Oregon Sites

This large post office was constructed by the Treasury Department in 1941. Unfortunately, as of late 2011, the post office was scheduled to close and the building was listed for sale. Update on current status needed.

This New Deal Post Office was constructed circa 1935-1936.

The Hood River post office was constructed by the Treasury Department in 1934-1935. It is still in service. A historical marker attached to the post office reads: "From 1901 to 1935, the Hood River United States Post Office occupied the ground floor of the Masonic Hall at 210 Second Street. This post office building was completed in September 1935 after the United States government allocated $90,000 for its construction. Erected by Hoffman Construction Company, the building was designed with elements of the popular 1930s Modernistic Style that include a flat roof, large metal sash windows with geometric designs above, and decorative...

The historic post office building in Lakeview, Oregon was constructed between 1938 and 1940 with federal funds. The building is still in use today.

The historic post office in Newberg, Oregon was constructed in 1936 with federal Treasury Department funds. The building, which houses an example of New Deal artwork inside, is still in use today.

New Deal post office constructed in 1936.

This Section of Fine Arts mural is titled "Early Mail Carriers of the West" and was painted by Rockwell Carey for the historic Newberg post office in 1937.

"Trail to Oregon" painted by Edmond J. Fitzgerald in 1938. He also painted murals for the Colville WA and Preston Idaho post offices.

The oil-on-canvas mural "Trail to Oregon" was painted by Edmund J. Fitzgerald in 1938. Fitzgerald also painted murals for the Colville, Washington and Preston, Idaho post offices.

The post office contains two murals painted by Carl Morris in 1943. "Carl Morris won the US Treasury Department's Section of Painting and Sculpture competition to complete a set of murals for the building. The Section competition required that the art works represent local industry and agriculture, and while not the most representative of Morris' subsequent style, the murals are wonderful examples of the Social Realism depicted across the country through this selection process. In this instance Morris' special sense of color and design distinguish the Eugene murals. The two 6' x 15' murals cover the upper walls of the north and...

The New Deal post office in Grants Pass contains two New Deal murals in the lobby.  "Rogue River Indians" was painted by Louis DeMott Bunce and "Early and Contemporary Industries" is the work of Eric Lamade. Both were created in 1938 under the auspices of the Treasury Section of Fine Arts.

From 1933 to 1942, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) developed Prescott Park on Roxy Ann Peak on the east side of Medford, Oregon for public recreation.  The CCC enrollees constructed the access road, 18 miles of trails, several picnic areas and overlooks, and drainage ditches. Much of the CCC work is above the parking area and accessible only on foot. Prescott Park covers 1,740 acres on Roxy Ann Peak, a prominent hill east of the city of Medford (a remnant of volcanism in the old West Cascades). The lower slopes are characterized by oak savanna woodland and the higher elevations by...

The WPA constructed the first nine holes of this golf course, also known as the Baker City Golf Club, in 1936. From the club website: "In 1936 the WPA started constructing the 9-hole public golf course off Indiana Avenue, in Baker City, Oregon.  It was replacing the 9 hole private City Golf and Country Club created in 1924 at the end of Washington Street.  The clubhouse then was the Fireside.  The new public course was to be known as the Municipal Golf Links."

As part of war efforts, "on 26 February 1941, the FCC received funding to launch the 'Foreign Broadcast Monitoring Service,' the first name for FBIA. The service began its monitoring duties at 316 F Street, NE. On 1 October, FBIS opened its first bureau outside Washington---in a farmhouse at 13005 NE Street in Portland, Oregon---to monitor Japanese broadcasts." (Inside CIA) The federal facility was constructed with Treasury Department funds. "On 17 September 1941 Graves announced that 20 persons were being transferred to Portland to set up a new monitoring station. Included in the 2 were the three Japanese and one...

The Rand National Historic Site is located on the west side of the Rogue River in southwestern Oregon, 25 miles northwest of Grants Pass and 3 miles downstream from Galice. Rand's history covers the Gold Rush, establishment of the Siskiyou National Forest and the 20th century logging era, plus the postwar recreation era that followed designation of the Rogue as a National Wild and Scenic River. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) played a central role in that history, with some of the CCC's work still very much visible.  CCC Company #1650 built and occupied Camp Rand (F-75) starting in late 1933. The...

