Cities Face the WPA Question: Such a Deal or No Big Deal?

Having the government hire unemployed artists, architects and laborers to erect ornate public buildings and politically charged murals probably wouldn’t sit well in conservative Orange County these days.

But during the Great Depression, the projects of the Works Progress Administration and other New Deal programs went forward with much more optimism than criticism.

The WPA left a lasting mark, constructing high school auditoriums, post offices, barbecue pits at Irvine Park and many of the Spanish Colonial landmarks that grace downtown Fullerton.

“There is a strong sense of irony that Fullerton, which is known for its strong Republicanism, made out like a bandit during the New Deal,” said David Zenger, a Fullerton preservationist and architect.

“We got a disproportionate share of federal patronage during the 1930s,” he continued, pointing to Plummer Auditorium, police headquarters and Fullerton Museum. “It really adds a historical flavor to the landscape.”

Preservation of that cultural and architectural legacy has been mixed, though.

Fullerton officials and history buffs have lovingly restored several famous murals and government buildings. But in other parts of the county, WPA buildings as well as Art Deco and Streamline Moderne commercial structures are in jeopardy.

Next year, for example, Anaheim plans to demolish its 1935 downtown post office to make way for new developments.

Maxwell’s restaurant in Huntington Beach, built by the WPA as a seaside dance hall, is also scheduled to be torn down. And nearby on Main Street, an Art Deco market with distinctive rounded corners and zigzag etchings, might face the wrecking ball.

“I hate to see them go,” said Jerry Person, a Huntington Beach historian who fought in vain to save Maxwell’s. “These buildings are so distinctive. They really give the area some identity. Today, it’s the cookie-cutter style--the buildings all look the same.”

Orange County’s scattering of 1930s-era buildings, with their strong concrete profiles, ornate reliefs and rounded corners, are difficult to miss.

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Though the New Deal look is less flashy than Art Deco, it seems downright fancy compared to modern designs. The Fullerton Museum, for example, features a copper-domed cupola, stained-glass windows and Italian tile inlays.

Just as striking as the buildings are the colorful murals inside some WPA projects.

A few years ago, Fullerton officials restored a 1938 mural by Helen Lundeberg chronicling the history of Southern California. The mural, at the Police Department, depicts Spanish colonists, Native Americans, Gold Rush prospectors and even early Hollywood movie-makers. At Fullerton’s post office, a mural shows orange groves at harvest time.

The New Deal’s mark on Orange County extends beyond art and architecture. A WPA effort to build rock jetties at Newport Beach is credited with producing the tall waves that make the Wedge so popular with surfers.

Depression-era programs also created channels and built dams in North County that significantly reduced winter flooding.

The 1930s look, though, is generally fading from view. Along South Main Street in Santa Ana, the Deco designs on many commercial buildings have been covered with contemporary facades and signs.

When Anaheim’s post office is razed sometime next year, the imposing concrete structure will be replaced by office buildings or retail stores. A new postal complex will be built a few blocks away.

Before the demolition, the city will remove some historic items from the WPA building, including the ornate reliefs of eagles and perhaps the exterior lighting fixtures, said the Redevelopment Agency’s Robert Zur Schmiede.

Though the fate of the old post office is already sealed, Zenger and other preservationists are not yet reconciled with the prospect of losing the building. They say they are especially troubled because Orange County has so few major pre-World War II landmarks left.

“These buildings are different,” Zenger said. “They break up the monotony of the cityscape.”