Texas Sites

A city sponsored Works Progress Administration (WPA) project (14752) dismantled a hazardous steel truss bridge crossing a drainage ditch in Clarendon. The WPA then excavated and widened the channel and built a new reinforced concrete slab over masonry substructure bridge. The construction of the bridge employed a number of skilled masons and cost a total of $12,050 to erect. The four span slab rests on stone piers, abutments and wing walls composed of rubble laid in irregular courses bonded with thick mortar joints. The bridge is in use and in good condition.

Text from the state historical marker reads: "The community's first school was housed in a multi-purpose building erected here in 1870. The Bristol School district was established in 1877. Youth from throughout the area attended Bristol schoolhouse built in 1886 and 1913. A new brick school containing five classrooms and an impressive auditorium and stage was completed here by the U.S. Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1940. 130 pupils attended the 9-grade, 6-teacher school in 1940-41. The school served the area until 1955. In 1957 its facilities and grounds were deeded to the Bristol Cemetery Association."

The Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) constructed the former high school building and attendant perimeter wall in 1938-9. A W.P.A. plaque remains on site. It is located in front of the new high school, on the remains of the step entrance to the old building.

In 1888, a church and school building was erected in a central location at newly-divided Brown's Prairie, with the Reverend David Buchmueller as pastor and teacher. By 1911, a new wooden six-room school building was used each Sunday, with one teacher for six grades. In 1939, the wooden school was replaced using WPA funds, constructed by architect Travis Broesche and stone mason Carl Whitmarsh. In the 1940s, the Brown's Prairie School was referred to as Washington School, and after the 1950-51 school year, all students were transferred to Brenham after its annexation into the district.

A small rural schoolhouse was built in 1939 by the WPA for students in the rural community of Brown's Prairie, replacing a 1911 wooden one-room schoolhouse. Brown's Prairie School as described on a Texas Historical Marker located on the site of the former school: "In 1888, a church and school building was erected in a central location at newly-divided Brown's Prairie, with the Reverend David Buchmueller as pastor and teacher. By 1911, a new wooden six-room school building was used each Sunday, with one teacher for six grades. In 1939, the wooden school was replaced using WPA funds, constructed by architect Travis...

The Abilene Reporter-News discusses various New Deal projects in northern Texas, and includes the following: "In Brownwood, more than $350,000 was designated for improving the Brownwood Municipial airport as a WPA project. Later, another WPA project was added, constructing an $80,000 road from the city to the airport."

"The Buchanan Dam is a large flood-control, water-conservation, and power project. It was originally a power project of a utility company but was taken over by the Lower Colorado River Authority in 1936 after the utility company had abandoned it. The total length of the dam is 8,400 feet and its height is 143 feet from bed to parapet. It develops a reservoir of 23,500 acres. The power plant has a capacity of 22,000 kilowatts. The project was completed in November 1938 at an estimated construction cost of $7,093,098 and project cost of $8,298,957. Included in this cost...

Buescher State Park is connected to Bastrop State Park via a scenic 11-mile drive. This CCC project opened to the public in 1940. Mr. Emil and Mrs. Elizabeth Buescher donated the original land to the state between 1933 and 1936. Buescher was spared from the September 2011 fire that swept through Bastrop County. The park has a beautiful lake with fishing, camping, and hiking trails. A plaque in front of the Recreation Hall states: CCC Companies 1805 and 1811 worked on Buescher between 1933 and 1939. Recruits enrolled for a six month period and received base pay of $30 month. Between...

The mural "Indians Moving" by Suzanne Scheuer was painted for the historic former Caldwell post office building, with funding from the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. It was later relocated to the Burleson County Courthouse.

In August 1935, the Burleson Independent School District (BISD) applied for a grant from the Public Works Administration (PWA) for the construction of a one-story, semi-fireproof combination auditorium, gymnasium and classroom school building. In October of the same year, the PWA offered a grant of $8,181 and loan of $10,000 for Project Docket Texas 1481-H, which the BISD accepted. Construction on the building began on April 1, 1936. BISD held a dedication ceremony on October 9, 1936. The auditorium is 122 x 68 feet with a 37 x 16 feet stage on one end. On each side of the stage are...

