Virginia Sites

The plaster bas relief entitled "The Letter" was commissioned by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. The work was created for the New Deal post office in Marion, Virginia, which is now privately owned. The relief has since been relocated to the current post office.

Housed at the historic Woodrum Station post office in Staunton, Virginia, "The McCormick Reaper" is a terra cotta relief was created by Florence Bessom. The work was commissioned by the Treasury Department of Fine Arts. It was re-discovered during a 2003 renovation after having been covered for many years. Size: 3' x 7-1/2'.

The mural "The Growing Community," by Herman Maril, was painted with Treasury Section of Fine Arts funds in 1940.

The historic post office in Appalachia, Virginia houses an example of New Deal artwork: a mural entitled "Appalachia." The Treasury Section of Fine Arts commissioned the work, which was created by Lucile Blanch, which was completed and installed in the post office lobby in 1940.

The fresco "Manufacture of Furniture" was commissioned by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts and installed in the historic Bassett post office in 1939. The work is still visible there today.

The mural "Clark County Products, 1939," by Edwin Lewis, was completed with Treasury Section of Fine Arts funds in 1939.

The mural "Coal Mining," by Richard Kenah, was completed with Treasury Section of Fine Arts funds and installed in the historic post office in Bluefield, Virginia in 1942. Kenah was a local artist who painted a variety of post office murals for the federal government, as well as portraits.

The historic post office in Chatham, Virginia houses an example of New Deal artwork: an oil-on-canvas mural entitled "Harvest Season in Southern Virginia." The Treasury Section of Fine Arts commissioned the work, which was created by Carson Davenport, which was completed and installed in the post office lobby in 1938.

The historic downtown Christiansburg post office houses a 1939 Section of Fine Arts mural, entitled "Great Road," painted John W. de Groot. The mural is a classic example of the “historic valor” series common to many Post Offices built at this time. In this case the mural is a portrayal of the “taming of the Appalachian area frontier by woodsmen, settlers and the army.”

The mural "Country Saw Mill" by Andree Ruellan was painted with Treasury Section of Fine Arts funds and was installed in the lobby of the Emporia, Virginia post office in 1941.

The Hopewell post office contains a noted 1939 oil-on-canvas mural by Edmund Archer entitled "Captain Francis Eppes Making Friends with the Appomatox Indians."

The Luray post office mural, titled "Luray 1840," was painted by Sheffield Kagy in 1939. The work was commissioned by the U.S. Treasury Section of Fine Arts.

The oil-on-canvas mural "Upland Pastures" was painted for the historic Orange, Virginia post office by Arnold Friedman. The work was commissioned by the Treasury Department of Fine Arts.

The historic post office in Rocky Mount, Virginia houses an example of New Deal artwork: the mural "Life in Rocky Mount," painted by Roy Hilton. The work was commissioned by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts.

The oil-on-canvas mural "Captain John Smith Trading With the Indians" was painted by William Abbot Cheever in 1941. The mural, which hangs in the lobby of the Smithfield, Virginia post office, was restored in 2009.

Strasburg, Virginia's historic post office houses a New Deal mural titled “Apple Orchard.” Painted by Sarah Blakeslee in 1938, the work was commissioned by the U.S. Treasury Section of Fine Arts.

The historic post office in Stuart, Virginia contains a 1942 Section of Fine Arts mural by John E. Costigan entitled "Receiving Mail on the Farm."

During the Great Depression the federal government commissioned a mural upon completion then-new post office in downtown Virginia Beach. The work by John H. R. Pickett was completed in 1939 with funding from the Treasury Section of Fine Arts, and it is alternatively known by two titles: "The Arrival of the First White Women at Jamestown" and "Old Dominion Conversation Piece." The artist was paid a total of $710 for the mural: $200 once the preliminary sketches were approved; $200 upon half-completion; and $310 upon completion, installation, and final approval. The Section formally invited Mr. Pickett to compete for the commission in...