The Rand National Historic Site is located on the west side of the Rogue River in southwestern Oregon, 25 miles northwest of Grants Pass and 3 miles downstream from Galice. Rand's history covers the Gold Rush, establishment of the Siskiyou National Forest and the 2oth century logging era, plus the postwar recreation era that followed designation of the Rogue as a National Wild and Scenic River. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) played a central role in that history, with some of the CCC's work still very much visible.  The CCC built and occupied Camp Rand from 1933 to 1941. After building their camp,...

The Rand National Historic Site is located on the west side of the Rogue River in southwestern Oregon, 25 miles northwest of Grants Pass and 3 miles downstream from Galice. Rand's history covers the Gold Rush, establishment of the Siskiyou National Forest and the 2oth century logging era, plus the postwar recreation era that followed designation of the Rogue as a National Wild and Scenic River. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) played a central role in that history, with some of the CCC's work still very much visible.  The CCC built and occupied Camp Rand from 1933 to 1941. After establishing their camp,...

The Rand National Historic Site is located on the west side of the Rogue River in southwestern Oregon, 25 miles northwest of Grants Pass and 3 miles downstream from Galice. Rand's history covers the Gold Rush, establishment of the Siskiyou National Forest and the 2oth century logging era, plus the postwar recreation era that followed designation of the Rogue as a National Wild and Scenic River. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) played a central role in that history, with some of the CCC's work still very much visible.  The CCC built and occupied Camp Rand from 1933 to 1941. After establishing their camp,...

The Union Creek Historic District on the upper Rogue River in Union Creek, Oregon, is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places because it is a fine representative of a type of rustic resort popular in the early 20th century and has been little altered since the 1930s.   There are almost one hundred buildings and other facilities in the Union Creek Historic District, almost all of which conform to the Forest Service plans of the 1920s and 30s.  Roughly a third were constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) from 1933 to 1942. CCC enrollees worked during summer...

This former ranger station was erected in 1933 by the CCC and originally existed in Bridgeport, CA. It was later moved to Reese River Valley and remained active until the 1980s. After falling into neglect, a volunteer group of former National Forest Service employees known as the 'Smokeys' were able to relocate this ranger station to Bend, OR at the High Desert Museum where it was fully restored and put on display in 2009. According to the architectural historian for the (Bend) region's national Forest Service, this station is the only surviving building of its type that has not been subjected...

"Rim Drive is a scenic highway in Crater Lake National Park in southern Oregon. It is a 33-mile (53 km) loop that follows the caldera rim around Crater Lake. Because of the its unique engineering and the surrounding park landscape, the drive was listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008... The current Rim Drive is a 33-mile (53 km) loop built by the Bureau of Public Roads and the National Park Service with help from the Civilian Conservation Corps. The new road was designed to be 18 feet (5.5 m) wide with 3-foot (0.91 m) shoulders. The...

"The year 1933 brought many significant changes into the National Park system. Up until that time President Herbert Hoover saw to it that the national parks received their allotment requests for park operations and development. Budgets and staff for the national parks had increased substantially during his administration (Tweed, 75). But the Depression changed all of this when, in 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt and a new administration came on board. A variety of innovative and comprehensive relief programs were introduced to alleviate the nation’s growing unemployment crisis. These programs, instituted under the New Deal, provided work opportunities for the unemployed....

"Portland ultimately received matching federal dollars for street widening, highway construction, and a new city airport on 700 acres of reclaimed land along the Columbia River east of the city. Completed in 1940, the new airport required four years and $3 million to build. Using voter-approved bonds as the local match for federal funds, the city undertook highway construction in the late 1930s, including McLoughlin Boulevard, development of S. E. 82nd, and Barbur Boulevard (which was built on a former interurban railroad right-of-way). Other road work involved widening Front Avenue in 1940 and building an expressway called Harbor Drive along...

