New York Sites

The WPA project in Jefferson Park "included the new pool complex, baseball diamonds, other athletic fields, playgrounds, and bocce courts." The pool opened on June 27, 1936. It was the second of 10 WPA pools to open that summer, and one of 11 WPA-pools to open in New York City (NYC Parks & Recreation).    

This small green space between Riverside Dr., Seaman Ave. and Dyckman St. in Manhattan was "provided with shade trees and benches for passive recreation" by the Department of Parks in October 1936. Although the press release announcing the completion of this work does 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, and that after April 1935, the WPA quickly became the main source of this support.

This sizeable Manhattan park has served as a recreational space since the early 19th century. In the 1930s it was redesigned under Parks commissioner Robert Moses. On October 1, 1936 Parks announced that the: "north half of the park from Ninth to Tenth Streets between Avenues A and B has been redesigned and reconstructed and includes basket ball, volley ball, shuffle board, paddle tennis and horse-shoe pitching courts; complete play apparatus and e wading pool." Although the press release announcing the completion of this work does not mention the WPA or other New Deal agencies, researcher Frank da Cruz explains here that...

Tony Dapolito Recreation Center is located at the northwest corner of 7th Ave. S and Clarkson Street in Manhattan. The large outdoor pool was built by the WPA and designed by Aymar Embury II. The Department of Parks announced the official opening of the new pool and renovated bathhouse on June 10, 1939. The ceremony was attended by Parks Commissioner Robert Moses, Alexander MacGregor of the Works Progress Administration and others. The press release described the WPA's work on the site: "The new outdoor pool is 50' x 100' with a diving pool 50' x 26' and will provide much needed...

The Triborough bridge linking up Queens, the Bronx, and Manhattan over East River, is still known to New Yorkers by that name, even though it was officially renamed the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge in 2008. The Triborough Bridge is one of three major bridges, along with the Henry Hudson and the Bronx-Whitestone, built during the New Deal era to link the boroughs of Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx, and tie together the expanding highway system in and out of New York City.  Construction on the Triborough bridge began in 1929, but the Depression soon slowed progress on the project. In 1933, Robert Moses, head...

The Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House was constructed in 1902-1907. In the 1930s and early 1940s, federal funding was used to make several improvements to the building, including the addition of a copper apron to the dome in 1933; improvements to the elevators in 1937; and the installation of revolving doors at the Bowling Green entrance in 1941. The building now serves as the New York branch of the National Museum of the American Indian, a part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

The old Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House dates to 1902-1907 and today serves as the New York branch of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, as well as housing the New York branch of the National Archives and the records of Reginald Marsh. During the Great Depression, the Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP) funded artist Reginald Marsh to decorate the main rotunda ceiling with a series of massive frescoes.  The frescoes, painted in 1936-37, depict eight New York Harbor scenes and eight portraits of great navigators. The ensemble is one of the most magnificent of New Deal mural installations in New York City.  

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) worked to restore the equestrian George Washington monument in Union Square during the mid-1930s.

The NYC Parks Department website explains that: "Although this flagstaff commemorates the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, it is also known as the Charles F. Murphy Memorial Flagpole. The intricate bas-reliefs and plaques were completed in 1926 by sculptor Anthony De Francisci (1887–1964), and feature a procession of allegorical figures representing democracy and tyranny, the text of the Declaration of Independence, and emblems from the original 13 colonies. The enormous flagpole, said to be one of the largest in New York State, is capped with a gilded sunburst." In the 1930s, the sculpture was restored with...

The Urban Assembly School for the Performing Arts, located on West 129th Street in Manhattan, was originally built as the Manhattanville Junior High School during the 1930s. Construction benefited from federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds as part of PWA Docket No. NY 8000. PWA documents state that the four-story school measures 300 ft. by 200 ft. and is 60 feet tall. Ground was broken May 10, 1935; work was completed September 1, 1937; and the school was occupied that month. The 56-room school featured the following classrooms: art weaving; woodworking; novelty; sheet metal shops; office practice; science; drawing; sewing; cooking; geography;...

