New York City Sites

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.

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.

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...

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 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...

Roosevelt Hall is one of the five original buildings on the Brooklyn College campus, then serving as the school's gymnasium.  It was built as part of a massive federal Public Works Administration (PWA) project undertaken during the Great Depression, 1935-37. Construction took place ca. 1936. Unfortunately Brooklyn College intends to demolish Roosevelt Hall. "A recent feasibility study determined that Roosevelt Hall and Roosevelt Hall Extension cannot be transformed into the science facilities envisioned by the 1995 Master Plan Amendment. This project will demolish the Roosevelt Hall buildings and construct a 180,000-square-foot science facility with high-tech instructional laboratories, general-purpose classrooms and support spaces."

Under the WPA Federal Arts Project, artist Monty Lewis installed a large double fresco depicting "The Cotton Industry in Contemporary America" in 1936. The fresco may be in the auditorium or in a corridor. At the time of installation, this building was the High School of Industrial Arts. It later became the Sarah J. Hale High School and then, in 2001, the Brooklyn High School of the Arts.

In 1936, "when the United States was still reeling from the Great Depression, a series of murals was commissioned by the Federal Art Project (FAP), to be painted in the community rooms at the Williamsburg Public Housing development in Brooklyn, NY. This development was built in 1936-37, designed by the chief architect William Lescaze. The head of the New York Murals of the FAP division in 1937 was Burgoyne Diller. It was a brave move to commission a series of abstract murals from avant-garde, relatively unknown artists. At the time, most murals (perhaps all) were figurative... The artists whose murals were found in the...

The WPA contributed to several improvements at the Brooklyn Museum during the 1930s. According to the Federal Writers' Project: "During the past few years a WPA project has been making the useum one of the most modern and pleasantly arranged in the country. The most striking change has been the removal of a monumental stairway which originally gave access to the third story, and the building of a new entrance hall at the ground level."

In 1934, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported that Brooklyn and Queens received their largest allotment of funds to-date, "in the government's drive to spread employment and aid industry." Improvements to drydock 2 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, were part of the Public Works Administration's (PWA) metropolitan-wide program which added "1,079,328 man-months of direct employment," as well as indirect employment, much of it in the construction trades (Brooklyn Daily Eagle). Forty percent of the $250,000,000 that the PWA allocated to the New York metropolitan area went to Brooklyn and Queens. A significant portion of these funds were used to improve and extend the city's transportation system,...

The Light Cruiser USS Brooklyn CL40 was built in the New York Navy Yard (commonly known as the Brooklyn Navy Yard) between 1933 and 1936. It started out as a PWA project, but at the last minute, its funding was redirected toward the construction of another ship at a Massachusetts shipyard. Nevertheless, USS Brooklyn is a member of a new class of cruisers that the PWA funding introduced. Furthermore, since the Brooklyn Navy Yard was heavily staffed by WPA workers, the Brooklyn was likely constructed with New Deal labor. The Brooklyn Navy Yard operated as a Navy facility from 1801 until 1966. It built...

The USS Erie was built in the New York Navy Yard (Brooklyn Navy Yard) between 1934 and 1936. It was funded by the Public Works Administration (PWA). The Brooklyn Navy Yard operated as a Navy facility from 1801 until 1966. It built two warships, USS Brooklyn and USS Erie under the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 (NIRA). NIRA gave president Franklin D. Roosevelt the authority to build ships and an agency, the PWA, to pay for them.

Formerly known as Public School 142, what is now the Brooklyn New School building received a five-story addition in 1938-9 as a New Deal project. The Public Works Administration (PWA) provided a $191,250 grant for the school, whose total construction cost was $339,052. PWA Docket No. NY 1450

A WPA photo of students of the Brooklyn Technical High School says that the school itself was constructed by the PWA. The school's website says that ground was broken on the site in 1930 and the school was ready for partial occupancy in 1933, so most likely construction began before the New Deal but was completed by the PWA.

