FDR – WPA – PWA and other initials that built St. Augustine and St. Johns County in the 1930s

 

This post is a tribute to FDR. I’m not sure why he is still so underrated as President but it may be that he is still to close to us.  My list would be if anyone ever ask: Washington, Lincoln, FDR…….bottom John Tyler. After the top three it gets very difficult but poor Thomas Jefferson never ranks near the top. He had other “greatness” but being President wasn’t one of them. (Actually he said this himself.)

Enough of that.  Let’s talk FDR. Second only to the War of the Rebellion is the Great Depression as a trying experience for our nation. FDR walked the walk between the extremes of the left and the right – a practical man who concerned himself with getting people back to work. He may have given debt reduction lip service but in the end the battle was for the dignity of people to work….and work they did. Regardless of how you feel about FDR hopefully you can admit that he did put food on people’s tables, provided the dignity of jobs to the jobless, and kept democracy safe during this very dangerous period in our nation’s history.

In St. Augustine this translated into physical projects: the Civic Center (while started with money from Hoover’s work program it was continued under FDR) , the administrative  headquarters at the Castillo, the public waterworks, and probably many more that I haven’t discovered.  The writers did a tourist guide for St. Augustine and Florida, they surveyed churches for histories and records as well as doing oral histories . Their historical record survey is still a useful standard to finding documents.  I hope that I can add much more information about the programs of the 30s.

Sadly we are losing these WPA landmarks. I loved the Hastings Recreation Center. I understand that you can’t save everything (the Hastings High School project was an overwhelming and very important project). The real lesson here is not to allow these landmarks to deteriorate in the first place. In the 21st century we find ourselves in a similar situation with the economy needing to be jump-started and the nation’s infrastructure falling apart. Perhaps the 30s may have some useful lessons for us —- give people jobs, put them to work, and build something. We don’t need a lost generation.

I miss not living in Washington, D. C. The archives have a real story to tell about all the programs that happened in St. Augustine and St. Johns county. Lots of records and reports that have never been explored.

See more at http://www.drbronsontours.com/bronsonhistorypageamericanstaugustine1920stoWWII.html