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  • Cohen Federal Building (former Social Security) - Washington DC
    The Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building was built 1938-40 as the home of the Social Security Administration, one of the major new programs of the New Deal. The building was funded and constructed in conjunction with the Railroad Retirement Board headquarters, now the Mary E. Switzer building.  The two buildings stand across C street from each other.  They were the first federal buildings south of the Mall. As soon as President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law in 1935, planning began for a new headquarters building for the Social Security Administration (SSA).  Then, when Congress funded the...
  • Cohen Federal Building: Barthé Sculpture - Washington DC
    The Wilbur J. Cohen building, originally built for the Social Security Administration in 1938-1940, is home to a magnificent collection of social security themed artworks funded by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. One of the artworks is a sculpture, "American Eagle," by noted African American artist and sculptor, Richmond Barthé (1940). The Social Security Administration never occupied the building, which was turned over to the War Department in 1941.  After the war, the Federal Security Agency (FSA), under which the Social Security Board had been placed in 1939, moved into the building. In 1953, the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, succeeded...
  • Cohen Federal Building: Davis Reliefs - Washington DC
    The Wilbur J. Cohen building, originally built for the Social Security Administration in 1938-1940, is home to a magnificent collection of social security themed artworks funded by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. Two of the artworks are exterior bas-reliefs over entrances by Emma Lou Davis, "Family Group" and "Unemployment Compensation" (1941). The Social Security Administration never occupied the building, which was turned over to the War Department in 1941.  After the war, the Federal Security Agency (FSA), under which the Social Security Board had been placed in 1939, moved into the building. In 1953, the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, succeeded the...
  • Cohen Federal Building: Fogel Murals - Washington DC
    The Wilbur J. Cohen building, originally built for the Social Security Administration in 1938-1940, is home to many social security themed artworks funded by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. Two of the artworks are murals by Seymour Fogel, "Wealth of the Nation" and "Security of the People," painted in 1938 and installed in 1942 in the lobby at Independence Avenue entrance. The Social Security Administration never occupied the building, which was turned over to the War Department in 1941.  After the war, the Federal Security Agency (FSA), under which the Social Security Board had been placed in 1939, moved into the building. In...
  • Cohen Federal Building: Guston Fresco - Washington DC
    The Wilbur J. Cohen building, originally built for the Social Security Administration in 1938-1940, is home to a magnificent collection of social security themed artworks funded by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. One of the artworks is a large fresco stage curtain in the auditorium by Philip Guston, "Reconstruction and Well-Being of the Family" (1942). The Social Security Administration never occupied the building, which was turned over to the War Department in 1941.  After the war, the Federal Security Agency (FSA), under which the Social Security Board had been placed in 1939, moved into the building. In 1953, the Department of Health,...
  • Cohen Federal Building: Kreis Reliefs - Washington DC
    The Wilbur J. Cohen building, originally built for the Social Security Administration in 1938-1940, is home to a magnificent collection of social security themed artworks funded by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. Two of the artworks are exterior bas-reliefs over the entrances by Henry Kreis, "The Growth of Social Security" and "The Benefits of Social Security" (1941). The Social Security Administration never occupied the building, which was turned over to the War Department in 1941.  After the war, the Federal Security Agency (FSA), under which the Social Security Board had been placed in 1939, moved into the building. In 1953, the Department...
  • Cohen Federal Building: Other Murals - Washington DC
    The Wilbur J. Cohen building, originally built for the Social Security Administration in 1938-1940, is home to a magnificent collection of social security themed artworks funded by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. One of the lesser-known artworks is a mural by Jenne and Ethel Magafan, "Mountains in Snow." (c. 1942) Two other murals have been removed and are now stored at the National Museum of American Art: Dorothy and Fred Farr, "Sports Related to Food" (1942). Gertrude Goodrich mural, originally placed around the four walls of the cafeteria, depicting typical activities in four parts of the country (1943).    
  • Cohen Federal Building: Shahn Frescoes - Washington DC
    The Wilbur J. Cohen building, originally built for the Social Security Administration in 1938-1940, is home to a magnificent collection of social security themed artworks funded by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts.  The most spectacular of the artworks is a massive, multi-paneled, fresco mural by Lithuanian-born artist Ben Shahn, entitled "The Meaning of Social Security." Shahn's mural cycle covers both sides of the central corridor of the  building. On the east wall are three panels depicting the ills Social Security was meant to alleviate:  "Child Labor, Unemployment, and Old Age."  On the west well are scenes of a society cured of...