In 1935 the Burnet County Commissioners’ Court requested a grant from the Public Works Administration for the construction of a new courthouse. On November 18th of that year, the PWA made available a loan of $74,000 and a grant of $61,000 for the project. An election for bonds to cover the loan was called and passed. The Commissioners then accepted the grant. Construction began February 10, 1936, and finished on August 1, 1937. The courthouse was built of the same type of granite that was used in the construction of the Texas State Capitol in Austin.

The state historical marker at the site reads: "Burton Public Schools opened in 1874, and by 1926 nine grades were offered. In 1938, construction on Burton’s first high school began. Funded through the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA), the building was completed in 1940. Designed by architect Travis Broesche and built by local contractor Will Weeren, the school exhibits international and rustic architectural style. Features include abutting two-story rectangular blocks, a curved wall near the entrance, and a native field stone veneer."

The Texas Highway Department and the United States Bureau of Public Roads built an underpass in 1939 to separate the grade of U.S. Route 79 and the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad (currently Business U.S. Highway 79 and Union Pacific Railroad) in Taylor, Texas. The Texas Highway Department designed the bridge and L. H. Lacy Company constructed it.

Butler Place Public Housing Complex in Fort Worth was built with PWA U.S. Housing Authority funds in 1939-40 . It is still in use and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2011. It was one of two PWA New Deal housing projects in Fort Worth. Ripley Arnold was for whites and Butler Place was for blacks. Ripley Arnold has been demolished. The National Register nomination describes the design and significance of the project: "The Butler Place Public Housing Project was one of fifty‐two Public Works Administration low‐income housing projects built in the United States. The complex is significant...

The Butterfield School was constructed in 1935 as a red brick building, with no kitchen or indoor toilets. In fall of 1938, improvements were begun through a National Youth Administration Project. The project included construction of rock walls for landscaping, a rock retainer wall for the front of school grounds, two tennis courts, two underground cisterns for water storage, and graveling of sidewalks. The total cost was $1,525 and the NYA provide $1,000 in labor. The building is still extant and is currently in use as the Daybreak Community following the closing of the school in 2006.

According to the Caddo Lake State Park History website, the cabins, pavilion, and trails were begun by Company 889 (June-November, 1933) and completed by Company 857 (October 1934-March 1937). Some of the original picnic benches remain, as do remnants of the original trails. The pavilion is no longer in use, though other buildings remain in use.

Text from the state historical marker reads: "To create jobs and bring county services nearer to residents of this area, Newton County officials provided materials and the U.S. Work Projects Administration (WPA) the funds to pay laborers to construct this building in 1940-41. Named for Harriet Trotti Cade who donated land for the project, it served as a sub-courthouse and Town Hall. The Cade building and rock wall were built with hand-shaped native sandstone and lumber milled in nearby Wiergate. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1993"

The Callahan County Hospital was built by the WPA in 1938-1939 in an Art Deco/Art Moderne style to serve the rural population of Callahan County, Texas. The hospital operated at least through the 1960s, as late as 1966. The building is currently used by the Texas Department of Human Services.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) made improvements to Camp Ben McCulloch in 1935. The WPA cleared the grounds and created a network of dirt-packed roads leading from the highway to the campgrounds. They modified the open sided gathering hall built in 1904 with a stone facade with a faux cornice to resemble entering a building. The current bathroom was built as a shelter by the WPA and converted to bathrooms in the 1970s. Camp Ben McCulloch was organized in the summer of 1896 as a reunion camp for Confederate veterans and named for Brigadier General Benjamin McCulloch, who was killed at...

Camp Colorado was a United States Army outpost in Coleman County, Texas. From 1857 to 1861 Camp Colorado was the center of Coleman County's settlements. The camp's buildings were made of adobe with shingled roofs and pine floors. U.S. troops abandoned the fort during the Civil War and did not re-garrison it after the war was over. The land was sold and the new owner dismantled the buildings. Citizens of the City of Coleman and Coleman County desired to participate in the Texas Centennial in 1936. The idea was proposed to erect a replica of the administration building of old Camp...

