Some work projects taken over by the New Deal (1933-1938) began before the Roosevelt administration came into office and even before the Great Depression (1929-1939). In this case, a sidewalk construction project in Deerfield, Massachusetts, has its roots in the 19th century. The article describes how a group of local volunteers created and maintained the sidewalk as a social event. The August “Sidewalk Dinner Day” was not at all unusual in its time, By the 1930s, however, public employment financed by taxes was replacing such “volunteerism”. The FERA in the headline refers to the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. It gave federal grants to statesand was the main unemployment relief program of the early New Deal. It was replaced in 1935, by the more famous Works Progress Administration.
Greenfield Daily Recorder-Gazette. “Sidewalk Begun at So. Deerfield.” November 16, 1934. Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, American Centuries. https://americancenturies.org/collection/l08-029/. Accessed on October 16, 2024.
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