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) conducted improvement on the training ship USS Illinois (later USS Prairie State), stationed off 135th Street on the Hudson River. The boat was sold for scrap in 1956. WPA project details: “Alter and rehabilitate U.S. Naval Training Ship "Illinois" at 135th Street and North River, including installing water lines, heating lines, ventilating ducts, and electrical work, replacing toilet and other partitions, tile floors and roofing, painting boat and superstructures” Official Project Number: 765‐97‐2‐8 Total project cost: $63,300.00 Sponsor: Commandant, 3rd Naval District, U.S. Navy

Originally known simply as the playground at 99 Thompson St., this was one of fourteen new playgrounds throughout New York to open in August, 1934.  The labor and materials for all these playgrounds were provided by "Work Relief funds." Given the timing, Relief funds mentioned most likely came at least partly from the CWA. The Parks Department press release announcing the opening described this playground as containing: "Recreation building, a wading pool in the center of the play area, and usual apparatus for small children including sand tables, see-saws and slides. This is distinctly a playground for small children." At the time, the park...

The WPA installed 22-inch safety curbing on the 155th Street viaduct near what was then the Polo Grounds.

"Under the auspices of the New York Department of Sanitation, between 1937 and 1944, three new wastewater treatment plants were constructed — Wards Island in Manhattan, and Bowery Bay and Tallman Island in Queens. These facilities were designed to reduce pollutants in the Harlem River and in the East River, whose dark and murky waters had some of the lowest dissolved oxygen concentrations in the harbor. During the summer months, dissolved oxygen levels were often zero, which caused unpleasant odors. The city and its waterways benefited from an infusion of funds from the Works Progress Administration (WPA), an ambitious public...

This bust of Washington Irving has an interesting history: "In the late 1800s to early 1900s, a large bronze bust of Washington Irving, mounted on a granite pedestal, stood in the south side of Bryant Park. The author of “Sleepy Hollow” and many other works, Irving was one of the first American writers to gain international acclaim. The statue was donated to the City of New York in 1885 by Joseph Weiner, a German physician and admirer of Irving’s. Sculpted by artist Friedrich Beers, the bust was originally intended for placement in Central Park. Upon completion some members of the NYC...

Helen Tangires writes, "During the New Deal, public markets were vital to government efforts to reduce agricultural surplus in the countryside and high food prices in the cities. Under the direction of Fiorello LaGuardia, New York's mayor from 1934 to 1945, municipal architects working in the Department of Markets developed a series of enclosed market houses to replace pushcart markets." With funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA), New York City's Department of Public Markets constructed partially enclosed market sheds, and revitalized former pushcart markets including the Washington Public Market ("Public Markets" by Helen Tangires). The market burned down in the 1950s,...

Washington Square playgrounds were improved during the 1930s with the help of the New Deal. In 1935, Robert Moses proposed a major renovation of the park but he encountered neighborhood opposition. The agencies involved in funding or completing improvement work are unknown to the Living New Deal. During his tenure as Parks Commissioner, 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...

The Works Progress Administration spent $1,500,000 for miscellaneous alterations, additions, renovations, grading, and landscaping of grounds at hospital and institutions to New York's Charity Hospital. In addition, a nurse's home and a power plant were constructed at the hospital in the 1930s with the assistance of the Public Works Administration (PWA). Originally named Penitentiary Hospital and located on what was then known as Blackwell's Island, the first hospital was built in 1832 to serve the prisoners housed at Blackwell's Penitentiary. After the hospital was destroyed by a fire in 1858, architect James Renwick, Jr. designed a new building to be called City Hospital, on...

The WPA provided assistance in repairing and otherwise improving the Ninth Regiment / West 14th Street Armory in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. The building is no longer extant. "The (22nd) Twenty-Second Regiment / 14th Street Armory (1863) building was replaced with the (9th) Ninth Regiment / West 14th Street Armory (1894-1896) building, which was later replaced by (42nd) Forty-Second Division / West 14th Street Armory (1971) building, which in turn was replaced by a mix use structure, all on the same site." (Wikipedia)

WPA Official Project No. 65-97-60 allocated $2,267,810 for "repair and reconstruction of the waterfront between 23 and 34 Streets" in the west side of Manhattan along the Hudson River. Another document referred to the project as "modernizing" the area. Much of where the work occurred is now known as Hudson River Park.

A June 1936 press release announced the opening of a new playground at Lexington and 106th. It was equipped with "horseshoe pitching courts as well as an open play area for adult children." The NYC Parks site expands on the history of this park: "This small playground has been a part of the Harlem community since the early part of the twentieth century. The Italian Benevolent Institute was the first organization to operate a playground on this site. In 1936, the City of New York acquired a 0.52-acre plot of land from the Institute and transferred jurisdiction over the property to Parks....

The Work Projects Administration worked to "improve and alter" the old U.S. Army Building, located at 39 Whitehall Street, during the early 1940s. The building was demolished in 1983.