  • Columbia Hospital (former) Improvements - Washington DC
    The Columbia Hospital for Women was established at this site in 1870. According to Works Progress Administration (WPA) records in the National Archives, the WPA did extensive improvements at the site in 1938, "working on the grounds, erecting fences, pointing up the masonry wall, lining coping on wall, and other  incidental and appurtenant work." Although the archival records only indicate that the work was approved, this project was most likely completed as described, when the WPA was very active around the District of Columbia. The extensive brick facility is now a condominium residence called "The Columbia Residences." 
  • Columbia Island Improvements - Washington DC
    The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) did extensive improvements on Columbia Island in 1934-35. Construction of Memorial Bridge and the George Washington Parkway had made the island more accessible in the late 1920s.  A  HABS Survey describes the CCC's work: "The CCC enrollees were responsible for cleaning up debris, clearing, grading, selective cutting, topsoiling, and seeding and sodding the open areas located between the waterways and various roadways, a large part of which was completed between October 1934 and March 1935.  CCC Camp NP-6-VA (Fort Hunt) also rip rapped the island's southeastern shoreline along the Potomac River, a sea wall meant to lessen the...
  • Columbia Road NW Paving - Washington DC
    In 1933, the Washington Post announced the approval of several road surfacing projects funded by the federal PWA: "Among projects approved here are paving of Sixteenth street, Constitution Avenue, Michigan Avenue, Columbia Road, Foxhall Road, Good Hope Road, New Hampshire Avenue, Benning Road and Conduit Road, widening of E Street back of the White House and widening of Thirteenth Street" (October 9, 1933). It is not clear which section of Columbia Road was repaved, but other infrastructure projects in the vicinity make the stretch near MacMillan Reservoir a likely candidate for paving. The labor was most likely provided by relief workers in the...
  • Commercial Pier No. 5 (former) - Washington DC
    Commercial Pier No. 5 was part of a large-scale New Deal redevelopment program for the Washington Channel and Southwest Waterfront area. Construction of the pier began in 1940, by the Penker Construction Company of Cincinnati, Ohio, and was completed in 1941. The Army Corps of Engineers supervised the project and the total cost was about $270,000 (about $5 million in 2020 dollars). About 3,000 cypress and pine logs from Virginia were used to create the pier. Commercial Pier No. 5 permitted a greater exchange of goods in the nation’s capital, and was the result of “many years of agitation” from the business...
  • Congress Heights Recreation Area Improvements - Washington DC
    In 1942, the Washington Post reported the allocation of $7,953 to the Federal Works Agency (FWA) for new construction and/or improvements to the Congress Heights Recreation Center (now Recreation Area).  As part of the District's new PlayDC initiative, the playground was renovated in 2013-14.  It is unclear what FWA work may still be visible at the site.
  • Congress Heights Water Mains - Washington DC
    In 1942, the Washington Post reported the approval of funds for the Federal Works Administration (FWA) to construct more than two miles of water mains in the Congress Heights neighborhood in SE Washington DC.  While there is currently no evidence that funds were cancelled, we have not been able to verify the completion of the work.
  • Connecticut Avenue NW Improvements - Washington DC
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) made improvements to a roughly four mile segment of Connecticut Avenue NW from Calvert Street to Chevy Chase Circle, in 1935-36. “The repaving of the roadway in Connecticut Avenue NW, from Calvert Street to District of Columbia line (Chevy Chase Circle), was started last year and is now completed. The street-railway tracks were removed in advance of street paving and the space thus abandoned was paved with standard asphalt pavement. Traffic headers were installed on both sides of the old railway area. The entire project was 17,500 feet long.” This work was part of the $949,496 WPA allotment...
  • Constitution Avenue Expansion - Washington DC
    In 1933, the Washington Post announced the approval of several road surfacing projects funded by the Public Works Administration (PWA) : "Among projects approved here are paving of Sixteenth street, Constitution Avenue, Michigan Avenue, Columbia Road, Foxhall Road, Good Hope Road, New Hampshire Avenue, Benning Road and Conduit Road, widening of E Street back of the White House and widening of Thirteenth Street" (October 9, 1933). Records at the National Archives indicate that the Works Progress Administration (WPA) had approved the widening and paving of Constitution Avenue from Virginia Avenue to the Arlington Bridge approach. New Deal workers were also to...
