On May 6, 1935, Franklin Delano Roosevelt created the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the largest and by far most comprehensive of the New Deal agencies. The goal of the WPA and other federal employment agencies such as the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) and the CWA (Civil Works Administration), was to provide work for the millions of unemployed Americans during the great depression of the 1930s.
Anyone who needed a job could apply, and the hourly wages were the prevailing wages in the area. Over 8.5 million Americans were hired through WPA to work on projects such as building bridges, dams, public buildings and roads. There were also important cultural works done by the WPA's Federal Arts Program, Federal Writer Project, Federal Music Project, Federal Theater Project, and the Historical Records Survey.
The WPA programs were retired by 1943 because WWII improved employment in the United States, but the legacy of the eight years of this program remains today in the art and the structures it funded.
Waymark submissions to this category should be of physical structures or artworks created by workers of the WPA or of museums, monuments and historic markers commemorating the work of the WPA. Roads and sidewalks should not be waymarked, however if there is a historical marker about the WPA's work on a particular road, that is acceptable.
*UPDATE 4/26/13* Individuals submitting WPA waymarks to this category are highly encouraged to submit WPA (and CCC) projects to the Living New Deal archives which reside within the University of California at Berkley's web domain. This department has a wonderful interactive map of a growing list of New Deal projects across America that can be submitted by anyone who wants to aid the department in their goal of documenting, preserving and publicizing New Deal projects. (If you have any Q's or want additional information on how to submit a WPA/CCC Project to UC Berkley's Living New Deal archives, you may message WPA Projects officer, thebeav69, and he will gladly help).
Projects created by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) should be waymarked in the CCC category. Another great category for WPA endeavors is the American Guide Series category based on travel guides created by the WPA Federal Writer Project.
(edit, Sept. 21, 2007) Projects created by the PWA (Public Works Administration and also known as the Administration of Public Works) are also accepted in this category. Although we realize the programs are separate they are similar. The PWA was a Congress-approved predecessor to Roosevelt's WPA and it lasted from 1933-1934.
(edit, Dec. 28, 2013) Projects created by the CWA (Civil Works Administration) are now accepted in this category. The CWA was also a Congress-approved predecessor to the WPA and it lasted from 1933-1934.