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  • State Industrial School Improvements - Ogden UT
    The Public Works Administration funded improvements at the Utah State Industrial School in Ogden. Docket # 1112-R (Utah).
  • Storm Mountain Amphitheater - Big Cottonwood Canyon UT
    A marvelous amphitheater graces the Storm Mountain picnic area.  It was created in 1937 by the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC). The amphitheater is built from local stone and backs up against a striking stone cliff, part of the dramatic geology of lower Big Cottonwood Canyon. A path and bridge lead to the amphitheater. The site was renovated by the US Forest Service and Chevron Corp workers in the early 1990s and is still actively used. It is marked by a plaque added at that time and an informational sign, which speaks proudly of the CCC "Forest Army" of the New Deal era...
  • Storm Mountain Picnic Area - Big Cottonwood Canyon UT
    The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)  built the Storm Mountain Picnic Area in the lower reaches of Big Cottonwood Canyon, a major recreational area for Salt Lake City.  The CCC young men, supervised by the US Forest Service, laid out picnic sites, built a footbridge over Big Cottonwood Creek and rip-rapped the creek.  They also constructed two stone comfort stations (restrooms), which are no longer in use.   The Storm Mountain picnic area includes a beautiful stone amphitheater. The picnic area is not marked as CCC in origin, but the amphitheater is.  The small dam just above the Storm Mountain picnic area is part...
  • Street Improvements - Hyrum UT
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) conducted road improvement work in Hyrum, Utah.
  • Stuart Guard Station - Emery County UT
    The Stuart Guard Station was originally built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the early 1930s and was in regular use by the U.S. Forest Service for several decades thereafter. The Stuart Guard Station has a small museum right next door offering a glimpse of the 1930s life of a ranger and his family who once lived there. Exhibits of Civilian Conservation Corps projects and original equipment are also on display. It is a scenic stop on the Huntington and Eccles Canyons National Scenic Byway (also known as the Energy Loop Byway). Many of the roads on the byway were also...
  • Sugarhouse Station Post Office (former) - Salt Lake City UT
    The historic former Sugar House Station post office was constructed in 1939-1940 with federal Treasury Department funds. The building is now privately owned. NHRP Nomination form: The May 7, 1936 edition of the Sugar House Bulletin reported a "rousing talk" by local Postmaster Smoot that was a 'call to arms' to members of the newly-formed Sugar House Rotary. Mr. Smoot stated that a new federal building was seriously needed to handle the sixteen percent increase in mail during just the preceding twenty months. ... On March 19, 1938, the Salt Lake Tribune announced that the House Appropriations Committee had approved $150,000 for a...
  • Summit County Public Health Department (former Summit County Hospital) - Coalville UT
    Prior to the building of the Summit County Hospital, operations were done on kitchen tables, in a room over the mercantile, or on a portable operating table. Thus, the county’s doctors were motivated to work with the Summit County Commissioners to build a hospital in Summit County using PWA funds ($51,830, PWA Utah 1216-F). The building was started in December 1938 and completed one year later. It was a brick structure, 124 feet by 42 feet, containing 14 beds, surgery, delivery room, x-ray department, nursery, kitchen, etc., and had modern equipment throughout. An Open House was held January 7, 1940, for...
  • Swamp Draining - Springville UT
    The Civil Works Administration (CWA) undertook a project involving the "draining of swamp lands northwest of ... the work employing about 20 men. With an aim of destroying mosquito breeding grounds this CWA project will constitute one of the many city improvements brought about by the recent employment program." Work on this project began in January 1934.
  • Teachers' Duplex Houses - Copperton UT
    Housing of teachers had been a long-term problem at Bingham High School in the remote mining town of Copperton, Utah. School district policy required teachers live within the boundaries of the school at which they taught and teachers could not rent the company homes in Copperton which were reserved for copper miners. A small apartment building had been previously built next to the high school, but the three-room units were inadequate for teachers with families. Thus in 1939 two duplex houses ($21,000 total) were funded as part of a $151,000 WPA application for improvements to the Jordan School District buildings....
