New Deal

The American Legion Hall at the Kiowa County Fairgrounds near Eads was a New Deal project built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1937–38. The hall is one of the best-preserved WPA buildings in Eads and remains an important site for community gatherings and entertainment. The Dust Bowl...

The 1938 Englewood post office building on South Broadway is notable for its large lobby mural by Boardman Robinson (1876–1952), an important art educator, political cartoonist, and founder of the American mural movement. The work is Robinson’s only post office mural and one of three major Robinson...

The Hartman Gymnasium was built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in about 1938–39 and quickly became an important center for athletic events and community gatherings. The school to which the gymnasium was originally attached was demolished in the early 1980s, leaving the two-story...

The Holly Gymnasium was built in 1936–38 as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project. The two-story Modernist building is made of local Niobrara limestone and was the only gymnasium in Holly until a new school complex was constructed in 1965. Since then the gym has continued to be used for...

Passed by Congress in 1934, the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) was a wide-reaching set of reforms designed to improve conditions for Indigenous people, especially those living on federal reservations. As the centerpiece of the “Indian New Deal,” the IRA focused on protecting tribal land,...

Kit Carson County, named for fur trapper and Army scout Kit Carson , covers 2,162 miles of the Great Plains in eastern Colorado. One of the state’s most productive agricultural counties, Kit Carson is bordered to the north by Yuma and Washington Counties, to the east by the state of Kansas, to the...

The Lamar Post Office was built in 1936 as a Public Works Administration (PWA) project. Designed by Pueblo architect Walter DeMordaunt , the building is the only Spanish Colonial Revival post office built as part of the New Deal in Colorado. It is still in use and was listed on the National...

Lincoln County, named after President Abraham Lincoln, covers 2,586 square miles of Colorado’s Great Plains southeast of Denver. It is bordered to the north by Washington County , to the east by Kit Carson and Cheyenne Counties, to the southeast by Kiowa County , to the south by Crowley County ,...

As the United States entered the third year of a great economic depression triggered by the 1929 stock market crash, many Americans put their hope in President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his pledge to give them a “new deal.” During his first term (1933–37), he pushed Congress to pass legislation...

The five-building Prowers County Welfare Housing complex on the north side of Lamar was built in 1938–41 as a series of Works Progress Administration (WPA) projects. The one-story sandstone buildings were the only New Deal public housing complex constructed in eastern Colorado. In 2009 the complex...

The Tigiwon Community House was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1933–34 as a meeting spot for pilgrims coming to see Mount of the Holy Cross . Located along Tigiwon Road south of Minturn at an elevation of about 10,000 feet, the rustic log building continues to serve as a meeting...