-plaster murals entitled "Scenes of New York" (1937-1939), commissioned by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts funding.  Four panels are found on each the right and left wall of the post office lobby, surrounding the central postal clerk counters. Professor Dolkart of Columbia University School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation notes that seven of the eight McLeary murals represent different New York City neighborhoods. In each neighborhood shown, someone is depicted doing a mail-related activity: "Lower East Side (reading a letter to a group); Broadway (carrying a letter); Central Park (reading...

The exterior of the Madison Square Station post office sports five bronze reliefs above its main entrance (on 23rd St.) known, collectively, as "Communication." Three were cast by Edmond R. Amateis and two by Louis Slobodkin in 1937, with funding from the Treasury Section of Fine Arts.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) worked to restore the Admiral Farragut monument in Madison Square during the mid-1930s.

The post office contains a massive set of murals by Vincent Aderente that wrap around the interior of the lobby. The murals depicts scenes from the early history of the twelve communities served by the Flushing Post Office. Some sources suggest that the murals were funded by the Civil Works Administration through the Public Works of Art Project, administered by the Treasury Department, in 1933-34, though further confirmation of this is needed.

Constructed as the 'westerly approach' road in conjunction with development of the Triborough Bridge, the Mott Haven component of what is now the Major Deegan Expressway was enabled by the provision of New Deal funds. The Public Works Administration supplied a $2,434,500 grant for the project, whose total cost was reported in one document as $5,084,543. The construction, which occurred from 1937 to 1939, forced the relocation of residents who lived along the route between E 134th and E 135th Streets. The New York Times (Apr. 30, 1939): The approach, which is officially called the Major William F. Deegan Boulevard, was hailed by the speakers...

Among the traffic improvement projects in Brooklyn undertaken by the WPA and described by the New York Times in 1941 was that which impacted a major traffic artery connecting Brooklyn and Manhattan: the Manhattan Bridge and Flatbush Avenue Extension. The work would " Brooklyn-bound automobiles during the evening rush hours and for a greater diffusion of traffic ..." One notable "hazardous reverse curve and steep grade" was eliminated entirely. The WPA also added additional traffic lanes, removing "heavy granite walls and balustrades" so to ease a major traffic bottleneck. Along the Flatbush Avenue Extension three safety islands were added between Lafayette...

The criminal court building in Manhattan was constructed with the assistance of the PWA in the late 1930s, for a cost of $14 million.  Construction began in 1938 and was completed in 1941. The site, once known as Collect Pond, was formerly occupied by an 1894 Criminal Courthouse and prison – known as 'The Tombs".  That name is sometimes still used for the present building. The seventeen-story building is composed of four towers, with the tall center tower done in the step-back style popular in the 1920s and 30s. The facade is granite and limestone and the windows and spandrel form long, unbroken, vertical bands. The...

New York's 1 Centre St. Municipal Building received improvements as part of the New Deal, including new elevators installed in part by Public Works Administration (PWA) funds.

Parks acquired what is now Marconi Park "on February 15, 1938, for the benefit of the adjacent P.S. 40 (William Wordsworth School) and the South Jamaica community. The playground opened on June 26, 1939, under the administration of Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia" (NYC Parks). On June 30, 1939, the Department of Parks held official opening ceremonies for the park, attended by Mayor LaGuardia and Robert Moses among others. The press release announcing the opening described the work done on the site: "South of the school, the one block square area developed to care for older children and adults has been provided...

"Marcus Garvey Park is one of the oldest public squares in Manhattan. Central to the life of Harlem for more than 150 years, it has served as a meeting place for neighbors, a front yard and play area for schoolchildren, and a holy place for members of local churches. Known as Mount Morris Park for more than a hundred years… Parks Commissioner Robert Moses, with the help of the Federal Works Progress Administration, installed playgrounds and a system of stone walls, terraces and stairs that remains in place today. In the mid-1960s the park again underwent dramatic changes. The City constructed a...

Originally known as Bushwick Park, this land was first developed as a park in the 1890s. During the New Deal, the WPA and the Department of Parks did a major renovation and reconstruction of the park. A press release announcing the park's reopening on August 13, 1941, described what had been accomplished: "The first steps in the modernization of the park to serve the needs of all age groups were taken in 1936 when a one-half acre playground was built in conformity with a development plan for the entire park… The renovation and reconstruction of the remaining six and one-half acres, provide...

