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  • Department of Purchase Warehouse (demolished) - Brooklyn NY
    In 1937, the Works Progress Administration built a "low art moderne warehouse for the New York City Department of Purchase, directly under the Brooklyn Bridge and opposite Pete’s Downtown. Approved by the New York City Art Commission, it was designed by Michael J. Mongiello as a long, sleek piece of streamlining with strip windows and orange brick. The roof was specially designed to resist damage from debris falling from the bridge." The building took 18 months to construct, with $635,000 in Federal funds. The Warehouse was built in the Fulton Ferry district at the Brooklyn Bridge. The 1939 W.P.A. Guide to New York City,...
  • Detective Keith L. Williams Park Playground - Jamaica NY
    Formerly known as Liberty Park, this site was acquired by the City in late 1936. In July 1937, Parks announced that "the new playground...is the first section of a large recreational area which is being constructed to be completed. It is for small children and has slides, swings, see-saws, sand tables, play houses and a rectangular wading pool which can be used for volleyball when not in use as a pool. Benches and shade trees are also provided. When the entire area is completed, it will have facilities for baseball, football, tennis, roller-skating, basketball, horseshoe pitching and paddle tennis, as...
  • Devoe Park - Bronx NY
    Devoe Park "dates from 1915, but the playgrounds and athletic facilities were added by the Parks Department and WPA in 1935. This is one of seven NYC parks opened (or re-opened) on Friday, November 22, 1935, in a ceremony where the speakers were WPA Administrator Harry L. Hopkins, Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, Park Commissioner Robert Moses, and some other officials, as indicated in the NYC Parks Department Press Release for November 21 of that year. Playgrounds were added at each end of the park (that have been renovated since then), and then in 1941 the 'free play area' including...
  • DeWitt Clinton High School Murals - Bronx NY
    The third-floor hallway at DeWitt Clinton High School contains two huge New Deal murals by Alfred Floegel, The History of the World (walls) and Constellations (ceiling). The oil on canvas murals were painted in 1934-1940. The History of the World is 5 feet 4 inches high and 194 feet long. Floegel worked on the Clinton High School murals from 1934 to 1940. In the wall mural, different eras of world history are represented in sequence, starting at the rear, proceeding up the right wall, then crossing over and proceeding down the left wall. The ceiling is uniformly done in blue and gold,...
  • Dome Playground - Brooklyn NY
    On October 1937, Parks announced the opening of a new playground in what later became known as Dome Playground: "At Dahill Road and 38th Street, also in Brooklyn, the new playground, the wading pool section of which was opened some time ago, has facilities for handball, basketball, volley ball, soft ball games, a roller skating track, horizontal ladders and bars and a generously equipped small children's playground with slides, swings, see-saws, playhouse and sand tables. Shade trees and permanent concrete benches are also included in the design. This area is another one of the twenty-four sites selected by the Commissioner of...
  • Domestic Relations Court Building (former) - New York NY
    The federal Public Works Administration provided a grant toward the construction of the Domestic Relations Court Building located at the northeast corner of Lexington Ave. and 22nd St. Built in 1939-1940, the building now houses Baruch College's Administrative Center and features a striking set of exterior reliefs above the first floor. The facility has also been referred to the "Second Children’s Court". GothamCenter: "The Children’s Court’s new home, built in 1912, was the first of two courthouses to be located on East 22nd Street between Lexington Avenue and Park Avenue South, a quiet residential block near Gramercy Park.  The second “Gramercy Park courthouse” was...
  • Dongan Oak Monument - Brooklyn NY
    "One of several small monuments in the vicinity of what is known as the “Battle Pass” in Prospect Park, the Dongan Oak Monument commemorates events which took place in this area during the Battle of Long Island on August 27, 1776. During this significant battle of the Revolutionary War, a large white oak mentioned in 1685 in the patent of Governor Thomas Dongan (1634–1715), was cut down by Colonial soldiers and thrown across the road to impede the advance of the British army."   (www.nycgovparks.org) In the 1930s, the sculpture was restored with federal funding under Karl Gruppe, "chief sculptor of the...
  • Douglass St. Pumping Station (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 water pumping station at "Pt. of Douglass St.", believed by Living New Deal to be located at the end of Douglass St. at the Gowanus Canal. A municipal site presently located at this spot is called 'Gowanus Facilities.'
  • Downing Street Playground - New York NY
    The Downing Street Playground 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 his tenure as Parks Commissioner, 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 public parks in New York to New Deal agencies. However, several of Moses’ statements reveal that during the 1930s most of...
