The New Deal in Action

Listings of Public Works Projects Sponsored During the New Deal

Eleanor Roosevelt talking with a project superintendent in Des Moines, Iowa. June 8, 1936. This project, sponsored by the Works Progress Administration, planned to convert a city dump into a water front park. NPx#58-366.

"Our greatest primary task is to put people to work."

- Franklin D. Roosevelt,

First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933.

When President Roosevelt took office in March 1933, as much as 50% of America’s workforce was either unemployed or underemployed. President Roosevelt acted swiftly to put people back to work. The New Deal “Alphabet Agencies” employed millions of Americans to build and improve the nation’s infrastructure and create works of art and culture.

About the Listings

Below is a 4-part, keyword-searchable list of projects built by New Deal agencies, arranged alphabetically by State/Territory. It is not a comprehensive list of everything these agencies built, nor is it meant to be. The purpose of this list is to demonstrate how the New Deal helped to shape this country by providing specific examples of infrastructure and cultural projects created by the Alphabet Agencies in communities across the nation.

The information on the projects included in this list was gathered from sources in the Library’s collections and on the internet. For many projects, complete information was not available. For others, information found in one source conflicted with information found in another. While we have used the best information readily available, the information in this list has not been independently verified.

The Library staff would like to thank all of our volunteers who contributed to this project, especially Barbara Sweet, Susan Hochhauser, and Beth Hankin. Thank you so much for all of your hard work and dedication!

You Can Contribute

Do you know of something in your area built by a New Deal program that is not on this list? Send an email to submissions.fdr@nara.gov and let us know about it! Please provide a description of the project, the project's address or location, and its sponsoring New Deal agency if known. You can also include a photograph as an attachment, along with any additional information you may wish to include.