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  • 110th Police Precinct - Elmhurst NY
    The Work Projects Administration (WPA) constructed a new station house for the NYPD's 110th precinct in Elmhurst. The project, built for $100,000, is still in use. Inside is a plaque crediting the WPA, with the date 1939, though the public does not generally receive permission to photograph it.
  • 123rd Street Sewer Improvements - Queens NY
    The WPA photos here show the sewer cut at the end of 123rd St. in Queens before and after the WPA improved it. The before photo has the following caption: "This is how the sewer cut at 123rd St. south of Sunrise Highway in Queens looked before WPA waved its magic wand. The magic in this case took the form of a small array of Federal relief workers who transformed the cut into a modern sewage canal." The after photo depicts the sewer cut "after a force of WPA workers had rebuilt its walls."
  • 160th Street Improvements - Queens NY
    The federal Work Projects Administration undertook a large road repair project starting in 1935 in the borough of Queens. The streets, many of which in New York City were still unpaved, were repaired; particular emphasis was placed on fixing washout-damaged stretches of road. Holes were filled in and the streets were smoothed, surfaced and reconditioned. Roads improved as part of this project (WPA Official Project No. 65-97-9) included the stretch of 160th Street between Union Turnpike and Goethals Ave.
  • 164th Street Improvements - Queens NY
    The federal Work Projects Administration undertook a large road repair project starting in 1935 in the borough of Queens. The streets, many of which in New York City were still unpaved, were repaired; particular emphasis was placed on fixing washout-damaged stretches of road. Holes were filled in and the streets were smoothed, surfaced and reconditioned. Roads improved as part of this project (WPA Official Project No. 65-97-9) included the stretch of 164th Street between Union Turnpike and the Grand Central Parkway.
  • 1939 World's Fair: New Jersey Pavilion Mural - Flushing NY
    The New York Times wrote the following in 2003 in a retrospective article of New Jersey-based artist Michael Lenson: " moved to Newark and applied at the W.P.A. office on Halsey Street ... Soon, Mr. Lenson was designing and executing murals for the state W.P.A. program. He went on to become assistant state supervisor in charge of the other muralists in the agency. By the time the federal W.P.A. closed in 1943, Mr. Lenson had created six murals and supervised the execution of 15 more in New Jersey by other artists. He also made one mural in West Virginia." "Three of Mr. Lenson's...
  • 212th Street Improvements - Queens Village NY
    The federal Work Projects Administration undertook a large road repair project starting in 1935 in the borough of Queens. The streets, many of which in New York City were still unpaved, were repaired; particular emphasis was placed on fixing washout-damaged stretches of road. Holes were filled in and the streets were smoothed, surfaced and reconditioned. Roads improved as part of this project (WPA Official Project No. 65-97-9) included the stretch of 212th Street in Queens Village between Jamaica Ave. and Hollis Ave.
  • 35th Avenue Development - Flushing NY
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) contributed to the development of what of 35th Avenue, extending it from Prince to College Points Boulevard (then known as Lawrence Street), in anticipation of the 1939 World's Fair in Flushing.
  • 64th Road Improvements - Middle Village NY
    The federal Work Projects Administration undertook a large road repair project starting in 1935 in the borough of Queens. The streets, many of which in New York City were still unpaved, were repaired; particular emphasis was placed on fixing washout-damaged stretches of road. Holes were filled in and the streets were smoothed, surfaced and reconditioned. Roads improved as part of this project (WPA Official Project No. 65-97-9) included the stretch of 64th Road between Dry Harbor Rd. and 82nd Pl.
  • 78th Street Improvements - Elmhurst NY
    The federal Work Projects Administration undertook a large road repair project starting in 1935 in the borough of Queens. The streets, many of which in New York City were still unpaved, were repaired; particular emphasis was placed on fixing washout-damaged stretches of road. Holes were filled in and the streets were smoothed, surfaced and reconditioned. Roads improved as part of this project (WPA Official Project No. 65-97-9) included the stretch of 78th Street between Roosevelt Ave. and Broadway. This stretch of road does not fully exist anymore (at least, not between 41st Ave. and Broadway) as a result of the development of Elmhurst...
  • 86th Avenue Improvements - Jamaica NY
    The federal Work Projects Administration undertook a large road repair project starting in 1935 in the borough of Queens. The streets, many of which in New York City were still unpaved, were repaired; particular emphasis was placed on fixing washout-damaged stretches of road. Holes were filled in and the streets were smoothed, surfaced and reconditioned. Roads improved as part of this project (WPA Official Project No. 65-97-9) included the stretch of 86th Avenue in Jamaica between 139th St. and 143rd St.