Construction of New York's LaGuardia Airport was among the largest undertakings of the New Deal's Works Progress Administration (WPA) and included both today's main airport (then the "landplane field") and what is now the Marine Air Terminal (then the "seaplane division"). The airport was constructed between 1937 and 1939 and dedicated in March 1940. At the time it was among the most advanced airports in the world. The 1939 WPA Guide to New York City (p.567) describes the new project: "The seaplane division is designed to accommodate regular transaltlantic airplane travel and will be used by Pan American Airways, Air France Transatlantique,...

The Marine Air Terminal contains the largest WPA mural ever painted. "Flight" measures 12 feet (3.7 m) in height and 237 feet (72 m) in length. Artist James Brooks completed this mural depicting the history of flight in 1940. "It was completely painted over by the Port Authority of NY and NJ in the 1950s during the Red Scare, but was restored in 1980 and in 1995 the building was declared a historic landmark."   (kermitproject.org) Flynn and Polese report that the mural was completed in 1942.

Marine Park is the largest public park in Brooklyn. It surrounds the westernmost inlet of Jamaica Bay. The City acquired the first parcels of land in Marine Park in the 1920s and expanded the area in the 1930s. This park was extensively developed by New Deal labor and funding. A July 30, 1936 Department of Parks press release announced the opening of new facilities at the Marine Park, including immediately "three baseball diamonds, two football and soccer fields and one-half of the oval-shaped bicycle and roller skating track." To be constructed in total were "ten baseball diamonds, four football and soccer...

An August 1935 Parks Department press release lists Mariners Harbor Playground as one of seventy-three play areas developed in the preceding year with "city, state and federal relief funds." The release describes this park as having play areas designed for mothers and infants and older children. NYC Parks reports that the playground opened on "December 10, 1934 with a basketball/volleyball court, a playground, and a spray shower. The site name was changed several times over the years, to Mariner’s Playground in 1996 and to Harbor Playground in 1997, before its original name was recently reinstated." Although neither source identifies which federal agencies...

The New York Times reported in 1941 that, as part of WPA efforts, Brooklyn would receive six new playgrounds, located at: "Third Avenue and Thirty-fourth Street, Second Avenue and Fifty-fifth Street, Fort Hamilton Parkway and Fifty-second Street, Albany and Foster Avenues, Park and Nostrand Avenues and Eastern Parkway Extension and Fulton Street." Martin Luther Playground is the second site referenced. According to New York City's Parks Department website, Martin Luther Playground, so named in 1987, "was originally acquired by the city in 1907. The property was expanded in 1940 and was opened to the public on June 5, 1942."

The federal Work Projects Administration put many men to work starting in 1935 with a number of Staten Island street repair and maintenance projects along roads throughout the borough. Roads paved included the stretch of Martling Avenue (then known as "Martling's Lane") between Manor Rd. and Slosson Ave.

NYC Parks states that this small park was acquired by the City in 1936-1938. It opened to the public on April 16, 1937. The press release announcing the opening explained: "the new playground has see-saws, swings, jungle gym, garden swings, slides, sand tables, play houses and game tables for chess, checkers and backgammon, and also benches and shade trees." The site was eventually renamed Mathews-Palmer Playground "after park and community advocates May Mathews and Alexandra Palmer." Although these sources do not mention the WPA or other New Deal agencies, researcher Frank da Cruz explains here that almost all New York City Parks...

Maurice Park, also known as the Frank Principe Park, was constructed by the Department of Parks and the WPA in 1940. The November 1940 press release announcing the opening of the new Park described the WPA's work in detail: "Every square foot has been well utilized in this intensively developed tract which was formerly the property of a privately owned Water Company. Acquired by the City in 1937 for unpaid taxes and assessments totaling $358,817.00, the property was placed under the jurisdiction of the Department of Water Supply. Because the pumping station was inactive the Park Department, in February 1939, succeeded...

