Wisconsin Sites

"A sixth CCC Camp was established at Kletzsch Park, a 118.9-acre park adjacent to the Milwaukee River in Glendale. The crew did some landscape work, but its major project was the replacement of the old crib-type dam, which had been badly damaged and partially demolished by recurring floods."

"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."

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) conducted a project to improve "the Lake George road from the North Western railroad" in the town of Pelican, Wisconsin. Work started in Dec. 1933.

Lake Owen, located within the Chequamegon National Forest in northern Wisconsin, features a typical Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) wood frame park shelter on its northeast shore. Upon completion, the shelter had changing rooms for men and women, which have since been removed. A stone fireplace remains. The shelter underwent significant structural changes in 1960 is thus ineligible for the National Register of Historic Places. Today, Lake Owen is a popular spot for camping, boating, picnicking, and swimming. Hikers can access the North Country National Scenic Trail from the parking area adjacent to this shelter.

"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."

The Ranger Station was constructed by the WPA in 1935 and is still in good condition: "This one and a half-story astylistic utilitarian ranger station features a rectangular shaped plan configuration, a concrete foundation, a rock-faced concrete block exterior, wood trim, and an asphalt shingled gable roof with three dormers on the facade. Located within are five garage stalls, two of which are heated and insulated. Concrete comprises the floors on the first story, while maple comprises the floors on the second story. The structure is in good condition. The Lake Tomahawk Ranger Station has functioned as an office, a storage...

"In 1900 the artillery tube was donated by the Navy Department to the T.L. Sutphen Post No. 41 of the Grand Army of the Republic in Evansville. The Post in turn donated the piece to the City of Evansville, which placed it on the City Hall lawn on a stone base that resembled a gun carriage. "The cannon monument to the Evansville memorial was removed from City Hall to Leonard-Leota Park in 1938 as part of Depression Era improvements to the park." "THE COURSE OF ALLEN'S CREEK WITHIN LEOTA PARK WAS STRAIGHTENED AND ITS BANKS WERE RIP-RAPPED WITH LIMESTONE BETWEEN 1933 AND...

The De Pere Public Library was constructed in 1935-6 with federal Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) funds. The P.W.A. supplied an $13,891 grant for the project, whose total cost was $33,275. PWA Docket No. WI 1034

Concrete arch bridge over Lincoln Creek on N. 35th Street in Milwaukee, built by the WPA in 1937.  

In 1939, the Works Progress Administration built the Lincoln fieldhouse in Lincoln Field, Milwaukee WI.

Lincoln Memorial Drive was completely repaved by the WPA between 1935 and 1941.

"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."

"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...

" the new Armory building under construction in Manitowoc, Wisconsin in April, 1939. Within the central space bounded by partially built outer brick walls are piles of old paving bricks that had been removed from Eighth Street in Manitowoc for re-use in the Armory walls. About 230,000 bricks were recycled for this project. The Armory/exposition building, located at 930 North 18th Street on the Manitowoc County Fair Grounds, was built in 1939 as a WPA project. It provided office and exhibit space for the fair as well as offices, storage, and drill space for the local National Guard unit, Company...

The striking Art Deco-style Marinette County Courthouse was constructed in 1941-2, and its construction was tied to F.D.R.'s New Deal. At the time, a project of this scale would have likely proceeded with a Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) grant; however the local government's application for such funding assistance fell through. The Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) would become involved with multiple aspects of the courthouse's development: razing the previous courthouse on the site; construction of the new building; and landscaping the sidewalks and property surrounding the new structure.

"The pool at Silver Spring Park (now McGovern Park) was built by the CWA. The WPA built the new bathhouse."

Occasionally mis-attributed to the W.P.A., La Crosse's Memorial Pool was constructed in 1938 with federal Public Works Administration (P.W.A.) funds. The P.W.A. supplied an $31,500 grant for the project, whose total cost was $72,738. The pool was closed in 2016, though as of 2017 it appears the pool will be modernized or rebuilt. PWA Docket No. WI 1436

With WPA support, Cal Peters painted several murals for the University of Wisconsin-Stout campus, circa 1935-1936. "French Trappers on the Red Cedar" is a 7' x 18' oil on canvas, depicting French Trappers on the Red Cedar, future site of Menomonie, Wisconsin. Location: Hallway connecting Micheels Hall and Jarvis Hall Technology Wing, University of Wisconsin-Stout

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.")...

Myron Nutting painted murals for the Milwaukee Public Museum (a natural history museum) in the early 1930s.

"The CCC crews...excavated rock and dirt and built dams on the Milwaukee River to control flooding."

"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...

Built in 1937 by the WPA.

"The Mitchell School library in Racine, Wisconsin had a series of 5 mural panels done by Santos Zingale under the WPA. These murals are currently in storage. They were removed in the 1950s when the school library was remodeled. They lie in darkness, waiting to be restored!" This school had a fire several years ago. The murals were damaged and sent to an art restorer in Chicago. As of September, 2021, the murals appear to have been lost or stolen. According to a representative of the Racine Unified School District, there is no record of what happened to the murals.   

