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  • Road Improvements - Ranger TX
    Among the Works Progress Administration (WPA) projects identified as underway in a Abilene Daily Reporter article from June 14, 1936 was the following: "Graveling of approximately 75 miles of street is 95 per cent finished at Ranger. The work has given employment for 35 men for five months."
  • Road Improvements - Sweetwater TX
    The city of Sweetwater, Texas received an $81,000 grant from the PWA for road paving.
  • Road Paving - Eastland TX
    Among the Works Progress Administration (WPA) projects identified as underway in a Abilene Daily Reporter article from June 14, 1936 was the following: "Surfacing and retopping of nine miles of streets in Eastland is 90 per cent complete. Sixty-five men have been employed on the project for eight months."
  • Road Paving - Galveston TX
    A road paving project in Galveston, Texas was undertaken with the aid of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. The PWA supplied a $12,389 grant toward the $28,853 total cost of the project. Work occurred between September and December 1938. (PWA Docket No. TX 1687)
  • Road Paving - Victoria TX
    A large road paving project in Victoria, Texas was undertaken with the aid of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. The PWA supplied a $162,000 grant toward the $341,634 total cost of the project. Work occurred between October 1938 and August 1939. (PWA Docket No. TX 1100)
  • Roadside Park - Gonzales TX
    The National Youth Administration (NYA) in cooperation with the Texas Highway Department created roadside picnic areas in Texas. The Gonzales park, constructed adjacent to U. S. Highway 183 near the south bank of the Guadalupe River was part of the development of roadside parks begun in 1935 in anticipation of tourists and visitors to Texas for the 1936 Texas Centennial celebration. The typically shaded areas of these roadside parks offered drivers and their passengers respite on hot summer days as cars of this era had no air conditioning. The Gonzales park is one of the few of the 674 parks...
  • Roadside Park - Hamilton TX
    This picnic area on U.S. 281 in Hamilton County is an early roadside park constructed by the Texas Highway Department (now Texas Department of Transportation). This roadside park was completed in 1936 to accommodate motorists attending the State's Centennial Events. This park is home to the 1936 Pink County Centennial Marker. Listed on TX DOT flyer as a surviving depression era roadside park. These early picnic area were constructed by young men of the National Youth Administration (NYA). Construction of park facilities was quite labor-intensive. NYA workers usually quarried and dressed their own stone and felled their own trees for lumber. Stone...
  • Roadside Park - La Grange TX
    The National Youth Administration (NYA) in cooperation with the Texas Highway Department created roadside picnic areas in Texas. The La Grange park, constructed adjacent to U. S. Highway 77 was part of the development of roadside parks begun in 1935 in anticipation of tourists and visitors to Texas for the 1936 Texas Centennial celebration. The typically shaded areas of these roadside parks offered drivers and their passengers respite on hot summer days as cars of this era had no air conditioning. The La Grange park is one of the few of the 674 parks constructed that remain and still has...
  • Roadside Park SH-118 - Fort Davis TX
    Picnic table and steps on the left as you head out of Fort Davis toward Fort Davis State Park. This is just one of several along this scenic route. In 1927 the legislature instructed the State Highway Department to build the Davis Mountains State Park Highway on donated right of way, now the Davis Mountains Scenic Loop (State Highways 118 and 166). The new byway construction created much-needed jobs for the region. This location is #19 on the TXDOT map of existing National Youth Administration era roadside parks. The NYA paid for the labor, while the highway department was responsible for providing...
  • Roaring Springs Road Bridges - Westover Hills TX
    These two stone bridges were built by the WPA as part of the same project that built the town hall.
  • Robert E. Lee Elementary School - Austin TX
    On October 31, 1938, the Public Works Administration offered the City of Austin a grant not to exceed $613,127 to cover 45% of the costs of school buildings, a stadium and field house, a central heating system, an underpass, an arcade and additions and alterations to existing school buildings, including necessary equipment and acquisition of necessary land under PWA Docket No. Texas-2134-F. Robert E. Lee Elementary School was one of the new schools built with this grant. In May 2016, the Austin School Board changed the name of the school to Russell Lee Elementary in response to community concerns about honoring...
  • Robert Lee School Improvements - Robert Lee TX
    "Further improvements in the Robert Lee school are assured with allocation Saturday in Washington of a $1,350 grant in PWA funds." (Sweetwater Reporter) The address and current status of this structure are not presently known by Living New Deal.