  • The Spruces Campground - Big Cottonwood Canyon UT
    The Utah Outdoor Association, working with the local Forest Service office in the Wasatch National Forest, created the Community Camp in 1921.  It was built on the site of a former tree nursery put there c. 1900 to reforest Big Cottonwood Canyon, which had been completely denuded of trees in the 19th century to build early Salt Lake City.  In 1935, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) added many new facilities to the Community Camp, including more campsites, tent platforms, baseball fields, horseshoe pitches and a volleyball court. A ski jump and toboggan slide were added in 1936-37 at the mouth of Day's Fork,...
  • Theater in the Pines (Aspen Grove) - Mount Timpanogos UT
    In 1934-36, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built the beautiful amphitheater at Aspen Grove – today known as the Theater in the Pines.  The amphitheater has an elegant stone stage that includes back and side walls with entrances for actors stage left and stage right, plus a tunnel behind the stage for easy movement and steps up to the top of the walls on both side. There is an orchestra pit, also in stone, and planting beds for flowers.  Surprisingly, the stage is built over a seasonal creek that passes through an arched tunnel beneath.  On each side of the stage area...
  • Timpanogos Cave National Monument: Cave Trail Extension - Mount Timpanogos UT
    Timpanogos Cave was designated a national monument on October 14, 1922 and was initially developed and maintained by the U.S. Forest Service and volunteer organizations.  The National Park Service took over responsibility for the monument in 1933 but did not undertake full management until 1954. (Wadsworth 2018) The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) set up camp F-5 in the National Monument, at Granite Flat, in the summer of 1933 and worked on trails and other improvements for public use of the monument. The most important trail work by the CCC enrollees of Company 940 was to extend the original trail up the sheer cliff...
  • Timpanogos Cave National Monument: Improvements - Mount Timpanogos UT
    Timpanogos Cave was designated a national monument on October 14, 1922 and was initially developed and maintained by the U.S. Forest Service.  The National Park Service took over from the Forest Service in 1933 as part of the Roosevelt Administration's reorganization of national parks and monuments. Timpanogos NM was administered from Zion NP until 1955. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) sent the first New Deal workforce into the monument for the summer of 1933.  The Company 940 established a camp at the site now occupied by the Granite Flat campground. Mostly notably, CCC enrollees built a new trail to provide better access...
  • Timpanogos Cave National Monument: Stone Bridge and River Walls - Mount Timpanogos UT
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) joined the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in making improvements to Timpanogos Cave National Monument in the 1930s. They worked under the supervision of the National Park Service (NPS). A notable contribution of the WPA was to build a lovely stone arch bridge over the American Fork river in 1935.  The bridge gives access to the Superintendent's Residence, built by the WPA in 1941.  The WPA relief workers also faced both sides of the river with 6-10 foot high stone walls for a distance of about 100 feet on each side of the bridge. The stonework is...
  • Timpanogos Cave National Monument: Superintendent's Residence - Mount Timpanogos UT
    Timpanogos Cave National Monument was improved by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and Works Progress Administration (WPA) during the New Deal.   One such project was the Superintendent's residence, built by WPA workers with additional funds from the Timpanogos Cave Committee (a private group) and the Federal Emergency Relief Agency (nps.gov). The residence reflects the classic rustic style favored by the National Park Service in the first half of the 20th century. At the same time as they built the residence, the WPA workers constructed a stone bridge across the American Fork river to access the house and elaborate stone walls that...
  • Timpanogos Elementary School (demolished) - Provo UT
     Timpanogos Elementary School in Provo, Utah is now on its third incarnation. The original school on the site was built in 1892.  That school was demolished in 1938 and replaced by a New Deal school constructed with Public Works Administration (PWA) funds in 1938.  The New Deal version of the school was demolished in 2007 and replaced with a third version of the school at the same location (photo below).
