WPA on Third Street

[Today's post is by guest blogger Lloyd Puchek]



(Click on image to enlarge)

I went walking on 3rd Street in Hobart, Indiana. I happen to see these three letters stamped into the concrete. What do these three letters mean? How did these letters get there? Also who put them there? With the vast amount of history of Hobart, Indiana, the history of the United States is directly tied into these three letters into this photo. In the year 1933 Franklin D. Roosevelt became President of the United States. During this time in history our country was going through the Great Depression. When the Great Depression began on October 29, 1929, this Great Depression shook our country and the entire world we live in right off its axis. Whatever job anyone had then, was gone. When President Franklin D. Roosevelt took office, during his first one hundred days in office it brought about a lot of changes to our country. With him and the congress they worked diligently hard at helping to put people back to work by putting people back to work through government projects. One such project was the WPA. These three letters WPA stand for Works Progress Administration. People were hired to work and were paid by the federal government. On both sides of 3rd Street, the concrete was poured and formed to make the sidewalks. Underneath the asphalt street of Hobart is concrete. This concrete was laid to make the road bed and was also poured and set by the people who worked for this government project. It was through this government project called the WPA, that this area of Hobart now has sidewalks. Through the WPA here in the year 1935 in Hobart, our Post Office was built along with the building of the Bath House for the people who were swimming in Lake George that once stood where the public library is now in downtown Hobart. Also the Roosevelt Gym that once stood next to the original Hobart High School was built at this time too through the WPA. Neither the city of Hobart nor the state of Indiana paid for any of these construction projects during this time at all. When the concrete sidewalks were poured and set the three letters WPA were stamped by the workers into the concrete sidewalks to tell future generations of Americans here in Hobart, Indiana that employment and labor are the backbone of our country. The late great President Franklin D. Roosevelt firmly believed that, when he signed into law called the National Recovery Act. When he signed this bill into law it was the foundation of putting Americans back to work. When I saw these three letters stamped into the concrete sidewalks on 3rd Street here in Hobart, I stopped to show my wife. I was stunned, because I knew how those letters got there. The WPA will long be remembered as a monument to employment and labor in our country.

Lloyd Puchek