  • Alley Pond Park - Oakland Gardens NY
    An August 1935 Parks Department press release lists Alley Pond Park as one of seventy-three play areas developed in the preceding year with "city, state and federal relief funds." The release describes this park as having play areas designed for mothers and infants, older children, adolescents and adults. Today's NYC Parks website confirms this timing: "The park, including 26 acres of newly constructed playing fields and the Alley Pond Park Nature Trail, the first such trail in the city’s park system, officially opened in 1935 at a ceremony attended by Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia (1882–1947) and Parks Commissioner Robert Moses (1888–1981)....
  • Andrew Jackson High School (former) - Cambria Heights NY
    The presently multi-campus Campus Magnet High School(s) was constructed as Andrew Jackson High School during the 1930s. The federal Public Works Administration (PWA) provided more than $1,000,000 in financial assistance to enable the project to move forward. The PWA Docket number was NY 8024-R. The exterior of the school consisted of brick and limestone. "Most of the doors and windows are wood, and the Main Entrance doors are bronze," a PWA report said. "The building has three stories and a basement. The plan is a combination H and E in shape. Its frame is built of steel with reinforced concrete arches....
  • Andrew Jackson High School (former) Mural - Queens NY
    Ruth Reeves painted this mural, entitled "Student Activities in School," for the Works Progress Administration (WPA). It was housed at the Andrew Jackson High School in Cambria, Queens, and believed by Living New Deal to be no longer extant.
  • Astoria Health Center - Astoria NY
    The city Health Center, meant to serve Long Island City and Astoria, at the southwest corner of 31st Ave. and 14th St., was built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). "This center and eight others are being built as WPA projects," The New York Times reported in 1936.
  • Astoria Health Playground - Astoria NY
    On July 2, 1938, the Department of Parks announced the opening of a playground on the site of what is now the Astoria Health Playground: "In Queens, at 14th Street south of 31st Avenue adjacent to the Astoria Health Center, the new playground is equipped with swings, see-saws, play houses, slide, sand pit and a portable shower. A brick comfort station with facilities for boys and girls, and permanent concrete benches are also provided. The perimeter of the entire playground is landscaped with shade trees. …The work was performed by the Works Progress Administration, but planned and inspected by the Department of...
  • Astoria Heights Playground - Astoria NY
    The Astoria Heights Playground, covering most of the block between 30th Rd., 31st Ave., 45th St. and 46th St., was developed by the Parks Department and the WPA in two stages between 1937 and 1938. In September 1937, a playground for small children was opened, "as well as handball courts for older children and benches for mothers and guardians." Just over two years later, the Parks Department announced the completion of the rest of the playground: "he new 2.3 acre area supplements and includes the small recreational area opened in 1937, and rounds out the entire block, the southerly end of which...
  • Astoria Park - Astoria NY
    The 56-acre park dates from the early 20th century, but "major improvements in Astoria Park were undertaken by Parks Commissioner Robert Moses and the Works Progress Administration during a hot summer in 1936. The stunning pool complex opened on July 4 of that year and hosted the swimming and diving trials for the U.S. Olympic Teams in 1936 and 1964" (NYC Parks). "Besides the swimming pool, various playgrounds and comfort stations were added or renovated during the course of the New Deal using relief labor" (kermitproject.org). This included "an adult play area with handball, basketball, horseshoe and shuffleboard courts, horizontal...
  • Astoria Park Pool - Astoria NY
    Astoria Park  pool opened on July 2, 1936. It was the largest of the eleven WPA pools built throughout the city that year. It was the site of the Olympic swimming and diving trials for the 1936 Olympics, just as Randall's Island Stadium was for track and field. "Parks Commissioner Robert Moses, an avid swimmer himself, recognized the importance of aquatic recreation and launched a campaign to open eleven new pools throughout the city during the summer of 1936. The labor and construction came from the Works Progress Administration (WPA), whose administrator Harry Hopkins described the pool in Queens as, 'The finest in the world.'...
  • Baisley Pond Park Improvements - Jamaica NY
    New York City's Parks Department website states: "During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Commissioner Robert Moses (1888-1981) and the Works Progress Administration constructed recreational facilities in the park, including a boat landing, several playgrounds, tennis and handball courts, baseball diamonds, and a football field."
  • Bayside High School - Bayside NY
    Bayside High School was constructed as a Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) project. The P.W.A. allocated $2,067,274 for the construction of the facility: $1,480,000 as a loan and $587,274 as a grant. The building bears a 1935 cornerstone and was completed December 1936. The PWA docket number for this project was NY-2735.
  • Bayside Pumping Station (former) Improvements - Bayside NY
    The federal Works Progress Administration worked to conduct repairs and alterations to several civic facilities in Queens as part of a $300,464 project begun in 1935. Facilities improved included the Bayside Pumping Station, located roughly at Northern Blvd. and the creek in Alley Pond Park that leads to Little Neck Bay. The original pumping station has been replaced and no longer stands.