  • Coolidge Senior High School - Washington DC
    Coolidge Senior High School in northwest Washington DC was built in 1938-40 with federal aid to the District of Columbia Education Department.   An appropriation of $350,000 was made by Congress in 1937 to the District Commissioners (the municipal government).  Since the full cost of the school building was $1,500,000, additional funds must have come from Congress, the District or the Public Works Administration (PWA).  More information is needed on this. Coolidge High School was built to relieve crowding at Theodore Roosevelt High School, on property that the District of Columbia had purchased five years before.  Some local citizens associations wanted to name the...
  • Coolidge Senior High School Recreation Center - Washington DC
    In 1942, the Washington Post reported the allocation of $27,600 to the Federal Works Agency (FWA) for new construction and/or improvements to the Coolidge Recreation Center adjacent to the new Coolidge Senior High School in the city's northwest quadrant. It is probable that the baseball field traces its origins back to the New Deal era and there are traces of former tennis courts, another common recreational elements of New Deal work. Coolidge Senior High, built 1938-40, was also New Deal project.
  • D Street NW Improvements - Washington DC
    The Public Works Administration (PWA) improved a segment of D Street NW, from Third Street to Fourth Street. This section of road was part of a PWA-funded project to widen, realign, repave, and install sidewalks along streets, to accommodate the new Municipal Center building (also a PWA-funded project).
  • D.C. Armory and East Capitol Street Recreation Area - Washington DC
    The DC Armory was paid for by a congressional appropriation (part of the District’s general funding bill for fiscal year 1940), and probably also through local revenue sources such as real estate taxes and parking fees. The DC Municipal Architect’s Office was responsible for planning and supervising the construction. The Armory was completed in 1941 at a total cost of about $1.5 to $2.5 million. One year after the Armory opened, the New Deal’s Federal Works Agency (FWA) approved funding for a recreation area in the “stadium-armory area at the end of East Capitol Street” (Evening Star, 1942). It was reported...
  • D.C. Workhouse and Reformatory Historic District Improvements - Washington DC
    The Civil Works Administration and the Public Works Administration (PWA) completed improvements at the District of Columbia Reformatory and Workhouse (today’s “D.C. Workhouse and Reformatory Historic District”) between 1933 and 1940. “During the latter part of December 1933 an appropriation was obtained from the Civil Works Administration for the construction of 4 dormitory buildings and 2 buildings for officers' quarters. This work was handled as a Virginia project through the Fairfax County administrator. Work was started January 2, 1934, and when work was terminated on March 31, 1934, the 4 dormitories were about 90 percent complete, and the 2 buildings for officers' quarters...
  • Dalecarlia Pumping Station Addition - Washington DC
    In 1942, the Federal Works Agency (FWA) paid for the installation of a ten-million-gallon-daily pump to improve the performance of the Dalecarlia Pumping Station.  The pump project cost about $16,200 .  The work was most likely done by the Army Corps of Engineers, which had previously upgraded the Dalecarlia reservoir and pumping station. Later that year, the Washington Post reported approval of funding for "... more than 2 ½ miles of 54 inch water main for filtered water from the Dalecarlia Pumping Station to a connection with the gravity system near the south end of the Georgetown Reservoir and approximately ¼ mile of...
  • Dalecarlia Reservoir and Pumping Station Improvements - Washington DC
    In 1934, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers made repairs to the Dalecarlia Reservoir, the primary source of drinking water for Washington, DC. Work consisted of, “Reconstruction of two concrete spillways, replacing earth in embankments and a small dam, and cleaning silt deposits out of a water diversion channel” (Report of the Chief of Engineers, 1935). The Public Works Administration (PWA) supplied the $16,944 in funds for the project. The Corps of Engineers upgraded the Delacarlia Pumping Station, as well: “The construction of booster pumping station was continued, and at the end of the year was practically completed. Pumps, motors,...
  • Daly Building (former DC Municipal Center) - Washington DC
    The Henry J. Daly Building is the former District of Columbia Municipal Center, built in 1939-41 with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA) (which was incorporated into the Federal Works Administration in 1939 in a major government reorganization).  The Municipal Building was meant to replace the old City Hall and consolidate the District's local government functions, but has mostly been used as the DC police headquarters. The PWA made an initial allocation of $5.7 million in 1938 (Evening Star 1938) , but the final allocation was evidently $7.75 million (National Archives).  Sources differ over whether this was a grant or...
