Published by The History Press
Charleston, SC 29403
www.historypress.net
Copyright 2014 Charles Epting
All rights reserved
First published 2014
e-book edition 2014
ISBN 978.1.62585.036.2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Epting, Charles.
The New Deal in Orange County, California / Charles Epting.
page cm
Includes index.
print edition ISBN 978-1-62619-488-5
1. Orange County (Calif.)--Civilization--20th century. 2. New Deal, 1933-1939--California--Orange County. 3. Architecture--California--Orange County--20th century. 4. Orange County (Calif.)--Economic conditions--20th century. 5. Orange County (Calif.)--History--20th century. I. Title.
F868.O6E74 2014
330.979496052--dc23
2014007709
Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This book is dedicated to my cousin David,
my New Deal partner in crime.
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, Id like to thank everyone who supported me during the research and writing process, including my parents, my sister, my nana, my fellow USC students and my brothers in Theta Chi fraternitywithout your constant enthusiasm and encouragement, this book never would have been possible. Id also like to thank everyone who joined me on my explorations of Orange Countys New Deal landmarks, most notably my parents and Chelsea Exton.
I would also like to thank the Orange County Archives, Brea Historical Society, USC Libraries, University of Irvine Special Collections, University of California Libraries, Huntington Beach Public Library, Anaheim Muzeo and anyone else who assisted me in my research.
INTRODUCTION
The New Deal is something of which many people have heard, but few actually understand its nuances. In the most general sense, the New Deal is the summation of all of President Franklin Delano Roosevelts domestic programs to combat the Great Depression. In history class, were taught about the New Deals alphabet soup of organizationsthe WPA, CCC, TVA, SSA, NRAbut keeping all of these organizations straight is exceedingly difficult, especially given how similar some of the acronyms are (the WPA versus PWA comes to mind).
While the New Deal consisted primarily of nationwide programs, it is a story that can also be told on a local leveland can perhaps be understood much better when looked at in this way. Hearing that the WPA spent $11.4 billion while it existed makes the organization seem huge and unapproachable when looking at it from a historical standpoint. However, actually visiting a building constructed by the WPA and seeing how it impacted the surrounding community when the country was in the midst of its worst financial situation ever helps one to understand what the New Deal is all about.
Having lived in Huntington Beach for the majority of my life, it seemed natural when I first learned about the New Deal in history classes to try to figure out how the various programs touched the places with which I was so familiar. Once I learned what types of art and architecture to look for, I began finding remnants of the New Deal everywhere I looked. Wherever I went in Orange County, it seemed that there was always a school, library, post office or other public building constructed during this era.
The more research I did, however, I began to realize there was no comprehensive guide to how the New Deal impacted Orange County. Several articles mentioned the more well-known sites, but I quickly found out that there was much more than met the eye. Furthermore, there was a large amount of confusion regarding who built certain buildingsevery New Deal structure was referred to as WPA, even if it had been built before the WPA came into existence.
This book is the product of a long journey of sifting through old newspapers and books, visiting all of the sites and determining which buildings were built during the New Deal, who designed and constructed them and how they helped to revitalize Orange County during the Great Depression. Hopefully it will serve as a guide for similar books on other communities, as the story of the New Deal is one that should be told in each city, town and region it affected.
So with that, I invite you to travel with me back to the era of Roosevelt as we explore what Orange County was like during the New Deal.
CHAPTER 1
AN OVERVIEW OF THE NEW DEAL
When President Franklin Roosevelt took office on March 4, 1933, the country was in the midst of the worst economic situation it had ever faced. After the stock market crash of 1929, unemployment skyrocketed to 25 percent, poverty reached record levels, banks struggled to stay open and nothing the government did seemed to make it any better. Roosevelt, however, had a plan. During his first one hundred days in office, he rolled out the New Deal, a series of government programs, relief agencies and financial reforms aimed at restoring the economy and providing relief for families who most needed it. Diverse entities such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Social Security System and Federal Housing Administration were all products of FDRs New Deal.
The particular parts of the New Deal with which this book is concerned are the government relief agencies created to help provide jobs (as well as municipal infrastructure) at a local level. Of all of the agencies created to serve this purpose, the most famous today are the Works Progress Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps; however, these agencies are just two of many that were established to provide employment to out-of-work individuals.
One of the earliest such agencies was the Public Works Administration (PWA). The PWA was founded in June 1933 by the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), which also created the National Recovery Administration (NRA). The director of the PWA was U.S. Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes.
Some confusion exists around the PWA, given the similarity of its acronym to the much more famous WPA. The PWAs role was to provide money to hire private contractors to construct public works projects (the WPA, on the other hand, provided labor and materials). Typically, the PWA would finance 45 percent of a projects cost, leaving the local government responsible for the other 55 percent. Over the next eight years, the PWA spent more than $6 billion nationally before being abolished in June 1941.
The Federal Emergency Relief Administration was a much shorter-lived counterpart to the NIRA. The main program administered under the FERA was the Civil Works Administration, which existed only from November 8, 1933, to March 31, 1934. In less than five months, the CWA spent approximately $1 billion and employed 4 million Americans. A special segment of the CWA called the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) was the first New Deal agency to employ out-of-work artists.
By 1935, Roosevelt began to unveil his Second New Deal, which featured more extreme measures to combat the Depression. The keystone to this program was the Works Progress Administration, founded on April 8, 1935 (and renamed the Work Projects Administration in 1939). Harry Hopkins was the agencys head. Aimed primarily at providing jobs for laborers (and specifically heads of families), the program spent $13.4 billion and provided almost 8 million jobs before being dissolved on June 30, 1943.
