Government Shell Game

by Connie Cortright

As we learned last week, FDR's programs during the Depression made a difference in many areas of the country as it got people back into the work force. Besides parks, the WPA built band shells in 27 communities across the country.

During the 1930s, music was a way to escape the pain of daily life and band shells brought music to a community during the summer months. Big Band music was the rage back then with the beginning of such bands as the Tommy Dorsey Band, Duke Ellington, and Benny Goodman. These bands toured the country from town to town before they hit the big time. The local band shells in the community parks were the perfect place for them to have a concert.

The WPA put up money for the communities to build their band shells in parks. Cities from Daytona Beach, Florida to Johnstown, Pennsylvania to San Diego, California took advantage of these funds and built band shells in their towns.

Men and women would gather on the grass on a warm summer evening and listen to the music to forget about their problems. They'd bring blankets to sit on or bring chairs from home.


The band shells were most often looked like a half dome to help broadcast the sound of the music without the aid of a speaker system. Made out of various materials such as wood, stone, or brick, the shells were designed by local architects and built by local companies using the federal funds for wages. Here are a few of the WPA band shells.

Bedford, IN

Johnstown, PA

Daytona Beach, FL

Pueblo, Co

The Makings of a Park in Dubuque, Iowa

by Connie Cortright

Last week in the article about "Alphabet Soup", the WPA was introduced as one of the many federal programs developed during the Depression to give jobs to the unemployed. This Works Progress Administration granted money to local governments to do improvement in communities.

One of these projects is mentioned in my second novel "Lead Me Home", taking place in Dubuque, Iowa. The city council hired Alfred Caldwell in 1934 to head up the project using $200,000 from the government. The plan was to construct stone shelters and gardens in Eagle Point Park, which sits on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River in Dubuque.

Caldwell hired 400 workers to help with the construction of these buildings and walkways. According to my upcoming novel, one of these was Harry the brother of my hero. He left the farm work to his father and brothers and went to town to work on this government job. The family needed to have some cash income to purchase necessary items during the Depression. At that time the farm allowed people to survive, but didn't bring in much extra funds. "Harry" was one of 20 million people hired with federal dollars to do city or county projects across the country.


Since Caldwell was an admirer of Frank Lloyd Wright, he designed the park in the same Prairie Architecture Style that Wright used. The stone shelters and gardens are very unique for parks, making Eagle Point Park one the most beautiful in the Midwest.

Caldwell designed this building to be used as the office headquarters of the park. Wright's influence can be seen in the horizontal features of these buildings, using natural materials and blending them into the surrounding landscape as much as possible.

My husband and I visited Dubuque years ago, before I decided to use this location for my second novel. However, after finding out it was part of the WPA program and built in the 30s, I knew that it would show up as part of my story in "Lead Me Home".

In 2004, the park shelters built in 1937 by Caldwell were "recognized by the American Institute of Architects as among the most influential structures in Iowa from the decade."

We really enjoyed our visit to this park and encourage anyone visiting Dubuque to stop by and see this architecture. 

Information taken from Encyclopedia Dubuque=EAGLE POINT PARK  and City of Dubuque Eagle Point Park History

Alphabet Soup

by Connie Cortight

Photo taken from Wikicommons

Last week our guest author introduced us to the Federal Writer's Project started in the 1930s during the Great Depression. That was one of New Deal programs instituted by President Roosevelt in an attempt to hire millions of unemployed men and women across the country during those years.

Since so many workers had lost their jobs, Roosevelt used his executive power to institute programs using federal tax dollars to find work for them. His thinking was that if these unemployed people went back to work, they would spend their money and bring the economy back from the depression. Sound familiar?

All these programs with their descriptive names ended up looking like alphabet soup when they were named. Some of the programs lasted only for a limited time until their purpose was completed. Here are a few of those:

CCC - Civilian Conservation Corps- Undertook conservation projects across the country including planting 3 billion trees in parks or federal land. They carved out the hiking trails in many of the national parks that are still used by people visiting these parks today.

WPA - Works Progress Administration - Hired up to 20 million people doing public projects across the country such as building high schools, parks, etc.

REA - Rural Electrification Administration - Installed poles and wires to bring electricity to farmers living out in the country. My dad experienced this when electricity was installed on the farm when he was a boy.

NRA - National Recovery Administration

NLB - National Labor Board

Many more programs were started in the 30s still exist in the government today such as:

TVA - Tennessee Valley Authority - Bringing soil conservation and supply hydro-electric power to the people in the Tennessee Valley.

FCC - Federal Communications Commission - They've been trying to regulate programs on radio stations.

NLRB - National Labor Relations Board - They've been in the news in the last couple years with their process of selecting members of the board.

RRB - Railroad Retirement Board - This could probably be disbanded.

USHA - US Housing Authority

FCIC - Federal Crop Insurance Corp. - This one probably could be disbanded also.

SSA - Social Security Administration - We all are well acquainted with this one.

SEC - Securities and Exchange Commission - They've been in the news lately also.

Roosevelt's New Deal did bring jobs to millions of people who were out of work during the Great Depression, but it also expanded the scope of the US Government giving it power it had never had before. The government has not gone back to its pre-Roosevelt size since then.

I will commend President Roosevelt for getting all those people back into the work force, at least. Today the government gives them paychecks to stay home and watch TV, or whatever. They don't even try to get jobs when "Now Hiring" signs are posted in so many windows around town these days. It would be interesting to see what would happen if they were required to work.

Information taken from Periodic Table of Programs Click on the link to find a chart of all the New Deal Programs.