During the hard winter months of 1933-1934, the Civil Works Administration (CWA) was a work relief program that employed Portlanders on a variety of needed projects. Road work was one such project category. These men are shown graveling SE Holgate near SE 32nd Avenue on February 1, 1934. The CWA served as a federal relief program from November 8, 1933 through March 31, 1934. When the CWA began, Oregon anticipated being able to put 21,000 men back to work on small projects involving a large amount of hand labor. The projects were submitted for approval to the CWA and the jobless...

During the hard winter months of 1933-1934, the Civil Works Administration (CWA) was a work relief program that employed Portlanders on a variety of needed projects. Road work was one such project category. These men are shown graveling SE Holgate near SE 28th Avenue in late December 1933. The CWA served as a federal relief program from November 8, 1933 through March 31, 1934. When the CWA began, Oregon anticipated being able to put 21,000 men back to work on small projects involving a large amount of hand labor. The projects were submitted for approval to the CWA and the jobless...

The Rocky Butte aircraft beacon was erected in 1933 by the U.S. Bureau of Lighthouses for aircraft navigation. A revolving beacon atop a metal tower at the summit contains a medium intensity white light that flashes intermittently. The tower also bore a red beacon that was discontinued in the late 1970s.  Rocky Butte is a 607 foot extinct volcanic cone (one of several in the city of Portland) and the second highest point in the city. The viewing area in Joseph Wood Hill Park atop the butte offers panoramic vistas of the Columbia River valley and Portland.      

Rocky Butte Scenic Historic District consists of two approach roads up the butte and a viewing area on the top of the hill, which were constructed between 1934 and 1939 by the State Emergency Relief Administration (SERA) and federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) from local ranks of the unemployed in the Great Depression.  The top of the butte is today known as Joseph Wood Hill park. The approximately $500,000 cost of the whole project was funded jointly by the WPA and Oregon SERA – itself funded in part by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). When The Oregonian announced completion of the project...

Civilian Conservation Corps members provided the original improvements for this ocean-front park between 1934 and 1936. The improvements involved an access road, landscaping to protect the view, and a picnic area. Located approximately two miles south of Depot Bay OR, the scenic viewpoint is immediately off of Highway 101. The property lays between Whale Cove to the north and Rocky Creek to the south. Current park property is located on both sides of Highway 101.

Rose City Golf Course, constructed adjacent to a middle-class residential development in 1923, was the second public golf course in Portland and the state of Oregon. In 1937, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) redesigned the first nine-holes, rebuilding the greens and lengthening the course by 450 yards, and added rock walls and stone curbs along 72nd Drive.  Local basalt rock served as the landscaping material, as was the case in many WPA projects. City of Portland records indicate that approximately $38,000 was spent by the WPA on the Rose City Golf Course landscaping and redesign. WPA funding for these improvements was...

After the establishment of the Civilian Conservation Corps' (CCC) Camp Brice Creek in 1933, the enrollees undertook development of the Rujada Forest Camp. They constructed the forest camp to provide a recreation facility for visiting family, friends and local residents. CCC workers built the campground's registry and information booth in 1934. It's rustic design includes large diameter peeled logs and poles, a flagstone platform and split shake gable roof. The forest camp's current configuration provides twelve single- and three double-campsites.

The Western Construction News of June 1937 notes REA work in rural South West Oregon. " The REA has alloted $108,000 to the Blachly-Lane County Cooperative Electric Association, Blachly Oregon, for construction of 87 miles of transmission lines in Lane County Oregon." Lane county in 1930 was very sparsely populated with only 54,493 people. "In 1934, one of the first people's utility districts in Oregon was formed, Lake Creek Public Utility District. But before the state and federal governments acted on the application, the Rural Electrification Act was passed and members of the Lake Creek PUD voted to go with the Rural...

Development of Saddle Mountain State Park began with the arrival of Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Company #1258 in 1935. Over a five-year period, the CCC enrollees built the seven-mile access road to the base of Saddle Mountain, picnic grounds and a parking lot at the trail head, and the hiking trail to the mountain's summit. Saddle Mountain is a north coast landmark, known for its colorful wildflowers and rare plants, its basalt formations, and the impressive panoramic views from its 3290-foot summit. Access to these natural amenities still rely on the CCC-built zig-zag hiking trail that rises 1620 feet over a...

