New York Sites

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...

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...

New York's historic First Avenue Retail Market Market was one of eight similar markets constructed with the assistance of the federal Work Projects Administration (WPA). These structures were built in order to replace the informal pushcart markets common on New York City streets at the time. The building now houses an art gallery: Theater for the New City.

The First Houses public housing development was constructed by the WPA in 1935. It is decorated throughout the courtyard and on the walls here and there with small animal statues and carvings. The New York Landmarks Preservation Foundation plaque at the site says: "The paved courtyard is enlivened by freestanding and applied animal sculpture, designed by artists associated with the Works Progress Administration." One artist involved was Adolf Wolff, who created a statue of a monkey.

The WPA Guide to New York City reported that: "On Avenue A and Third Street, three blocks east of the Bowery, rise the FIRST HOUSES, the first project of the NY City Housing Authority, opened in 1935. Of the old slum tenements which formerly occupied this space, some were torn down and others were completely rebuilt by WPA labour, using the old materials. Unfortunately the attempt to utilize old structures has forced the new ones into a dull scheme. Bathrooms, sound-proofed partitions, gardens, and playgrounds promote the health and comfort of the occupants, who pay five to seven dollars a room...

First Park playground, named for its location at the intersection of East First St. and First Ave. opened in 1935. The New York City Parks Department calls the park a "typical product of the W.P.A. (Works Progress Administration) initiative to create recreational areas in the City." This was just one of hundreds of playgrounds built by the New Deal in New York City. Based on press releases in the New York City Parks Department archives, researcher Frank da Cruz explains here that almost all New York City Parks Department projects were constructed with New Deal funds and/or labor.  Federal funding for...

Fort Tryon Park was built during the Depression era with the goal of providing public green space for upper Manhattan. John D. Rockefeller Jr. donated the land and provided most of the financial support for the construction of the park’s amenities. The infrastructure within and around the park was completed with work relief labor at the cost $300,000. The work consisted of building roads, storm drainage, and lighting. It was likely completed with the aid of the Civil Works Administration (CWA), the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), or the Temporary Emergency Relief Act (TERA) The New York City Park Department Report to August 1934 states...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) assisted in the paving of what was then Fourth Avenue (now Park Ave.) from 14th St. to 23rd St.

The WPA funded the removal of 33 miles of trolley tracks in New York City (The Encyclopedia of New York City: Second Edition). This image shows "WPA workers removing old street car tracks on Fourth Avenue . Picture shows 16th Street facing South" c. 1936 (WPA).

"During the year 1936 the WPA built East River Drive from Grand Street to 14th Street, demolishing structures in the line of the driveway, backfilling and grading low areas, rebuilding and extending sewers to new outfalls in the East River, building new catch-basins and inlets, and laying a nine-inch concrete base on the drive."

The Department of Parks announced the opening of what is now the Fred Samuel Playground on March 31, 1939. The press release explained: "The area located on the west side of Lenox Avenue between 139 and 140 Streets is adjacent to Public School 139, Manhattan and was the first parcel of ground purchased jointly by the Park Department and the Board of Education and developed in collaboration to the advantage of both departments. Besides being completely equipped with play apparatus the area also provides facilities for handball, basketball, paddle tennis, roller skating hockey and ice skating in the winter when subfreezing...

The Department of Parks announced the opening of what is now the Frederick Johnson Park on March 31, 1939. The press release explained: "The 150 Street and Seventh Avenue area obtained by the Department of Parks from the Board of Transportation for an indefinite period has been developed to include 8 tennis courts, 9 handball courts, a volley ball court as well as a sitting area for mothers and guardians of small children. The sitting area is surrounded by continuous rows of benches under shade trees with two separate sand pits for youngsters to play in. This area is adjacent to...

The WPA constructed a half-million-dollar garbage dump facility at the East River Drive and 91st Street, jutting out into the East River. The facility is reached by a "vamp" over the now-FDR Drive. The "building, which resembles an airplane hangar, covers 11,700 square feet and accommodates two barges at a time."

