New Deal Preservation projects at Sonoma Historical Society

During the Great Depression, the federal government created several programs to get the displaced and indigent off the streets by putting them to work on civic improvement projects. That was in part the theory behind Pres. Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal program known as the Works Projects Administration, or WPA.

“Our present economy invites comparison and a call for a reexamination of that creative legacy that went from the bottom up,” said Harvey Smith, president of the National New Deal Preservation Association and a project advisor to the Living New Deal, an interactive website that tracks and records New Deal projects across the country (livingnewdeal.org).

On Jan. 12, Smith will speak on “The New Deal” as part of a regular program of lectures by the Sonoma Valley Historical Society.

Though a national program, in California and even in Sonoma a number of projects were undertaken by the WPA’s Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to help Valley residents weather the depths of the Great Depression. There was a Mission Revival-style Valley of the Moon fire house as well as several buildings at the Sonoma Developmental Center. New Deal workers also plastered the Sonoma Mission and rebuilt the Gen. Vallejo home on West Spain Street.

Smith’s lecture on “The New Deal” will be held on Saturday, Jan. 12, at 2 p.m. at the Sonoma Community Center, 276 E. Napa St. Admission is $5.