  • DC Water and Sewer Authority Garage - Washington, DC
    In 1938, the Public Works Administration (PWA) allotted $200,000 for the construction of a large garage for the garbage trucks of the District of Columbia’s Refuse Division. The garage was completed in September 1939.  It is a flat-roofed, single-story, brick Moderne building with bas-relief pilasters between the bays and a white fringe around the top. The DC government described the garage in its fiscal year 1939 report:  “Plans and specifications for this project were prepared by the City Refuse Division under the supervision of the Municipal Architect’s Office. The building will be capable of housing from 80-100 trucks of the division’s fleet...
  • District Jail (demolished) - Washington DC
    According to the Washington Post, the Public Works Administration (PWA) paid for additions to the District Jail, first built in 1876.  In 1938, four new cell blocks, two connecting wings, a new powerhouse, and a new laundry facility were proposed. In 1940, the Post listed unspecified "remodeling operations" as part of the work on the jail. According to The Hill Is Home (blog), by 1983 the jail had been razed and its functions performed by the new jail just to the south, at 19th and D streets SE. The site of the former jail is now the St.Coletta of Greater Washington...
  • District of Columbia Courts, Building B - Washington DC
    Building B of the District of Columbia court complex was built in 1940 to house the district's Juvenile Court, with funds provided by the Public Works Administration (PWA).   It was part of a sweeping renovation of downtown DC in the late 1920s and 1930s, including the Judiciary Square area, with many new federal buildings built or completed under the New Deal. Building B of the court complex is visible in the aerial photograph behind the older,  columned Court of Appeals building in the center.   It has a pale green roof and sits just east of the open square. DC court building...
  • District Wharf and Engine Building - Washington DC
    The district wharf on the Potomac River near Maine Avenue on the southwest waterfront, as well as the original "engine building" (white structure ), was built under the New Deal. The wharf is the site of the rebuilt Maine Avenue Fish Market. Apparently, the funding came from the Public Works Administration (PWA).  Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) enrollees participated the construction – and it seems likely the Works Progress Administration (WPA) was also involved, given the nearby work by the WPA along the southwestern waterfront. The brief history on the DC wharf's website calls it the "30s Renaissance": "During the 1930s, the Southwest Waterfront underwent...
  • Duke Ellington (Calvert Street) Bridge - Washington DC
    The Calvert Street bridge was built in 1935 as part of the completion of the Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway project of the 1930s. It was later named for Duke Ellington. It replaced a streetcar bridge built in the 1890s. Plans for a new bridge were submitted by architect Paul Cret and Modeskji, Masters and Chase engineers in 1931-32, but work was held up by disputes over the proper design (between a single steel arch or multiple concrete arches) and opposition from an architect who had another design approved before World War I.   The concrete design finally won over the Civic Arts...
  • E Street NW Improvements - Washington DC
    In 1933-34, the Public Works Administration (PWA) paid for pavement repair and other unspecified improvements to the segment of E Street NW crossing the Elipse, from Fifteenth Street to West Executive Avenue, plus the roadway of East Executive Avenue from E Street to Treasury Place.   PWA funds “provided greater traffic width and an approximate straight line extension of E Street to the west and East Executive Avenue to the south. The very high crowns on E Street and its intersecting roadways were considerably reduced and cement concrete gutters were installed.”   The labor was very likely provided by Civil Works Administration (CWA) or other...
  • E Street NW Paving - Washington DC
    In 1941, the Washington Post reported the start of a $1,158,000 road paving program carried out by the Public Roads Administration division of the Federal Works Administration (FWA). One of the streets slated to be paved was E Street between 21st and 22nd Streets, NW. That stretch of E Street has been modified by subsequent construction of the E Street Expressway.
  • E Street NW Sewer - Washington DC
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built sewer lines in front of the Washington Auditorium in Washington DC. Pictured are work crews building the sewer lines in 1936. The Washington Auditorium, built in the 1920s and demolished in 1964, was located on E Street NW.  The site is now an extension of Rawlins Park. Washington Auditorium hosted the inaugural ball of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 and the Federal Emergency Relief Administration leased the entire building in 1935 – which may be why a new sewer was put in place in front.  It subsequently held the US Geological Survey and other federal offices.