  The PWA played a crucial role in improving New York City's health and sanitation facilities at a moment of growing strain on existing infrastructure. The city's need for better ways to deal with garbage was particularly acute after 1934 when nearby New Jersey cities sued to stop New York from ongoing ocean dumping. Professor Robert Leighninger describes the results of PWA involvement: "Four garbage-disposal projects improved the city's health and cleanliness at a cost of $34.6 million. The garbage incinerator at Fifty-sixth Street and Twelfth Avenue and the attached garage that houses 350 garbage trucks is still vital to keeping...

"This monumental bronze portrait bust, dedicated in 1893, depicts Civil War General Winfield Scott Hancock (1824–1886), and was created by American sculptor James Wilson Alexander MacDonald (1824–1908)." (www.nycgovparks.org) In the 1930s, the bust was restored with federal funding under Karl Gruppe, "chief sculptor of the Monument Restoration Project of the New York City Parks Department, from 1934 to 1937." The program was initially supported by federal funding from the Public Works of Art Project (Lowrey, 2008), and later by the WPA.

Lucienne Bloch's mural, "The Evolution of Music", encircles the upper wall of the old music classroom at the former George Washington High School.  As the NY Public Schools Public Art for Public Schools website states: "Among New Deal New York City public school murals, the most outstanding example by a female artist is Lucienne Bloch’s The Evolution of Music, painted in a former high school music room. Bloch was one of the few WPA/FAP artists who had prior training painting murals, and she was well suited to her assignment at George Washington High School.  She had already successfully completed one WPA/FAP fresco...

Gertrude B. Kelly Playground was one of five model playgrounds designed after Robert Moses assumed control of the New York City Parks Department in 1934. These playgrounds were "meant to serve as templates for further playground designs and included standard features such as a play house, flagpole, chlorinated footbath, wading pool, handball and basketball courts, play equipment, drinking fountains, shade trees, and shrubs." (nycgovparks) Mayor LaGuardia presided over the dedication ceremony for this playground in August, 1934. A Parks Department press release announcing the opening of this and several other playgrounds explained that "The labor and materials for the construction of...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) worked to restore the Giuseppe Verdi Monument during the mid-1930s.

Then known as the Welfare Hospital for Chronic Disease, this hospital on New York's Roosevelt Island opened in 1939. The hospital soon received three rare 7 x 50 foot WPA murals by Ilya Bolotowsky (1907-1981), Joseph Rugolo (1911-1983) and Albert Swinden (1901-1961). "The murals must have caused a sensation in the early 1940s, when they were installed in the patients’ circular day rooms by the federal Work Projects Administration. Not your standard W.P.A. social-realist allegories, these were works of almost pure, jazzlike abstraction, bold fields of color that barely suggested any literal imagery."   (nytimes.com) At some point in the following years, all three...

From 1794 to 1966, Governors Island housed US army facilities. The whole island is now a National Monument and remains a "vibrant summer seasonal venue of art, culture and performance against the backdrop of two centuries of military heritage and the skyline of one of the great cities of the world" (https://www.nps.gov). According to a 1939 Federal Writers' Project publication, "the WPA ha constructed and repaired officers' dwellings, and beautified the grounds ."

In addition to WPA improvements made around Governors Island, "a mural in the Administration Building, depicting scenes from six American wars, was painted by artists of the Federal Art Project." The Administration Building is better known today as Pershing Hall. The Governors Island Blog states: "Pershing Hall benefited from a FAP commission to Tom Loftin Johnson for murals to adorn its principal hallways. Johnson’s 90 foot mural in Pershing Hall depicts American military history. A close look at these detailed murals reveals many notable national characters, some with particular connections to Governors Island."

Gracie Mansion has been the official residence of New York City's mayor since 1942, Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia and his family moved in.  It is located on East 88th Street in Carl Schurz park.  The federal style house was built in the 18th century for wealthy merchant Jacob Watson.  In 1798 ship merchant Archibald Gracie traded his Lower East Side townhouse for the Watson mansion in what was then known as Yorkville. The city purchase the Gracie estate in 1886 to expand Carl Schurz park.   For years it served various functions as part of Schurz park, housing public restrooms, an ice cream stand, and classrooms. From 1924 until 1936, it...