  • Dreier-Offerman Playground - Brooklyn NY
    Now a part of the much larger Calvert Vaux Park (also still referred to as Dreier-Offerman Park), this smaller playground at Cropsey Ave. and Bay 46th St. was constructed by the Department of Parks in 1934. Mayor La Guardia attended the opening ceremony in November 1934. The press release announcing the opening described the new playground as having "a wading pool and a two-story brick field house. The sand tables, seesaws, slides and swings for small children are located on the Bay side of the building.  Apparatus for older children is located in the space adjoining Cropsey Avenue." This playground...
  • Dry Harbor Playground - Glendale NY
    This playground on the edge of Forest Park in Queens is named after Glendale's original name: Dry Harbor. The NYC Parks site explains that it was "constructed in 1934 with swings, see-saws, a wavy slide, a flagpole, and a schoolyard gymnasium." A June 1936 press release also announced the completion of the reconstruction of an area in this playground to contain "a wading pool, complete equipment for small children and a play area with a soft ball diamond and horseshoe pitching court for boys," and in December 1936 Parks announced the completion of the second half of the remodeled playground...
  • Dubois Avenue Yard Improvements - Staten Island NY
    The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) put men to work beginning in 1935 on an improvement project at the city-owned Dubois Avenue Yard. A $125,473 project involved the construction of two extensions to garage buildings at the then-Highway Department facility: one 100' x 50' and the other 63' x 50'. A $84,000 project entailed "building repair and alterations" at the facility. The site (albeit with newer construction) is still in use by New York City's Department of Transportation.
  • Duffield St. Public Bath Improvements (demolished) - Brooklyn NY
    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 at 42 Duffield Street were constructed in 1905; 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.
  • Dunbar Playground - Bronx NY
    Dunbar Playground is named after African American poet Paul Dunbar. It was opened by the New York Department of Parks on September 23, 1935. The department press release stated that the playground would be "equipped with a wading pool, shuffle board court, handball courts, swings, slides, seesaws, etc." (kermitproject.org). Although the release does not specify federal involvement, researcher Frank da Cruz explains here that “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...
  • Dyker Beach Golf Course - Brooklyn NY
    The Dyker Beach Golf Course first opened in 1897. It was redesigned by Jon Van Kleek in 1935-1936. On May 7, 1936, the Department of Parks announced that the Dyker Beach Golf Course had been “thoroughly reconstructed with new tees and greens throughout…with relief funds provided by the C.W.A., T.E.R.A. and W.P.A.” The renovation project was part of a larger city wide renovation of public golf courses that was funded by New Deal programs. David Owen, staff writer at The New Yorker, remarks that "Dyker is where Tiger Woods’s father, Earl, learned to play golf, in the early nineteen-seventies. (He was...
  • Dyker Beach Park - Brooklyn NY
    Dyker Beach Park, located just south of the Dyker Beach Golf Course and north of the Belt Parkway was assembled in eight stages between 1895 and 1934. In 1942, the WPA and the Department of Parks completed extensive work on the park, much of which is still visible today. A press release announcing the completion of a field house and playground described the finished and ongoing work: "The field house, a one story brick structure, approximately 44' x 100' is located at the east end of the athletic field in a paved plaza designed as a focal point for the park...
  • East 222nd Street Improvements - Bronx NY
    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 1.2-mile stretch of East 222nd Street between Carpenter Ave. and Boston Rd.
  • East 93rd Street 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 the modest stretch of East 93rd Street from Lenox Rd. to Kings Highway.
  • East Harlem District Health Center - New York NY
    Then constructed as the East Harlem Health and Teaching Center, what is now known as the East Harlem District Health Center was built with federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. The PWA supplied a $239,000 loan and $343,700 grant for the project, whose total cost was $1,253,244. Construction occurred between November 1935 and December 1937. PWA Docket No. NY 9049. A March 1935 Parks Department press release discussing the construction of the health center also describes plans to build a playground on the building's roof that would "spare nothing in the way of ingenuity in developing this area into the city's most...
  • Eastern Boulevard Paving - Bronx NY
    The federal Work Projects Administration put many men to work starting in 1935 with street repair and maintenance projects that improved roads throughout the Bronx. An approximately half-mile stretch of what was then Eastern Boulevard (now the Bruckner Expressway) between Middletown Rd. and Westchester Ave. was resurfaced with bituminous concrete as part of one $94,564 WPA project.
  • Ellis Island: Ferry Building - New York NY
    "This building was designed and carried out by the Public Buildings Branch of the Procurement Division for the Immigration Service of the Department of Labor and constitutes one unit of a large project to improve ferry facilities at Ellis Island. The building has two one-story wings and consists of a high central pavilion surmounted by a copper covered cupola. The central pavilion houses a waiting room for the immigrants, the left wing is devoted to the Customs Service, and the right wing has a lunch room with kitchen facilities. The construction is fireproof throughout, with a steel frame and reinforced-concrete...
