Selected New Mexico Works Progress Administration (WPA) Sites
Give a man a dole, and you save his body and destroy his spirit.
Give him a job and you save both body and spirit.
Harry Hopkins, WPA Administrator
The early years of the Great Depression saw one in four Americans without work and economic activity nearly halved. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) created under the Roosevelt administration hired more than 8.5 million people to work on 1.4 million projects. Nearly a century later, over 15,000 sites nationwide, and over 300 in New Mexico alone, remain and many still operate, including schools, government facilities, parks, and murals.
These images comprise a documentary survey of selected extant and abandoned WPA sites in New Mexico. The purpose of this project is to illustrate at least two benefits, namely, near-term job creation that helped people back then, and the longer-term transformation of place evident today.
Carrizozo Women’s Club, Carrizozo, New Mexico, March 2, 2019
City Hall (originally a High School), Tucumcari, New Mexico, February 23, 2019
Village Hall, Maxwell, New Mexico, June 7, 2022
New Mexico Public Welfare Building, Santa Fe, New Mexico, March 17, 2019
Orogrande School, Orogrande, New Mexico, October 29, 2022
Gymnasium, Amistad, New Mexico, June 9, 2022
County Building, Alamogordo, New Mexico, October 29, 2022
Wood Gormley Elementary School, Santa Fe, New Mexico, July 21, 2020
Carlos Gilbert Elementary School, Santa Fe, New Mexico, April 14, 2019
Albuquerque Little Theatre, Albuquerque, New Mexico, March 22, 2019
Harwood Art Center Building, Albuquerque, New Mexico, March 22, 2019
New Mexico Supreme Court Building, Santa Fe, New Mexico, April 28, 2019
Alma d’Arte Charter High School, Las Cruces, New Mexico, October 28, 2022
Post Office, Portales, New Mexico, July 19, 2020
Marshall Junior High School, Clovis, New Mexico, March 24, 2019
School Perimeter Wall, Des Moines, New Mexico, June 7, 2022
Clayton School Building, Clayton, New Mexico, June 8, 2022
Colfax County Courthouse, Raton, New Mexico, June 20, 2022
Oscar Huber Memorial Ball Park, Madrid, New Mexico, September 29, 2022
School Building, St. Vrain, New Mexico, March 24, 2019
School Gym, Maxwell, New Mexico, June 7, 2022
Quarai Mission Structure, Mountainair, New Mexico, May 9, 2019
Socorro Grade School, Socorro, New Mexico, October 26, 2022
Sierra County Courthouse, Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, October 26, 2022
Cemetery Opening, Fort Sumner, New Mexico, 2020
Aztec Museum, Aztec, New Mexico, June 29, 2021
Roosevelt County Courthouse, Portales, New Mexico, July 19, 2020