The Tazewell post office contains two murals by William H. Calfee completed in 1940 with Treasury Section of Fine Arts funds.

"Agricultural Scenes in Virginia" is one of two murals created for the Petersburg post office under the auspices of the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. The oil-on-canvas work depicts two primary agricultural crops of Virginia: tobacco and peanuts. It was painted in 1937 by William Calfee.

"Riding to Hounds" is one of two murals created for the Petersburg post office under the auspices of the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. The work, which depicts Virginia fox hunting, was painted in 1937 by Edwin S. Lewis.

The former Prater school in Haysi, Dickenson County, Virginia, was constructed as a New Deal project. Satellite and Google Street View imagery suggest the building is still extant, if largely abandoned. In 1940, W.E. French, who directed the Federal work programs in Dickenson County, reported that from December 1, 1933 to January 27, 1940, that $129,167.00 were spent on school projects in Dickenson County. Of this amount, the Federal government spent $162,968.00 and the county put up $56,699.00 of 25.8% of the cost. Among the jobs done were: ... new buildings at ... Prater.

The historic Prince Edward County Courthouse in Farmville, Virginia was constructed between November 1938 and November 1939 with the aid of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. The building, located between Main St. and South St. south of W. 3rd Ave., is still in service. PWA Docket No. VA 1294

Prince William Forest Park was developed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), with help from skilled workers of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), from 1935 to 1942.  It was then known as Chopawamsic Recreation Demonstration Area (the name was changed in 1948).  RDAs were meant for getting inner city children out into the country to enjoy the benefits of nature and outdoor recreation. The New Deal programs built permanent structures, including the park headquarters and five cabin camps, extensive roads and trails, and five recreational lakes.  Almost all these improvements are still in use today.  The National Park Service, which operates...

The first Washington DC airport was built during the New Deal.  Long known as National Airport, it was renamed for former President Ronald Reagan in 1998. Most locals still refer to it by its former name. Construction began in 1938, after "President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced at a press conference that he was 'tired of waiting for Congress' to select a site for the new airport and said that it would be built on mudflats on a bend of the Potomac River at Gravelly Point, 4 miles south of the District of Columbia." (Airport Authority website) Several federal agencies were involved in...

In 1934-35, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) helped develop Roaches Run Waterfowl Sanctuary out of the marshes along the south shore of the Potomac River. Roaches Run  is located at the north end of National Airport, which was developed a few years later.  The CCC enrollees built a tidal gate between the lagoon and the river, cleared out brush and landscaped the area.  They built a parking lot for visitors and entry/exit roads from the George Washington Parkway, along with a trail around the lagoon.  A gamekeeper's cottage and feed storage unit were also added. The CCC crews presumably worked under...

The Roanoke Veterans Administration (VA) Hospital Historic District, currently known as the Salem Veterans Affairs Medical Center, is located at 1970 Roanoke Boulevard, Salem, Virginia, within Roanoke County. The city boundary of Salem and Roanoke extends through the medical center’s property, but the majority of the property is located within the Salem, Virginia, city limits. The hospital was originally referred to as the Roanoke VA Hospital. The PWA provided $1,300,000 for the construction of numerous buildings at the site. The neuropsychiatric facility was dedicated on October 19, 1934, with approximately 25,000 attending the ceremony. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Brigadier...

Opened on it's current location in 1929, the Roanoke Regional Airport began operating with two dirt runways and a single small hangar. In 1937, with the condition of the airport deteriorating, the City of Roanoke bought the property. Using funds and help from the Works Progress Administration, the runways were paved, and the hangers were upgraded. During this time, it was declared a National Defense Project, and federal funds were funneled into upgrading other factors of the airport. Renovations were completed on December 15 1941, when the airport was dedicated.

Robert Russa Moton Museum occupies the former public high school of the same name in Farmville, Virginia. Located at the intersection of South Main Street and Griffin Boulevard (Ely Street at time of construction), the school was constructed as the "Colored" High School in 1939 as a federal Public Works Administration (PWA) project. In 1951, a student organized strike against over crowded conditions lead to a NAACP court case, Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, Virginia. In 1954 the case became one of five cases combined in the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education...

