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 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, 2020
Elmwood Cemetery, Bowie, Texas, March 16, 2022
Fair Park Rock Field, Childress, Texas, March 16, 2022
Orogrande School, Orogrande, New Mexico, October 29, 2022
Wood Gormley Elementary School, Santa Fe, New Mexico, July 21, 2020
Roosevelt County Courthouse, Portales, New Mexico, July 19, 2020
Public Library (Monroe Building), Clayton, New Mexico, September 21, 2020
Socorro Grade School, Socorro, New Mexico, October 26, 2022
Marshall Junior High School, Clovis, New Mexico, March 24, 2019
Auditorium, Phoenix College, Phoenix, Arizona, October 7, 2020
Post Office, Hollywood, California, May 9, 2019
Fort Lewis College, Old Fort Lewis Campus, Hesperus, Colorado, June 29, 2021
City Hall, Salina, Utah, June 28, 2021
City Park Band Shell, Twin Falls, Idaho, June 26, 2021
Arco City Building, Arco, Idaho, June 26, 2021
Taft Stadium, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, November 18, 2022
Will Rogers High School, Tulsa, Oklahoma, September 20, 2020
United States Courthouse and Post Office, Abilene, Texas, March 19, 2022
Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas, March 19, 2022
Houston Elementary School, Denison, Texas, March 18, 2022
Boys & Girls Clubs, Wichita Falls, Texas, March 17, 2022
Post Office, Russell, Kansas, September 10, 2020
Civic Center Music Hall, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, November 18, 2022
Municipal Building, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, November 18, 2022
Jackson County Courthouse, Kansas City, Missouri, November 19, 2022
City Hall, Kansas City, Missouri, November 19, 2022
Southeast High School, Kansas City, Missouri, November 19, 2022
Lincoln High School, Kansas City, Missouri, November 19, 2022
Soldier’s Memorial Building, St. Louis, Missouri, November 20, 2022
138th Infantry Armory Building, St. Louis, Missouri, November 20, 2022
The Jewel Box, Forest Park, St. Louis, Missouri, November 20, 2022
Illinois National Guard Armory, Rockford, Illinois, September 14, 2020
James E. Roberts Special School (former), Indianapolis, Indiana, 2022
City Hall, East Wing, Columbus, Ohio, November 21, 2022
Federal Building Addition, Wheeling, West Virginia, November 22, 2022
Metuchen Public Library, Metuchen, New Jersey, November 28, 2022
Hinchliffe Stadium, Paterson, New Jersey, November 27, 2022
Central High School, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, November 28, 2022
Osmond Laboratory, Pennsylvania State University, State College Pennsylvania, November 23, 2022
Department of Interior, Washington, DC, November 30, 2022
National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC, December 1, 2022
Jefferson Memorial, Washington, DC, November 30, 2022