New York City Sites

The 56-acre park dates from the early 20th century, but "major improvements in Astoria Park were undertaken by Parks Commissioner Robert Moses and the Works Progress Administration during a hot summer in 1936. The stunning pool complex opened on July 4 of that year and hosted the swimming and diving trials for the U.S. Olympic Teams in 1936 and 1964" (NYC Parks). "Besides the swimming pool, various playgrounds and comfort stations were added or renovated during the course of the New Deal using relief labor" (kermitproject.org). This included "an adult play area with handball, basketball, horseshoe and shuffleboard courts, horizontal...

Astoria Park  pool opened on July 2, 1936. It was the largest of the eleven WPA pools built throughout the city that year. It was the site of the Olympic swimming and diving trials for the 1936 Olympics, just as Randall's Island Stadium was for track and field. "Parks Commissioner Robert Moses, an avid swimmer himself, recognized the importance of aquatic recreation and launched a campaign to open eleven new pools throughout the city during the summer of 1936. The labor and construction came from the Works Progress Administration (WPA), whose administrator Harry Hopkins described the pool in Queens as, 'The finest in the world.'...

The historic Audubon Station post office in New York, New York is located on West 165th Street, between Audubon Ave. and Amsterdam Ave. It was one of many post offices in Manhattan constructed with federal Treasury Department funds during the New Deal era. The post office was initially known as New York, New York's Station 'M' until its redesignation as Audubon Station on April 1, 1947. The building's cornerstone dates an initial stage of construction to 1935. The building is still in service.

From NYC Parks: "In 1918, the War Memorial Fund was established to create a $1 million Memorial Arch to commemorate those killed in World War I. The organizers were forced to adjust their plans when they were only able to raise $210,000. By 1922 the project was scrapped and the money turned over to the City. Through time, the unspent fund earned interest, growing to nearly $340,000 by 1934. Commissioner Robert Moses (1888–1981), seeking additional open spaces for children, convinced the remaining members of the War Memorial Committee to allow the funds to be used for playgrounds... The War Memorial Fund was...

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.    

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.

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.

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.

The New York Times reported in 1941 that WPA labor was to develop a playground at Bailey Avenue and West 234th Street in the Bronx. Bailey Playground now resides on that site: "WPA crews are busy on twelve other parks and playground projects in other parts of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx ...  A plot originally acquired for school purposes in 1929 will become the site of a playground at Bailey Avenue and West 234th Street, the Bronx.  A large wading pool is included in the plans." In August 1943, at the end of the New Deal, the Parks Department announced the opening of this...

New York City's Parks Department website states: "During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Commissioner Robert Moses (1888-1981) and the Works Progress Administration constructed recreational facilities in the park, including a boat landing, several playgrounds, tennis and handball courts, baseball diamonds, and a football field."

"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...

This park is located on the site of a former tenement and adjacent to what was the first free public bathhouse when it opened in 1901. This and other early bathhouses were built for the sake of public sanitation after Dr. Simon Baruch lobbied hard for new health laws. In 1939, Dr. Baruch's son donated the land for this park to the city at a time when it was still surrounded by tenements, and in order to provide both a local playground and to improve the bathhouse structure itself. The Department of Parks press release from the park's opening on May...

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...

In the 1937 the Works Progress Administration undertook construction on the Battery Landing Platform which was used as a landing pier for excursion boats (WPA).

The WPA allocated $612,800 in 1935 toward the renovation of the "pier building foot of Whitehall & South Sts." The building in question is most likely what was then known as the Municipal Ferry Pier (built 1906-1909), now known as the Battery Maritime Building. WPA Official Project No. 65-97-427.

This building was originally the Textile High School, then the Straubenmuller Textile High School, then the Charles Evans Hughes High School, before eventually assuming its current title as the Bayard Rustin Educational Complex. It is now an NYC "vertical campus" housing several smaller schools. In addition to a pair of stained glass windows by Gerard Recke, the building contains several large WPA Federal Arts Project murals created by various New Deal artists in 1934-36. In a 1965 oral history, New Deal artist Irving Block said of the high school that "there were many rooms available to us for decoration." In the same...

