Explore the impact of the New Deal on Detroit

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Automobile Industry by William Gropper Smithsonian American Art Museum

Between 1933 to 1943, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal had a monumental impact on cities and communities across America. "A constellation of federally sponsored programs put millions of jobless Americans back to work and helped to revive a moribund economy. The result was a rich landscape of public works across the nation, often of outstanding beauty, utility and craftsmanship," notes the Living New Deal project hosted by the Department of Geography at the University of California, Berkeley.

Of course, Detroit, the "Arsenal of Democracy," was no exception.

Today, the Living New Deal "is building a national database of thousands of documents, photographs, and personal stories about public works made possible by the New Deal." Check out this amazing map of New Deal projects across the country and in U.S. territories.

Currently, the Living New Deal lists only four projects within the city of Detroit, though it's likely many more exist.

Those projects are:

Western International Highschool (located on the east side of Clark Park in Southwest Detroit)
The "Automobile Industry" mural in Wayne State University's Student Center (a 72′ x 20′ oil on canvas mural by William Gropper that was originally installed at the Northwestern Branch Postal Station in Detroit)
Artworks inside Detroit's Naval Armory (the building on East Jefferson near Belle Isle is now abandoned and the artworks, along with the structure, are at risk)
The Parkside Village public housing project (the apartments at Parkside Village are still in use by the Detroit Housing Commission)

The Living New Deal project acknowledges its incompleteness and urges users to contribute to its database. If you know of other New Deal projects in Detroit, you can submit them to the Living New Deal project by completing this form.