The Living New Deal: 90 years later, FDR's groundbreaking program is part of our everyday lives

Upon accepting the 1932 Democratic nomination for president, with the country mired in the third year of the Great Depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt promised "a new deal for the American people." When he took office in 1933, FDR pushed through a series of recovery programs that came to be known as the New Deal, legislation that resulted in 55,000 built projects around the country, in communities large and small. They included roads, trails, sewers, dams, parks, schools, post offices, airports, courthouses -- the landscape of our everyday lives.

"It's all around us," says Gray Brechin, founder of the Living New Deal, a website that catalogues New Deal sites around the country. "It's indispensable. We use it all the time, but we don't know it."

Brechin started the website because he believes the lessons of the New Deal -- of a reform-minded federal government investing in the country to improve the lives of regular people -- may be forgotten. "It showed what a caring government, an enlightened government, could do for everybody, rather than just those people who can afford to buy the government," he said. "And it improved the lives of tens of millions of Americans."  

Today, a little more than three years after President Biden signed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which authorized a $1.2 trillion investment in the nation's infrastructure, it's worth remembering the investments made more than 80 years ago that we use every day.

In Greater Cincinnati, many streets and roads were built or improved through New Deal funding, including U.S. 50, as were sewers and the expansion of the Greater Cincinnati Water Works, which now serves more than a million people.

Here a few sites in the region that were funded or built through New Deal programs: 
   

Joe SimonTangeman University Center, UC, 1937Tangeman University Center, University of Cincinnati
The federal Public Works Administration funded the construction of UC's student union building, which was completed in October 1937. Built at a total cost of $599,747, it originally housed most of the University's student organizations. It has been expanded several times since, nearly doubling in size.



Joe SimonSimon Kenton High, Independence, Ky., 1937Simon Kenton High School
There was a need for public school facilities in Kenton County in the 1930s and in  1935, an application was made to the Public Works Administration for money to erect a new building. A site just south of Independence was selected and the project was completed in December 1937 at a total cost of $456,978. Today, more than 1,800 students are enrolled at Simon Kenton. 


Joe SimonDevou Park Bandshell, Covington, 1939Devou Park
The development of Covington's 700-acre park was assisted by a federal grant of $97,251 to the city for park improvements. The band shell was built as a Works Progress Administration project and was completed in the summer of 1939. It still hosts events and is home to the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra’s Summer Concert Series.


ProvidedMt. Echo picnic shelterMt. Echo picnic shelter
Mt. Echo Park in East Price Hill provides a sweeping view of the Ohio River. Its picnic shelter was designed by architect R. Carl Freund, who worked for Cincinnati parks for three decades and designed many park buildings in a style influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright. The shelter, with its Freund-designed stone chimneys and low roof, was built by the Works Progress Administration.


Joe SimonOak Ridge Lodge, Mt. Airy ForestMt. Airy Forest
My Airy Forest became what it is today, the nation's largest urban forest, by work done by the New Deal's Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and funding from the Works Progress Administration. CCC labor provided manpower for tree-planting, road and trail building, and construction of shelters and restrooms. A CCC camp was established there, one of 2,600 camps established nationally to employ young men aged 17- 25. The Mt. Airy Forest camp was one of about 150 that employed all African-American youth. The CCC provided the park with nearly all the existing structures and planted more than a million trees, one of the first municipal reforestation projects in the United States. The rustic craftsmanship of the structures is credited to park architect R. Carl Freund.


Joe SimonTrailside Nature Center in Burnet Woods, 1939Trailside Nature Center, Burnet Woods
This Freund-designed fieldstone building was completed in 1939, a combined project of the New Deal's Works Progress Administration, Public Works Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps. Still used regularly today, it includes a children’s museum, a handicap-accessible meeting room for nature education programs, and a small planetarium.


Joe SimonThe Fort Thomas Post Office, 1940 Fort Thomas Post Office
The quaint branch post office in Fort Thomas was constructed with New Deal federal funding and opened in 1940. The building houses an excellent example of New Deal mural artwork in its lobby.


The Covington, Ky. post officeCovington Post Office
Built in 1940, the Covington Post Office and courthouse was one of the most important building projects in the city during the 1930s through the postwar period.  The building was the subject of a national design competition sponsored by the Treasury Department in 1939 and was one of the larger post office commissions in the country during this period. It is still in use as a post office today.



Joe Simon"Man airborne" at Lunken Airport Art and artists
The New Deal made extensive investments in art and artists, producing artworks in every state, city, and significant town across the country. Many of the buildings constructed through the program were not merely functional but were part of a cultural public policy in which the federal government took the lead in encouraging public art, art exhibition, and art education. Several local examples are below:


Lunken Airport murals
The airport terminal houses murals that were commissioned by the WPA’s Federal Art Project. In 1937, William Harry Gothard painted the murals at the Lunken terminal. One represents man being lifted up by the power of flight, while the other represents man being held down by gravity. Gothard won a Federal Art Project competition for the paintings. 


Joe SimonA detail from Trailside Nature Center, Burnet WoodsTrailside Nature Center's ram and buffalo
Located on one end of the nature center, the ornamentations symbolize the energy and westward expansion of the 19th century.



Joe SimonCovington Post Office, 1941Covington Post Office sculptures
The exterior limestone carvings above the two Scott Boulevard entrances were the design of Carl L. Schmitz, a New York City sculptor. The farmer and the colt sculpture symbolizes the protection of the courts to those seeking justice, according to a 1940 article in the Kentucky Post.  The carvings were executed by Danish-born sculptor Reinhold Hirlund, who lived in Cincinnati. Hirlund had studied under the famous sculptor Clement J. Barnhorn.