The WPA Built Donaldson Park’s Pier, Shelters and Shuffleboard Courts in the Winter of 1938–39
On Wednesday 16 November 1938 Robert J. Dill, Florida administrator of the Works Progress Administration, authorized nine projects in eight counties, costing $185,496 in all, of which the WPA’s share was $140,142, and giving work to 432 men. The Highlands County project was the one at Avon Park:
Highlands: Avon Park, improve Donaldson Park, build addition to clubhouse, construct pier, three shelters, three shuffleboard courts and other facilities; 20 workers for three months; cost $3,495, WPA allocation, $2,694.[bj-1938-11-17]
The item was carried by a Brooksville weekly the next day, in a state-wide list that also covered Camp Foster at Jacksonville, thirty-seven miles of county road in Osceola County and a public records index at Mayo.[bj-1938-11-17]
Municipal Improvements and Winter Tourism Infrastructure
The town history credits the city with having “built for the Club the finest shuffle board courts in the State of Florida,” the club being the Winter Guest Club organized in 1937.[maxwell-1976] The first three of those courts were laid in Donaldson Park by relief labor in the winter after the club was founded, with the town paying about a quarter of the cost.[bj-1938-11-17]
The project also demonstrates that Donaldson Park maintained a clubhouse prior to World War II. The town account records that the city provided a building in the park during the Second World War as a recreation center for the airmen, and that this building served as the Winter Guest Club house after the war;[maxwell-1976] the WPA project was already enlarging a clubhouse structure on site in 1938.[bj-1938-11-17]
The pier, the shelters and the courts were in place by the spring of 1939, when the 1939 WPA guide documented the bathing beach, playground, and lakeside facilities, alongside the encampment of 180 trailers and trucks during the national convention of the Tin Can Tourists of the World in the same park.[maxwell-1976][wpa-1939]
References
- bj-1938-11-17 — The Brooksville Journal. Nine Projects Are Approved By WPA Head, The Brooksville Journal (Brooksville, Fla.), 17 November 1938, page 7. 17 November 1938. https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn95047246/1938-11-17/ed-1/?sp=7
- maxwell-1976 — Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell. The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida. 1976. the-first-hundred-years-of-avon-park_leoma-bradshaw-maxwell_1976.md
- wpa-1939 — Federal Writers’ Project. Florida: A Guide to the Southernmost State (1939), Tour 15, Avon Park. 1939. wpa-florida-guide-1939-avon-park.md
Related
- Winter Guest Club
- Hotels and winter visitors of Avon Park
- Hotel Verona
- Finding: Citrus Packing Plants, Truck Farming, and Agricultural Operations in Avon Park, 1930–1940
Where this comes from
- Evidence
- corroborated — More than one independent source agrees.
- Review
- unverified — Drafted from sources but not yet checked by a volunteer.
- Rights
- society
Sources
- The Brooksville Journal, Nine Projects Are Approved By WPA Head, The Brooksville Journal (Brooksville, Fla.), 17 November 1938, page 7 (1938) · newspaper
- Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell, The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida (references/the-first-hundred-years-of-avon-park_leoma-bradshaw-maxwell_1976.md) (1976) · book
- Federal Writers' Project, Florida: A Guide to the Southernmost State (1939), Tour 15, Avon Park (references/wpa-florida-guide-1939-avon-park.md) (1939) · book
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