WPA projects were administered by the Division of Engineering and Construction and the Division of Professional and Service Projects. Most projects were initiated, planned and sponsored by states, counties or cities. Nationwide projects were sponsored until 1939. The WPA built traditional infrastructure of the
New Deal such as roads, bridges, schools, libraries, courthouses, hospitals, sidewalks, waterworks, and post-offices, but also constructed museums, swimming pools, parks, community centers, playgrounds, coliseums, markets, fairgrounds, tennis courts, zoos, botanical gardens, auditoriums, waterfronts, city halls, gyms, and university unions. Most of these are still in use today. The amount of infrastructure projects of the WPA included 40,000 new and 85,000 improved buildings. These new buildings included 5,900 new schools; 9,300 new auditoriums, gyms, and recreational buildings; 1,000 new libraries; 7,000 new dormitories; and 900 new armories. In addition, infrastructure projects included 2,302 stadiums, grandstands, and bleachers; 52 fairgrounds and rodeo grounds; 1,686 parks covering 75,152 acres; 3,185 playgrounds; 3,026 athletic fields; 805 swimming pools; 1,817 handball courts; 10,070 tennis courts; 2,261 horseshoe pits; 1,101 ice-skating areas; 138 outdoor theatres; 254 golf courses; and 65 ski jumps. More than $1 billion—$ in —was spent on publicly owned or operated utilities; and another $1 billion on welfare projects, including sewing projects for women, the distribution of surplus commodities, and school lunch projects. In its eight-year run, the WPA built 325 firehouses and renovated 2,384 of them across the United States. The of water mains, installed by their hand as well, contributed to increased fire protection across the country. Another project was the
Household Service Demonstration Project, which trained 30,000 women for domestic employment.
South Carolina had one of the larger statewide library service demonstration projects. At the end of the project in 1943, South Carolina had twelve publicly funded county libraries, one regional library, and a funded state library agency.
Federal Project Number One A significant aspect of the Works Progress Administration was the
Federal Project Number One, which had five different parts: the
Federal Art Project, the
Federal Music Project, the
Federal Theatre Project, the
Federal Writers' Project, and the
Historical Records Survey. The government wanted to provide new federal cultural support instead of just providing direct grants to private institutions. After only one year, over 40,000 artists and other talented workers had been employed through this project in the United States. Cedric Larson stated that "The impact made by the five major cultural projects of the WPA upon the national consciousness is probably greater in total than anyone readily realizes. As channels of communication between the administration and the country at large, both directly and indirectly, the importance of these projects cannot be overestimated, for they all carry a tremendous appeal to the eye, the ear, or the intellect—or all three." In addition, the Federal Music Project gave music classes to an estimated 132,000 children and adults every week, recorded folk music, served as copyists, arrangers, and librarians to expand the availability of music, and experimented in music therapy.
Federal Writers' Project This project was directed by
Henry Alsberg and employed 6,686 writers at its peak in 1936. An association or group that put up the cost of publication sponsored each book, the cost was anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000. In almost all cases, the book sales were able to reimburse their sponsors. With the onset of the Depression, local governments facing declining revenues were unable to maintain social services, including libraries. This lack of revenue exacerbated problems of library access. Acknowledgement of the need, not only to maintain existing facilities but to expand library services, led to the establishment of the WPA's Library Projects. In 1934, only two states, Massachusetts and Delaware, provided their total population access to public libraries. In many rural areas, there were no libraries, and where they did exist, reading opportunities were minimal. Sixty-six percent of the South's population did not have access to any public library. Libraries that existed circulated one book per capita. Federal money for these projects could only be spent on worker wages, therefore local municipalities had to provide upkeep on properties and purchase equipment and materials. At the local level, WPA libraries relied on funding from county or city officials or funds raised by local community organizations such as women's clubs. Due to limited funding, many WPA libraries were "little more than book distribution stations: tables of materials under temporary tents, a tenant home to which nearby readers came for their books, a school superintendents' home, or a crossroads general store." The public response to the WPA libraries was extremely positive. For many, "the WPA had become 'the breadline of the spirit.'" At its height in 1938, there were 38,324 people, primarily women, employed in the WPA Library Programs: 25,625 in library services and 12,696 in bookbinding and repair. Because book repair was an activity that could be taught to unskilled workers and after training could be conducted with little supervision, repair and mending became the main activity of the WPA Library Project. The basic rationale for this change was that the mending and repair projects saved public and school libraries thousands of dollars in acquisition costs while employing needy women who were often heads of households. By 1940, the WPA Library Project, now the Library Services Program, began to shift its focus as the entire WPA began to move operations towards goals of national defense. The Program served those goals in two ways: 1.) Existing WPA libraries distributed materials to the public on the nature of an imminent national defense emergency and the need for national defense preparation, and 2.) the project provided supplementary library services to military camps and defense-impacted communities. By December 1941, the number of people employed in WPA library work had declined to 16,717. In May of 1942, all statewide Library Projects were reorganized as WPA War Information Services Programs, and by early 1943, the work of closing war information centers had begun. The last week of service for remaining WPA library workers was March 15, 1943. While it is difficult to quantify the success or failure of WPA Library Projects relative to other WPA programs, "what is incontestable is the fact that the library projects provided much-needed employment for mostly female workers, recruited many to librarianship in at least semiprofessional jobs, and retained librarians who may have left the profession for other work had employment not come through federal relief...the WPA subsidized several new ventures in readership services such as the widespread use of bookmobiles and supervised reading roomsservices that became permanent in post-depression and postwar American libraries." In extending library services to people who lost their libraries or never had a library to begin with, WPA Library Services Projects achieved phenomenal success, made significant permanent gains, and had a profound impact on library life in America. ==Incarceration of Japanese Americans in internment camps==