THE WPA CITY TAX SURVEY
Dear friends, There will be a recorded version of my presenation on the WPA City Tax Survey available soon. For now, the following narrative with sample slides is shared for your interest. This project was fascinating to research and a good challenge to present at the January 18, 2025 HISTORY DETECTIVES as a slide show entitled The WPA and the Grand Rapids City Tax Survey, copyright 2025, Pam VanderPloeg.
In 1936, the WPA (Works Progress Administration put 200 architects, photographers, engineers, clerks, and typists to work photographing, measuring, and classifying every assessable building and home in Grand Rapids. These workers were able to put food on the table during the devastating Great Depression and left a literal snapshot of the city. That lasting record is available today on file at the Grand Rapids City Archives. Learn more about it in this presentation. Available to read here January 20, 2025.
This research/writer was very grateful to have the opportunity to delve into the WPA’s effect on the city of Grand Rapids and the importance of the 1936 City Tax Survey. Note that this page is still in process. Images are still being uploaded. Please note that all of the images are used for educational purposes only and not for any profit. Although most presenters have shared a video recording of their slide show on the History Detectives channel, this writer is sharing the presentation here on the website until a video recording can be made.
PRESENTATION BACKGROUND
2. The WPA (Works Progress Administration) is an amazing American success story. It put people to work when times were hard, and created art, music, literature, and theatre, improved the country’s infrastructure, conserved natural resources, and constructed new buildings. This presentation is about one small WPA project, the 1936 WPA City Tax Survey, funded by the Works Progress Administration. It helped Grand Rapids more accurately collect information and assess properties. The Tax Survey created a lasting record for future generations.
3. From 1936 to 1937, the city hired over 236 WPA architects, photographers, engineers, clerks, typists, and surveyors who photographed and measured the structures, and then added technical and aesthetic details to new field cards created for each city property. Historic assessor files are now on file at the Grand Rapids City Archives.
4. The City Archives Building is attached to the back of the GRPS Museum High School, a WPA Building Project designed in the PWA “Moderne” style 1938. The “Moderne” style of Indiana Limestone blocks and a granite base represented stability and permanence. The massive block walls and projecting wings represent classical symmetry. The glass block windows were designed in a streamlined, “moderne” fashion.
5. In 1929, one of the basic tools city assessors had at their disposal was the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps. At left you see Ottawa Hills neighborhood streets with the house at 1540 Mackinaw circled.
6. The WPA City Tax Survey was designed to introduce this 8.5x 11 field card (similar to those already used by other cities) to collect data and photograph images to document property details. The information on the field card for 1540 Mackinaw was recorded on 12-21-1936.
7. In 1935, Grand Rapids Assessor Jason Forsyth said about the City Commission’s decision to apply for WPA funds to implement the field card system, "Should have had this system 20 years ago.”
8. To understand the WPA’s impact on Grand Rapids, we need some context. The 1929 Stock Market Crash was an important factor in the country’s slide into the Great Depression. Times were hard everywhere. By 1932, things were getting worse.
9. By 1933, Grand Rapids’ two largest banks had failed, the Grand Rapids Savings Bank and the Grand Rapids National Bank. Because of the bank failures, the city lost payroll and savings. The city’s economy was struggling.
10. Franklin D. Roosevelt won the 1932 Presidential Election, on his promise of a NEW DEAL. By that, FDR meant a New Deal between the government and
and its people.
11. Roosevelt immediately began to establish the Alphabet Agencies, the CCC, FCC, FERA, FHA, SEC, TVA, WPA and there were many more.
FERA (Federal Emergency Relief) funneled money into local projects to employ workers. By summer 1935, FERA was phased out/absorbed into the WPA.
12. The 1935 Emergency Relief Act funded the WPA with a BIG pot of money. The purpose? Get people off the ”relief rolls.” Give them j jobs! In 1934 over 44,000 Kent County residents were on “relief“ rolls. Appropriated $4 Billion to employ 3,500,000 (today that would translate to $92 Billion). The next few slides describe some of the city’s WPA projects.
SAMPLE WPA PROJECTS IMPACTING THE CITY OF GRAND RAPIDS
13. Infrastructure projects. In 1935 the City received $96,000 to install sewers, resurface and pave roads, and to pull up streetcar tracks. The City had 50 projects waiting for funding, filed with the state WPA headquarters. Also a very strong proposal for a $57,000 project to rebuild city playgrounds.
