New York City Sites

The Central Park Zoo was built over the course of eight months in 1934 by workers employed by the Civil Works Administration and, after that program’s demise, by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. It succeeded the old Central Park Menagerie, a once popular attraction that by the early 1930s was so severely dilapidated that Parks Department officials feared its lions and tigers would break out of the rotted wood structures that housed them. Newly-appointed Parks Commissioner Robert Moses set about replacing the menagerie, not with a full-sized zoo, but with what he called a “picture-book zoo”—a smaller-scale facility meant as...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) worked to restore the 107th Infantry Memorial at 5th Ave. and 67th St. in Central Park during the mid-1930s.

On May 4, 1936, the Department of Parks announced the opening of "three new perimeter playgrounds for children of pre-school age" in Central Park. One, at 68th St. and Central Park West, appears to be what is now known as Adventure Playground. Although the 1936 press release does not mention the WPA or other New Deal agencies, the New Deal transformed much of Central Park in the 1930s. Furthermore, researcher Frank da Cruz explains here that almost all New York City Parks Department projects between 1934 and 1943 were accomplished with New Deal funds and/or labor, and that after April 1935,...

Works Progress Administration (WPA) artist Frederick George Richard Roth, who worked for the WPA as head sculptor at the Parks Department, and who also created several other sculptures in Central Park including the Dancing Goat, the Dancing Bear, and Mother Goose, plus the animal friezes at the Central Park Zoo, created this Alice-in-Wonderland themed sculpture commemorating Sophie Loeb (1876-1926). Sophie Loeb was a writer who advocated for children and for playgrounds in Central Park. Mayor LaGuardia and Robert Moses attended unveiling ceremony on October 2, 1936. The statue was originally created for Heckscher Playground, but was later moved to Levin Playground...

The Central Park Arsenal was built 1847-51, but served only briefly in that function.  After 1853, it was a police precinct house, the American Museum of Natural History, a menagerie, an art gallery, the Municipal Weather Bureau, a restaurant, and, finally in 1914, the Manhattan Parks Department. In 1934, the five borough Parks Departments were consolidated into a unified New York City Parks Department. Then, the Arsenal was overhauled by Depression-era relief labor paid for by New Deal programs.    The architect for the project was Aymar Embury II, who was the chief designer for New Deal/Parks Department projects around the city (the Wikipedia entry on Embury says that, "it is...

In 1935-36, the Arsenal was renovated by the New York City Parks Department using Depression-era relief labor paid for by New Deal programs (WPA and FERA). Afterward, the lobby walls was covered floor to ceiling with murals by Allen Saalburg and his assistants.  Saalburg was the WPA's Director of Murals for the NYC Parks Department.     In the murals, "Saalburg depicted a series of scenes depicting recreational activities, notable park structures, and flagship parks. The project was funded by the Federal Works Progress Administration."   (www.nycgovparks.org) "In 1935, Juliana Force, the director of the Whitney Museum and organizer of the first Federal Art Program in New York, introduced...

Though Central Park was created in the 19th century by Olmsted and Vaux, the New Deal helped the Parks Department carry out massive improvements to the park from 1934 to 1938. Work relief funds and labor were used to construct 4 1/2 miles of bridle paths in the park: one circling the Reservoir, one around the North Meadow and one at the southern end of the park.   (www.kermitproject.org)

"The Columbus Monument at the south west (main) entrance to Central Park at 59th Street and Central Park West (and Broadway), created by Italian sculptor Gaetano Russo and dedicated in 1882. By the 1930s it was serverely stained by soot, its base was cracked by vibration, and natural veins in the sculpture itself were opened by vibration and weathering. It was cleaned and restored by the New Deal Monument Restoration Project under Karl Gruppe."   (kermitproject.org) As Carol Lowrey explains, “Gruppe was closely involved in the conservation of New York's public sculptures from 1934 to 1937, during which time, under the auspices...