  • Tooele Pioneer Museum (Old City Hall) - Tooele UT
    The historic former Town Hall building for Tooele, Utah was constructed as part of a New Deal project with Works Progress Administration (WPA) labor. The building is presently serves as part of the Tooele Pioneer Museum, which is "operated by the Daughters of Utah Pioneers located on Vine Street in the old Tooele City Hall."
  • Torrey-Boulder Road - Garfield County UT
    The Torrey-Boulder Road is one of three roads into Boulder, Utah in Garfield County. Before they were built, Boulder was a completely isolated settlement. The three roads are: Hells Backbone road - northwest from Boulder; Escalante-Boulder road, also called the "Million Dollar Highway';"  Torrey-Boulder Road - north from Boulder. It is certain that Hell's Backbone and the Escalante roads were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).  It appears that the Torrey-Boulder road was also started by the CCC, but more information is lacking. The Torrey-Boulder road is now part of Highway 12.  It goes over a 9,000 foot pass and through aspen forests.
  • Town Hall - Midway UT
    The Midway Town Hall, originally the Midway Recreation Center, was constructed with Works Progress Administration (WPA) funds and local labor in 1941. The building reflects the popular style of Midway, which early on adopted a Swiss look to go with the combination of the Wasatch Mountains to the west and the main local industry in the Heber Valley, dairy cattle.  It has characteristics of the Arts and Crafts and Tudor Revival Styles with its rustic wooden lintels, brackets on the gable ends, steeply pitched roof, half timbering, and scribed wooden pendants, and it is built of local limestone known as Pot...
  • Town Hall (former) - Fillmore UT
    Fillmore, Utah's historic former town hall was constructed as a federal New Deal project with the assistance of Works Progress Administration (WPA) labor. The building is now privately owned (home for years to Deano's Pizza).
  • Town Hall (former) - Layton UT
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed a then-town hall for Layton, Utah during the Great Depression. The exact location and status of the building is presently unknown to Living New Deal.
  • Trails - Big Cottonwood Canyon UT
    Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) company 3340 worked out of camp F-38 at the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon, Salt Lake County UT, from the summer of 1935 through 1942. The hundreds of CCC enrollees assigned to camp F-38 during those years built many trails in lower Big Cottonwood Canyon.  These are the ones locally attributed to the CCC: On the south side moving up the canyon, there are two short and three long trails up the ridge between Big Cottonwood and Little Cottonwood Canyons: Storm Mountain trail (short, unmarked); Lake Blanche trail (formerly Mill B South Fork); Donut Falls/Cardiff Pass/Kessler Peak trails...
  • University of Utah - Salt Lake City UT
    Multiple building construction projects were undertaken at the University of Utah during the Great Depression. The old library (now Crocker Science Center) and Einar Nielsen Fieldhouse are both Public Works Administration (PWA) projects that are still in use. Carlson Hall, another PWA construction, has since been demolished. The present status of a fourth building, the Seismograph Building, is presently unknown to Living New Deal. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was involved with the creation of artwork at the old library. From a 2013 retrospective on Carlson Hall, the women's dormitory: "After bequest to the U, the University administration approached the...
  • University of Utah: Bureau of Mines Building (demolished) - Salt Lake City UT
    The Public Works Administration paid for the construction of the United States Bureau of Mines building on the University of Utah campus in 1939-40.  It was designed by Cannon and Mullen architects.  The building was demolished recently to make way for the new Frederick Albert Sutton building of the College of Mines & Earth Sciences – or, more specifically, the parking garage for the Sutton complex. In 1938, the land had been deeded to the U. S. Government by the University of Utah, so a federal facility could be built on the campus.  In 1981, the Bureau of Mines property was deeded back to the university, along...