The sizeable McCarren Park in Brooklyn (Williamsburg) dates to the early 20th century, but received several additions in the 1930s with New Deal support. The best known of these is the WPA pool that opened in 1936.  But the Department of Parks also announced the reconstruction of the park's play facilities in August 1935 and the addition of sixteen handball courts and a roller skating rink in December 1936. As researcher Frank da Cruz explains here, almost all New York City Parks Department projects between 1934 and 1943 were accomplished with New Deal support. From April 1935 on, the WPA quickly...

The New York City Department of Parks & Recreation explains that: "McCarren Pool was the eighth of eleven giant pools built by the Works Progress Administration to open during the summer of 1936. Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia attended the dedication on July 31, 1936. With an original capacity for 6800 swimmers, the pool served as the summertime social hub for Greenpoint and Williamsburg. The building’s vast scale and dramatic arches, designed by Aymar Embury II, typify the expansive and heroic spirit of New Deal architecture. The pool was closed in 1984 but in 2005 the site was resurrected as a performance space,...

A June 1936 press release from the Department of Parks announced the opening of a newly reconstructed playground at the site of what is now McLaughlin Park. It contained a girl's playground "fully equipped with play apparatus, basketball, volley ball and paddle tennis courts." In October 1936, the Department announced the completion of the "reconstruction of the entire park. The area to be opened includes a wading pool and a large boys' playground with a soft ball diamond." Although the announcement does not mention the WPA or other New Deal agencies, researcher Frank da Cruz explains here that almost all New...

This Sheepshead Bay playground was constructed in part using WPA funds. The New York City Parks Department writes: "This parcel of land was vested in the City of New York in 1938 and transferred by the Board of Estimate to Parks in 1940. The playground opened to the public on June 5, 1941, as the 423rd playground in New York City’s parks system, funded in part by the New Deal-era Works Progress Administration (WPA). The playground contained a separate pre-school children’s section with a sand pit, seesaws, slides, swings, and a shower basin, and a surfaced area for adults and adolescents that...

The Memorial Field of Flushing opened in November, 1934 in a ceremony attended by Mayor LaGuardia. The press release announcing the event described the extensive work carried out with New Deal support: "The land for the Flushing Memorial Playfield was given to the City by the Memorial Field of Flushing, Inc., for the development of a playground. Labor and material were supplied from Work Relief funds. A one-story field house of Colonial design is located in a corner of the playground. Eight tennis courts, eight handball courts and two basketball courts are provided in addition to swings, seesaws, sand tables and other...

O. Louis Guglielmi completed a mural, entitled "One Third of a Nation," in 1939 with funds provided by the Works Progress Administration. It was given by the WPA to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1943. "The title of this work references President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1937 inaugural address, in which he proclaimed, 'I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished.' 'One Third of a Nation' is also the title of Arthur Arent’s 1938 play, which emphasized the plight of the poor and was funded by the WPA’s Federal Theatre Project. In this painting Guglielmi draws attention to the horrid...

The WPA allocated $12,100.41 in 1935 to assist with miscellaneous repairs to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. The New York Times reported in Sept. 1935: "A shooting gallery to make the guards more proficient in the use of firearms is only one of the many improvements at the Metropolitan Museum of Art begun within the last two months with WPA funds ..." The WPA also washed the building's exterior, in addition to "pointing up brick and stone masonry and washing it down with muriatic acid." They also constructed what was known as Gallery E-15. Inside they washed the building and undertook "masonry...

Brooklyn, New York's Metropolitan Station post office (originally known as Station A) was constructed with Treasury Department funds in 1935-6. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988, the building is "a two-story, flat roofed brick building with a three bay wide central pavilion flanked by three bay wide wings in the Colonial Revival style."

The NYC Parks website explains the provenance of this modest playground in Queens: "Between 1935 and 1938, Parks leased this property from the Gorbess Realty Corporation. In April 1938, the City of New York purchased one parcel of the property for $10,450. A month later, the city acquired the second parcel through condemnation, and Parks assumed jurisdiction over both areas." During the same period, the land was developed by Parks with New Deal support. First, in September 1935, Parks announced the opening of a playground with "two handball courts and the usual children's play facilities." In 1942, after the park had...

In 1938-9, the WPA built a new station house for the NYPD's 18th precinct on West 54th St. The building was designed to replace the older 18th precinct building on 47th St. The New Deal structure is still in use and is now known as the Midtown North Precinct. Construction of the four-story limestone and marble precinct building cost $558,233. Modern feature details were described in a New York Times article cited below.

