Description: Original description reads: "Athletic field under construction at Northridge High School 193[?] North of Dayton, Ohio." This is a photograph of two unidentified men doing construction on Northridge High School's athletic field in Northridge, Ohio. This construction was a part of the Works Progress Administration project, a government office that hired unemployed Americans to work on various government projects from April 8, 1935 to June 30, 1943. In the first six months that the WPA existed, more than 173, 000 Ohioans, including both men and women, found employment through this program. More than 1, 500 unemployed teachers in Ohio found work through the WPA teaching illiterate adults how to read. In twelve separate counties, primarily in southeastern Ohio, more than twenty-five percent of families had at least one member working for the WPA during the late 1930s. By the end of 1938, these various workers had built or improved 12, 300 miles of roads and streets and constructed 636 public buildings, several hundred bridges, hundreds of athletic fields, and five fish hatcheries. WPA employees made improvements to thousands of more buildings, roads, and parks within Ohio. WPA artists also painted a number of murals in Ohio post offices. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B09F06_026_001
Subjects: High schools--Ohio--Northridge; Earthmoving machinery; Sports and recreation facilities; Education; Sports; Athletic fields; Schools--Ohio; Ohio--History--Pictorial works; Federal Writers' Project
Places: Northridge (Ohio); Montgomery County (Ohio)