Camp Mabry, named after Brigadier General Woodford H. Mabry, the Adjutant General of Texas from January 23, 1891 to May 4, 1898, is the headquarters of the Texas Military Forces. The original 90 acres was donated to the State of Texas in 1892. The first construction at the camp included a mess shed and a parade grandstand. By 1911, Camp Mabry had expanded to more than 385 acres. During World War I the United States Army used the camp as a training site and built several barracks and administration buildings. Works Progress Administration (WPA) projects under the sponsorship of the Adjutant...

Canadian Middle School was built in 1939 with funds from the Public Works Administration (PWA).The P.W.A. provided a $79,546 grant for the project, whose total cost was $153,323. It was designed by Voelcker and Dixon in a Spanish Gothic style and first served as the junior and senior high school from 1940 - 1976. PWA Docket No. TX 1153.

Among the Works Progress Administration (WPA) projects identified as completed in an El Paso Times article from June 7, 1936 was "Hard-surfacing of Carolina Drive and Buford Way, Lower Valley, distance of 6.6 miles, $22,512.92. Living New Deal is unclear as to which road is Buford Way.

The first public school for African Americans in Abilene was established in 1890. Located in the 200 block of Plum Street, the one-room school was named the Abilene Colored School. Its first class consisted of 22 students and one teacher. In 1902 the school moved to a one-room structure built at N. 7th and Magnolia, and had two teachers serving 84 students. The Colored School held its first graduation in 1923 at the Macedonia Baptist Church for one student. A five-room school was constructed at 541 N. 8th Street in 1929. That year the student body consisted of 217 pupils. The building...

The Works Progress Administration completed George Washington Carver High School in 1941. The building was used by the African-American students in the Karnack school district. When schools were integrated, the building became George Washington Carver Elementary School. Karnack High School closed in 2016 due to low enrollment, and the elementary school students moved to the high school building. In 2019, the old Carver school building appeared to be unused.

On August 19, 1933 a fire of unknown origin swept through the two-story Cass County Courthouse in Linden. A call went out to all available citizens to help fight the growing blaze. As Linden had no water system or fire truck, those who responded were asked to hand pump water from local wells and line up in bucket brigades. A call went out for assistance to Texarkana, Jefferson and Atlanta, cities with tanker trucks and more sophisticated firefighting expertise. By the time help arrived and the fire was put out, most of the second floor was gutted. During 1934, thanks to...

The current Castro County Courthouse was constructed in large part with labor provided by the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA). Text from the state historical marker reads: "This site was set aside as the Dimmitt town square in 1891, the year Castro County was formally organized. Temporary court facilities were set up in J. N. Morrison's office while the first courthouse was built. An ornate two-story structure, it burned in 1906 after being hit by lighting. A brick courthouse with a central dome, built in 1908, was dedicated at a community picnic. It served until the 1930s, but was razed to make...

The Works Progress Administration remodeled the Castroville School in 1939 under project number 665-66-2-541. The workmen added a two classroom wing on the northwest side of the building and a two classroom wing on the southeast side of the building. The wings were constructed using rock masonry with wood floors. The State of Texas formed Medina County in 1848. The county erected the first permanent courthouse in Castroville in 1854. When the county seat moved to Hondo in 1892, the courthouse in Castroville was converted to a school. The building is currently the Castroville City Hall.

A sign marks the site of a former CCC camp at Linden: "As part of the New Deal's efforts to offer unemployed workers jobs on public projects, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the United States Congress created the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in March 1933. Three months later, Company 1814 was organized in Fort Logan, Colorado, to serve in reforestation and other conservation efforts. After transfers to Groveton and Austin, Texas, the company was transferred to Linden on June 4, 1937. The CCC enrollees in Linden established their camp here on the nearby hillside. Working closely with the U. S. Forest...

A commemorative marker erected in 1984 reads: "Created by President Franklin Roosevelt and approved by an Act of Congress in 1933, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) provided youth employment programs during the Great Depression. The Lufkin CCC Camp, located near this site from 1933 until 1942, was administered by the Texas Forest Service. Young men helped to build roads and bridges, string telephone lines, and plant trees. The Lufkin CCC Camp proved to be instrumental in relieving unemployment but also helped revive the East Texas forest industry through its use of progressive forestry techniques." (https://atlas.thc.state.tx.us)

A marker erected in 1988 explains the Madisonville CCC camps history: "A part of the national Civilian Conservation Corps program of the New Deal era, Camp Sam Houston in Madisonville was a soil conservation camp. Begun in July 1935 and occupied by workers one month later, the camp provided jobs for 196 men. Members of the camp worked with area farmers and ranchers, demonstrating techniques of soil erosion control and pasture management. Covering a radius of 21 miles, CCC improvement projects included all of Madison County, as well as portions of Grimes, Leon, and Walker Counties. The camp was closed in...

