Existing comment:
The Works Progress Administration
The WPA (Works Progress Administration) funded the design and construction of Vulcan Park in the late 1930s. This was done in conjunction with the Alabama Highway Department's improvement of U.S. Highway 31, the major north/south route that runs along the east side of the park.
Local builders and stonemasons, funded by the Works Progress Administration, executed the park's design. As with other WPA-era projects in Birmingham and across the state, native sandstone was prominent feature.
Thanks to careful study of original plans and historic photos, today's park looks very much as it did in the 1930s.
The WPA was the principal relief agency of President Franklin Roosevelt's Depression-era New Deal; it put millions of unemployed people to work on civic projects. |