The impact of the Works Projects Administration on Vigo County is still noticeable.

Originally called the Works Progress Administration and known by the acronym "WPA," the name was officially changed to Works Projects Administration. It was one of many programs initiated by the federal government under President Franklin D. Roosevelt to combat the effects of the Depression.

Established by an Executive Order dated May 6, 1935, the WPA was a nationwide program of "small useful projects" to provide employment for needy workers. Between 1935 and 1942, the WPA expended more than $20 million in the greater Terre Haute area and employed more than 3,500 people.

District administrator Harold Paige is credited with running one of the nation's most efficient regional WPA programs.

Terre Haute City Hall, Indiana State Laboratory School, Riley Township School, Fire Station No. 2 at Fourth and Farrington streets and three buildings at Indiana State Teachers College were visible fruits of the WPA.

Perhaps Terre Haute's "tunnel sewer" on Walnut Street gained the most national acclaim. Extending from the Wabash River to 10th Street, the tunnel received attention in several contemporary engineering and technical journals.

An open trench extension to 15th Street carried the sewer to an already existing sewer. Several laterals also were installed. Tim O'Leary was the construction superintendent.

In 1940 alone, WPA projects paved 13 miles of streets, reconstructed roadbeds and graveled 54 miles of streets and alleys. Sidewalks and concrete street curbs also received attention. According to a report issued in January 1941, 24,301 feet lineal feet on sidewalks and 36,866 lineal feet of curbing were placed in 1940.

For many years, sidewalks throughout the city were etched with WPA credits. Some may exist today.

At least two concrete bridges, 16 concrete culverts and one steel bridge were built by WPA workers in Vigo County. Less visible today is the immense work product of the WPA's Professional and Service Division.

The WPA offered housekeeping aid to approximately 100 families a week in circumstances where one adult was too ill to take care of daily chores and cook meals. WPA sewing projects were located in Terre Haute, West Terre Haute, North Terre Haute, New Goshen and Coal Bluff, fabricating clothes, sheets, towels and pillow cases for the needy. Distributions were made to each township trustee. More than 100,000 garments were manufactured in 1940.

The township trustees also made food distributions under the WPA's surplus commodities program and the WPA canning project. Workers trained by the WPA prepared free lunches at schools in Blackhawk, Pimento, West Terre Haute and North Terre Haute. School matrons were provided to other schools, supervised by a nurse.

Adult education classes offered by WPA-paid teachers at various schools attracted between 1,500 to 2,000 people a week. Four nursery schools were operated in the county - three in Terre Haute and one in Dresser - with an average weekly attendance of about 250. The WPA also supervised recreation at 16 centers and 53 playgrounds.

The WPA Workers' Service offered classes in public speaking, shorthand, parliamentary law, consumers education and creative English.

Qualified research personnel were placed at Emeline Fairbanks Memorial Library and several school libraries to compile valuable historical and genealogical indexes, repair books and copy material. The fruits of that work is extremely useful today.

The WPA Research and Records Project supervised compilations of birth and death records from 1850 to 1920, plat books and a Terre Haute city ordinance recodification. Many indexes available on the Internet and in libraries throughout the nation today were products of the research and records project.

The WPA Music Project sponsored a concert band, two string bands and provided four music teachers to offer free instruction to adults and children unable to afford private lessons. The Clinton Dance Band played for any free public dance.

The WPA Writers Program included the compilation of the volume, "Indiana: A Guide to the Hoosier State," under the statewide sponsorship of Indiana State Teachers College. This significant 550-page book is a part of the "American Guide Series."

To identify needs and coordinate projects, the district administrator relied upon a local committee.

Though its members changed from time to time, in 1941 the Vigo County WPA Professional and Services committee included Mary Reed, Arthur Strum and J. Erle Grinnel of Indiana State; Charles E. Galloway of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), Louis Harvey and Walter Goebels of the Central Labor Union; Mary Hollis; Gertrude Fidlar; school superintendent Clarence A. Pound; Vigo County Treasurer James Propst; Dr. J.J. Hoover; and Charles T. Hyte, principal of Booker T. Washington School.

Mike McCormick is the Vigo County Historian. His column appears here each Sunday.