A local marker commemorates the CCC Camp based at this location: "Weches Camp P-58-T was established by the Federal Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in June 19, 1933. Manned by company 888, the Weches camp was the first CCC camp established in Houston County. It contained barracks, a mess hall, recreation area, post office and medical infirmary. Camp enrollees helped restore and develop the Davy Crockett National Forest and the Historic 118-acre San Francisco Mission State Forest. They planted trees, built roads, developed park facilities and erected log structures and fire observation towers. The camp closed in November 1935."   (https://atlas.thc.state.tx.us)

A Winnsboro Preservation League sign in front of the Gilbreath Memorial Library, 916 N Main St, Winnsboro, TX, notes that a segregated Civilian Conservation Corps Company (#2884-C) was located here from 1935 to 1942. "BLACK Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Co. 2884 (C) Camp SCS-22T, Winnsboro, X, Camp consisted of 6 barracks, mess hall, bathhouse, rec-hall & headquarters, 250 enlisted men, 2 officers and 30 civilian personnel fro 1935-1942  Winnsboro Black CCC Camp continued operations until 1942, when manpower demands of WWII brought it to an end."

Initiated by the Roosevelt Administration in 1933, the Civilian Conservation Corps aimed to implement reforestation measures (for example, by planting pine seedlings) in places that suffered from the consequences of lumbering. The CCC situated camps in a rather permanent way by constructing buildings, including at Pineland. These buildings, while an architectural landmark from the 1900s, symbolize the permanence and lasting effects of the services they provided. According to the Timpson Daily Times, 40 camps were allocated to Texas and more than 16,000 men were enlisted in Roosevelt’s “Tree Army” not only to plant trees, but also to fight forest fires...

In May 1935, The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) began building housing and auxiliary structures in Goliad for CCC Company 3822(V), a military veterans unit. Built on land that belonged jointly to the city and the county, the camp consisted of forty cottage-style barracks, each to house six men, and nine larger buildings that included a wood shop and metal shop. The camp opened in August 1935, and housed former military enrollees veterans of the Spanish American War, the Boxer Rebellion in China, and World War I. According to a 2001 National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form: "The Goliad Camp was...

From Our Mark on This Land (2011): "If you have driven, hiked, or slept in the Chisos Mountains, you have experienced CCC history. In May 1933, Texas Canyons State Park was established; it was later renamed Big Bend State Park. Roads and trails were needed for the new park, and the CCC provided an ideal workforce. A year after the park was established, 200 young men, 80 percent of whom were Hispanic, arrived to work in the Chisos Mountains. The CCC's first job was to set up camp and develop a reliable water supply. The CCC boys faced many challenges, living...

"A vacant site of approximately 22 acres was purchased for the Cedar Springs Place low-rent housing development in Dallas, Texas. It cost $66,149, or about 7 cents per square foot. The structures cover 15 percent of the land area and contain an average of 27 rooms to the acre. The development consists of a series of 2-story apartment buildings and 1-story row houses with no basements. All buildings are fireproof. There are 598 rooms divided into 181 family-dwelling units, approximately 13 percent of which are arranged in 2-room, 51 percent in 3-room, 28 percent in 4-room, and 8 percent in 5-room...

"This building is part of a project which also included the addition of two new wings of approximately 16,500 square feet to the existing city hall, its renovation, the wrecking of an old fire station, and the construction of concrete walks and drives. The fire station occupies one fourth of a city block and is provided with wide entrances on two streets. It is two stories in height and contains space on the ground floor for fire trucks and equipment, a recreation room, and offices for the fire chief, fire marshal, and the radio broadcasting unit. The second...

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...

The fourth courthouse built for Chambers County was completed in 1936. The Works Progress Administration constructed the three-story ashlar limestone building with Moderne details at a cost of $276,000.