Originally the United States Marine Hospital, what is now Richmond University Medical Center's Bayley Seton Hospital was a PWA project. It is described by the Federal Writers' Project: "United States Marine Hospital, Bay Street and Vanderbilt Avenue, a Federal hospital operated by the United States Public Health Service, is open to personnel of the Merchant Marine and Coast Guard, and to certain classes of Government employees. Constructed in 1933-6 by the PWA at a cost of two million dollars, the tawny-colored brick buildings with a silver tower cover an area of eighteen acres. Louis A. Simon was the supervising architect. This...

Bayside High School was constructed as a Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) project. The P.W.A. allocated $2,067,274 for the construction of the facility: $1,480,000 as a loan and $587,274 as a grant. The building bears a 1935 cornerstone and was completed December 1936. The PWA docket number for this project was NY-2735.

The federal Works Progress Administration worked to conduct repairs and alterations to several civic facilities in Queens as part of a $300,464 project begun in 1935. Facilities improved included the Bayside Pumping Station, located roughly at Northern Blvd. and the creek in Alley Pond Park that leads to Little Neck Bay. The original pumping station has been replaced and no longer stands.

The federal Work Projects Administration put many men to work starting in 1935 with a Bronx street repair and maintenance project along roads throughout the borough. The streets, many of which in New York City were still unpaved, were surfaced with penetrated macadam. Roads improved included two stretches of Beach Avenue in the Soundview section of the Bronx: (a) between "Bronx River Avenue" and 'Sound View' Avenue; and (b) between 'Sound View' and Watson Avenues.

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.

The approximately $5 million Bellevue Hospital was constructed with federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds during the 1930s. The present status of the New Deal structures within hospital complex, which has been extensively renovated, is unknown to Living New Deal.

In the late 1930s Emilio Amero completed work on the mural entitled  “Tropical and Hudson Valley Vegetation,” for the entrance lobby in the new Psychiatric Building of Bellevue Hospital. It was one of over a dozen murals painted by artists for the new building with funds provided by the Federal Art Project arm of the Works Progress Administration. It so happens, that the new building for which Emilio Amero painted the mural was also a New Deal project. The building was constructed with the support of the  federal Public Works Administration (PWA). Emilio Amero was a Mexican printmaker and painter who spent much of...

In 1936 Luis Arenal and his assistant completed work on the mural entitled  "North American Tropical Vegetation," for the First Lobby Stairway of the new Psychiatric Building at Bellevue Hospital. It was one of over a dozen murals painted by artists for the new building with funds provided by the Federal Art Project arm of the Works Progress Administration. It so happens, that the new building for which Luis Arenal painted the mural was also a New Deal project. The building was constructed with the support the  federal Public Works Administration (PWA). Luis Arenal was a painter and sculptor born in Mexico in...

In the late 1930s Lily Furedi painted the mural entitled "Simple Way of Life" for the women’s large occupational therapy room in the Psychiatric Building of Bellevue Hospital, It was one of over a dozen murals painted by artists for the building with funds provided by the Federal Art Project arm of the Works Progress Administration. According to Wikipedia, Lily Furedi began her work as a New Deal artists with the the Public Works of Art Project. When the program ended in 1934, Furedi joined the Federal Art Project under which completed the mural for Bellevue Hospital. The Federal Art Project Photographic Division lists...

In the late 1930s, Axel Horn and an assistant, George Brodsky, who was a veteran of the Lincoln Battalion, completed work on the mural entitled “Industrial Landscape” for the first floor waiting room in the Psychiatric Building of Bellevue Hospital. Horn and Brodsky were two out of more than a dozen artists commissioned by the Federal Art Project arm of the Works Progress Administration (WPA/FAP) to paint a series of murals for the Psychiatric Building at Bellevue Hospital. Susan Teller Gallery explains that "rom 1936 to 1940 Horn worked on the Federal Arts Project. He made murals for the Seaview and Bellevue...

In 1936 and 1937 William Karp painted a mural entitled "Normal Pursuits of Man" for the occupational therapy exhibition room in the Psychiatric Building of Bellevue Hospital. It was one of over a dozen murals painted by artists for the psychiatric building at Bellevue Hospital with funds provided by the Federal Art Project arm of the Works Progress Administration. With funding from the W.P.A., Karp also produced the mural entitled "Armed with Learning and Reality, Looking from the Past to the Future" in 1938, for the Hebrew Orphans Asylum, NYC. We know that one of the murals at Bellevue hospital entitled "Materials for Relaxation" by...