The school's main lobby features a large oil on canvas WPA mural painted by Maxwell Starr in 1941 . Entitled "History of Mankind in Terms of Mental and Physical Labor," the mural "traces developments from the Stone Age through the 1930s and portrays notable scientists and inventors." The mural was restored in 1998 by the Tech Alumni Association.   (https://www.bths.edu)  

The Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, officially known as the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel, runs under the East River to connect lower Manhattan to Brooklyn. The tunnel was begun in 1940 with PWA and Reconstruction Finance Corporation Funds, though it was not completed until until 1950: "The total cost of the tunnel and the attendant roadways was $105 million. La Guardia knew the city was incapable of financing the project so he dunned the Reconstruction Finance Corporation chief Jesse Jones, a Houston millionaire and Roosevelt confidant, for the funding. La Guardia's hopes of obtaining approval for government assistance were probably based in no small...

In November 1937, the Department of Parks announced the completion of a new playground at Weller Ave. and Brookville Blvd in Brookville Park: "the new playground is equipped with swings, seesaws, slides, jungle gym, sand tables, playhouses, ping pong tables, horizontal bar and ladder, basketball and volley ball courts; also, a circular wading pool surrounded by shade trees and permanent concrete benches. Brookville Park, which occupies a long narrow valley and is entered from the Sunrise Parkway at the north, is being completely constructed as a modern park with modern facilities, of which this playground forms one unit. With the completion...

Then known as Bedford Park, this Brooklyn Park was first established in the 1890s. Since 1899, the Brooklyn Children's Museum has been located on the property. The park was renamed Brower Park in 1923. In 1941, the Department of Parks announced that the WPA had significantly reconstructed the park and area around the museum: "The new development, which reserves 80% of the area for passive enjoyment of broad tree-dotted lawns, also provides a new playground for youngsters where they may safely play on a variety of exercise units. The museum...has been provided with a spacious block paved terrace extending around all sides....

Bryant Park was redesigned and rebuilt between 1933 and 1935 with the help of New Deal funding and Civil Works Administration labor. The project was supervised by the Parks Department, led at the time by Robert Moses. The central role of the New Deal in the reconstruction of the park has received little recognition, with most of the credit going to Moses' Parks Department. Yet, New Deal support was substantial. Moses himself stated for the NewYork Times that " the projects of 1934, with the exception of the parkways, were done almost entirely with relief labor," mentioning the reconstruction of Bryant...

The Works Progress Administration set up an outdoor library in Bryant Park. The "Reading Room" began in 1935 and closed in 1944. Today the park still serves as the site of an outdoor library, opened in 2003.

"This bronze sculpture depicts William Earl Dodge (1805–1883), one of the founders of Phelps, Dodge, a leading mining company. Dodge helped organize the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) in the United States and served as the president of the National Temperance Society from 1865 to 1883. John Quincy Adams Ward (1830–1910) sculpted the piece, which was donated by a committee of Dodge’s friends and acquaintances and dedicated October 22, 1885. Dodge is represented leaning on a podium while delivering a speech. The piece originally stood in Herald Square on a pedestal designed by Richard Morris Hunt (who designed the pedestal for...

The NYC Parks Department website explains that: "Architect Charles A. Platt (1861–1933) designed this elegant black granite ornamental fountain to commemorate social worker and reformer Josephine Shaw Lowell (1843–1905). Shaw, who is said to be the first woman to be honored by a major monument in New York City, was the first female member of the New York State Board of Charities, serving from 1876 to 1889. The Memorial Committee that worked to build the fountain originally wanted it placed in Corlear’s Hook Park on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, near where Shaw focused her energies. Instead, the fountain, with its 32-foot-wide...

A New York City Parks Department press release from August 26, 1939 describes the WPA’s role in developing what is now known as Bufano Park: “The Department of Parks announces that the two acre playground bounded by Bradford, Edison, LaSalle and Waterbury Avenues, in the Borough of The Bronx, will be opened to the general public without ceremony on Saturday, August 26th... This playground was planned by the Department of Parks and the work performed by the Work Projects Administration. Besides a completely equipped children's playground with wading pool, it includes eight handball courts, a softball diamond and a large asphalt surfaced...

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 the 0.4-mile stretch of Buhre Avenue between Mulford Ave. and what was then Eastern Blvd. (Eastern Boulevard provided the foundation for what is now the Bruckner Expressway.)

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed sewers in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn. A 1936 photo shows construction at Bushwick Ave. & Vanderveer St.

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." In November 1942, the Department of Parks announced that the WPA had completed the first part of the construction of a new playground at the last site mentioned above. The press release explained that Parks had received the land in 1940, with some restrictions for the nearby subways, and...

