McDonough County New Deal Programs: Part 2

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).

Two major applications were for a new water system to be built in the northeast section of Macomb and for improvements at Glenwood Park, to include a shelter house. The water system didn't make the cut, but the shelter house did.

Glenwood Shelter House

It rises on the eastern flank of the ravine in Glenwood Park, like a stone monument, surrounded by trees that were planted by WPA workers. Massive twofoot square gray columns support a shallow-sloped hip roof that extends four feet past the bulwarks, shading the open-air pavilion.

For us boomers, Glenwood Park was the place for school field trips, church and other social group potlucks, and a trip to a real swimming pool. Then there was the spooky tunnel under the road by the pool — damp and smelling of fermenting algae. Emerging into the light, we would huff and puff our way up the winding cement walk from the pool to the center point of the park to take a quick slurp at the water fountain bubblers.

Nearby playground equipment (especially the monstrous, gleaming slide that produced an adrenalin rush, thanks to wax paper) and the horseshoe pit provided entertainment after meals and swimming, but more important, the shelter house had the only modern bathroom facilities in the park.

The original application for Glenwood Park included more than just a new shelter house. In 1938, the Macomb Daily Journal reported that plans called for asphalt paving of the circular driveway around the park with gutters along the sloping sides. In addition, park benches and tables, small mounted grills, a tennis court and landscaping were part of the application.

The plans were drawn up by city engineer Dan Alford with assistance from Mr.

Laflin from the Illinois Planning Commission. Estimated cost of the project varies.

Alan Nemec's article in the Winter 2011McDonough County Historical Preservation Society newsletter reported that the October 27, 1937, edition of the Macomb Daily Journal said it was estimated that the project would cost $34,145 of which the WPA would provide $26,274, leaving the city's cost at $7,871. Private donations came from Hemp Manufacturing and Illinois Electric Porcelain.

While the park project was approved by the city council in August 1938, some plans were modified or abandoned, such as the asphalt paving. Construction of the shelter house began on September 12 with about eight men working, but that number eventually expanded to provide work for 40 men.

Creative Accounting Initially, the vote in the Macomb City Council was 5-2 for the project. Some of the aldermen questioned applying for WPA projects with the hope that the agency would come through with payments after the projects had begun. Reports had circulated that the WPA sometimes reneged on their promised contributions.

According to the Macomb Daily Journal, city engineer Dan Alford told the council that the city's share of the cost would be about 25 percent while the WPA would provide the remaining 75 percent. However, city costs could be significantly reduced from $7,871 to $1783.50 by making certain 'adjustments.'

The proposed shelter house drawings called for a 60x30 floor plan with a basement under one-half of the shelter house for public toilets. In addition, access to the shelter from the west would be provided by creating a stone staircase with a wading pool for children at the top of the hill. Nemec noted that a November 1938 Macomb Daily Journal told of plans for a sandstone arch to be built at the entrance to the park with the inscription 'Glenwood Park' engraved on it. Neither the wading pool nor the stone archway survived the budget cuts.

To create the imposing stone structure, instead of purchasing building materials, the city would use the broken remains of concrete pavement and curbing from the already approved Adams and Carroll streets improvements. In addition, Alford said, 'The cement is estimated at twice the figure the city can get it for; the city will use curbstones taken from the Adams and Carroll streets paving projects, and this will cost the city nothing though the project shows the curbstones cost $1,000.' Furthermore, moving the broken pavement to Glenwood would cost nothing since the street contractors would have to transport it somewhere. In other words, the application said the stonework will cost $1,000, but the city would actually get it for free.

Alford identified that the WPA would provide $1,017.80 worth of cement, steel, and lumber while the city would provide the following: sand ($16.50), gravel ($109), sewer pipe ($639), water pipes ($75), lumber ($54), and plumbing ($856). One might assume that the remaining amount from the original roughly $34,000 estimate would go to wages for the workmen as part of the relief package.

A budgeted item also included $1,000 for the planting of 1,000 trees in the park. However, this cost would be eliminated by using WPA workers to 'transplant' trees from other locations within the city. Again, the application indicated a cost of $1,000 for trees but workers would just dig up young trees at other locations in Macomb and move them to Glenwood — free trees.

Skeptically, Alderman Knappenberger asked, 'How does stuff like those figures go through the WPA?' To which Mr. Alford replied, 'It does everywhere, so it might as well here.'

Some things with governments and financing never seem to change.

Spring Lake

A lesser known WPA project, at least to those of us in the first quarter of the 21st century, was the building of a boat house/reception center at Spring Lake northwest of Macomb.

Supposedly, natural springs in that area fed what is now Spring Creek, attracting settlement of Indigenous populations in the 1700s. However, white settlers in the early 1800s moved into the area and displaced these native populations.

In the early 1920s, the City of Macomb wanted a more reliable surface water supply. Attempts had been made to dam up Lamoine River in 1911. However, inconsistent water flow and low water levels caused by droughts made this plan unfeasible, so attention turned to Spring Creek.

In 1926, Macomb city officials with input from Caldwell Engineering explored a viable location on Spring Creek to create a 600-foot earthen dam and spillway, which was completed in 1927 for a cost of $138,000. Plans also called for expanding recreational opportunities at the reservoir. One of the ideas called for a 90,000 square foot wading pool for children, about the size of half a football field. The cost would be $1,500. The park was not officially named 'Spring Lake' until November 1932.

By the 1930s, repairs to the dam were needed. An October 1935 Macomb Daily Journal article reported that the WPA authorized $40,000 for the grading of rock layers, clean up, and concrete work to repair damage to the spillway at Spring Lake. There was no report, however, of any other structure being built, leaving the question of who authorized the building of an additional 'visitors center' structure? Was it part of the $40,000 proposed WPA repairs? Who designed it? Was it deconstructed or is it still submerged like a sunken ship near the spillway?

Western Illinois Museum director Sue Scott, on the Museum's YouTube channel, created a short video of the WPA and CCC in McDonough County. In it, she mentions that a boat house was constructed by the WPA and local labor on the eastern shore of the newly formed lake. She also included an image of what this 'house' looked like: a sprawling single-story, heavy stone-walled structure at the bottom of a hill with a road leading down to the lake.

Scott indicated that the structure was 'submerged' in 1968 when the dam was expanded to alleviate silting problems. This resultant rise in water level brought an end to an otherwise little known feature out at Spring Lake. One can only imagine how the amenities at the lake would have improved had this one-of-a-kind WPA structure been preserved, or at least relocated.

Whatever the cost and however the figures were 'adjusted' to create Glenwood's shelter house, its prairie style design reminds one of many federal projects at national and state parks built with WPA funds and labor. Likewise with the now vanished Spring Lake boat house. Both are heavy, massive stone and timber constructions like those at Starved Rock and Pere Marquette state parks. It's an image of ruggedness and integration into the surrounding environment that likely spoke to the spirit of America during a time of great hardship.

Up next, the Federal Art Project and its impact on local post offices.

Sources Macomb Daily Journal/WIU Archives Alan Nemec, MCHPS Winter 2011/2012 newsletter Sue Scott, 'Does History Repeat Itself?' Western Illinois Museum YouTube channel Better Illinois Communities through W.P.A. Projects, Illinois Digital Archives, <idaillinois.org>