Evan Kalish recently traveled to New Mexico where he documented dozens of New Deal projects. Here is his summary – I love exploring New Mexico: the sunsets are beautiful, the spaces are wide-open, and the New Deal is everywhere. Melrose, N.M., population 650, has several stone WPA structures in town, and fortunately most of them are identified as New Deal. The school in Melrose bears a 1942 WPA plaque and the wall surrounding the grounds is imprinted with a WPA stamp. These are great, though when it comes to identifying its maker another Melrose project takes the cake: look closely at this wall surrounding a park and former senior center in Melrose, and you’ll find giant stone patterns spelling out “WPA” in lettering around two feet tall. He’d
almost completely missed this; fortunately the current owner was available to point it out to him! Evan also explored northeast New Mexico towns of Tucumcari, Clovis, Portales , Clayton , Raton.