  • Robertson Stadium (demolished) - Houston TX
    Robertson Stadium was "constructed as a joint project between HISD and the Works Progress Administration by the Fretz Construction Company." Originally Named Public School Stadium it was completes in 1942. Houston Independent School District renamed the stadium Jeppesen Stadium. In the 1970's the stadium was renamed Robertson Stadium after being aquired by the University of Houston. It was home to many University of Houston, Texass Southern, and Houston Independents School District events until it was demolished in 2012.
  • Rochelle School - Rochelle TX
    Rock and brick building labeled Rochelle ISD has a WPA plaque which reads, "Work Projects Administration 1938-1940." The adjacent rock building labeled "1935 Rochelle School Auditorium" looks typical of structures built by the WPA, but has no plaque attesting to WPA involvement. The rock wall around the school area does not have a marker.
  • Rock Wall - Palo Pinto TX
    This rock wall was constructed 1935-1937 by the Works Progress Administration and partially encloses a city block. It is unknown the original purpose for the wall's construction, though it now encloses the Old Jail Museum Complex.
  • Rockport School (former) - Rockport TX
    An onsite marker reads: "Rockport School has served the town of Rockport for many years as both an educational and community institution. It dates to 1935, during the era of the Great Depression. One of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal programs to combat the Depression was the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works, later the Public Works Administration (PWA), part of the National Industrial Recovery Act. Workers completed construction on the Rockport School, labeled Project Number 2813, under the PWA, and local bonds helped to subsidize the government project. The district had the structure built on the site of an...
  • Rockwall County Courthouse (former) - Rockwall TX
    Rockwall County is the smallest county in Texas and was primarily agricultural during the Great Depression. By 1940, fifteen percent of the available workers were doing relief jobs or in search of work. The federal government kept the county government from bankruptcy with federal relief funds. Through the Work Projects Administration (originally named the Works Progress Administration), a new courthouse was constructed to replace the old one built in 1893. Voelcker and Dixon designed the $100,000 Moderne style stone structure, the third courthouse for Rockwall County. The county renovated the courthouse in 2002 and built a new courthouse at another location in...
  • Rockwood Park Golf Course - Fort Worth TX
    This municipal golf course opened in 1938. The first nine holes were constructed by the CWA. Additional work was completed by the WPA.
  • Ropesville Resettlement Community - Ropesville TX
    A marker was erected in 1985 to commemorate this New Deal resettlement community. The text reads: "The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) was enacted in 1933 as part of U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal Program to aid families during the country's Great Depression. The Rural Rehabilitation Division of that agency began in 1934 to work specifically with the problems of the nation's farm families. The Ropesville Resettlement Program was one of 78 FERA- approved projects to help farmers re- establish themselves near the already-established town of Ropesville. Federal money was used to construct homes, wells, and farm buildings. The first...
  • Ropesville Resettlement Project Farmhouse #63 - Lubbock TX
    The house was first leased to the Arthur Murphy family inn 1938, The entire farm consisted of 299 acres. The house was donated and moved in March 2014 to the FiberMax Center for Discovery (formerly the Bayer Museum of Agriculture) by the Larry Smith family, to be used as a museum exhibit. Originally built and located in Hockley County, near Ropesville, Texas. The house was donated by the Larry Smith family and moved to Lubbock March 2014. The house was first leased to the Arthur Murphy Family in 1938. The farm number was #63. Between 1936 and 1938, there were about...
  • Rosemont Middle School - Forth Worth TX
    In 1934, the Public Works Administration approved a loan of $4.2 million for a school building program in Fort Worth. Rosemont Middle School (Originally Rosemont Junior High School) was one of the schools built with the PWA funds. The E. G. Withers Architectural Company designed the mostly two-story Mediterranean-Romanesque style structure. Thomas S. Byrne Construction Company constructed the building between 1935 and 1936. The Works Progress Administration under the direction of Hare and Hare of Kansas City landscaped the school grounds.
  • Rosewood Courts - Austin TX
    On September 1, 1937, President Roosevelt signed the United States Housing Act of 1937. This created the United States Housing Authority (USHA) and provided $500 million for subsidies to be paid from the U.S. government to local public housing agencies (LHAs) to improve living conditions for low-income families. The Austin City Council established the Austin Housing Authority on December 27, 1937. The housing authority made an application to the USHA for $500,000 to build 186 units of public housing at three sites. Austin’s housing agency became the first in the country to receive funding and to start construction on its USHA...
