I don’t know how often a sidewalk needs repaving. But this certainly looks like a WPA signature on a sidewalk in Davis, on the north side of First Street between B and C.

If that’s what it is, it’s a nice illustration of the scope of the WPA; it’s a point that can’t be made frequently enough and is nicely made in Jason Scott Smith’s book, that the WPA’s reach was one of the things that made it simultaneously so popular and so unpopular. The project for Dixon was a boondoggle, of course, but the project for Davis was vital to the improvement of infrastructure.
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7 comments
June 29, 2010 at 10:50 am
Maggie
There are quite a few WPA sidewalks in San Luis Obispo. Always fun to step on a piece of history.
June 29, 2010 at 10:52 am
Vance
Pretty cool. Sidewalks can last a long time — there are still plenty in the part of LA where I grew up that bear dates from the ’20s. Short of trauma, tree roots or redevelopment, there’s not much to degrade them.
June 29, 2010 at 11:18 am
Dr J
Here’s a sidewalk from just outside the history dept. on our campus, the University of North Texas:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/51583016@N02/
June 30, 2010 at 1:14 am
Ben Alpers
The sidewalks in my neighborhood in Norman, Oklahoma, have a different WPA logo on them (it has the date and WPA in a little shield).
June 30, 2010 at 4:36 am
rea
I well remember the WPA logos in Norman from my residence there (’72-’75), which now seems almost as far in the past as the Great Depression . . .
July 1, 2010 at 2:53 pm
Billie
Eric,
Here’s a link on the Davis Wiki about WPA, I came across one of the streets that had it stamped and did some investigating:
http://daviswiki.org/WPA
July 1, 2010 at 4:19 pm
eric
Hey, thanks very much.