  • Belt Parkway - Brooklyn NY
    Originally called the "Circumferential Parkway, "this roughly 25 mile stretch of highways forms a "belt-like circle around the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens." What is now known officially as the "Belt Parkway" is comprised of three other parkways: the Shore Parkway, the Southern Parkway and the Cross Island Parkway (formerly the Laurelton Parkway). (wikipedia) Plans for the parkway were originally raised by Robert Moses in 1930, but construction did not begin in 1934. It was completed in 1941. In addition to $16,000,000 in city appropriations, the PWA provided another $12,000,000 in federal funds for the construction of the parkway.
  • Borden Avenue Improvements - Queens NY
    The federal Work Projects Administration undertook a large road repair project starting in 1935 in the borough of Queens. The streets, many of which in New York City were still unpaved, were repaired; particular emphasis was placed on fixing washout-damaged stretches of road. Holes were filled in and the streets were smoothed, surfaced and reconditioned. Roads improved as part of this project (WPA Official Project No. 65-97-9) included stretches of Borden Avenue.
  • Boulevard Gardens Apartments - Woodside NY
    Boulevard Gardens was founded in 1935 as part of the United States’ New Deal initiative. The development is presently a co-op development encompassing 12 acres, with ten buildings of six stories each -- a total of 968 residences. Operated under the New York City Housing Authority, the project was designed by architect Theodore H. Englehardt in concert with landscape architect C. N. Lowrie. It was completed with a Federal loan of $3,450,000 from the Public Works Administration in Woodside, Queens.
  • Bowery Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant - Queens NY
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) provided resources for the construction of what was then known as the Bowery Bay Pumping Station. The facility, which bears a 1940 cornerstone, has since been expanded. "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...
  • Bowery Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant: Cast Reliefs - Queens NY
    In 1939 the Works Progress Administration (WPA) commissioned a set of four cast reliefs for inclusion on the facade of the then-new Bowery Bay Pumping Station in Queens, New York. The works, which depict men at work engaging in sewage management jobs, were created by Cesare Stea and still grace the front of the building along Berrian Blvd.
  • Bowne Park Playground - Flushing NY
    Parks acquired this property by condemnation in the mid 1920s. In December, 1935, the Department of Parks announced the opening of a new playground on the site. The press release announcing the opening explained that it, and the other 12 playgrounds opened on the same day, collectively contained: “88 small swings; 72 large swings; 36 seesaws; 14 playhouses; 15 large slides; 11 sand tables; 10 garden swings; 7 small slides; 7 small tables; 6 handball courts; 6 jungle gyms; 5 shuffleboard courts; 5 wading pools; 4 parallel bars; 3 horizontal bars; 3 horizontal ladders; 3 horseshoe pitching, etc.; 2 basketball...
  • Breezy Point Jetty - Queens NY
    "Breezy Point began in the early 20th century as a shantytown called Irish Riviera. Then, the sandy sliver of land that lies on the far western edge of Rockaway Island was considerably thinner than it is today. In 1935, as part of the New Deal, the federal government built a jetty to keep sand from accumulating at the mouth of New York Harbor. Behind this boulder jetty, the sandbar grew considerably and allowed year-round residencies."   (https://www.eenews.net) "The land began accreting in Breezy Point after the Federal Government built a jetty on the peninsula's westernmost tip in 1935 to prevent sand from clogging...
  • Breininger Park - Jamaica NY
    The City acquired Breininger Park (previously known as Braddock Park) in 1938. The Department of Parks officially announced the opening of the park in August 1939: "In Queens, the new playground is located at Braddock Avenue and 240 Street, in the Queens Village section, where a three and one half acre plot, on which there is a fine stand of mature shade trees, was acquired as an adjacent playground site in connection with the Belt Parkway, from which it is three blocks distant. A feature of this playground is a large oval lawn surrounded by a roller skating rink. A comfort...
  • Bronx-Whitestone Bridge - Bronx to Queens NY
    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.  Robert Moses was the master planner of New York from the 1920s to the 1920s, and one of Moses' seats of power was the Triborough Bridge Authority, which built this and other bridges. Moses used New Deal funds liberally to build the projects he had in mind for the city. But he did not...
  • Brookville Park Playground - Springfield Gardens NY
    In November 1937, the Department of Parks announced the completion of a new playground at Weller Ave. and Brookville Blvd in Brookville Park: "the new playground is equipped with swings, seesaws, slides, jungle gym, sand tables, playhouses, ping pong tables, horizontal bar and ladder, basketball and volley ball courts; also, a circular wading pool surrounded by shade trees and permanent concrete benches. Brookville Park, which occupies a long narrow valley and is entered from the Sunrise Parkway at the north, is being completely constructed as a modern park with modern facilities, of which this playground forms one unit. With the completion...
