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 17,000 sites remain and many still operate, including schools, government facilities, parks, and murals.
These images comprise an on-going documentary survey of selected extant and abandoned WPA sites in my home state of New Mexico and other parts of the country. This project illustrates at least two benefits, namely, near-term job creation that helped people back then, and the longer-term transformation of place evident today.
Fort Bliss National Cemetery, Fort Bliss, Texas, October 27, 2022
Garwood Schoolhouse, Garwood, Missouri, September 19, 2020
Cemetery Opening, Fort Sumner, New Mexico, July 19, 2020
Reilly Canyon Bridge (abandoned), Cokedale, Colorado, August 3, 2023
Maitland Arroyo Bridge, Walsenburg, Colorado, August 3, 2023
Orogrande School, Orogrande, New Mexico, October 29, 2022
School Auditorium-Gymnasium, Aguilar, Colorado, August 3, 2023
Arco City Building, Arco, Idaho, June 26, 2021
City Park Band Shell, Twin Falls, Idaho, June 26, 2021
Childress High School Gymnasium, Childress, Texas, March 16, 2022
Marshall Junior High School, Clovis, New Mexico, March 24, 2019
Post Office, Milton, Pennsylvania, Milton, Pennsylvania, June 12, 2023
Boys & Girls Clubs, Wichita Falls, Texas, March 17, 2022
Post Office, Burbank, California, July 13, 2023
Post Office, Springerville, Arizona, November 30, 2021
Effingham Junior High School, Effingham, Illinois, September 18, 2020
Clayton School Building, Clayton, New Mexico, June 8, 2022
Will Rogers High School, Tulsa, Oklahoma, September 20, 2020
Will Rogers High School (Detail), Tulsa, Oklahoma, September 20, 2020
Southeast High School, Kansas City, Missouri, November 19, 2022
Lincoln High School, Kansas City, Missouri, November 19, 2022
Central High School, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, November 28, 2022
Post Office, Gary, Indiana, June 13, 2023
The Jewel Box, Forest Park, St. Louis, Missouri, November 20, 2022
Iowa-Illinois Memorial Bridge, Moline, Illinois, June 17, 2023
Franklin Delano Roosevelt Bridge, Outer Bridge Drive (Link Bridge), Chicago, Illinois, June 14, 2023
Jackson County Courthouse, Kansas City, Missouri, November 19, 2022
City Hall, Kansas City, Missouri, November 19, 2022
Glendale City Hall, Glendale, California, July 13, 2023
City Hall, Burbank, California, July 13, 2023
Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas, March 19, 2022
Metuchen Public Library, Metuchen, New Jersey, November 28, 2022
City Hall, East Wing, Columbus, Ohio, November 21, 2022
Post Office, 4th Avenue, New York City, June 9, 2023
Manhattan Criminal Court Building, New York City, June 9, 2023
City Hall Detail, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, November 18, 2022
Osmond Laboratory, Pennsylvania State University, State College Pennsylvania, November 23, 2022
Department of Interior, Washington, DC, November 30, 2022
Washington Monument, Washington, DC, November 30, 2022
Treasury Department, Washington, DC, November 30, 2022
National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC, December 1, 2022
Jefferson Memorial, Washington, DC, November 30, 2022