A sanitary sewer construction project in Fairfax, Virginia was undertaken during the Great Depression with the aid of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. The PWA supplied a $44,956 grant for the project, whose total cost was $100,088. Work occurred between January 1936 and January 1937. (PWA Docket No. VA W1158)

The historic Saunders Station post office at 1635 W Broad Street in Richmond, Virginia was constructed in 1937-8 with Treasury Department funds. The building was sold in 2015 to private interests, while the post office relocated a few properties away.

The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)'s "constructive project work" in Russell County, Virginia included "improvements of the entrance to Cleveland school." A historic map suggests that the school was located on the north side of Riverview Terrace Drive.

The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)'s "constructive project work" in Russell County, Virginia included "the Honaker school ground." The location and status of the facility is unknown to Living New Deal, though a historic map shows a school at the site of the current high school in Honaker.

In 1934, the Interstate Commerce Commission approved a loan of $3.5 million from the Public Works Administration (PWA) to the Seaboard Air Line, a railroad company headquartered in Portsmouth, Virginia.  Among the purchases made with this PWA funding were five very large freight locomotives (requiring hefty 2-6-6-4 wheel configurations), to be built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Eddystone, Pennsylvania. The engines, numbered 2500 through 2504 were completed in 1935, with the first engine put on display on Sunday, April 28 at Union Station in Raleigh, North Carolina.  Raleigh’s newspaper, The News and Observer, enthusiastically described the new arrivals: “Both awesome...

The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)'s "constructive project work" in Russell County, Virginia included a sewer project.

"Between May 11, 1933 and March 31, 1942, ten CCC camps were established within, or on leased land adjacent to, Shenandoah. At any one time, more than 1,000 boys and young men lived in camps supervised by the Army and worked on projects directed by the Service and the Bureau of Public Roads. Until the park was established officially on December 26, 1935, the bulk of CCC activity took place on the narrow 100 foot right-of-way of the Skyline Drive, in the few areas of purchased or donated land transferred to the federal government by the Commonwealth of Virginia, or on...

One of the first CCC camps in the park, (Camp N.P.-2), was established at Big Meadows. Some of the CCC camp structures remain. The CCC also created many of the structures that make up today's Big Meadows Campground. CCC works remaining include water fountains, comfort stations, picnic grounds, roads, cabins, a maintenance office, a gas/oil building, a stable/storage structure and more.

"Big Meadows Lodge is on Skyline Drive in Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park, and 75 overlooks along the 115-mile-long National Scenic Byway provide valley vistas. The lodge was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps and local laborers in 1939 from stone cut from nearby Massanutten Mountain. The interior paneling is made from native chestnut, a tree that is almost extinct because of chestnut blight."   (https://traveltips.usatoday.com)

"Located south along the drive from Big Meadows, Lewis Mountain Development Area sits on a plateau approximately 3,400 feet above sea level east of Lewis Mountain and consists of a picnic grounds, lodge and eight cabins (having 15 overnight units), and a campground, 30 sites for tents or trailers, a picnic area, a camp store, and two comfort stations... Lewis Mountain’s facilities were built to accommodate African American visitors during the period of racial segregation that marked Depression-era Virginia. The developed area opened in the summer of 1939 but closed in 1942 for the duration of WWII. Desegregated after the war,...

"The Skyline Drive follows closely the course of the Appalachian Trail and extends the entire length of the Shenandoah National Park, along the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains, nearly 100 miles. It will eventually be extended almost 500 miles farther south. It is a hard-surfaced highway with parking spaces and wide turn-outs at frequent intervals, from which may be enjoyed views of great beauty - the Shenandoah Valley on the west and the Piedmont section of Virginia on the east. One of the engineering features is an 80-foot tunnel through St. Mary's Rock near Thornton Gap where the drive crosses...