"The Conservatory Garden is a six-acre formal garden named after a conservatory (i.e. greenhouse) that was built here in 1898. During the Depression, Parks commissioner Robert Moses (1888-1981) decreed the aging structure too expensive to maintain and had it demolished during a major renovation of the park in 1934 that was paid for largely with WPA funds. The garden that replaced the Conservatory was developed by architects Gilmore Clarke (1892-1982) and Betty Sprout (1906-1962) (who later married) and opened officially on September 18, 1937. The garden is divided into three separate sections: the central Italian-style garden, the southern English-style garden...

Though Central Park was originally established in the 1850s, New Deal workers carried out massive improvements to the park from 1934 to 1938. Work included the creation of the park's Great Lawn. The site was formerly the Lower Reservoir, which had recently been drained only to become a 'Hooverville' of people left unemployed and homeless by the Great Depression. With the help of CWA funding and labor in 1934 and most likely further WPA aid in 1935, the Parks Department had transformed the area into today's Great Lawn by 1936, featuring 8 ball fields and a promenade around the perimeter.   (www.kermitproject.org)  

The Harlem Meer is an artificial lake at the north end of Central Park, added to the original park by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux on the site of a former marsh. The New York Times reported in Sept. 1941 that the WPA, in conjunction with New York's Department of Parks, was working to improve Central Park for Harlem residents in "the area from Conservatory Gardens to 110th Street." "Major attention," The Times wrote, was being "given to the fourteen-acre lake and the series of rocky knolls rising from its southern bank." The WPA constructed a masonry wall "a foot high"...

After the Works Progress Administration (WPA) was launched in April 1935 (renamed the Work Projects Administration in 1939), it quickly became the main source of relief funds and labor for the NYC Parks Department. Heckscher Playground in Central Park was one of many playgrounds in New York to be renovated or constructed with WPA funding and labor: "Before the New Deal, Heckscher Playground was the only playground in all of Central Park, and prior to 1926 there were no playgrounds at all. In 1935 a plan was announced for the "complete renovation and redevelopment of the area", to include a memorial...

On May 4, 1936, the Department of Parks announced the opening of "three new perimeter playgrounds for children of pre-school age" in Central Park. One, at 77th St. and 5th Ave., is now called the James Michael Levin Playground. Although the 1936 press release does not mention the WPA or other New Deal agencies, the New Deal transformed much of Central Park in the 1930s. Furthermore, researcher Frank da Cruz explains here that almost all New York City Parks Department projects between 1934 and 1943 were accomplished with New Deal funds and/or labor, and that after April 1935, the WPA quickly...

"The Maine Monument at the southwest entrance to Central Park at 59th Street and Central Park West, created by Harold Van Buren Magonigle (architect) and Attilio Piggirilli (sculptor), dedicated in 1913. By the 1930s, fingers and toes of many of the statues around the base had been broken off by vandals, the bronze sword was missing, and the joinery and surface of the marble base were badly stained. In 1934 new fingers and toes and sword were created and affixed and the monument thoroughly cleaned the New Deal Monument Restoration Project under Karl Gruppe."   (kermitproject.org) As Carol Lowrey explains, “Gruppe was...

A June 1936 press release from the Department of Parks announced the opening of four new playgrounds along Central Park West at 81st, 84th, 96th and 100th Streets. This playground at 84th St. is now known as Mariners' Playground. It was "commissioned by Robert Moses as one of his 18 original playscapes for the park" (dnainfo). A 2015 article explained that a renovation would soon restore some of the original features that had since been lost. 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...

The Model Boathouse on Conservatory Lake in Central Park was designed and built by Robert Moses' “force of relief workers” (www.kermitproject.org).

Frederick Roths's Mother Goose Statue at the entrance to Rumsey Playground in Central Park. The 1938 Parks Department press release announced the erection of the statue: "The Department of Parks announces that an interesting statue depicting famed characters of the Mother Goose series of fairy tales, has been erected in the circle at the entrance to the Mary Harriman Rumsey children's playground in Central Park, Manhattan, formerly the site of the old Casino. The statue consists of a large figure of the witch who is astride the goose's back; then on the east and west sides in bas-relief there are figures of...

Though Central Park was created in the 19th century by Olmsted and Vaux, the New Deal help the Parks Department carry out massive improvements to the park from 1934 to 1938.  Work relief funds and labor were used to create 15 new baseball fields in the old North Meadow, where ball playing had long gone on informally.       