  • Central Library (former) Expansion - Jamaica NY
    The former Queens Central Library, located at 89-14 Parsons Blvd., "opened in 1930 and was expanded with WPA funds in 1941." "The current Central Library is a product of its era. In the mid-1960s, instead of renovating the existing library at 89-14 Parsons Boulevard, officials chose to build an entirely new structure at 89-11 Merrick Boulevard, six blocks east. The older building was recycled as a courthouse. Its facade has since been incorporated into an apartment building called the Moda."
  • College Point Boulevard Development - Flushing NY
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) contributed to the development of what is now College Point Boulevard, prior to the advent of the 1939 World's Fair. Then called Lawrence Street, WPA efforts involved "the widening and paving of important approach to Whitestone Bridge." The New York Times: "The Lawrence Street improvement, which will employ fifty men for the next two months, will create a street eighty feet wide from building line to building line between Northern Boulevard and Thirty-second Avenue, where Lawrence Street joins Willetts Point Boulevard at the north end of the West Bridge," since redeveloped as the Whitestone Expressway,...
  • Columbus Triangle Statue - Astoria NY
    "The City acquired this land on July 19, 1910, and since the 1920s Italian-Americans of Queens have gathered here to celebrate Columbus. The Board of Aldermen, on April 1, 1930, named the site for the famed explorer. The Italian Chamber of Commerce installed a bronze tablet here on October 12, 1937, indicating its intention to build a full monument to Columbus. In 1938, with funds from the Works Progress Administration (WPA), Italian sculptor Angelo Racioppi was commissioned to create the seven foot tall bronze of a youthful Christopher Columbus standing in front of a ship’s tiller. At the unveiling event on...
  • Corona Golf Playground - Corona NY
    NYC Parks recounts: "The land that is now Corona Golf Playground was previously a strip of wasteland, known as the Corona Ash Dumps. In his classic novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald described the area as 'a valley of ashes - a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens.'" The Parks Department announced the opening of this playground along with 12 others on May 4, 1936. At the time, it was part of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, site of the 1939 World's Fair. Although the press release does not mention the WPA or other New...
  • Courthouse - Jamaica NY
    The Queens County Supreme Court building in Jamaica was constructed as a Public Works Administration (PWA) project. Short and Stanley-Brown: "This structure houses the 23 civil courts of Queens County and provides quarters for the judges, the clerk of the city court, the grand jury, the district attorney, and the county clerk. In addition, it provides offices for the naturalization bureau, the motor-vehicle bureau, the bar association, the supreme-court board, and the law library. The building is fireproof, of steel-frame construction, and the exterior is of limestone. The courtrooms are air-conditioned. It is seven stories in height, with two mezzanine floors, and...
  • Creedmoor Psychiatric Hospital Improvements - Jamaica NY
    The WPA made numerous improvements to the rapidly growing Creedmoor Psychiatric Hospital in Jamaica, New York during the 1930s. Projects included: the installation of "underground piping for heating"; "excavation and construction of steam tunnels"; the "planting of trees and shrubs"; grading the hospital's grounds; fencing the grounds; constructing "additions to shop building" as well as to garages and to the "South wing"; and more. WPA Official Project No. 65-97-501.
  • Crocheron Park - Bayside NY
    NYC Parks explains that, "By 1936, the City had turned the area into a park with picnic grounds, winding walks, an enlarged lake for wintertime skating, and thousands of trees." What is now known as the Buz O'Rourke Playground in Crocheron Park was completed in June 1936, and a field house at 33rd Rd. and 215th Pl. was completed on April 3, 1937. A couple of weeks later, Parks announced that: "Crocheron Park has been completely redesigned and reconstructed. The entire 44 acres have been regraded and landscaped. New walks, benches, drainage and irrigation systems have been installed." Although these sources...
  • Crocheron Park: Buz O'Rourke Playground - Bayside NY
    A June 1936 press release announced the opening of a new playground at this site in Crocheron Park with "a large central grass panel surrounded by play apparatus for small children." NYC Parks confirms that this playground was built on land "acquired by the City in 1925 and turned into a park in 1936 at the request of the Bayside Civic Association." Although the 1936 press release 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...
  • Crocheron Park: Field House - Bayside NY
    NYC Parks explains that, "By 1936, the City had turned the area into a park with picnic grounds, winding walks, an enlarged lake for wintertime skating, and thousands of trees." On April 3, 1937, the Department of Parks announced the completion of a new building in Crocheron Park containing a "a comfort station, a large lounge, locker rooms and shower baths." 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,...
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