Canonsburg Sites

Multiple New Deal agencies worked to construct a municipal pool for Canonsburg, Pennsylvania in 1934—1936. The prospect of a pool had been discussed for years, though no progress was made until assistance from New Deal work relief programs was made available. The pool facility was constructed in stages on what had then been a ravine, in the municipal park. Initial construction, which involved the Civil Works Administration (CWA), would be limited to leveling the site, installing storm sewers to "enclose" the ravine, and constructing the 100-foot-by-200-foot pool and filtration plant—not the bathhouse or sidewalks. Work was to be done "by hand...

North Street in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania was constructed as a New Deal work relief project. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the street to connect Ridge Avenue to the rapidly developing Canonsburg Town Park (and new pool). The work was conducted as part of a $20,000 appropriation that also served to improve the park.

The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) provided labor for the development of Park Drive in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. The work was conducted in tandem with development on the park and its pool. "On Monday, November 19, 1934, ... 83 men reported to work. The work force was set to ... road that would wind around the pool high on the hillside (Park Drive)."

The historic former armory at West College St. and North Central St. in Canonsburg was constructed in 1938 as a Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) project. The building presently serves as a youth center. Short and Stanley-Brown: "This armory is the headquarters of Company H, One Hundred and Third Medical Regiment of the Pennsylvania National Guard. The building is also extensively used for public meetings and entertainments. The structure is two stories and a mezzanine in height. The first floor contains two offices, officers' recreation and locker room, the company property room, a garage, recreation and locker room for enlisted men, a kitchen, and...

The historic Canonsburg post office was constructed in 1935 with federal Treasury Department funds. The building, which houses an example of New Deal artwork, is still in service.

The 1937 mural "Beatty's Barns," created for the then-new Canonsburg post office, was painted by Peter Blume for the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. In 1937, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette described the mural's unveiling as "a detailed, realistic piece of down-at-the-heel farmscape which the layman can readily understand. In fact, the mural's popularity is due, probably, to the familiarity of its objects--a ramshackle farmhouse, a broken fence, a disintegrating automobile, and so on." Eleanor Roosevelt admired the original sketch so much that she hung it in the White House.

"Two Canonsburg WPA projects were authorized to begin in October 1935. One was the widening of South Central Avenue ..."

Multiple New Deal agencies: the Civil Works Administration, Federal Emergency Relief Administration, and Works Progress Administration, helped to develop Canonsburg, Pennsylvania's Town Park in 1934—1936. In addition to constructing its pool and Park Drive, work relief workers—according to a local the submitter met during a visit in 2017—constructed paths and staircases, stone pillars at park entrances, walls, and picnic facilities. It is unclear exactly to what extent the original Depression-era structures have been preserved. The Works Progress Administration (WPA), "approved an appropriation of more than $10,000 to complete the bath house. Another $20,000 was approved for general improvement of the park...