On May 4, 1936, the Department of Parks announced the opening of "three new perimeter playgrounds for children of pre-school age" in Central Park. One, at 100th St. and 5th Ave., is now called the Robert Bendheim Playground. Although the 1936 press release does not mention the WPA or other New Deal agencies, the New Deal transformed much of Central Park in the 1930s. Furthermore, researcher Frank da Cruz explains here that almost all New York City Parks Department projects between 1934 and 1943 were accomplished with New Deal funds and/or labor, and that after April 1935, the WPA quickly became...

A June 1936 press release from the Department of Parks announced the opening of four new playgrounds along Central Park West at 81st, 84th, 96th and 100th Streets. This playground at 96th St. is now known as the Rudin Family Playground. Today's Central Park Conservancy website confirms that this is the park that was built "between 1935 and 1936 as part of the perimeter playground system." 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 Department projects between 1934 and 1943 were carried out...

The history of Rumsey Playfield, the site of the City's popular SummerStage festival and other performances, is closely tied to the WPA. In 1864, a building was constructed on this site first as the Ladies Refreshment Saloon and soon became an expensive restaurant known as the "Casino." The building was torn down by the WPA after a long legal fight between the restaurant owners and Robert Moses. On May 7th, 1937, the Department of Parks announced the completion of the new Mary Harriman Rumsey Playground and explained the legal conflict that had preceded it: "The Park Department announces that the Mary...

This sculpture of a panther was created by Edward Kemeys in 1885. It was refurbished and remounted in 1937 by WPA workers and continues to be maintained by the Central Park Conservancy today.

A June 1936 press release from the Department of Parks announced the opening of four new playgrounds along Central Park West at 81st, 84th, 96th and 100th Streets. This playground at 100th St. is now known as the Tarr Family Playground. Today's Central Park Conservancy website confirms that this is the park that was originally built between 1935 and 1936. 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 Department projects between 1934 and 1943 were carried out with New Deal funds and/or labor,...

Based on Department of Parks press releases from the 1930s, researcher Frank da Cruz describes the role of federal funding in constructing this restaurant in Central Park: "What we know today as the Tavern on the Green in Central Park at West 66th Street was originally a “sheep fold”; that is, a barn for the sheep that used to graze on the Sheep Meadow." Meanwhile the Central Park Casino, an exclusive club for the rich and powerful situated across the park, was deemed an improper use of public land and torn down and the sheep fold converted into a ”popular priced...

The neighborhood news source "Our Town" reports that in Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia's speech at the dedication of the Chelsea Health Center on July 14, 1937, he "...insisted that he shouldn’t be praised for building the center – it was President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal...that made it possible." In 1934 the Mayor announced plans to build eight district health centers. The Chelsea clinic was the third of these Depression-era clinics to be built. The Mayor filed the plans for the Chelsea clinic in 1935. The plans were for the construction of a "... a three-story clinic on 9th Avenue and 27th Street,...

On June 25, 1936, the Department of Parks announced the completion of a reconstructed area at this neighborhood park in Chelsea, explaining: "...the reconstructed area will have a large play area with one ball field, handball courts, complete play equipment for small children and a wading pool." The park was further redesigned by the WPA in 1940, which added a new asphalt surface to west section of the park "graded so that it can be flooded for ice-skating when sub-freezing temperatures permit. In season it will be used for roller skating, roller hockey, softball, basketball and other group games." The WPA also...

This small park near the waterfront in Chelsea was first acquired by the NYC Parks Department in 1915. In 1923, the park was named in honor of Thomas F. Smith, a Chelsea native turned successful politician. It was further transformed in the 1930s: "In 1931 the park was compromised by the opening of the West Side also known as the Miller Elevated Highway, which bisected the property. Improvements were made to the easterly portion in the mid-1930s, including the introduction of handball and shuffle-bard courts, horseshoe pits, and London planetrees (Platanus x acerifolia)." More precisely, the Department of Parks press release announced...

