Wednesday, July 13, 2022

The Living New Deal Map is a good entry point

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1905.

A new resource on the New Deal program from the 1930's collects information on the impact of the program as it helped the USA recover from the Great Depression. 

The interactive map is a good way to dig into the information. I took a look at Franklin and Pawtucket, RI (where I grew up) to see what was available. 

The key result for was "The historic post office in Franklin, Massachusetts was constructed with federal Treasury Department funds. The building is still in service."

I recall seeing information about the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) which had a camp here in Franklin at the time, yet the map didn't reveal that result.

Alan Earls did a presentation on the development of the Franklin State Forest by the CCC camp -> https://www.franklinmatters.org/2018/09/the-amazing-story-of-franklin-state.html

Pawtucket has a number of projects listed. I recall walking downtown sidewalks and seeing bronze plaques acknowledging the Works Progress Administration (WPA) embedded into the concrete. 

The Wrentham School is one of our neighboring sites listed. "Multiple New Deal agencies carried out improvement, development, and/or construction work at what was then Wrentham State School (now Wrentham Developmental Center)"

Explore the map and the resources available   https://livingnewdeal.org/map/
The home page -> https://livingnewdeal.org/

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