In the early 1940s Nunzio laSpina completed work on a mural decoration for the ceiling in the lobby of the Psychiatric Building of Bellevue Hospital. LaSpina was one of over a dozen artists commissioned by the Federal Art Project (FAP) arm of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to paint murals for the new psychiatric building at Bellevue Hospital. The Living New Deal needs further information to determine the current status of this mural.

In the late 1930s Ryah Ludins painted the mural entitled “Recreational Grounds of New York City” for the men’s recreation room in the Psychiatric Building of Bellevue Hospital. It was one of over a dozen murals painted by artists for the building with funds provided by the Federal Art Project arm of the Works Progress Administration. We know that one of the murals at Bellevue hospital entitled “Materials for Relaxation” by David Margolis has been restored. However, The Living New Deal needs further information to determine the current status of the other WPA murals painted for Bellevue Hospital. Ryah Ludins first became interested...

"Materials of Relaxation," by David Margolis was one of over a dozen murals that the Federal Art Project arm of the Works Progress Administration commissioned for the Psychiatric Building at Bellevue Hospital in the mid and late 1930s. "Materials of Relaxation" is a nine-panel mural located inside the 1st Avenue entrance of the old Bellevue Hospital building. Margolis painted the mural between 1937 and 1941. The New Deal Art Registry lists Richard Lillis and Vincient LaGambino as assistants for the mural project. However, Terenchin Gallery in Hudson, New York lists artist Morris Shulman as a fresco assistant for the project. The panels...

In 1937 Walter Quirt completed work on the mural entitled The Growth of Medicine from Primitive Times for the doctor’s lounge room of the Psychiatric Building of Bellevue Hospital. Quirt was one of over a dozen artists commissioned by the Federal Art Project (FAP) arm of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to paint murals for the new psychiatric building at Bellevue Hospital. John Dorfman of the online journal "Art and Antiques" pronounces Quirt's mural for Bellevue hospital to be his "...greatest achievement for the WPA..."  Dorfman explains that it "...was a panoramic mural...which combined Surrealism and history painting on a grand scale." Quirt painted...

In 1936 Phil Reisman was one of over twelve artists commissioned by the Federal Art Project arm of the Works Progress Administration to paint a series of murals for the Psychiatric Building at Bellevue Hospital. With funding provided by the Federal Art Project, Reisman completed work on the mural entitled "Interdependence of Industry and Agriculture" for the men's therapy room in the Psychiatric Building at Bellevue Hospital in the late 1930s. In an article about Reisman's prints for the Charles Marvin Fairchild Memorial Gallery, George D. Bianco writes that "he mural , painted in egg tempera, depicted various American industrial scenes...

In the late 1930s, Louis Ross completed work on the mural entitled "Cyclorama of Handicrafts" for the classroom in the Psychiatric Building of Bellevue Hospital. Ross was one of over a dozen artists commissioned by the Federal Art Project arm of the Works Progress Administration (WPA/FAP) to paint a series of murals for the Psychiatric Building at Bellevue Hospital. The Living New Deal needs further information to determine the current status of the "Cyclorama of Handicrafts" mural that Louis Ross painted for Bellevue Hospital.

In the mid 1930s, Agnes Tait completed work on the mural entitled "Summer Holiday" for the women’s recreation room in the Psychiatric Building of Bellevue Hospital. Tait was one of over a dozen artists commissioned by the Federal Art Project arm of the Works Progress Administration (WPA/FAP) to paint a series of murals for the Psychiatric Building at Bellevue Hospital. We learn from the brief survey of Tait's career on her webpage that she "...produced some of her best-known works during the Depression era including the frequently reproduced painting Skating in Central Park, a set of murals for Belleview Hospital in New York,...

Parks first constructed a playground at the intersection of 182nd St. and Belmont Ave. in 1937. A press release from July of that year announced the opening of "five playgrounds, constructed by the Department of Parks with relief labor and funds," noting that "These playgrounds are five of the twenty-four sites in neglected areas selected by the Commissioner of Parks and acquired by condemnation after authorization by the Board of Estimate and Apportionment on July 15, 1936." One of these five playgrounds was located on part of what is now Belmont Playground. Today's Parks website explains that at its opening in...

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.

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...

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...

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 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...