04/06/2026
LCHC PROGRAM FOR APRIL 13TH: “WPA, THE NEW DEAL AND LIBERTY COUNTY”
The Liberty County Historical Commission will meet on Monday, April 13th, 2026, at 6:00 p.m. in the Hartel Building, 318 San Jacinto Street, Liberty. After a short business meeting and committee updates, Roberta and Neal Thornton will present a program WPA, THE NEW DEAL AND LIBERTY COUNTY.
The Works Progress Administration (WPA) from 1935 to 1939, thereafter known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943 was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers, mostly men, to conduct public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads. It was set up on ay 6, 1935 by presidential order, as a key part of the Second New Deal.
The WPA’s first appropriation in 1935 was 4.9 billion or around 6.7 percent of the GDP. The WPA supplied paid jobs to the unemployed during the Great Depression in the United States, while building up the public infrastructure of the U.S. Projects including parks, schools, roads, and drains as well as extension of electricity to rural areas, water conservation, sanitation and flood control. In 1936, public facilities became a focus; parks and associated facilities, public buildings, utilities, airports, and transportation projects were funded. The following year saw the introduction of agricultural improvements, such as the production of marl fertilizer and the eradication of fungus pests. As the Second World War approached, and then eventually began, WPA projects became increasingly defense related. At its peak in 1938, it supplied paid jobs for three million unemployed men and women, as well as youth in a separate division. The WPA tried to supply one paid job for all families in which the breadwinner suffered long-term unemployment.
One project of the WPA was funding state-level library service and creating areas of library service to underserved populations and to extend rural service. Other Federal projects included art projects, music projects, theater projects and writer projects along with a historical records survey. The WPA’s tenacles reached everywhere, even into Liberty County.
Liberty and Liberty County enjoyed early prominence in the early history of this area although its growth proved to be slow. However, when Oil was discovered at the Batson-Old oilfield in neighboring Hardin County, Liberty began to grow more quickly. As a result of the city’s growth, County Judge R.E. Biggs requested an $800,000 federal loan in 1934 so that Liberty County could construct a series of new federal buildings. By 1939, the landscape in the small Texas town had changed, as a new post office, city-hall building, high school gymnasium, and electrical power plant opened to the public. To beautify Liberty’s new post office, federal officials included it on a list of other sites that were being considered for an ongoing New Deal public works project administered by the Treasury Department’s Section of Panting and Sculpture (later Fine Arts). This program supported national artists who decorated more than 65 post offices in Texas with nearly 100 murals depicting scenes of local history, culture, and industry. Artist Howard Fisher, a San Antonio native, was selected for the Liberty post office job. Fisher received the opportunity to take one of his sketches, “The Story of the Big Fish,” and enlarge it for the walls of a new federal building. That building was the new Liberty Post Office which was a part of the WPA New Deal and a symbol of its impact on East Texas.
Join the LCHC Monday, April 13th at 6:00 p.m. to learn about the WPA, the New Deal and how it affected Liberty County. Bring a guest, all are welcome!
For more information, call 936-334-5813 of email: [email protected].
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