  • Rosewood Park Improvements - Austin TX
    Rosewood Park is a 13.9-acre neighborhood park in East Austin. The land for Rosewood Park was purchased by the City of Austin in 1929 and developed as the first African-American park in Austin. The Civil Works Administration helped make improvements to the park which included stone entry columns, a bandstand, and a sports field flanked by stone retaining walls.
  • Round Top-Carmine High School - Carmine TX
    The Works Progress Administration built the original section of Round Top-Carmine High School in 1939 (Project No. 12646.). It was called the Carmine Independent School at the time of construction. An addition was built on the northwest side of the building in 1995 and another structure was added on the southeast side in 2018.
  • Route 183 Grade Separations - Fort Worth TX
    LOC: "Fort Worth & Denver City Railroad Underpass, Spanning State Highway 183 at Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, Fort Worth, Tarrant County, TX: An example of Fort Worth's exceptional network of grade separation structures, the underpass as a good example of a cooperative effort by the Texas Highway Department and the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads to eliminate dangerous grade crossings in Texas during the Great Depression." The bridges at: 32.79525, -97.33843 and 32.795109, -97.338925 bear plaques.
  • Route 207 Development - Silverton TX
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) undertook a project beginning December 24, 1935 that would employ "16 men for three months" working to develop / improve "an 11-mile road south of Silverton to Floyd County line."
  • Roy B. Inks Bridge - Llano TX
    A disastrous flood in June 1935 washed away the existing highway bridge across the Llano River in Llano, Texas. The Texas Highway Department designed a new bridge in the fall of 1935 and built a new two-lane four-span Parker through truss bridge using Federal Emergency Relief funds made available through the Hayden-Cartwright Act of 1934, although no specific federal agency is noted for administration of the funds. The Austin Bridge Company constructed the bridge in 1936 at a cost of $155,724. The bridge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a contributing structure to the Llano County Courthouse...
  • Roy G. Cullen Building (Old Science Building, UH) - Houston TX
    The University of Houston's old Science Building, now known as the Roy G. Cullen Building, was constructed as a New Deal project. Houston, a history and guide: "Directly opposite the reflection pool is the SCIENCE BUILDING (open day light hours, Mon.-SatJ, forming the north boundary of the central quadrangle. Of modern architecture and faced with Texas limestone, the two-story structure is designed to harmonise with the earlier building. Wings and offsets break the monotony of long walls void of other ornamentation. The main entrance faces the pool. The Science Building contains 15 laboratories large enough to accommodate a total of 300...
  • Runnels County Sheriff's Office - Ballinger TX
    The National Youth Administration constructed the building that houses the Runnels County Sheriff's Office between 1941 and 1942.
  • Rylie School (former) - Dallas TX
    In 1937, a school was built in Rylie, Texas (now Dallas) to replace the former school that burned down the year before. An article published in 1937 in the Dallas Daily Times Herald, recounts the process by which federal funds were granted for the construction of the school: "Officials Puzzled When Second Okay for School WPA Grant Comes Through The board of trustees of Rylie common school district is well fixed for federal aid on construction of a new school house, unofficial reports from Washington indicated Wednesday. Hoke Smith, architect for county school projects aided by the Works Progress Administration, was unable to understand an...
  • Sabine Farms - Marshall TX
    Sabine Farms was one of 200 New Deal Resettlement Administration communities and one of only thirteen set aside for African Americans. "Sabine Farms was built on nearly 12,000 acres of land. 'They built about 80 homes - half in Harrison County and half in Panola County,' explained Ms. Murray. In addition, a 19.3 acre community center was constructed that included a caretaker's house, an auditorium, a home economics building and beauty shop, a farm shop, a health center, the cooperative grocery store and cannery, a dormitory and dining hall, slaughter house, barbecue pit, a well and combination water tower and office building, according...
  • Saginaw Elementary School - Saginaw TX
    Saginaw Elementary School in Saginaw, Texas was constructed in large part with federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) funds. Text from the state historical marker reads: "Saginaw School. Jarvis J. Green settled here in 1882 and named the site for his former home of Saginaw, Michigan. The Fort Worth and Denver and Santa Fe railroads later crossed here, and in 1892 the first school opened. It was a tuition school on McLeroy Boulevard which became a public school the following year. A 1910 teachers strike against child labor in the school led to the creation of a local parent-teacher association. Fannie Gillen donated...