Originally named the Willamette Highway Tunnel, the 905 feet-long Salt Creek Tunnel completed the Oregon Forest Highway Project that ran through remote areas of the Willamette National Forest to link US Highway 99 near Eugene with US 97 on the east side of the Cascades. The Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) designed the tunnel and its masonry rock portals and contracted with the Portland firm Orino-Birkemeier & Saremai to construct the project in December 1937. The length of the tunnel along with the remote location and rugged terrain introduced challenges with its construction. Oregon Department of Transportation historian Robert Hadlow notes...

In July 1939, work began on construction of the Santiam Pass Ski Lodge, using a design developed by Wesley "Buzz" Gilmore under the supervision of William Parke. Gilmore, a former Civilian Conservation Corps enrollee, and Parke were US Forest Service employees in the Willamette National Forest. Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees from Mary's Creek Camp and Fish Lake Camp built the structure over the course of eight months. Made with local materials, the rustic-style lodge is an excellent example of CCC construction and the favored aesthetic of the era. Stone from nearby Hogg Rock makes up the first floor of Santiam...

The Public Works Administration (PWA) funded the construction of the Sea Lion Point Rock Wall near Florence, Oregon. According to the Oregon Department of Transportation, "his section of rock wall (.36 miles) extends around Sea Lion Point, providing a pull-out for viewing, to the north entrance of the Sea Lion Caves parking lot. The wall is a low, solid structure and believed to have been built under the federal Public Works Administration Program during the early 1930s." Video along full length of rock wall along coast highway at Sea Lion Point 

During the hard winter months of 1933-1934, the Civil Works Administration (CWA) was a work relief program that employed Portlanders on a variety of needed projects. Sewer repair work was one such project category. These men are shown doing sewer repair in the Lair Hill neighborhood at SW First and SW Sheridan on January 30, 1934. The CWA served as a federal relief program from November 8, 1933 through March 31, 1934.  When the CWA began, Oregon anticipated being able to put 21,000 men back to work on small projects involving a large amount of hand labor. The projects were submitted...

During the hard winter months of 1933-1934, the Civil Works Administration (CWA) was a work relief program that employed Portlanders on a variety of needed projects. Sewer repair work was one such project category. These men are shown doing sewer repair in the Laurelhurst neighborhood at the corner of SE Floral and SE Ankeny Streets on January 26, 1934. The CWA served as a federal relief program from November 8, 1933 through March 31, 1934.  When the CWA began, Oregon anticipated being able to put 21,000 men back to work on small projects involving a large amount of hand labor. The...

During the summer of 1935, the Oregonian newspaper announced that among Oregon's 67 Civilian Conservation Camps that summer one would be located at Shelton State Park in Wheeler County. The 200 member work crew made improvements in the state park along with other tasks associated with CCC workers, such as reforestation work and fire fighting, and road construction. Shelton Wayside Park is the park's current name. It is located approximately ten miles southeast of Fossil on Highway 19.

Sheridan Bridge was built with funds from the federal Public Works Administration (PWA) in 1938-39.  It was not a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project – a common error repeated in the entry in Wikipedia, owing of the similarity of PWA & WPA. The plaque on the bridge states that it was funded by "The Emergency Administration of Public Works," which was the official name of the PWA (another source of confusion). Sheridan bridge was built under the authority of Yamhill County by the Mountain States Construction Company.  It is a classic steel-truss type carrying two lanes of traffic across the Yamhill...

"The Silcox Hut is a small rustic mid-mountain lodge located at 6,950 feet elevation on Mount Hood, Oregon, United States. It is approximately 1,000 feet vertical above Timberline Lodge and roughly one mile distance directly up the mountain. Silcox Hut was built by the WPA and finished in 1939. It was named after Ferdinand Silcox, the fifth Chief of the Forest Service, 1933–1939. The hut was the upper terminal of the original Magic Mile chairlift and housed the lift's upper bullwheel in what is now the guest sleeping quarters... Silcox Hut was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985... Over...