Abraham Joel Tobias completed the mural, entitled "Science," in 1942 with funds provided by the Works Progress Administration (WPA).

The WPA undertook several projects to improve Staten Island's Miller Field Airport, a then-U.S. Army facility, during the 1930s and early 1940s. One project called upon the WPA to: "Improve Miller Field Airport at New Dorp Lane ... by landscaping grounds; constructing and reconstructing buildings, roads, lighting, sewer, and drainage systems; and performing appurtenant work." Miller Field is now a park, part of the "Staten Island Unit of the Gateway National Recreation Area, which is managed by the National Park Service." (Wikipedia)

Minetta Green was built circa 1935 with the help of the New Deal. The agency involved in funding or completing the work is unknown to the Living New Deal. During the 1930s, Robert Moses used New Deal funding and labor to build public park facilities, yet rarely credited the New Deal agencies that supported the projects. Because he prohibited the placement of New Deal plaques and corner stones, we have few sources that tie pubic parks in New York to New Deal agencies. However, several of Moses’ statements reveal the large scale of federal funding for parks  For a detailed...

The NYC Parks site explains the origins of this playground: "In 1934 Board of Transportation granted the Department of Parks a permit to develop this parcel as a playground which opened the following year." The November 1935 press release announcing the playground's official opening explained that it, and the other six playgrounds opened on the same day (one of which was attended by WPA administrator Harry Hopkins), collectively contained: "2 basketball diamonds, 1 basketball court, 4 bocci courts, 4 handball courts, 2 horizontal bars, 2 horizontal ladders and 3 horse shoe pitching courts for adults; for the youngsters, 6 jungle gyms,...

Minetta Triangle was built circa 1935 with the help of the New Deal. The agency involved in funding or completing the work is unknown to the Living New Deal. During the 1930s, Robert Moses used New Deal funding and labor to build public park facilities, yet rarely credited the New Deal agencies that supported the projects. Because he prohibited the placement of New Deal plaques and corner stones, we have few sources that tie pubic parks in New York to New Deal agencies. However, several of Moses’ statements reveal the large scale of federal funding for parks  For a detailed discussion...

A 2004 New York Times article by Seth Kugel describes a "...metallic-looking mural of four chiseled men working on an oil rig... affixed to the back wall of a dank, cluttered storage room under a school library in Soundview, the Bronx." Domenico Mortellito completed the mural in 1934 with funding from the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Domenico Mortellito's daughter, Adria Mortellito Peterson, told the New York Times that the mural depicts "...the whole machine age, coming out of the Depression." Tom Porton, a teacher and coordinator of student activities on the campus where the mural is located, suspects that mural's industrial...

The federal Works Progress Administration undertook a $93,900 project starting in 1935 to modernize and otherwise improve several public (now-former) bath facilities in Brooklyn, NY. The public baths on 14 Montrose Ave. were constructed in 1903; the building has since been demolished. The facilities identified as part of the WPA project were: 209 Wilson Ave. Municipal Baths, Coney Island Duffield Street Hicks Street Pitkin Ave. Huron St. Montrose Ave.

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 two no-longer-extant municipal sites located at Morgan Ave. and Maspeth Ave. in East Williamsburg: a (presumably) storage yard and a water pumping station.

The playground in Morningside Park located at Morningside Avenue, between W 113th and 114th Streets, was one of seven Works Progress Administration (WPA) playgrounds opened in New York City on November 22, 1935.

On September 29, 1941, the Parks Department announced the completion of a reconstructed playground in the northeast corner of Morningside Park: "Two bench-lined tree shaded malls extend along the entire north and east sides of the playground connecting the park entrances with the resurfaced park walks. Sloping ground necessitated the construction of the various subdivisions on different levels retained by high curbs and interconnected by short stairways. The following equipment is provided: Brick comfort station 2 handball courts Wading pool 3 shuffleboard courts 3 basketball courts with removable backstops Pipe frame exercise unit Swings 2 slides Kindergarten Apparatus Area: 2 irrigated sand pits and sitting areas Swings 3 slides 8 seesaws The balance of the work...