"A retaining wall and fence were erected along the north boundary; The pool in the sunken garden of Mitchell Park was cleaned and repaired."

This 6.1-acre historic district includes three rustic buildings, a dam and the surrounding recreational grounds. It was a joint project of the U.S. Forest Service, the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration. The work consisted of the construction of several additional features such as campgrounds and roads which are not part of the historic district. The buildings and dam are in excellent condition and appear almost exactly as they did when originally built. The district sits within a significant glacial tunnel channel and esker system that were created during the pleistocene. A segment of the Ice Age National...

The CCC built a campground near Morgan Falls in the Chequamegon National Forest of northern Wisconsin. The campground flooded in 1946 and closed in 1960 due to over-saturation and unsafe camping conditions. Today, hikers and snowshoers can see fieldstone fireplaces, a well, and a round cistern along the trail that connects Morgan Falls to St. Peter's Dome, a granite outcrop offering views of Lake Superior.

"The Mountain Fire Lookout Tower is one of the last remaining structures associated with the CCC in the Nicolet National Forest. During the Depression years, the CCC was a major presence in the state and national forests of Wisconsin, and its men (and a few women) provided much of the physical labor that was associated with fire protection in these forests during this period. A local CCC camp is believed to have dismantled the Mountain Fire Lookout Tower and move it to its present site in 1935. Camp enrollees also manned the tower, and were assigned fire-fighting duties in the...

This historic stone bathhouse was built, along with a municipal swimming pool, for the community of Viroqua, Wisconsin. It was a New Deal project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and its relief workers. The pool was removed in 2014-15, but the building remains and has been marked as a local historic site. The building is owned by the city, which is threatening to sell it – a decision that is opposed by many in the community (2022).  The Viroqua Historic Preservation Commission with the approval of the City of Viroqua has formed a WPA Building Task Force to raise money to renovate...

"The Glen Park Municipal Swimming Pool complex was completed as a Federal jobs program project during the Great Depression. Construction began in the winter of 1933-1934 when President Franklin Roosevelt's administration rushed to get the unemployed to work during the first months of a new program - the Civil Works Administration (CWA). After heating the frozen ground with wood fires, workers excavated with pick axes and hauled dirt by wheelbarrows to form an 8 foot-deep hole measuring 105 by 40 feet for the pool. The construction crew poured concrete beneath an enclosure heated by seven wood-burning stoves. CWA laborers worked...

This mural "Unloading a River Barge" was painted by Ruth Grotenrath for the Hudson, WI post office with support from the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. When a new post office was built in Hudson, the mural found a new home at the Museum of Wisconsin Art in West Bend.  

Construction of a main shelter at the Myrick Park Zoo as part of a WPA project. The Zoo is currently closed.

A partnership between the Forest Service and Works Progress Administration resulted in a rudimentary picnic shelter and campground at Namekagon Lake in northern Wisconsin's Chequamegon National Forest. Originally, the shelter had changing rooms at each end which were later removed. Today, the campground boasts 34 sites, a sandy beach, boat landing, and trails.

In an effort to beautify the area around a pond in Neshotah Park, the City of Two Rivers had rocks hauled to the park over a period of about three years. In late October 1938 50 WPA workers were transferred from other work in the city to finish the park project. A contemporary newspaper description outlined the scope of the project: "The pond will be lined with the rocks and several elevations provided so that the water will cascade from an outlet rock cap to a pool several feet below and will then go to a lower pool several feet below...

The Civil Works Administration (CWA) conducted improvement work on Northern Road in Minocqua, Wisconsin: the CWA "started widening, brushing and filling to establish a grade on Northern road ..."

This water management system was built by the SCS or Soil Management Service and its function remains the same as when it was constructed in 1936. The purpose of this concrete structure is to maintain a safe level of water which passes through a culvert under Oalis road near Strum, Wisconsin. The Soil Conservation Service was created in 1935 as a part of the Department of Agriculture which the purpose of preventing floods, run off, and other detrimental effects to top soil.

Fire Station #6 built was built with Works Progress Administration (WPA) funds by the City of Oshkosh. A WPA funded project to dismantle the old Winnebago County Courthouse and old Oshkosh Post Office buildings were done in 1939. Materials from those buildings were recycled and used in other building projects, including this fire station.

The Donald "Sarge" Boyd Bandshell was constructed at a cost of $10,000 in 1937-38 from funding provided by the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The Bandshell is located in Owen Park ...

P.J. Jacobs High School (now a junior high school) was built by Works Progress Administration (WPA) workers with Public Works Administration (PWA) money between 1936-1938. Until the 1970’s it was the city’s only Public Coed 4 year (grades 9 – 10 – 11 & 12) Senior High School. A large, handsome sandstone building constructed in late Art Deco style, the school boasts stained glass windows depicting famous literary and scientific figures over several of the doorways, wide halls, exquisite golden oak wood paneling, marble window ledges, ceramic tiles representing the technology of the times, terrazzo stairs, and chandeliers that hang...

The WPA constructed various projects in Pamperin Park, including the stone pavilion and suspension bridge pictured here.