Old North State stories: The New Deal in Chapel Hill

When former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt ran for office in 1932, he made sweeping promises to put the nation back on track following the Great Depression. Over the next several years, the federal government would create a wide array of programs to get people working again, ranging from the National Recovery Administration, which incentivized companies to create more jobs, to the Federal Arts Project, a program devised to “provide work relief for artists in various media” across America. 

The sheer number of projects completed as part of the New Deal is staggering. The Works Progress Administration, a major public works agency, built 14,119 miles of road, 725 bridges, 268 schools and 536 playgrounds and athletic fields in North Carolina alone. In Chapel Hill, some artifacts remain from this marathon of construction. 

United States Post Office

The United States Post Office at 179 E. Franklin St. was completed in 1938 for a grand total of $100,000. The post office replaced an old structure as well as the building that hosted the Chapel Hill Junior Garden Club. The work on the building ended up being so delayed that painters hurried to complete their work the afternoon following its opening.The building continues to serve as a post office, and its basement is now home to the Corner Teen Center and is fronted by the Peace and Justice Plaza. 

Inside the post office is another relic from the New Deal, a mural by Dean Cornwell entitled “The Cornerstone Laying of Old East Building.” The mural depicts William R. Davie ready to lay the cornerstone of Old East.

“Tall and robust” Cornwell — as The News & Observer described him — apparently based the mural off of a historical sketch given to him by the university librarian, and went deep into research trying to figure out the precise logistics involved in moving the gigantic cornerstone. Cornwell painted the mural in his New York City studio for four months, then rolled it up and brought it here to Chapel Hill to hang. 

Forest Theatre

Originally constructed in 1918, the Forest Theatre in Battle Park also experienced some changes under the New Deal. In 1940, the Works Progress Administration invested $20,000 in building floodlight towers, stone dressing rooms, and a box office, as well as installing stone seating in the theater. The Daily Tar Heel celebrated the changes in a 1940 issue, saying “good-bye to (the) cramped legs and sore elbows” the old log seating arrangement of the theater provided. 

Old Chapel Hill Town Hall

Despite its 18th-century appearance, the old Chapel Hill Town Hall was also a product of the New Deal. Built over the course of just five months between 1938 and 1939, the building on the corner of West Rosemary and Columbia streets was completed with the help of a $17,550 grant from the WPA. The building contained town offices, a courtroom, the fire department and a number of jail cells. Chapel Hill has since moved its offices to their current location on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., with the old building most recently serving as a kitchen for the Inter-Faith Council for Social Service. More recently, the Town government has voiced its interest in converting the building into a visitor’s center and museum.

Gerrard Hall

Meanwhile, the University campus itself was no stranger to New Deal programs. In 1938, the school was granted $478,925 by the Public Works Administration for construction projects. Gerrard Hall, at that point in dire need of renovations, was restored with the funds, as were Caldwell and Alumni halls. UNC Medical School’s MacNider Hall was also completed with the help of PWA funds. 

Many products of the New Deal exist elsewhere in the Triangle. Multiple buildings at North Carolina Central University in Durham and N.C. State University in Raleigh were constructed via New Deal programs. In the mid-1930s, the federal government bought roughly 5,000 acres of depleted, eroding farmland between Durham and Raleigh, forested it and turned it into what is now William B. Umstead State Park. 

The New Deal has undoubtedly played an impactful role in our history. Its influential role in shifting what the American people thought the federal government should be able to do cannot possibly be understated. And like most other periods in history, we can still see its effects visually in the form of stone and brick buildings and paintings on the walls. 

@dthopinion | opinion@dailytarheel.com