The former Willard Parker Hospital received an addition to its laboratory during the 1930s as a Public Works Administration (PWA) project. The hospital was located at E 16th St. along the East River. The hospital closed during the 1950s and has since been demolished.

This large bronze and marble memorial in Bryant Park commemorates the 19th c. poet and journalist William Cullen Bryant. The statue was created by Herbert Adams in 1911. In the 1930s, the it 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.

From NYC Parks: "William McCray Playground is one of nine playgrounds that was built by the Parks Department through a war memorial fund, and was opened simultaneously on July 15, 1934. The War Memorial Fund of $250,000 was established in 1921 with monies collected by the Police Department, and by 1934 the fund—never spent—had grown in value to $350,000. Seeking additional open spaces for children, Parks Commissioner Robert Moses obtained a legal ruling which permitted use of the fund for playground development. Marked with a commemorative tablet, each property was to honor the memory of a soldier who gave his life...

According to a digitized project card at the National Archives, the WPA dedicated more than $400,000 in 1935 toward the construction of a new roadway on the Williamsburg Bridge, which connects Brooklyn to Manhattan in New York City. Among the improvements, was the construction of a new eastbound lane. WPA Official Project No. 65-97-34. There were no records in The New York Times confirming WPA involvement with the Williamsburg Bridge. However, newspaper records and National Archives documents prove Public Works Administration (PWA) involvement with such a project, which occurred in 1938-9. The PWA provided a $239,319 grant for the roadway reconstruction; the total project cost was...

The original Willis Avenue Bridge over the Harlem River opened in 1901. In the 1930s, the WPA allocated $326,290 toward reconstruction of the roadway crossing the Willis Avenue Bridge, which connects the Bronx to Manhattan in New York City. WPA Official Project No. 65-97-37. Due to its deteriorating condition, the bridge was replaced starting in 2007 when a new bridge was built. The old bridge remained a pedestrian-only bridge for three years, and was then dismantled.

New York's largest public radio station, WNYC, was housed in the Manhattan Municipal Building at 1 Centre St. from 1924 until 2008, when it moved to an improved location. In 1939, the building's Studio B received four WPA Federal Art Project murals by Stuart Davis, Byron Browne, Louis Schanker and John von Wicht. At the live dedication of the murals, Davis made important and controversial remarks about the state of art, politics and the New Deal, referring to what this summarizer of the broadcast refers to as: "the flux and struggle around the issue of abstract art during the previous two decades,...

New York's largest public radio station, WNYC, was housed in the Manhattan Municipal Building at 1 Centre St. from 1924 until 2008, when it moved to an improved location. In 1939, the building's Studio B received four WPA Federal Art Project murals by Stuart Davis, Byron Browne, Louis Schanker and John von Wicht. At the live dedication of the murals, Davis made important and controversial remarks about the state of art, politics and the New Deal. This summary of the broadcast explains that: "In a ceremony clearly designed to be light and “festive,” according to the announcer, Davis squarely addresses the...

New York's largest public radio station, WNYC, was housed in the Manhattan Municipal Building at 1 Centre St. from 1924 until 2008, when it moved to an improved location. In 1939, the building's Studio B received four WPA Federal Art Project murals by Stuart Davis, Byron Browne, Louis Schanker and John von Wicht. Schanker's is the only one still remaining in the building (no longer operating as the WNYC center). At the live dedication of the murals, Davis made important and controversial remarks about the state of art, politics and the New Deal, referring to what this summarizer of the broadcast...

New York's largest public radio station, WNYC, was housed in the Manhattan Municipal Building at 1 Centre St. from 1924 until 2008, when it moved to an improved location. In 1939, the building's Studio B received four WPA Federal Art Project murals by Stuart Davis, Byron Browne, Louis Schanker and John von Wicht. Schanker's is the only one still remaining in the building (no longer operating as the WNYC center). At the live dedication of the murals, Davis made important and controversial remarks about the state of art, politics and the New Deal, referring to what this summarizer of the broadcast...

This image shows artist Lucienne Bloch at work on a fresco entitled "Cycle of a Woman's Life" for the Women's House of Detention in Greenwich Village, New York City. The mural was completed in 1936 under the WPA's Federal Art Project. The concept for the mural was influenced by Bloch's apprenticeship with Diego Rivera, in which he urged her "... never paint mere decorations, but to always include a message appropriate to the building, Bloch s proposal for Cycle of a Woman's Life was accepted and the project was completed in 1936. Now lost, the mural pictured a children's playground in a...