  • Salt Fork Red River Bridge - Wellington TX
    Record flooding of the Salt Fork Red River occurred on June 15, 1938, damaging the bridge for then State Highway 52 (now State Highway 203). Deemed unsalvageable by Texas Highway Department Engineers, plans were made for a replacement bridge. The funds for the bridge were jointly allocated by the Texas Highway Department and the Federal Works Agency, each of which committed $80,000. The new bridge was built seventy-five yards north of the previous bridge. This new location was chosen for its stable red clay and shale bedrock which would help prevent future flood damage. When letting for the contract was concluded,...
  • Sam Houston Coliseum and Music Hall (demolished) - Houston TX
    The Public Works Administration contributed $1,329,508 toward the construction of the Sam Houston Coliseum and Music Hall. The architect of record was Alfred C. Finn. Groundbreaking ceremonies were held on November 4, 1936 and dedication was held on November 26, 1937. The buildings housed circuses, concerts, athletic events, stock shows and conventions. The coliseum and music hall were demolished in 1998. The former site of the coliseum was redeveloped into the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, which opened in 2003.
  • San Angelo Nature Center - San Angelo TX
    "San Angelo Nature Center, located in the former Lake Rangers Headquarters building at Lake Nasworthy, built by Works Progress Administration. Natural science and history museum emphasizing understanding of Edwards Plateau region."
  • San Antonio River Walk: Tile Plaques - San Antonio TX
    Ethel Wilson Harris was already the owner of a well-established decorative tile business in San Antonio when she became the local technical supervisor of the Arts and Crafts division of the WPA in San Antonio in 1939. Her staff of approximately 60 local artisans manufactured decorative clay tiles; during the time of the shop’s involvement with the WPA the tiles would not be sold but offered to charitable and public organizations. The tiles from the WPA involvement are seen today in two plaques along the San Antonio River. (One is found under the Navarro Street Bridge on the south loop...
  • San Antonio Zoo Improvements - San Antonio TX
    "In 1928 the San Antonio Zoological Society, a nonprofit organization, was established to purchase animals to be housed adjoining Brackenridge and Koehler parks on a fifty-acre tract of land from a Spanish grant that belonged to the city. The site had been a rock quarry, and the resultant limestone cliffs provided a "natural" habitat for the animals. The San Antonio River flowed through the area, and an extensive canal system was developed using its water. The zoo opened in 1929 with 344 specimens in the collection, including seventy-two white-tailed deer and sixty-seven ring-necked doves." (Bowers, 2010) In 1935, the San Antonio...
  • San Gabriel Park - Georgetown TX
    In 1933, the Georgetown City Council authorized the mayor to conduct negotiations to purchase land known as the Old Fair Grounds. This tract along the San Gabriel River had been a place for public gatherings for decades. The city planned to improve the property both as a swimming area and as a source of water for the city. According to the terms of the final contract, the city paid $9,267.60 for the 154-acre tract. The area was renamed San Gabriel Park. Between 1935 and 1937 the Works Progress Administration provided funding and labor to build a river wall, low water...
  • San Gabriel River Bridges - Georgetown TX
    The bridges over the north and south forks of the San Gabriel River in Georgetown, Texas are identical designs of a cantilevered-suspended span type bridge, where a steel unit is placed between cantilevered arms projecting beyond the main supports of the bridge.The Texas Highway Department designed the bridges, and the state and the United States Bureau of Public Roads provided funding. Contractor Dean Word built the two 367-foot long bridges between 1939 and 1940. The bridges carry four lanes of traffic on North Austin Avenue and are the main north-south route over the rivers into the business section of Georgetown.
  • San Jacinto Battleground Memorial - La Porte TX
    "Impressive celebrations were held throughout the State of Texas in 1936 to commemorate the centennial of its secession from the Republic of Mexico. One of the most important events leading to this act was the decisive Battle of San Jacinto fought on April 21, 1836, in which the Texans were completely victorious. It was therefore decided to erect a memorial on the battlefield honoring the heroes who fought so well. The monument rests on two terraces which rise 15 feet above the natural grade and consists of a base 36 feet high from which the shaft extends to a total height...
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