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Daily BulletinThe year was 1933. Unemployment raged out of control. Banks
were collapsing daily. Hoovervilles - shabby collections of makeshift shelters
for the destitute - dotted a nation in crisis.
On March 4, President Franklin D. Roosevelt stepped into the Oval Office with
a fistful of ideas to end societal suffering: the New Deal.
The New Deal, and the many agencies to which it gave birth, had a profound
impact on Inland Valley growth during the Great Depression. The interiors of
some post offices were decorated by the program to employ artists during the
hard times. It also was visible on the campus of Chaffey High School, which
co-existed with Chaffey Junior College at the high school's present Euclid
Avenue site.
From 1934 to 1938, eight buildings were constructed there, paid for by the
Works Progress Administration - later renamed the Works Projects Administration
- or its predecessor, the State Emergency Relief Act.
One of Roosevelt's first acts after his 1933 inauguration was to call a
special session of Congress, which labored from March until June on legislation
designed to pull the country out of the Depression.
During this period, Congress established the Public Works Administration as
the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works. It was part of the
National Industrial Recovery Act. Simultaneously, Roosevelt created the WPA by
executive order.
By Nov. 29, 1935, there had been 120 WPA projects approved in San Bernardino
County. More than 9,500 people had been certified as eligible for WPA employment
and of those more than 3,900 were already at work on 97 projects.
WPA workers repaired sidewalks and roads in Ontario, Alta Loma and Upland. In
Chino, they planted trees and shrubs along parkways. The new Ontario City Hall
received WPA funding, as did the city's post office and John Galvin Park.
At Chaffey High School, science and administration buildings sprang up as
Superintendent Gardiner W. Spring pushed for WPA funds to cover the costs.
"It helped make the campus what it is today," said Maggie Stewart,
77, who graduated from Chaffey High School in 1939. "I think the foresight
of the Board of Trustees in seeking funds through the Works Projects
Administration really helped make it the quality campus it is today."
In 1935, SERA funded construction of a new pool. When the state agency was
discontinued on Aug. 20, the project was transferred to the federal government
and the WPA, and work resumed in October. The pool opened for use May 26, 1937.
Stewart remembers the day well.
"The school band played and they had a lot of people there," she
said. "We were all excited about it because now we had a decent
pool."
In 1939, Stewart's class was the first to hold a graduation ceremony at the
brand-new Gardiner W. Spring Auditorium, dedicated on March 17.
The new, state-of-the-art auditorium cost $400,000 and, like most
construction projects, threw the routines of students and teachers into
disarray. Schedules were changed and routine student productions, graduations
and assemblies were forced to find temporary venues elsewhere.
But Stewart remembers the construction - and the interference it caused -
with fondness. Some classes were held on the Chaffey Junior College campus, a
novelty for the younger students.
"We were interested in watching the development of the auditorium,"
she said. "We thought that an auditorium that seats 2,400 people would be
absolutely wonderful."
Stewart remembers her graduation, with the gleaming auditorium crowded with
people, and a thing of beauty. She especially loved the ceiling, adorned with
decorations and the signs of the zodiac.
And she recalls the building's eccentricities.
"I thought how dumb the architects must have been," Stewart said.
"They put all the bathrooms upstairs. It was such a boor to have to go up
those sweeping stairs to use the restroom."
In these and other WPA projects, the average monthly wage for workers was
$54. Some dug ditches. Others built bridges. But not all labored in construction
projects. The government found work for writers, artists, musicians and actors
as well.
Claremont resident and artist Milford Zornes was one such federal employee.
Under the Federal Arts Project, he and other artists produced more than 2,500
murals in public buildings as well as thousands of drawings, paintings and
sculptures that adorned public buildings.
The most prolific of Public Works of Art Project artists, Zornes, whose
favorite scenes are Western landscapes, has taught at UC Santa Barbara, Pomona
College and the Pasadena School of Art.
It was his participation in the WPA arts project that launched his stellar
watercolor career. Now New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art is home to Zornes'
work, as is the National Art Gallery. And during World War II Zornes was a war
correspondent, creating a huge body of work now belonging to the U.S.
Army.
But at a time when a pair of shoes cost $3.75, a two-bedroom home in Ontario
sold for $2,850 and a 100-pound sack of potatoes cost 39 cents, Zornes earned
$35 a week doing what he loved best.
Now 91, he remembers the Depression as a particularly prolific period in his
life - and a time of discovery. Before attending Pomona College in 1933, he had
spent several years trying to find his calling.
"My father longed for me to be a violinist, but I failed him at
that," said Zornes. "I was grasping at straws. I thought of being an
architect, of going to sea. When I finally got hold of what I wanted to do, I
couldn't let it go."
Among the hundreds of projects Zornes designed and painted was the Claremont
post office mural, which depicts scenes from the Pomona Valley. It took six
months to complete.
"I conceived of the idea as a frieze," Zornes said. "But there
was some criticism as to why I didn't cover the entire wall. It would have made
it look like a cave."
Another of Zornes' paintings was exhibited with other PWAP art in Washington,
D.C.
Called "The Old Adobe," it featured a ramshackle Pomona home. The
painting caught Roosevelt's eye and he obtained it.
During his administration, Zornes' picture hung in the White House. Though it
now resides in the National Art Gallery, in the 1930s it brought Zornes
increased attention and helped him become a rising star in the art world.
"I was young," he said. "When you're trying to launch an art
career, your ego had you excited about everything."
In 1937 a sharp recession hit. By 1939, with more than 10 million unemployed,
criticism of the New Deal and its related agencies was rising, and Congress
refused to approve many of Roosevelt's plans.
In San Bernardino County, 30 federal workers were assigned to the task of
ferreting out "career workers" and those with enough private income to
warrant their removal from federal employment.
It wasn't until World War II that the the need for public agencies like the
WPA had been reduced.
Zornes looks back fondly at the federally funded arts projects. He wishes
there were more of them to help out young artists, starving for experience and a
paycheck. The projects served more than the purpose of just putting people to
work, he said; they jump-started many careers for artists.
"They won some recognition, which they deserved," he said. "It
was a benefit for the arts, but several of the artists went on to make a pretty
good living." |
