My first submission to Living New Deal was January 2013, and I logged 62 that first year, all of which involved road trips to 5 states to take photographs.
“Post near Houston, Natchez Trace, 1803″ used with permission from the United States Postal Service.
Although not the first of the mural photographs I took, the mural from the Houston, Mississippi post office was the first one I submitted to the Living New Deal. I spent hours trying to understand this mural, what it symbolized, and looking at it piece at a time. It took a great deal of research to finally understand it, and by then, my passion for this new research had a firm grip on me.
Stone bridge across Brazos River, Palo Pinto County, Texas
Later that month, I discovered the bridge at Possum Kingdom, where I grew up, had been a WPA project, and dug out my photographs taken in 1980 with my Minolta 35 mm. The bridge was described as the longest and most substantial masonry arch bridge in Texas; engineers chose the design to withstand flood waters released from the dam a mile above the bridge.
Detail of stone arch
Politically speaking, the best of all landscapes, the best of all roads, are those which foster movement toward a desirable social goal. (John Brinkerhoff Jackson, in Discovering the Vernacular Landscape)
While the New Deal Administration, and its goals, had its critics then and now, many of us thought then and think now that the “movement toward a desirable social goal” was well represented in the efforts of the programs: to employ people who were unemployed through no fault of their own, and to build and restore the infrastructure of the United States. That bridge built in 1942 has seen many flood waters rush under its eighteen spans that were constructed from the abundant local stone in the area, quarried by the unemployed former coal miners who had learned to cut stone underground. The project employed 250 unskilled workers and 74 skilled workers (many of whom were stonemasons).
former Crossett, Arkansas post office
One of my favorite post offices–architecturally speaking–is the Crossett, Arkansas building. Crossett was a company town, founded by a lumber company, who donated the land for the new post office and wanted it to “reflect new progressive ideas” (Arkansas Historic Preservation Program).
When construction was completed in 1940, Crossett reveled in the addition of the ‘pleasing green’ stucco building that was designed using a combination of Art Deco, Greek Revival, and International architectural styles. (Arkansas Historic Preservation Program)
Some of the research was easy and fast, and for others, I spent hours, months, and in four cases, two years to ferret out the details to prove, or rule out, that it was a New Deal construction. While in three cases, I could substantiate and celebrate, there was after all, something satisfying last night to finally have the indisputable evidence that the Weatherford Power and Light was not a New Deal construction. Although they tried, with both PWA and WPA applications as early as 1933 and through 1939, they finally gave it up in 1940, and passed the revenue bonds to construct it themselves.
Most of the time, my photography of the New Deal buildings elicits little or no interest, but it has had its moments: the woman who emerged from the police department in Philadelphia, Mississippi to ask me what I was doing and ended up elatedly telling me about the work of my colleague in the community, the postmaster in DeWitt, Arkansas who came out to ask me about my research and ended up taking me on a tour of the building, and perhaps, my favorite, the couple in Oak Grove, Arkansas who came out to talk and told me a lot about the gymnasium built during segregation.
Portrait of Contemporary DeWitt, Arkansas
former Philadelphia, Mississippi post office
Wortham Gymnasium, Oak Grove, Arkansas
Travels would take me to the middle of a street and the middle of nowhere, as I wandered down unfamiliar paths less traveled by the common tourist, trying to figure out where I was and where I needed to go, fueled by my pronoia, rapt interest in communities, and the desire to document this part of our history. While many communities value their historic buildings and infrastructure and work to preserve, others see them only as “eyesores” to be demolished without second thoughts.
Greenwood, Mississippi railroad underpass
Lynville, Mississippi Home Economics Building
Foote Homes, Memphis, Tennessee
Holmes County Jail, Lexington, Mississippi
Carmack, Mississippi school
Remains of Jermyn, Texas school
Lynville, Mississippi school
In late November and December, I would answer the call to help Living New Deal push a few state submissions over the 100 mark. I logged 21 submissions (with all the required research) for Louisiana over a 5 day period, 44 submissions and research for Tennessee over a 9 day period, and tacked on 3 for Arkansas, 1 for Texas, and 12 for Mississippi in the last 7 days of the year.
Ruston High School, Louisiana
Many of my “discoveries” were the good fortune to spot a building detail–in this case, the center of the fabulous Art Deco/Moderne school in Ruston, Louisiana that I glimpsed while refueling after one of my many marathon trips to Texas in the past year. All in all, it has been a fulfilling year, and during the summer, I will be organizing it into a coherent series of research articles. Meanwhile, I have already moved forward in the new year with six sites for Alaska–one of our states that had relatively few submissions with only 13 at the end of 2014, and plotting out my travels for the summer to add Alaska to the road trip–ambitious, yet totally possible in my pronoid world.
Now, if it would only stop raining in Mississippi (going on over a week of it now), I could get back on the road and get busy with the photographs to enhance all the research. Happy New Year, ya’ll, and if you find yourself with some spare time on your hands, lend some help to documenting the New Deal work in your neck of the woods…or city. Head on over to Living New Deal for rules of submission, and check out the map to see what has already been documented for your state or city.
The snow has begun in earnest now. I posted earlier on the Lottabusha Chronicles about the beginnings of the winter storm. I went out early this morning to fill bird feeders, and it has gone from this:
to this:
I am such a sucker for birds at the feeder, from the little nondescript brown and gray ones to the gorgeous cardinals, both female and male. It was enough to make me don my boots, put on a hoodie, wrap a scarf around my face, pull on leather gloves, and venture forth through about 6 inches of piled up snow to refill the feeders. Unfortunately, the one in the above photo and I had a bit of a mishap whilst rehanging it, and after falling on my head, it landed in a pile of snow and half of the seeds spilled out. Because I had replenished all of the other 4 feeders out there, I opted not to unscrew that very difficult apparatus yet a third time. It’s their favorite though, because the overhanging roof is better protection against the snow in the seeds, not to mention it has an easier perch.
All photographs are original images with all rights reserved. Kindly request permission prior to using.