"This majestic, gilded-bronze equestrian group statue depicts one of the United States’ best-known generals, William Tecumseh Sherman (1820 – 1891). Dedicated in 1903, it was master sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens’s (1848 – 1907) last major work, and serves as the centerpiece of Manhattan’s Grand Army Plaza." In the 1930s, the sculpture was restored with federal funding under Karl Gruppe, "chief sculptor of the Monument Restoration Project of the New York City Parks Department, from 1934 to 1937." The program was initially supported by federal funding from the Public Works of Art Project (Lowrey, 2008), and later by the WPA. The statue's gold leaf...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) worked to restore the Pomona statue (also known as the "Lady of the Plaza") in Grand Army Plaza in Manhattan, during the mid-1930s. The statue tops the Pulitzer Fountain in the plaza's southern half.

“The third project which Louis Schanker completed while in the Mural Division of the WPA was for the Hall of Medicine and Public Health Building at the New York orld’s Fair (1939-1940). Large sharply angled geometric shapes are the background foil for a variety of organic cell and ameba shapes, an oversized head, and directional symbols such as an arro and dotted lines.” Completed with Abraham Lishinsky.

Hamilton Fish Park was first opened in 1900, featuring a gymnasium and playground. In 1936, it was thoroughly remodeled and the new WPA swimming pool (the first of eleven to open that summer) became the main attraction. A June 1936 press release announced the opening of the new pool, describing it and the other WPA pools in glowing terms: “Mayor LaGuardia, Park Commissioner Robert Moses and Works Progress Administrator Victor Ridder participated Wednesday in ceremonies in connection with the official opening of the Hamilton Fish Swimming Pool at East Houston and Sheriff Streets, on the lower east side of Manhattan. The...

Renovations to Harlem Hospital were undertaken by the Works Progress Administration (WPA).

Harlem Hospital murals include two 1940 pieces by Charles Alston, "Magic in Medicine" and "Modern Medicine", painted under the auspices of the Federal Arts Project of the WPA in 1936.  As the New York Times notes, "Harlem Hospital’s were perhaps the first major federal government commissions awarded to African-Americans." "Charles Alston's Magic in Medicine is situated opposite his Modern Medicine, offering contrast and dialogue between traditional and modern healing practices. The diptych imagines the history of healing and medicine in Africa and the United States. The sepia-toned Magic in Medicine incorporates a Fang reliquary sculpture, a type of ritual art piece from Gabon that was widely collected by...

Alfred D. Crimi painted this 250-square-foot fresco, entitled Modern Surgery and Anesthesia, in 1940 for the Works Progress Administration (WPA). According to the webpage entry "Harlem Hospital WPA Murals" from Columbia University's Institute for Research in African-American Studies,  "Alfred D. Crimi, the only white person employed as a master artist for the Harlem Hospital murals project, was originally commissioned to paint a series of five fresco panels for the Medical Board Room, but he only completed one before leaving to work on another federally sponsored art project in Washington, D.C. He based the subjects for his series on the history of medicine,...

An eight panel mural by African America artist Vertis C. Hayes, entitled "Pursuit of Happiness," was commissioned for Harlem Hospital Center with funding from the WPA's Federal Arts Project. The mural, which was completed 1937,  "...traces the African diaspora from 18th-century African village life to slavery in America to 20th-century freedom; from agrarian struggles in the South to professional success in the industrialized North." (New York Times). As the New York Times notes, "Harlem Hospital’s were perhaps the first major federal government commissions awarded to African-Americans." This and the other murals, originally in the old hospital and visible only to staff, have been restored for over...

In 1937 Elba Lightfoot completed this mural, entitled "Toy Parade," for the Harlem Hospital Center with funding from the WPA's Federal Arts Program. It was one the first major federal commissions to be awarded to African-Americans. The hospital initially rejected the commission for depicting too much African-American subject matter. The hospital commissioner reversed this decision, however, after public controversy was aroused by protest from the artists and their supporters (New York Times).

Below is a photograph that shows Georgette Seabrooke at work on her mural entitled "Recreation in Harlem" for the nurses' recreation room at Harlem Hospital Center. She made the mural with funding from the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project (WPA/FAP). The WPA commissioned the mural in 1936.  The New York Times notes that, "Harlem Hospital’s were perhaps the first major federal government commissions awarded to African-Americans." “'Recreation in Harlem' depicts children roughhousing, a couple dancing, a group of women chatting." It was rediscovered during hospital renovation in 2004. This and the other murals, originally in the old hospital and visible only to staff, have been restored for over $4...

