New York Sites

"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...

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 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 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 historic College Station post office in New York, New York on West 140th St. was one of many post offices in Manhattan constructed with federal Treasury Department funds during the New Deal era. This project was implemented by the Public Works Administration. The building's cornerstone, and an interior plaque, put the dates of construction at 1935 to 1937. The building is still in service. C.W. Short and R. Stanley-Brown: "This delightfully designed postal station is on West 140th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues and serves a district bounded by the Harlem River on the east, St. Nicholas Avenue on the west, and a depth...

Columbus Park, located in Manhattan's Chinatown, was one of the city's earliest major parks. By the early 1930s, it was quite rundown. New Deal programs greatly remodeled and upgraded the park and its facilities. In October 1934, the Department of Parks announced the opening, presided over by Mayor LaGuardia, of the newly remodeled Columbus Park, saying: "This old park with its fine big trees formerly included a small play area, which was in reality only a broken surfaced area containing poorly arranged rusted swings and slides. It has been replanned to double the size of the play area and provide...

The historic Cooper Station post office in New York, New York (originally known as Station 'D') was constructed with federal Treasury Department funds between 1936 and 1937. The building is still in use today.

On June 8, 1938, the Department of Parks announced the completion of the redesign and reconstruction of Cooper Park (now also known as Cooper Triangle). The site was the location of an important political speech by Abraham Lincoln in 1860. The 1938 press release explained: "In the reconstruction, the old dilapidated, unsanitary, underground comfort station has been eliminated; new exterior concrete walks constructed; 17 new trees planted and the fence enclosing the area repaired and painted. At the north end on the base of the triangular plot is a memorial monument, consisting of a bearded figure of Peter Cooper, American inventor, manufacturer...

The CWA constructed this park at Corlears Hook. From a 1934 New York City Parks Department press release: "Facilities: An open shelter is to be erected. There are four handball, four horse-shoe pitching, one volley ball, two basketball and shuffle board courts. This area, which adjoins a lodging house with accommodation for 1800 men, has been planned to provide recreation for the unusually large number of men residing in this particular district." The amphitheater, known as the East River Amphitheater, was built in 1941. At least one of the playgrounds was replaced in 1969.

Corlears Hook Park is located on the Lower East Side across FDR Drive from the East River. The park was completed in 1905. In 1934, the Department of Parks announced the opening of a new playground in the park constructed with labor and materials supplied by Work Relief funds: "An open shelter is to be erected. There are four handball, four horse-shoe pitching, one volley ball, two basketball and shuffle board courts. This area, which adjoins a lodging house with accommodation for 1800 men, has been planned to provide recreation for the unusually large number of men residing in this...

This small playground in East Harlem was named after "New York City’s first African American Deputy Commissioner of Cultural Affairs." NYC Parks explains that the City acquired this land in 1936. In June 1937, Parks announced the completion of a new playground on the site: "In Manhattan, at Fifth Avenue between West 130th and West 131st Streets, the new playground is equipped with swings, see-saws, slides, jungle gym, sand tables, playhouses, a rectangular wading pool, handball and shuffleboard courts. There is also a large open play area for group games. Around the perimeter of the playground is a landscape area with...

This park was first established in 1901. In October 1941, the WPA and the Department of Parks completed the reconstruction of the park: "The old pavilion and comfort station was demolished and replaced by a modern brick building. The play was enlarged by the construction of retaining walls. There are two wide gate controlled entrances on each side of the new comfort station, which is located on the center line adjacent to the east fence, leading to the wading pool area. The wading pool may also be used for basketball and volleyball in the fall and winter. Two shuffleboard courts are parallel...

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...

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...

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...

"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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...