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  • Brown Deer Park - Milwaukee WI
    "In Brown Deer Park the lagoon was enlarged during the WPA program, and a pavillion of English design utilizing stone and timber was constructed in the side of a hill overlooking the lagoon. A stone-faced arch bridge was built." The WPA project also included a skating rink.
  • Burbank Playground - Milwaukee WI
    "Constructing a brick and concrete field house containing toilet, assembly, checking and dressing rooms; erecting playground, apparatus, fencing around the outdoor theater at the Burbank Playground."
  • Carleton School Addition - Milwaukee WI
    An addition was built by the WPA.
  • Carver Park Bathhouse and Pool - Milwaukee WI
    "The bathhouse and original swimming pool were built in 1940 with the help of the WPA program. Under County jurisdiction the site was originally named Lapham Park. This name was used until the late 1950’s when it was changed to Carver Park."
  • CCC Camp Site - Milwaukee WI
    A wooden sign marks the site of former CCC Camp Bluemound, Company 2606, which operated in the vicinity from 1933-1942.
  • Cherry Street Bridge - Milwaukee WI
    Milwaukee's Cherry Street Bridge was constructed as a Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) project in 1940. "The Cherry Street Bridge is a bascule bridge that crosses the Milwaukee River just North of downtown. The 214-foot total length includes a 103-foot draw span. It was built in 1940 and is notable for its stainless-steel Moderne bridge houses."
  • City Hall Window - Milwaukee WI
    "While the seal itself is in safekeeping with Milwaukee’s City Clerk, a permanent, more colorful version of it resides in the form of a stained glass window in the City Council chambers."         (www.milwaukeehistory.net) "The Arnold Gavin Stained Glass Shop provided the materials, and the windows are thought to be designed by Milwaukee artist Carl Reimann and completed under the supervision of WPA artist Adolf Karl."      (city.milwaukee.gov) The window was restored and hung in the 3rd floor Common Council Chamber in 1978.
  • Doctors Park Bathhouse - Milwaukee WI
    "The most visible legacy of WPA projects in Milwaukee County was the parks system, which had more construction and landscaping during the WPA period than any other time in its history. WPA construction included six swimming pools, pavilions at Red Arrow and Brown Deer Parks, service buildings at Jacobus, Jackson and Whitnall Parks, the Botanical Garden administration building and golf club house at Whitnall Park, a bathhouse at Doctor's Park, a recreation center at Smith Park, new roads in nearly every park, and parkways throughout the county."
  • Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Station Post Office - Milwaukee WI
    The historic Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Station post office in Milwaukee, Wisconsin was constructed in 1938 with federal Treasury Department funds. The building is still in service.
  • E. W. Luther Elementary School Gate - South Milwaukee WI
    The Works Progress Administration built an entrance gate for the E. W. Luther Elementary School track. A plaque installed on the structure reads: "WPA 1036." The gate marks the back entrance to the school's athletic field.  
  • Enderis Playing Field - Milwaukee WI
    The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built park facilities at the Enderis Playing Field in Milwaukee. One among many parks built and improved by the WPA in Milwaukee, the Enderis Playing field is still in use today. The land, which the city purchased in 1931, was initially part of the Gale Crest Park subdivision, a sparsely populated area annexed by the city of Milwaukee in 1927. The park is named after Dorothy Enderis, who led the Recreation Division of the Milwaukee Public Schools. Together with Gilbert Clegg, she devised the 1937 Milwaukee park improvements plan. The list of projects to be completed...
  • Estabrook Park - Milwaukee WI
    Estabrook park was one of many parks in Milwaukee County to receive extensive improvements from the CCC or the WPA in the 1930s. Work by the CCC at Estabrook Park included the removal of "about 100,000 cubic yards of rock from the bed of the Milwaukee River at Estabrook Park. The rock was crushed and used for roads and dam construction." The CCC also "onstructed a flood control dam at Estabrook Park, including a rock spillway and flood control gates, separated by a small island."
  • Gordon Park Improvements - Milwaukee WI
    "Repairing and painting of buildings, including band shells, bathhouses, pavilions, bridges, residences, service buildings and playground buildings in the following parks...Gordon Park."
