Many of the buildings and roads Allen County residents enjoy on a daily basis were built in the 1930s as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal public works projects.
The Works Progress Administration built schools and most of the buildings at Riverside Park, including the community building, Donna Houser, president of the Allen County Historical Society, said during a program at the group’s fall meeting Thursday evening at the Frederick Funston Meeting Hall.
“We don’t think about this when we drive by it, but it was given to us by people who were meagerly paid,” Houser said.
The WPA and other New Deal programs such as the Civilian Conservation Corps aimed at lifting unemployed workers, mostly men, who were struggling during the Great Depression. Though the programs were not without some controversy, such as those meager wages Houser referred to, they provided jobs and infrastructure in the pre-World War II era. Many of the buildings stand as lasting reminders of their sacrifice, struggle and success.
Houser, whose interest in history grew over time, said she came across an old “Eleanor” outhouse toilet at the old Iola Cemetery not long after she and her late husband, Ray, moved to Iola.
During the 1930s, the WPA built and delivered more than 2 million outhouses — enclosed toilets with a concrete floor — nicknamed after Eleanor Roosevelt as a public health initiative.
Houser worked with city officials and volunteers to renovate the outhouse and install protective measures to preserve it for the public.
Houser’s program used a series of photos to illustrate her talk about various WPA projects throughout Iola.
It includes the water plant and a series of dams, built in response to the drought of 1935.
Several buildings were constructed at Riverside Park, including the football stadium, community building, swimming pool and a shelter house built with rock from Humboldt.
The original swimming pool was huge. So big, in fact, that it couldn’t be used for swimming meets because it exceeded regulations.
But after damages sustained during the flood of 2007, the swimming pool was rebuilt to regulation size with a zero-depth entry. Houser noted it was a government program — WPA — that built the first pool and another government program — FEMA — that provided funding for the rebuild.
A gorgeous stone arch welcomed visitors to Riverside Park until the 1940s, when it was torn down to build a dike. The WPA intended the dike to protect the park from flooding. “And you know how that turned out,” Houser noted, referring to the unintended consequences that followed. Although it does protect against the rising Neosho River nearby, the dike actually helped to create a sort of bowl that holds water inside Riverside Park.
“When you study history, you learn that sometimes what you think is good turns out not so good,” Houser said.
Glenn Handley advocated for a recreation building for Iola’s African American community.