The Canal Street Station post office in downtown Manhattan was constructed with federal Treasury Department funds in 1937. It was designed by architect Alan Balch Mills.  The  two story building in the Moderne Style is clad in terra cotta panels,  with a black base, buff walls and a silvery frieze along the top.  A Treasury Section of Fine Arts-funded sculpture was installed in the post office lobby in 1938. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.

The federal Treasury Department's Section of Fine Arts funded a terra-cotta relief by Wheeler Williams entitled "Indian Bowman" to be installed in the newly constructed Canal Street post office. The sculpture was installed in 1938.

In 1941 The New York Times stated: "At present WPA workers are engaged in building Canarsie Beach Park on the Belt Parkway, a shorefront play area which will eventually offer bathing, fishing and boating."

The NYC Parks Department website explains: "This impressive monument to soldier, statesman and journalist Carl Schurz is the result of a collaboration between the distinguished sculptor Karl Bitter (1867–1915) and renowned architect Henry Bacon (1866–1924). Built in 1913, the monument consists of a full standing bronze portrait of Schurz in the center of a granite exedra (curved bench) with carved reliefs framed by two ornamental bronze luminaries. The entire monument is located within a large brick-paved plaza projecting from the promontory at Morningside Drive and West 116th Street. Other studio assistants and associates of Bitter may have worked on the side...

An August 1935 Parks Department press release lists what is now Catbird Playground in Carl Schurz Park 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 adolescents. The playground was designed by Gilmore D. Clarke and opened on June 20, 1935. It was further renovated in 1965 and 2000. Although neither source identifies which federal agencies were involved, researcher Frank da Cruz explains here that New Deal park projects developed before August 1935 would have been financed by...

Carroll Park has been a public park since the 1850s. A March 27, 1936 Department of Parks press release announced the opening of this new WPA playground in the park: "The Department of Parks will open ten new playgrounds Saturday, March 28, making a total of 125 added to the recreational system in two years. …at Smith Street, Carroll Street and First Place there will be four hand-ball courts, four shuffleboard courts and six horseshoe courts… All of these playgrounds were constructed es Works Progress Administration projects." Further improvements to the playground, including basketball courts and a play apparatus for older children, were announced...

This WPA photo shows WPA workers "cleaning, straightening, and improving storm drain" on Casleton Ave. in Staten Island (then known as the Borough of Richmond).

The historic Cathedral Station post office in New York, New York is located on West 104th Street, between Broadway 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 'H' until its redesignation as Cathedral Station on June 1, 1947. The building's cornerstone, and an interior plaque, put the dates of construction at 1935 to 1937. The building is still in service. Plaque text: This building was erected under the act of Congress dated June 16, 1933 and was completed during the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt,...

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 the modest stretch of Caton Avenue from McDonald Ave. to Fort Hamilton Pkwy.

The New York City Department of Parks announced the opening of Cedar Playground, along with twelve other playgrounds, in December 1935. Although the release does not explicitly mention federal funding, researcher Frank da Cruz explains here why "it is safe to say that every single project completed by the NYC Park Department during the 1930s was federally funded to some degree." After April 1935, the WPA was especially involved in the development of the New York park system.

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 Central Court Building, which presently houses the Kings County Criminal Court.

The former Queens Central Library, located at 89-14 Parsons Blvd., "opened in 1930 and was expanded with WPA funds in 1941." "The current Central Library is a product of its era. In the mid-1960s, instead of renovating the existing library at 89-14 Parsons Boulevard, officials chose to build an entirely new structure at 89-11 Merrick Boulevard, six blocks east. The older building was recycled as a courthouse. Its facade has since been incorporated into an apartment building called the Moda."

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 Brooklyn Public Library's Central Library.

Central Park was originally established in the 1860s, but New Deal workers carried out massive improvements to the park from 1934 to 1938. In addition to the many specific projects listed by name, there were any number of improvements done with the help of the New Deal.  As Frank da Cruz explains,  New Deal funds, labor, and designers reconstructed the park, with thousands of men working in three shifts around the clock in all weather.   They built new walls and entrance markers; removed dead trees and pruned others; plowed, seeded, planted, and revived the landscaping; created new footpath, trails, and drainage; and...