  • Grant Park Bathhouse - Milwaukee WI
    "The temporary Grant Park bathhouse at the foot of Lake Michigan was replaced by the WPA with a permanent building of Colonial design, complete with open-air dressing yards that sat on a raised stone terrace overlooking the beach and lake. The furniture on the terrace was also designed and built by skilled craftsman who worked under federal programs. "
  • Granville Town Hall (former) - Milwaukee WI
    The Granville Town Board voted in 1940 to build a new Town Hall in Granville Center that would house the town offices, an auditorium, and the fire department. Work Projects Administration (WPA) labor built the project. Construction began Oct. 23, 1941 and the building was dedicated Oct. 10, 1942. Its original address was W. Good Hope Rd. and N. Wauwatosa Ave. (renamed N. 76th St. after Milwaukee and Granville consolidated). The Granville Town Hall was assigned the address of 7717 W. Good Hope Rd., circa 1944. On April 3rd, 1956, the voters of the City of Milwaukee and Town of Granville (22 sq....
  • Hawthorn Glen Nature Center and Amphitheater - Milwaukee WI
    Hawthorn Glen is a park and nature and education center administered by the Milwaukee Public Schools recreation division. The twenty-three acre site includes a long curving bluff, ravines, and a deciduous forest, as well as a soccer field, several nature trails with interpretive signs, and a small “nature museum” with limited hours. Potawatomi and the Menomonee Indians lived on the site before European settlement, and part of the park was a gravel pit at the turn of the twentieth century. The WPA constructed the building that now houses the nature museum, as well as a small stone amphitheater and a picnic...
  • Hiawatha Trains 100 and 101 (Demolished) - Milwaukee WI
    In 1934, the New Deal’s Public Works Administration (PWA) loaned the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad Company—popularly known as the “Milwaukee Road”—$8.6 million (about $194 million in 2022 dollars) for infrastructure improvements and new equipment.  The latter included two streamliner passenger trains, the coaches to be built by the Milwaukee Road’s own shops and the locomotives to be built by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) in Schenectady, New York for $90,000 each (about $2 million each in 2022 dollars). Each train set consisted of an engine and seven cars.  The locomotives were numbered 1 and 2 (see photos) and...
  • Jackson Park Service Building - Milwaukee WI
    "The most visible legacy of WPA projects in Milwaukee County was the parks system, which had more construction and landscaping during the WPA period than any other time in its history. WPA construction included six swimming pools, pavilions at Red Arrow and Brown Deer Parks, service buildings at Jacobus, Jackson and Whitnall Parks, the Botanical Garden administration building and golf club house at Whitnall Park, a bathhouse at Doctor's Park, a recreation center at Smith Park, new roads in nearly every park, and parkways throughout the county."
  • Jacobus Park Service Building - Milwaukee WI
    "The most visible legacy of WPA projects in Milwaukee County was the parks system, which had more construction and landscaping during the WPA period than any other time in its history. WPA construction included six swimming pools, pavilions at Red Arrow and Brown Deer Parks, service buildings at Jacobus, Jackson and Whitnall Parks, the Botanical Garden administration building and golf club house at Whitnall Park, a bathhouse at Doctor's Park, a recreation center at Smith Park, new roads in nearly every park, and parkways throughout the county."
  • Jones Island Wastewater Treatment Plant Extension - Milwaukee WI
    The PWA extended the existing Jones Island Wastewater Treatment Plant in 1934.
  • Kern Park Improvements - Milwaukee WI
    "Repairing and painting of buildings, including band shells, bathhouses, pavilions, bridges, residences, service buildings and playground buildings in the following parks...Kern Park."
  • Kosciuszko Parks Pool and Bathhouse - Milwaukee WI
    "One of the later WPA projects was the construction of the Kosciuszko pool and bathhouse. As one of the parks transferred from the city in 1937, the county set out to update the facilities. Plans for the project were complete in 1939 and approval for funding by the federal government soon followed. Construction for the pool began in 1941. The bathhouse was not completed until 1943."
  • Lake Park Improvements - Milwaukee WI
    "Repairing and painting of park board buildings, including band shells, bath houses, pavilions, bridges, residences, service buildings and play ground buildings in the following parks...Lake Park."
  • Lincoln Creek Bridge - Milwaukee WI
    Concrete arch bridge over Lincoln Creek on N. 35th Street in Milwaukee, built by the WPA in 1937.  
  • Lincoln Fieldhouse - Milwaukee WI
    In 1939, the Works Progress Administration built the Lincoln fieldhouse in Lincoln Field, Milwaukee WI.
  • Lincoln Memorial Drive - Milwaukee WI
    Lincoln Memorial Drive was completely repaved by the WPA between 1935 and 1941.
