The Liberty County Historical Commission will meet Monday, April 13, 2026, at 6 p.m. in the Hartel Building, 318 San Jacinto St. in Liberty. After a short business meeting and committee updates, Roberta and Neal Thornton will present a program titled “WPA, the New Deal and Liberty County.”
The Works Progress Administration (WPA), which operated from 1935 to 1939 and was later known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943, was a New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers, most of them men, to carry out public works projects. These projects included the construction of public buildings, roads, and other infrastructure. The WPA was established May 6, 1935, by presidential order as a key component of the Second New Deal.
Its first appropriation in 1935 totaled $4.9 billion, or about 6.7 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product at the time. The WPA provided paid jobs to the unemployed during the Great Depression while building up the country’s infrastructure. Projects included parks, schools, roads, and drainage systems, as well as the expansion of electricity into rural areas, water conservation efforts, sanitation improvements, and flood control.
By 1936, public facilities became a major focus, including parks and related amenities, public buildings, utilities, airports, and transportation projects. The following year brought agricultural improvements such as the production of marl fertilizer and the eradication of crop-damaging fungi. As World War II approached, WPA projects increasingly shifted toward defense-related work.
At its peak in 1938, the WPA employed approximately three million men and women, along with youth through a separate division. The agency aimed to provide at least one paid job for every family whose primary breadwinner faced long-term unemployment.
The WPA also funded state-level library services and expanded access to underserved and rural communities. Other federal programs included art, music, theater, and writing projects, along with a historical records survey. The reach of the WPA extended across the nation, including into Liberty County.
Liberty and Liberty County held early prominence in the region’s history, though growth was initially slow. That changed with the discovery of oil at the Batson-Old Oilfield in neighboring Hardin County, which spurred more rapid development.
As the city grew, County Judge R.E. Biggs requested an $800,000 federal loan in 1934 to fund the construction of several new public buildings. By 1939, Liberty’s landscape had changed significantly, with the opening of a new post office, city hall, high school gymnasium, and electrical power plant.
To enhance the new post office, federal officials included it in a New Deal art program administered by the Treasury Department’s Section of Painting and Sculpture (later known as the Section of Fine Arts). This program supported artists who created murals for more than 65 post offices across Texas, depicting scenes of local history, culture, and industry.
San Antonio artist Howard Fisher was selected to create the mural for the Liberty Post Office. He expanded one of his sketches, “The Story of the Big Fish,” into a full-scale mural for the building. The post office remains a lasting symbol of the WPA’s impact on East Texas.
Join the Liberty County Historical Commission on April 13 at 6 p.m. to learn more about the WPA, the New Deal, and their influence on Liberty County. Guests are welcome.
For more information, call 936-334-5813 or email lchc318@gmail.com