Today's NYC Parks website explains that: "The land now occupied by Cherry Clinton Playground was owned by the Board of Education through the first few decades of the 20th century, and was used as the Seventh Ward Athletic Field until jurisdiction was transferred to Parks on June 16, 1938. The park was opened to the public on April 3, 1940 and included four paddle tennis courts, four handball courts, and a basketball-volleyball court." The 1940 press release announcing the playground's opening further explained that the playground was "designed by the Park Department and built by the Work Projects Administration."

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 no-longer-extant Children's Court building at 113(?) Schermerhorn St.

The main buildings of City College were constructed between 1903 and 1907 and the library was built in 1929. A new wing to the library was constructed in 1939 with funds labor provided by the Works Progress Administration (WPA).

Artist Rosalind Bengelsdorf was "ne of the youngest members of the American Abstract Artists... In 1935, she entered Hans Hofmann's atelier as one of the many scholarship students he took on. The following year, she joined the abstract artists working on WPA murals under Burgoyne Diller's enlightened leadership... "Abstraction, which relates to a WPA mural (now destroyed) Bengelsdorf painted for the Central Nurses Home on Welfare Island , balances simple geometric forms through position and color."    (https://americanart.si.edu)  

The building housing FDNY Engine 70, Ladder 53 on City Island was constructed in 1939 by the Work Projects Administration. This firehouse has a plaque confirming its New Deal origin. This is one of the few New Deal plaques in New York. The City Island Firehouse plaque reads. CITY OF NEW YORK F. H. LA GUARDIA MAYOR FIRE DEPARTMENT JOHN J. McELLIGOTT FIRE CHIEF & COMMISSIONER DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION UNDER THE SUPOERVSION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS IRVING V. A. HUIE COMMISSIONER ERECTED BY WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION 1939 The building is still in service and houses two fire companies and two trucks. In 2012, the firehouse was proposed for closure, as part of Mayor Bloomberg's...

City Island Road, between Pelham Bridge and the City Island Bridge, was built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA).

The WPA developed a "wholly new sewage system" for City Island, which had previously "depended on an antiquated system of individual street sewers, cesspools and septic tanks."

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 no-longer-extant Civil Prison at the southeast corner of Willoughby Ave. and Raymond Ave. (now Ashland Pl.). The land is now occupied by The Brooklyn Hospital Center.

The Claremont Inn was first built in 1804 and was located along the Hudson River, just north of where Grant’s Tomb stands today until its demise in 1951. For years, a succession of aristocrats lived in the house, including Joseph Bonaparte, ex-King of Spain and Napoleon’s brother. In the 1840s it was converted into a “road house” and in the 1870s, the building was acquired by the City as part of Riverside Park. The inn’s heyday lasted until the 1920s, with visitors and shoppers stopping at the inn for expensive luncheons. With Prohibition, however, the Claremont’s popularity declined. Only in the...

The 17-acre Claremont Park in the Bronx was extensively renovated and improved in 1940 by the Works Progress Administration. The renovated park opened on December 7, 1940. A press release from opening day describes WPA work in the park: "This park has been redesigned by the Department of Parks and constructed by the Work Projects Administration to provide wider year round usage for all ages and groups of citizens of the surrounding community. Besides three new children's playgrounds which were opened on September 14 of this year, the old playground at the East 170 Street end of the park has been...

SILive.com: "Among the other major WPA projects on the Island were ... development of park lands at Clove Lakes Park."

A former military facility, the Coast Guard Air Station at Floyd Bennett Field was constructed with federal Treasury Department funds. "The City of New York under the direction of Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, deeded a portion of New York City's only municipal airport at that time, Floyd Bennett Field, to the Coast Guard air arm on 9 July 1936.  The station was constructed at a cost of $399,800.00. Dedication ceremonies were set for 23 April 1938." CGAS Brooklyn was decommissioned May 1998.  

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) contributed to the development of what is now College Point Boulevard, prior to the advent of the 1939 World's Fair. Then called Lawrence Street, WPA efforts involved "the widening and paving of important approach to Whitestone Bridge." The New York Times: "The Lawrence Street improvement, which will employ fifty men for the next two months, will create a street eighty feet wide from building line to building line between Northern Boulevard and Thirty-second Avenue, where Lawrence Street joins Willetts Point Boulevard at the north end of the West Bridge," since redeveloped as the Whitestone Expressway,...