New York Sites

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)

The federal Work Projects Administration (WPA) 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 street and sidewalk repairs on West 231st Street from Corlear Avenue to Riverdale Avenue.

The caption of the National Archives and Records Administration WPA photo shown here states that this West Falls library was constructed to "provide for the recreational and educational needs of the Village of West Falls." The building is still in use as a library today.

The historic West Farms Station post office in the Bronx, New York was constructed with federal Treasury Department funds in 1936. The building is still in use today.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) installed an eight-inch water main along "upper West Main street" in Middletown, New York.

This structure was built by the PWA in 1934-5 as the Post Exchange and Utility Building. It now houses the Academy's Directorate of Public Works. A 1939 PWA publication described the building as follows: "This structure is one of several provided for the Military Academy by the Quartermaster Corps of the Army with P.W.A. allotments. It is 291 by 137 feet in over-all dimensions and four stories in height. It contains the post exchange, a commissary department, five offices, a file room; and six storage, receiving, and issuing rooms. The foundations, columns, and floors are concrete, exterior walls above grade are...

Originally known as the West Point Bullion Depository, this facility was completed in 1937 with Treasury Department funds. "Prior to its remodel in 2005 that added a second-story, the mint was a 170-by-256-foot one-story reinforced concrete structure with a flat roof. The walls are mostly featureless with some recessed-arches at the entryways. There are four turrets at the corners actively used in the building's security. It is on a four-acre  parcel of land near the northern facilities of the United States Military Academy, with parking lots on either side. The interior contains minting presses and bullion compartments." (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.

Thirty men working for the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) worked to improve West Union Street in Newark, New York, a road which had been previously described by a local newspaper as a "dangerous and hardly passable unimproved road."

  Federal Public Works Administration funds were used to construct a span for Westchester Avenue over the Bronx River during the 1930s (Docket No. NY 1376 R). In one photo caption it is called "Bridge at Whitlock and Westchester Aves."; Whitlock Avenue lies west of what is not the Sheridan Expressway. The span has since been modified and has otherwise lost its Art Deco character. The 6 subway line travels on an elevated train bridge above this Westchester Avenue span.

The WPA allocated $149,064.73 to conduct repairs along Westchester Avenue in the Bronx during the 1930s. They conducted work specifically along the 0.6-mile stretch of the avenue between Metcalf Ave. and Grant Circle. WPA Official Project No. 65-97-442.

The federal Work Projects Administration worked to improve the Wheeler Avenue School in Valley Stream, NY during the 1930s. One modest project in 1938 involved painting the interior and exterior of the building. WPA Official Project No. 685-21-2-21.

WPA crews built the Wheeler Street fire hall in Tonawanda in 1938 for Niagara Hose Company #3.

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 Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the Whitestone Playground in New York. The playground was dedicated in April 1940. The construction of Whitestone Playground was one of many recreation projects pursued by the WPA in New York. “Two thirds of this new twenty-one acre playground was formerly property of the Department of Water Supply, Gas and Electricity, and was known as the Whitestone Pumping Station…Here recreation facilities have been provided for all age groups.” Whitestone Playground, “designed by the Park Department and Built by the Works Progress Administration,” contributed to “a total of 323 new or reconstructed playgrounds completed by the New...

Suffolk County News reported that between 1935 and 1936, the WPA "improved recreational facilities in following State Parks : Sunken Meadow, Heckscher, Wildwood, Orient Point and Hither Hills..."

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.

The school grounds contain a small New Deal sculpture by Hugo Robus entitled "Girl Weeding." It was made in 1938, probably under the auspices of the Federal Arts Project of the WPA.

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.

William J. Gaynor Junior High School, I.S. 49, in Brooklyn, New York, was constructed during the 1930s with Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. The PWA docket number was NY 1075R. The building is still in use today.

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...

NYC Parks' website explains that "The City purchased this land for park purposes in 1934, and Adolf A. Berle, Jr. signed the deed as trustee of the War Memorial Fund, which donated the playground in Sheridan’s name. One of nine memorial playgrounds, it was dedicated on July 15, 1934." This was one of nine playgrounds constructed with War Memorial and TERA funds in 1934.

