New Deal Accomplishment: 1,990 new ice skating facilities


Above: The WPA constructed the "Municipal Skating Rink" in Laramie, Wyoming. The WPA contributed $8,299 to this project, and local funds amounted to $3,864 (about $193,000 and $90,000, respectively, in 2024 dollars). See, "WPA Funds for Skating Rink," The Casper Tribune-Herald (Casper, Wyoming), September 26, 1935, p. 5. Photo from the National Archives.


Above: The description for this photograph--taken in Nevada, ca. 1940--reads: "Ice skating at Virginia Lake, a 35 acre artificial lake built by the WPA and sponsored by Washoe County. This recreational area is located less than a mile from the southern city limits of Reno. Equipped with flood lights, the lake affords perfect skating both day and night." Photo from the National Archives.


Above: Ice Skating on Culler Lake, in Baker Park, Frederick, Maryland, January 1940. The WPA created the lake, 1938-1939. Photo from the University of Maryland College Park Archives.


Above: Culler Lake in 2011 (photo taken from the opposite side of the previous photo). The clubhouse was built in 1939 and is almost certainly a WPA project too. Photo by Brent McKee.


Above: A sign at Culler Lake, 2011, prohibiting the previously-enjoyed activity. Photo by Brent McKee.


Above: The description for this photograph--taken in Alta, Utah, between 1935 and 1943--reads: "22 miles from Salt Lake City. WPA constructed shelter house, parking areas, roads and also supervised recreational classes in skiing and skating. Shot shows WPA recreational skating class." Photo from the National Archives.


Above: The description for this photograph--taken in Minneapolis, Minnesota, between 1935 and 1943--reads: "Mrs. Thelma Nemetz, WPA recreation leader at Fairview Park, helps Frances Schmit with her skates." Photo from the National Archives.


Above: "Skating in Central Park," an oil painting by Agnes Tait (1894-1981), created while she was in the New Deal's Public Works of Art Project, 1934. Image from the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Ice Skating Facilities

Between 1935 and 1943, WPA workers built 1,101 new ice skating "areas" and carried out another 84 projects to improve existing areas. The WPA's predecessor--the Work Division of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)--constructed 889 new ice skating "rinks" and had 203 other projects to improve existing rinks (see here and here).

Other New Deal agencies had ice skating projects too, but totals are not easy to discern. For example, the National Youth Administration (NYA) reported 229 "Ice and roller skating areas" built, and 180 other projects to improve existing ice and roller skating areas. Unfortunately, it is not clear how many of those areas were specifically for ice skating.

It is also likely--as with other types of work projects--that some of FERA's ice skating projects were completed by the WPA. However, since we're leaving off the ice skating projects of other agencies (see statistical note below), we can still say that the New Deal built about 1,990 new ice skating facilities and had about 287 other projects to improve existing ice skating facilities.

(Statistical note: Due to a variety of factors--such as (a) single work projects that spanned over the course of multiple work-relief agencies, (b) more than one agency working on the same project at the same time, and (c) inadequate reporting--calculating the total New Deal work product for any category of projects can range from mildly challenging to extraordinarily difficult. I therefore use several methods--for example, leaving out the work product of one or more agencies--to keep the estimates modest, as opposed to overblown. My earliest blog posts go into these difficulties and methods in more detail.)

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