  • University of Utah: Carlson Hall (demolished) - Salt Lake City UT
    Carlson Hall, formerly located at the southwest corner of the University of Utah campus, served multiple roles over the years. Originally constructed as a women’s dorm, the building later housed a dining room, classrooms, and offices. The building was funded by the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works (see photo on plaque). It was demolished ca. 2013. The Quinney School of Law is located here now. The have a wonderful tribute to Carlson Hall inside the first floor front door (in a nook accross from the First Floor information desk). This includes the New Deal funding information, an original brick, a...
  • University of Utah: Einar Nielsen Fieldhouse - Salt Lake City UT
    The old fieldhouse, built in 1939, was home to the University of Utah basketball team for thirty years. It was built with a combination of bonded debt by the university and Public Works Administration (PWA) funds.   It appears to be used for intermural athletics today.  
  • University of Utah: Seismograph Building (demolished) - Salt Lake City UT
    The Public Works Administration paid for a seismograph building on the campus of the University of Utah.  It sat next to the old Bureau of Mines building.  Both were demolished to make way for the Frederick Albert Sutton building for the College of Mines and Earth Sciences, opened in 2009.  (They were located behind the present Sutton Building where the parking garage now stands).
  • University of Utah: Thomas Library (Crocker Science Center) - Salt Lake City UT
    The building was designed by the firm of Ashton & Evans and constructed as a PWA project in 1935. In 1969, a new library was built on campus and the Thomas Building was converted into the Utah Museum of Natural History, which recently moved to a new home on the eastern flank of the university. The structure was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. The former George Thomas Library is being converted to the Crocker Science Center (with major additions) as of 2016-17. Of the $20,000,000 spent in Utah by the Public Works Administration (PWA) for public works projects, the "most imposing" of...
  • Utah State Hospital Improvements - Provo UT
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) made extensive improvements to the Utah State Hospital for the mentally handicapped in 1936-37.  WPA workers constructed a Recreation Center (now the Castle Amphitheater) and a Superintendent's Residence (now the Hospital Museum), as well as remodeling the Central Administration Building, upgrading the heating plant, and doing maintenance work on the 320-acre grounds of the hospital.    The former Central Administration Building was a large Victorian structure and apparently the WPA renovation work included removal of gothic spires from the old building. Unfortunately, that historic building has been demolished and replaced by a modern administration building of...
  • Utah State Hospital Museum - Provo UT
    The Museum at the historic Utah State Hospital for the mentally handicapped was formerly the Superintendent's Residence, which was constructed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1936-37 as part of a general improvements to the state hospital complex.  That work included renovations to the Central Administration Building and a Recreational Center (now the Castle Amphitheater).
  • Utah State University Eastern: Administration Building (demolished) - Price UT
    The PWA built the three original buildings of Carbon Junior College, now Utah State University Eastern, from 1937-38. In 2015, the last of these original buildings was demolished. From "A Look Back at the Old SAC": "Carbon College, created as a four-year junior college, would house four grades: junior and senior years of high school and freshman and sophomore years of college. This arrangement constituted a new educational concept drafted for junior colleges in the United States. The 27-room, main classroom building included academic studies, agricultural, business and cosmetology. 'Cosmetology, the latter course to be somewhat of an innovation in the Utah...
  • Utah State University: Family Life Building - Logan UT
    The Public Works Administration (PWA) funded the construction of the Home Economics building at the Utah State University. The structure was built in 1935-36 and designed by Leslie Hodgson & Myrl McClenahan.  It is a two story, yellow brick, Moderne structure with bas-relief columns between every set of windows, white decorative elements capping the columns, and a slightly projecting entrance with somewhat gothic windows over the doors. According to a USU Historical Buildings guide, “On October 18, 1933 the federal Public Works Administrator announced allotments in excess of ten million dollars for non-federal projects. As part of the allotment given to the...