From 1934 to 1937, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) employed workers to construct Williamsbridge Oval in The Bronx's Norwood neighborhood, one of the most diverse areas of the City. Researcher Frank da Cruz notes the WPA Classic Moderne Style of its recreation center that he tells us was "constructed from granite quarried and cut on the site by WPA workers." He also points out that the park got it's name because of its oval shape which is "inherited from the reservoir it replaced." Da Cruz goes on to explain that Oval Park was, "Originally the site of Gun Hill Williamsbridge Reservoir, constructed in 1884-89, that supplied...

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. A 1.9-mile stretch of Williamsbridge Road was surfaced with penetrated macadam as a result of one $115,000 WPA project.

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...

Originally called the Williamsburg-Greenpoint Health Center, it was the fourth of eight clinics to be built in New York City with federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funding during the Great Depression. The project was part of a city-wide public health initiative that focused on providing low-cost health care in poor neighborhoods where residents could not afford their own doctors. The Brownstoner reports that "..it was state of the art, and the only health center built in the entire country by the PWA that had a complete range of health and educational programs." The 1937 opening was presided over by Mayor LaGuardia, and, according to the...

The Williamsburg Houses were opened in 1937, one of three huge public housing projects in New York City funded by the Public Works Administration (PWA), along with First Houses and Harlem River Houses in Manhattan.  New York City was the unchallenged leader in the creation of public housing in the United States, beginning in the 1920s, and the New Deal allowed the city to continue to built high-quality public housing that has stood the test of time. The official PWA history, published in 1939, described the project in detail: "Williamsburg Houses, the 'city-within-a-city' slum-clearance project, erected in the heart of the historic Williamsburg...

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.

43 men of the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) worked for nine months to develop and improved the road between Willsboro and Reber, New York. It is unclear whether this is what is now known as local route 14: South Mountain View Drive, or 14A: Sunset Drive, though Living New Deal believes it to be the latter.

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 Wilson Ave. and Willoughby Ave. were constructed in 1908; 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.

Rochester's Wilson Commencement Academy houses a series of murals commissioned by the federal Works Progress Administration, painted by Carl W. Peters. "In 1937, Rochester’s WPA art project was called "the most interesting and effective outside of New York City” by the regional director of the Federal Art Project. Rochester’s model program—hosted and administered by the Memorial Art Gallery—funded several mural groups by the artist Carl W. Peters." (https://mag.rochester.edu/murals/) "Wilson Commencement Academy was originally called West High School. Carl W. Peters received the commission for the West High School murals in 1937/38 and chose as his subject matter the early years of Rochester...

Now housed at Rochester's Wilson Foundation Academy, the federal Works Progress Administration commissioned a series of murals by Carl W. Peters for the city's since-demolished Madison High School. "In 1937, Rochester’s WPA art project was called "the most interesting and effective outside of New York City” by the regional director of the Federal Art Project. Rochester’s model program—hosted and administered by the Memorial Art Gallery—funded several mural groups by the artist Carl W. Peters." (https://mag.rochester.edu/murals/) "Peters was awarded the commission for the Madison High School murals in March of 1937. His subject matter—Life of Action and Life of Contemplation—is a topic that...

In the 1930s the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) built this winter playground house in Tupper Lake, New York. The Living New Deal does not know the present status or exact location of this project.

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...

A federal WPA grant enabled the construction of a modern transmitter building and radio tower for the fledgling WNYC radio station along the East River in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. WNYC transmitted from the site until 1990. (The broadcast studios remained in the Municipal Building at 1 Centre St. in Manhattan). The transmitter site is now a park named WNYC Transmitter Park, dedicated in 2012. The building still stands. New York Public Radio CEO Laura Walker spoke about the significance of the site during the park's dedication ceremonies: "With the help of a $30,000 grant from the Federal Works Progress Administration and the...

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...