14. Building Projects, The 1935 Tourist Comfort Station in Veterans Park was designed by Henry H. Turner and built by John McNabb. Today the “Has Heart” Coffee Shop is there and is dedicated to the veteran community and connectivity as a place of Veterans’ stories and art.
15. Museum Projects. The WPA funded Furniture Museum in 1937 opened in 1938, and closed in 1959. Once part of the Davenport University campus and now it is part of the Grand Rapids Community College Campus. This is the family home of California writer Steward Edward White donated by the Whites.
16. ART: Federal Project ONE 1935-39. Funded WPA art, theatre, both acting and production, paid wages of 36 of the 88 GR Symphony musicians to play/conduct the orchestra while the Federal Music Project workers copied scores. 32,846 workers on the WPA payrolls in 1939 when phased out.
17. Museum Map-Making Projects. Here shown is a giant relief map and the Press photo is labeled “And Here We Show World’s Largest Sand Dunes. Shown in the photo are young people surrounding and viewing the map with the 32-year Public Museum Director, Frank DuMond instructing them on the project. The relief map in all its beauty is on display today on the third floor of the Van Andel Museum Center on Pearl Street.
18. Index of American Design for the WPA Federal One. Constance Rourke, a Vassar graduate, Grand Rapids school principal and writer (known for her book Davy Crockett and a book on American humor) produced this Index of American Design for the WPA Federal One.
WPA Federal One Artists working for the Index produced this collection of 18,257 watercolor drawings of American decorative and folk arts objects from from the early colonial period to 1900. The Index is held by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
19. WRITING: The Michigan WPA Writers Project gave jobs to writers, editors, and researchers including popular children’s author Meindert DeJong who later became the WPA GR Symphony publicist. The American Guide Series produced by the WPA included a volume for every state designed as a way to share state histories and act as a catalyst for tourism. In 2021 a team of 46 writers, composed of UM-Flint students, alumni, faculty, and professional journalists and novelists was awarded a Michigan Humanities Council grant to publish a pilot guide titled Exploring Mideast Michigan's Empty Spaces: A Traveler's Guide designed to update the 1941 WPA Federal Writers' Project guide to Michigan.
Another very important aspect of the WPA Federal Writers Project preserved interviews, articles and notes on Black American life in the South including oral histories of the enslaved.
20. SCIENCE: WPA Funded Whooping Cough Vaccine. Pearl Kendrick, a bacteriologist, and Grace Eldering developed the vaccine. They conducted door-to-door field research taking samples from sick children in the Grand Rapids area and tested their new whooping cough vaccine with groups in the “Grand Rapids Trials." First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt helped to obtain WPA funding and by 1940 whooping cough deaths declined.
21. From 1936 -1937, Grand Rapids led the way with scientific and technical projects.
—549 of 4,294 Kent County WPA workers about 12% worked on technical projects. —About 68 of 1,443 Kalamazoo Co. WPA workers were assigned to technical projects; —About 8% or 177 of 2,100 in Genesee Co. and —About 5% or 883 of 16,593 Wayne Co. | May 1937 statistics published in the Grand Rapids Press.
THE WPA BUREAUCRACY AND THE CITY COMMISSION PROJECT REQUESTS
22. The City Tax Survey was one of those technical projects. To fund any project, there was a specific bureaucratic funding approval process.
23. Harry Hopkins became the Federal WPA Director. He was FDR’s close confident and operated from Washington D.C. Harry L. Pierson became the State WPA Director. He was a friend of FDR, and his office was located in Lansing. Pierson left this office by 1936.
The Michigan Governors during the WPA: Governor Frank Fitzgerald 1935-1936 and Governor Frank Murphy 1937-1938.
24. GR Press 8/15/1935. Headline: “Hopkins Orders Politics Banned from WPA Here.” Federal WPA Head Harry Hopkins told Pierson, ”Ignore ‘political experience’ qualification on the WPA job application …90% of the WPA executive positions were filed before the politicians put on the heat.” Hopkins claimed some state senators and representatives applied for WPA jobs. “But they are not going to get jobs from me…We are trying to put the unemployed to work.
