Works Progress Administration in Polk County

John Vining suggested that I write about the CCC boys that he thought had built the rock walls around Stearns Park in Columbus. In making inquiries, I discovered that the walls were built by the WPA men and that the late Robert Dedmondt had served in the Civilian Conservation Corps, so I interviewed my friend Robert and wrote a long piece about him and his adventures in the CCC camps (TDB, February 27, 2004).
The Works Progress Administration (WPA), renamed the Work Projects Administration in 1939, was established in 1935 by executive order of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Created during the Depression when unemployment was widespread, the WPA was designed to increase the purchasing power of persons on relief by employing them on useful projects. WPA employed a total of 8.5 million persons (about 3.5 million at its peak) and its total cost was nearly $11 billion. WPA built some 116,000 buildings, 78,000 bridges, 651,000 miles of road (including the Blue Ridge Parkway) and improved some 800 airports.
When I went to Tryon School there was a sign proclaiming that the gymnasium was built by the WPA about 1938. I wrote about its demolition (TBD, September 8, 2006) and heard from Allen Ashley of Saluda that his father, William C. Ashley, had been supervisor of all WPA work in Polk County. I finally interviewed Allen to learn what else in Our Area was built by the WPA men.
The list is imposing, and is probably not complete, because some of their rock work has been covered over with fill dirt to allow new uses of the land. Besides the Tryon gym, WPA crews built the rock walls around Stearns park, the Stearns gym, the rock school at Saluda, a sanitary sewer line under Mills Street in Columbus, and the Mill Spring school.
The sewer line is so deep under Mills Street that the workmen dug wells at intervals and tunneled between them to lay the pipe. It goes down the center of the street. At Mill Spring, they built an addition to the school, the older part then burned, and they rebuilt that as well.
Allen Ashley went to work for his father in the commercial construction business as soon as he graduated from Saluda High School in the same class with his wife to be, Martha. They inherited the century-old house they have turned into a wonderful dream home for themselves and Allen’s museum-quality rock collection. The front porch extends across the full width of the large house, and is sheltered from the street by mature boxwoods.
We sat on the back porch overlooking their gardens and spring-fed swimming pool, cool and comfortable at noon, for this interview. There are a flower garden, a vegetable garden and a rock garden. The latter is really a 20-foot square depository for rocks Allen brings home that he has not yet cut or polished for his museum. A pole with two birdhouses is placed by the rock collection, for the roof of the upper birdhouse, gift of a friend, has the ubiquitous plea to "See Rock City."
A mom, dad, and two small children appeared at the pool, waving a greeting to us as they sat at the picnic table until the kids swooped into the pool. All are welcome to use the pool, but after many teenagers created disturbances, the new rule is children must be accompanied by their parents. It works! There is a finely-ground quartz crystal "beach" that is so dazzling white that it looks like a snow bank, even in June. At the mention of quartz, I suggested that we go up and see the rock museum.
I was not prepared for the variety and beauty of the sizeable display. The colors are a feast for the eyes, especially the ones that come to life only under ultraviolet light. There are three rooms of specimens, many of them incredibly spectacular in formation or color or both. I told Allen I have to return soon, with wife Fran and my camera. Yes!