  • Lincoln Park - Milwaukee WI
    "As described later by the Park Commission, 'One of the largest projects, which involved the services of almost 2,000 men and many pieces of equipment was located at Lincoln Park. The Milwaukee River at this originally made a complete S-turn which caused ice jams and floods every spring. As a result of the program, the river was relocated, a large lagoon developed, and four islands constructed. The largest of the islands was connected to the mainland by two stone faced reinforced concrete bridges, to become part of the Milwaukee River parkway drive extending from Lincoln Park to Kletzsch Park."
  • Linnwood Avenue Water Treatment Plant - Milwaukee WI
    "The largest Public Works Administration (PWA) project in Wisconsin was construction of the City of Milwaukee Linwood water filtration plant, which employed 1,700 men for a year." (www4.uwm.edu) "Due to increasing pollution of Lake Michigan the amount of chemicals required to make the water safe for use had become excessive. The city constructed this new plant on 'made land' on the shore and it has a capacity of 200,000,000 gallons daily. It consists of a low-lift pumping station, mixing and coagulating basins, filters, a clear-water reservoir, and appurtenances. The buildings are fireproof, the exterior walls being of quarry-faced random ashlar native stone. The...
  • McGovern Park - Milwaukee WI
    "The pool at Silver Spring Park (now McGovern Park) was built by the CWA. The WPA built the new bathhouse."
  • Milwaukee Public Library - Milwaukee WI
    The Milwaukee Public Library opened in 1898 in a building combining French and Italian Renaissance styles at a cost of $780,000 (mpl.org). In 1936, Works Progress Administration (WPA) laborers assisted, according to museum director Samuel Barrett, in “completely overhauling the building, redecorating it from cellar to garret, installing a new lighting system, repairing the mosaic floors, repainting and relining exhibition cases, reinstalling a large number of exhibits, restoring photographic negatives and prints and other study and research collections, and in myriad ways improving the conditions of the institution and increasing it usefulness to the 2,500,000 people it serves annually.” ("Milwaukee Journal.")...
  • Milwaukee Public Museum Murals - Milwaukee WI
    Myron Nutting painted murals for the Milwaukee Public Museum (a natural history museum) in the early 1930s.
  • Milwaukee River Dams and Excavation - Milwaukee WI
    "The CCC crews...excavated rock and dirt and built dams on the Milwaukee River to control flooding."
  • Milwaukee Theatre Murals - Milwaukee WI
    "The Milwaukee Theatre is home to nine murals by the WPA artist Thorsten Lindberg. He was an accomplished artistic craftsman, nationally recognized for his technical skill in watercolor. Much of Lindberg’s work dating from the 1930s and early ‘40s features historical subjects of national, statewide, and local significance... While in Milwaukee Lindberg was employed as a commercial artist and as a staff artist for many of the Works Project Administration’s (WPA) historical art projects for the Milwaukee County Historical Society, the Milwaukee Public Museum, and the County Park system... Lindberg was selected to design and paint a series of historical murals which...
  • Mitchell Park - Milwaukee WI
    "A retaining wall and fence were erected along the north boundary; The pool in the sunken garden of Mitchell Park was cleaned and repaired."
  • Parklawn Housing Development - Milwaukee WI
    "Parklawn, a 42-acre tract with the main entrance at W. Hope Ave. and N. Sherman Blvd., is a low-cost Government housing project. Two thousand men, women and children liver here at moderate rental fees. Built by the Public Works Administration, Parklawn was one of the first projects to employ Federal housing funds for other than slum-clearance programs. A group of architects combined as the Allied Architects of Milwaukee to design nine blocks of brick and tile houses with uniform blue doors and red roofs. The buildings were completed in 1937 at a cost of $2,238,500. The 518 housing units occupy only...
  • Parklawn Housing Development Sculptures - Milwaukee WI
    "The Parklawn Housing Project, Milwaukee, WI was built by the WPA. Part of the philosophy was to incorporate art with mixed income families. There are two sculptures entitled "Fishing" and "Music" still extant done by WPA artists in the central park area of Parklawn (artists unknown), although there is extensive damage on both sculptures."
  • Pulaski Park Playground - Milwaukee WI
    The WPA built a playground at Pulaski Park in 1940.
  • Red Arrow Park - Milwaukee WI
    "A pavilion and wading pool were constructed at Red Arrow Park."
  • River Hills Village Hall - Milwaukee WI
    The PWA built this village hall in the incorporated community of River Hills.
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