  • Ellis Island: New Immigration Building - New York NY
    The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) describes the New Deal's extensive work on Ellis Island, which included building this new immigration building: "The New Immigration Building is one of three major New Deal-era buildings at Ellis Island created to meet the changing scope of immigration services at the facility. Constructed on fill joining Island 1 and Island 2, the New Immigration Building was intended as the new processing center for the diminishing numbers of arriving immigrants, while the existing Baggage and Dormitory Building and the Main Immigration building on Island 1 handled the increasing number of deportees. The clean lines and...
  • Ellis Island: Passageway C7 - New York NY
    The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) describes the New Deal's extensive work on Ellis Island, which included building this and another long covered passageway: "A system of covered passageways connected the three islands, providing sheltered circulation during inclement weather. Pipes and electrical conduits were also located above the ceiling in these corridors. The one-story brick passageways between Islands 1 and 2 were built with Works Progress Administration (WPA) funding in 1934-35 and are now designated C7. These corridors include a short connection from the east facade of the New Immigration Building (HABS NY-6086-O) and the long section that runs parallel to...
  • Ellis Island: Passageway C8 - New York NY
    The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) describes the New Deal's extensive work on Ellis Island, which included building this and another long covered passageway: "The one-story brick passageways on the west side of Islands 2 and 3 are now designated C8. A system of covered passageways connected the three islands, providing sheltered circulation during inclement weather. Pipes and electrical conduits were also located above the ceiling or in a side service passage. The two curving sections at the northwest side of Island 2 were first built around 1900, connecting the Hospital outbuilding (HABS NY-6086-K). The rest of this long corridor travels...
  • Ellis Island: Recreation Building - New York NY
    The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) describes the New Deal's extensive work on Ellis Island, which included building this recreation building: "The Recreation Building at the Ellis Island U.S. Immigration Station was designed and built between 1933 and 1937 as part of a series of projects made possible through New Deal public works funding. In 1933 the federally-appointed Ellis Island Committee completed a report that recommended widespread improvements to the immigration facilities, among which was the development of adequate accommodations for recreation. The Recreation Building was designed for Ellis Island by consulting architect Chester Aldrich and the Public Buildings Service, along...
  • Ellis Island: Recreation Shelter - New York NY
    The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) describes the New Deal's extensive work on Ellis Island, which included building this recreation shelter: "The Recreation Shelter on Islands 2 and 3 was part of the last active phase of construction at the Ellis Island U.S. Immigration Station during the 1930s. The Recreation Building and two Recreation Shelters were designed for Ellis Island alongside the New Immigration Building (1934-1936) and Ferry Building (1934), all of which were financed through New Deal funding. The construction of these new facilities contributed to a reconfiguration of the island into clearly demarcated spaces for patients, immigrants and deportees,...
  • Elmhurst Branch Library Alterations (demolished) - Elmhurst NY
    A federal WPA-sponsored set of alterations, repairs, and general improvements was undertaken at the old Elmhurst branch library in Elmhurst, New York during the 1930s. The building was demolished in 2012.
  • Elmhurst Hospital Center Mural - Queens NY
    As of 2009, this 1938 WPA mural by William Palmer entitled "The Development of Medicine" is located in the Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens. It may have originally been installed in the Queens General Hospital (now the Queens Hospital Center). According to a 1964 interview with the artist: "It was stated in a recent book on the WPA - that the panel Controlled Medicine was in effect a plea for and propaganda for socialized medicine. This statement is without any basis of fact, and the author never contacted me for my analysis panel. To put the record straight - the mural Development...
  • Essex Street Market (former) - New York NY
    New York's 15,000-square-foot Essex Street Market, located along the east side of Essex Street between Rivington and Delancey Streets, was constructed with the assistance of the Work Projects Administration (WPA). The market opened in 1940. It was "one of eight similar markets built by LaGuardia and financed in part by federal money from the WPA." (blogs.forward.com) After many years of vibrant activity, first with Jewish and Italian residents and vendors, and then with Puerto Ricans as neighborhood demographics shifted, the increasing popularity of supermarkets had reduced the number of vendors in the Essex Street Market from 475 to 59. In the...
  • Evander Childs High School Mural - Bronx NY
    An enormous mural called The Evolution of Western Civilization is located in the library of the former Evander Childs High School. The Federal Arts Project (FAP) of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) commissioned the mural cycle in 1935 and it was completed in 1938. It is true fresco, rather than a painting, and covers 1,400 square feet.   (https://newdeal.feri.org) A film made by the WPA depicts the creation of the mural by artist James Michael Newell, aided by students at the high school. It can be viewed on the Living New Deal video page. The murals have generated significant controversy over the years, as discussed in...