  • East Capitol Street SE Water Main - Washington DC
    In 1938-1939, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) installed a new Water Main on East Capitol Street, between 59th and 61st Streets NW. The Annual Report of the DC government provide details: “Undertaken with W. P.A. labor, a 20-inch main, totaling 685 linear feet, was laid in East Capitol Street between Fifty-ninth and Sixty first Streets, to serve new houses under construction. This main will eventually be extended to intercept a proposed 30-inch main in Minnesota Avenue and will extend from Minnesota Avenue and East Capitol Street to the east most extremity of the Anacostia first high service, completing a major trunk main through...
  • East Potomac Park: Road Improvements - Washington DC
    East Potomac Park rests on an artificial peninsula created with dredge spoils from the Potomac River by the Corps of Engineers.  The park opened to the public in 1912 and was largely developed in the 1920s. After a flood in 1936, Work: A Journal of Progress reported that the Works Progress Administration (WPA) had done “extensive grading and drainage work” to repair flood damage on the "Speedway," the road circling East Potomac Park. That same year, Work also reported unspecified improvements conducted by the WPA to the Washington Channel off Hains Point.  That might have included rip-rap along the channel for erosion control,...
  • East Potomac Park: Swimming Pool (demolished) - Washington DC
    East Potomac Park rests on an artificial peninsula created with dredge spoils from the Potomac River by the Corps of Engineers.  The park opened to the public in 1912 and was largely developed in the 1920s. A swimming pool had been contracted for in 1927 but never built.  So, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) stepped up in 1935 to take on the project – which was begun in 1936, interrupted by the Potomac flood that year, and completed afterward. The pool was located at the north end of the golf course and for three-quarters of a century it was a "favorite for...
  • East Potomac Park: Tennis Courts - Washington DC
    East Potomac Park rests on an artificial peninsula created with dredge spoils from the Potomac River by the Corps of Engineers.  The park opened to the public in 1912 and was largely developed in the 1920s. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) both made improvements in East Potomac Park.  CCC work at the park featured the construction of twelve tennis courts surrounded by a 10-foot chain link fence. A HABS report provides the details: "The CCC constructed the tennis courts, and by extension the chain link fence, between 1938 and 1942.  Fieldwork conducted in 2004 found an extant, though...
  • Eastern Avenue Improvements - Washington DC
    The Civil Works Administration (CWA) and the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) carried out pavement repair and other unspecified improvements to a long segment of Eastern Avenue, from Bunker Hill Road to Queens Chapel Road. This road was paved with “temporary material consisting of broken-concrete base, broken stone, and slag. These large aggregates are choked with smaller material, and an application of asphaltic cement completes the operation. This construction forms a very good temporary roadway.” The work is likely still extant, but invisible and unmarked. In 1936-1937, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) improved a segment of Eastern Avenue NE., from Rhode Island Avenue to Bladensburg...
  • Eastern High School Recreation Center Improvements - Washington DC
    In 1942, the Washington Post reported the allocation of $12,925 to the Federal Works Agency (FWA) for new construction and/or improvements to Eastern High School's recreation center.  The report does not specify what work was to be done. The current status of the New Deal improvements is unkonwn. The baseball diamond part of the high school fields may well have its origin in the work of the early 1940s. The high school itself, constructed in 1923, was not a New Deal project.
  • Edgewood Recreation Center Improvements - Washington DC
    During the 1930s, Edgewood Playground, as it was then known, was upgraded as part of a larger Capital Parks improvement program undertaken by the Public Works Administration (PWA), Civil Work Adminstration (CWA), Works Progress Administration (WPA), and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). At Edgewood, the WPA graded and constructed tennis courts and may also have built a baseball diamond and other recreational facilities.  The CCC also did unspecified work there, probably landscaping. Today, Edgewood Recreation Center still has tennis courts, basketball courts, a field house and traces of an old baseball diamond (in satellite view).  It is unknown how much evidence remains of...
  • Eighteenth and Nineteenth Street Improvements - Washington DC
    A September 17, 1936 article in the Washington Post reported that Public Works Administration (PWA) funds had been allocated for roadway improvements in the city's southeastern quadrant: "The program calls for the widening and repaving of Eighteenth and Nineteenth streets between C and E streets and the north and south sections of E Street between Eighteenth and Nineteenth streets. Eighteenth and Nineteenth streets will be widened to 56 feet, or about 20 feet broader than at present."  This project was part of a massive New Deal program of street paving and upgrades around the city of Washington DC.  Most such work is...
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