Works Progress Administration Project Records

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was the largest and most diverse of all the New Deal projects. Created on May 6, 1935 by Executive Order No. 7034, the WPA was administered by Harry Hopkins from July 1935 to December 1938. Infrastructure and public works projects were the largest part of the WPA's output. However, the Federal Project Number One program supported music, theater, dance and the arts; while other projects supported historic preservation, library development and social science research. Projects were locally initiated, before moving through state and national offices for approval; the locality had to provide 12 to 25 percent of the cost as seed funding. Over 8.5 million people found work through the WPA. After being rolled into the Federal Works Agency as the "Works Projects Administration" in 1939, the WPA would be closed down with the coming of war in 1941. Official termination of the WPA came on June 30, 1943.

In the Rochester, New York area, the WPA carried out numerous projects. Most extensive was the paving of numerous streets, urban and rural. A number of local parks, including Hamlin Beach, were improved as well. Other WPA projects of note included the construction of the Rundel Memorial Building, the Rush Town Hall, and a series of rifle ranges for National Guard units, along with funding the Indian Arts Project for the Rochester Museum of Arts and Sciences.