25. Harry L. Pierson appointed A.D. MacRae, Regional Manager in July 1935. A non-political administrator, MacRae’s efficiency kept projects rolling and during his tenure managed over 16,000 WPA workers despite local controversies and political headwinds. MacCrae was a former Mt. Pleasant contractor and Isabella County engineer. George Waring was his assistant, and a possible friend of Frank McKay.
26. The Grand Rapids Press Headlines Read: “City Elated By Big Share Under WPA,” and " Leads Other Cities in Jobs Under WPA.” In 1935, money was distributed to the states and Michigan’s share was $4,199,278. Kent County’s share was $1,018,000 with $1 million allocated to Grand Rapids. The city had experienced severe budget issues. The WPA made a big difference.
27. In May 20, 1935, the City Commission studied a system used by other municipalities with a unique accessor card for each city property. On August 15, 1935, the Grand Rapids Press reported that City Manager C. Sophus Johnson instructed to prepare a WPA Proposal to fund it.
By November 1935, the Project was approved and funded. The City share was $5,000 for materials. The WPA share is $228,000 dedicated to the workforce. This project put food on the table of unemployed architects, engineers, surveyors, photographers, clerks, and typists.
28. Context in 1936. GR Press on April 15, 1936 reported a “decrease in relief workers.” Economic Signs were improving. Workers were returning to private industry. One big boon was the new General Motors Plant in Wyoming which had opened in December 1935. GM had been expanding due to a radical change in design. They called it the big Christmas gift to the people of Grand Rapids. “READ ALL ABOUT IT, GM TO BUILD HERE, MERRY CHRISTMAS!” GR Press. Meanwhile, in 1936 the WPA continued in full swing bringing Federal money and jobs.
THE TAX SURVEY STARTS
29. Workers had been hired over the winter months and architects, engineers, photographers, and surveyors headed out and gathered data. They measured and photographed structures, and clerks and typists worked inputting data from offices in the Association of Commerce Building. They were instructed not to argue if residents ordered them off the property and about 100 of these instances were reported.
30. Henry H. Turner was appointed Tax Survey Project Supervisor. Turner who lived from 1881-1974 was a Harvard Graduate. Born in New York and recruited by the Grand Rapids Public Schools as the system’s school architect in 1909, Turner used his deep expertise to lead the City Tax Survey Project until 1937. Works by Turner include the design of the Tourist Comfort Station, Medical Arts building, and many Grand Rapids Public Schools elementary buildings including Eastern and Stocking Elementary schools, and Ottawa Hills High School.
31. Turner’s Boss was the Veteran City Assessor, Frank Steinmann. Frank Steinmann at age 78 was one of the oldest and well-known public officials in the state. The well-known assessor helped many developers plat GR subdivisions that now contain his name.
NEW FIELD CARDS WERE IMPLEMENTED WITH THE START OF THE TAX SURVEY
32. By the end of 1936, the City Tax Survey was 65% complete. So let’s look at these new Field Cards, including both the photographs and data. Think of the cards as a foundation. Over the years between 1936 and 2000, more data, photos, and notes would be added by future assessors.
33. This slide is the 1936 Commercial Field Card introduced by the WPA City Tax Survey. The categories on this card specificially pertain to commercial buildings. These categories would change in later years, as the construction of new buildings changes with new materials and new materials.
34. The simplest thing to note on both the commercial and residential cards is the 1936 photo which when compared to contemporary photos will indicate whether and if so, how these homes and buildings have changed or remained the same.
35. The Residential Field Card introduced by the WPA City Tax Survey has some similar categories as well as many unique categories.
36. The reverse side of the original 1936 Field Cards often shows that the assessor’s calculations were recorded there to later determine the level of assessment on a particular property. As far as the other boxes on this side of the card, they are frankly rarely completed. These would be wonderful were they completed because the categories would be a source of information on the structure’s building permits, architect, land cost, building and garage cost, the asking price, mortgage balance, and more. In truth, some of these categories, such as architect would have been exceptionally difficult to ascertain and some, including the mortgage balance, would have taken research and might have violated privacy between banking institutions and the homeowners.
THINGS THAT CAN BE LEARNED FROM THE 1936-1937 PHOTOS ON THE FIELD CARDS
37. Sometimes there is a surprise on these cards. For example, the photographs on this card show that the porch was already glassed in 1936 and the home’s current garage was in place in 1936. The sketch captures the roof dimensions but the card reveals a surprise! In 1936, the house had a cool slate roof, now long gone.