The Harlem River Houses, together with First Houses in Manhattan and the Williamsburg Houses in Brooklyn, were the first federally-funded public housing projects in New York City.   The project was funded by the Public Works Administration (PWA Docket No. H-1302). Wikipedia states:  "The Harlem River Houses is a New York City Housing Authority public housing complex located between West 151st and West 153rd Streets and between Macombs Place and the Harlem River Drive in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. The complex, which covers 9 acres (3.6 ha), was built in 1936-37 and opened in October 1937 – one of the...

A 2016 article celebrating Black History Month highlighted this unique and little known WPA mural by artist Aaron Douglas: "The Harlem Branch of the Y.M.C.A., which is located at at 180 West 135th Street, contains an exquisite example (though in need of a thorough restoration) of a rare African-American contribution to the Works Progress Administration (WPA)... While much of the building has been renovated over the years, some of the Y.M.C.A.’s original artwork by Alfred Floegel and noted African-American artists William E. Scott and Aaron Douglas remain. One of the murals was designed by Aaron Douglas, an African-American painter and illustrator whose works appear in...

In 1938 William Karp completed the mural entitled "Armed with Learning and Reality, Looking from the Past to the Future" for the Hebrew Orphan Asylum on Amsterdam Avenue between 136 and 138th Street in New York City. The Hebrew Orphan Asylum closed in 1941, and the building was demolished in the mid 1950s. The Living New Deal needs further information to determine the current status of William Karp's WPA mural for the Hebrew Orphan Asylum. William Karp worked as a master mural artist and administrator with the WPA Federal Art Project. Also included are images of Karp with friends at his home in...

The column of the Henry Hudson Memorial in Henry Hudson Park was created in 1909, but the bronze sculpture by Karl Bitter intended for the top of the column was never added. This was rectified in the 1930s.  In 1937, the Department of Parks reported that: "Park Commissioner Robert Moses, sole member of the Henry Hudson Parkway Authority, announces that the Authority will furnish the statue and he has retained Karl H. Gruppe, who for years was associated with Mr. Bitter, to undertake the reproduction of the original design. Fortunately, the sculptor's widow, who resides at 209 East 72nd Street, has...

The  Henry Hudson Parkway runs along the Hudson River from West 72nd Street to the Bronx-Westchester border and includes the Henry Hudson Bridge, which connects Manhattan with the Bronx. The Parkway was part and parcel of the West Side Improvement project of 1934-37, which included the reconstruction of Riverside Park.  The Parkway and Riverside Park were financed and built together, as noted here by researcher Frank da Cruz. Part of its route also runs through Van Cortlandt Park, as described here: "Moses chose to run the new parkway through Van Cortlandt Park because it was already city property. To run it outside...

The Henry Hudson Bridge carries the Henry Hudson Parkway over the Hudson River between the Bronx and Inwood Hill Park in Manhattan. The idea of a bridge in that spot had been raised as early as 1906, but resistance from local residents, among other things, prevented its construction until the 1930s, when Robert Moses became involved. While resistance to the location remained, in part because of the way the bridge would disturb the serenity of Inwood Hill Park, Moses was able to push the project through. He was determined to get this particular location in large part so that he...

In 1940, the WPA rehabilitated the "hourglass" intersection formed by Broadway, 6th Ave., 35th St. and 32nd St, the north end of which is known as Herald Square and the south end as Greeley Square. The project centered around the restoration and re-placing of a large sculptured clock originally constructed by Antoin Jean Carles in the late 1800s. The Parks press release announcing the completion of this work was especially long and enthusiastic: "The rehabilitation of the hour-glass intersection of Broadway and Sixth Avenue extending from 32nd Street to 35th Street is now completed. Elevated structures, and surface car tracks have...

What is now the High School of Fashion Industries began in the 1920s as a vocational program in a garment center loft on West 31 Street. It was intended to train a work force for New York's large garment industry, and most early students were first or second generation immigrants. In 1938, the WPA helped build a new campus for the what was then called the Central High School of Needle Trades. The school was completed in 1941. The school's current website explains that "It’s curriculum was almost entirely vocational, stressing sewing, machine work, and fashion design. It had many ties...