  • Utah State University: Lund Hall (demolished) - Logan UT
    Lund Hall on the Utah State University campus in Logan, Utah, was constructed in 1936-37 with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA). Architect of this Women's Residence Hall was the Salt Lake City-based firm of Young & Hansen and the general contractor was Frank Campion. It was "...one of over 230 public works buildings constructed in Utah under various New Deal programs during the Depression years of the 1930s and '40s. The construction of public works buildings, of which only 130 are extant and well preserved, not only offered temporary work relief, but also provided long-term benefits in the form...
  • Utah State University: Old Main Hill Amphitheater - Logan UT
    The historic stone amphitheater on Old Main Hill at Utah State University in Logan, Utah was constructed in 1934 with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) and the USU Classes of 1925 and 1926. The amphitheater is still in use, but one can see that the original wooden seats have long since been removed, leaving traces of their metal supports.  
  • VA Hospital (former) Landscaping - Salt Lake City UT
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) conducted landscaping work at the now-former VA Hospital, located northeast of the Utah State Capitol in Salt Lake City. The property, now a luxury condo complex, is now privately owned. Its location has been described as 12th Avenue and E Street; the former VA Hospital building is closest to Capitol Park Ave.
  • Valley School - Orderville UT
    The PWA built this school in Orderville in 1935-36. It is not entirely clear from satellite and street views how much of the original structure remains, as the site has been expanded over the years. From the National Register of Historic Places: "This is a one-story, rectangular building with a full basement. It has been built into a hillside above the town and reflects the stylistic thinking of the PWA Moderne movement in Utah. The building has a flat roof and is constructed of yellow brick. A square entrance portico has been placed centrally on the facade. The design is formal...
  • Wall at Quail Cove - American Fork UT
    In the 1930s, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) landscaped the grounds of the Utah State Training School in American Fork, just north of Provo UT. The landscaping included a quarter mile-long stone wall along the south property line of the school, along 700 North Street.  The school morphed into the Utah State Development Center and grew much larger; the original building is gone.  Part of the grounds have been carved out as Quail Cove park for the city of American Fork. But the stone wall still stands, marking the southern boundary of Quail Cove, home of a beautiful New Deal amphitheater.    
  • War Veteran's Memorial Building - Park City UT
    Park City's War Veterans Memorial Building (and Public Auditorium) was a federal New Deal project funded by the Public Works Administration (PWA). The PWA supplied a $57,225 grant toward the project, which was matched by local funds.  There is conflicting information in PWA records and on the plaques on the building whether it was built in 1938-39 or 1939-40; the former seems more likely, but, in any case, it opened in 1940. The War Memorial Building originally contained an auditorium, bowling alley, game rooms, meeting rooms and kitchen and dining room.  It is a handsome example of "Pueblo Revival" popular in the 1920s and 30s...
  • Wasatch Boulevard - Salt Lake City UT
    Wasatch Boulevard, which runs from Salt Lake City along the base of the Wasatch Mountains down to Big Cottonwood Canyon, was a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project. For years Wasatch Boulevard was a popular scenic route along the base of the mountains to the canyons and recreation areas south of the city, like Big Cottonwood Canyon and Alta ski resort.  In the past, it ran in splendid isolation beneath the formidable Wasatch front. Today, Wasatch Boulevard is overshadowed by the Interstate 215, as well as massive new housing and commercial developments, as metropolitan Salt Lake City has exploded along the Wasatch front.  The photographs...
  • Wasatch Elementary (demolished) - Clearfield UT
    Clearfield hosted the Clearfield Naval Supply Depot during WWII. Thus, their schools were full to bursting, and not only was Wasatch Elementary built for the Davis County School District, but several other "Emergency Schools" were built in local war housing projects. Wasatch Elementary cost about $120,000 (FWA Project Utah 42-189N). Only 10 years later - as the result of the Hill Air Force Base constuction - Wasatch was again over capacity (500 students in a building built for 300). Additions were needed, and finally in 2012, the building was demolished and replaced with a new Wasatch Elementary at the same location.
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