  • Evander Childs High School Sculpture - Bronx NY
    In 1937 Romuald Kraus completed this sculpture entitled "Alma Mater" for Evander Childs High School with funding from the WPA's Federal Art Project (Archives of American Art).
  • Evergreen Park - Ridgewood NY
    Today's NYC Parks website explains: "The City of New York acquired the property for this park in January 1941. At that time, the park was divided by 60th Street, which cut through the property. The City then assigned Evergreen Park to the Board of Education and Parks in the spring of 1942. In order to expand the parkland and unify the two sections, the City closed 60th Street and gave the area to Parks. Part of the park is jointly operated with the adjacent P.S. 68. The playground opened officially on January 11, 1943." A 1943 press release announcing the park's...
  • Exterior Street Sewer Reconstruction - Bronx NY
    "'In the Bronx, the reconstruction of an outfall sewer under Exterior Street near Broadway developed into one of the big engineering jobs at the NYC WPA. This sewer had been laid in the bed of the old Harlem River after the building of the Ship Canal.' It saved neighboring buildings from flooding with sewage."
  • F.D.R. Boardwalk - Staten Island NY
    According to the NYC Parks Department: "In 1935, the City of New York acquired this property and it underwent renovations performed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s (1882-1945) Works Progress Administration (WPA). In addition to removing the deteriorating music halls, carousels, and shooting galleries, the WPA also laid down the present two and a half-mile long boardwalk. In 1939, it was dedicated to the former governor and president." The WPA Guide to New York City reported that this was "a two-million-dollar board-walk, constructed by the WPA in 1938." The boardwalk runs along the eastern border of the neighborhood of Dongan Hills on...
  • Family Court Building (demolished) 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 no-longer-extant Family Court building at 327 Schermerhorn St.
  • Father Tom Joyce Sports Complex - Brooklyn NY
    The New York Times reported in late 1941 that WPA laborers had begun construction of a new playground at 3rd Ave. and 64th St. in Brooklyn, NY. The 1.25-acre plot was to contain several recreational facilities.
  • Federal Courthouse Mural - Brooklyn NY
    Edward Laning completed a mural entitled "The Role of the Immigrant in the Industrial Development of America" in 1938 for the Dining Hall in the Administration Building on Ellis Island with funding from the WPA's Federal Art Project. "The mural was 10 feet tall by 190 feet long...The sweep of the mural’s length echoed the grand scope of its narrative" that spanned American immigration history, geography, and industrial development.  Unfortunately, "Most of the mural was ruined in the 1950s when a storm damaged the roof of the facility. Portions of original were salvaged in 1970, when Judge Jacob Mishler of the Eastern Court of New York...
  • Federal Office Building - New York NY
    The Federal Office Building at 90 Church Street was constructed between 1934 and 1935 by the Treasury Department Public Buildings Bureau, and includes the Church Street Station Post Office. A multi-story addition on top of the building was completed a few years later. It occupies the entire city block bounded by between Church Street and West Broadway and Vesey and Barclay Streets. The architecture spans neo-Classical and Art Deco styles and was designed by a team of Cross & Cross, Pennington, Lewis & Mills, under the direction of Louis A. Simon, Supervising Architect of the Department of the Treasury.  The...
  • Ferry Point Park - Bronx NY
    Ferry Point Park is a large park in the Bronx located at the site of the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge on the East River. New York City acquired the land in 1937. It was planned under Robert Moses and constructed by the WPA. A NYC Parks Department press release from August 11, 1941, announced that the park had been completed. The release describes several of the features constructed by the WPA, including: an overlook above the water, "a combination comfort station and storage building," "two baseball diamonds," picnic areas, tree plantings and more. Unfortunately the large portion of the park West of the...
  • Fieldston Fire Station - Bronx NY
    The Works Progress Administration constructed the firehouse on the Henry Hudson Parkway East in the Fieldston section of the Bronx. Frank da Cruz with the Kermit Project describes the history of the firehouse thus: "The Engine 52 / Hook & Ladder 52 firehouse at 4550 Henry Hudson Parkway East in the Fieldston section of Bronx NY (MAP), serving Fieldston, Riverdale, Spuyten Duyvil, Kingsbridge, and Marble Hill since 1884. The present building was designed and constructed in 1939 by the US Works Projects Administration: Public Buildings ... The new house built by the WPA for Engine Company 52 at 4550 Riverdale Avenue replaces an old...
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