Glenwood Shelter House & Spring Lake Boathouse
Simpkins Hall, a 'battleship of a building,' may be the most glamorous example of the 1930s New Deal Works Progress Administration's influence in McDonough County. However, two other structures built in a more practical style also benefitted from the agency's mission. Both were designed to enhance local parks, one at Glenwood Park, the other at Spring Lake. Only one still stands today.
By the mid-1930s, the Great Depression had devastated the American economy. In 1935, Congress authorized $4.88 billion for relief projects. The WPA provided work opportunities for about 8.5 million people on 1.4 million projects.
Illinois was allocated $29.2 million. Local governments throughout the state submitted 694 applications for projects with estimated costs of $165 million. Only 215 projects were approved, which means only 31 per cent of the projects were funded.
While Western President Walter Morgan was busy campaigning for funding to build WIU's training school facility, Macomb's wish list consisted of water and sewer projects, street improvements (in the 1930s, street supervisor C.L. Holton identified 300 blocks of dirt streets in town), and city park upgrades (Compton, Chandler, and Glenwood).