38. One of the fun things you can learn from the historic photos is how Monroe in 1936 had a vintage style of lighting that has been replaced on the current Monroe Center. As shown in the slide below.
39. The next photo was taken in the early 1960s reflecting the re-surveying of the city in 1953 and completed in 1957. The assessor cards as has been noted include photos taken after the 1936 survey and have a newer version of an assessor card which has a reverse side where later assessments are usually noted by date. There were three interesting things in this photo. Inside the yellow box are the street lamps from that era which definitely replaced the old style at least until the switch back to the new happened. The green arrow points to the original 1916 Steketee store marque which had unique lights modeled after a famous building in New York. And inside the red rectangle is Winkelman’s modern facade.
40. This researcher had wondered but not been able to determine when the Heystek and Canfield Store from the late 1800s had been modernized with this glass and aluminum facade. Seeing the modern storefront already in place in the 1960s, led to the discovery that the facade was commissioned in 1947 by the building owner James Shepperd. He planned to lease it to the new Winkelman’s store but ran into one difficulty. He had to appeal the remodel with the help of attorney Julius Amberg to the Civilian Production Agency (CPA) review board in Washington D.C. There was still a rationing of crucial construction materials so close to the end of WWII. Lucky for Shepperd, the Federal Review Board ruled in their favor on the basis that they would not use too many critical materials in this extensive remodeling of the old building. removed the historic bay windows and installed the new facade.
41. These two photos, 1936 and 2024, demonstrate how the 2011 restoration preserved and restored the beautiful original features of the Flat Iron building, one of the oldest extant city commercial buildings, and the Ledyard Block.
42. The assessor field cards are occasionally a source of information for buildings that have been demolished, in this case, for the Grand Rapids Women’s Study Club, an important institution in the city’s history. This club was the place where the City’s Black Women leaders led educational, political, and social meetings. On this card are notes that indicate the date when the building was placed on the Historic Registry, October 1986. The card also documents fire damage and building deterioration that led to its unfortunate demolition.
43. The assessor files were helpful in locating a photo of another demolished building, the stunning Metz Building. Noted for its decorative polychrome Terra-Cotta trim, this building was lost to a parking lot in the 1970s. The Metz Building was designed by William Clarke who designed many beautiful stucco English Tudor-style homes after a trip to England around 1913. Clarke lectured on the topic at the Detroit Institute of Arts and eventually moved to California and became a photographer for Architectural Digest. Today the salvaged polychrome trim adorns the side of the St. Cecilia Music Society as shown here.
44. When you look for a building or residence in the assessor files, you don’t always find it. For example, the file for the 1875 Italianate building known today as Aldrich Place, located at the corner of Ottawa and Monroe, was thick. However, it was missing a 1936 photo. This block is the product of several renovations throughout its history, but as a result, there was damage to the original cornice. Fortunately, there was bonus material in the file, a full-color, four-page brochure produced in 1998 advertising the building to potential business lessees. In 1998, an extensive restoration uncovered the original Cornice. Grand River Builders undertook an extraordinary reconstruction using old-style tools and improvised machinery to replica the original building details such as the cornice and brackets. The drawings in the brochure also show floor plans of the different floors.
45. Another bonus was the back page of the brochure which featured a small inset map of downtown streets in 1998. This map captured perfectly the moment in time before a few significant changes occurred, including the new Grand Rapids Art Museum in 2007. The photo also shows 50 Monroe place which was once the old Grand Rapids Refridgerator Company Buildings which had been joined and covered by a modern facade. Now separated these buildings represent the 2019 AC Hotel and the 37 Ottawa business towers.
The map also lists the old City Center, transformed in 2001 as the Grand Rapids Police Headquarters. It was interesting to find references on the map to the 1998 names of buildings with new designations—the Trade Center (now the CWD Building), People’s Bank (now 66 Monroe Center), and Michigan National Bank (now 77 Monroe Center). A blank triangle that was a surface parking lot on Fulton at Ionia in 1998 is now the Marriott Residence Inn, a modern Flat Iron-style building.
46. Looking at the 1936 Tax Survey residential assessor cards can also be helpful to current homeowners. This 1936 photo for the Lyon Street home of Grand Rapids first Electrical Inspector, George Cotton demonstrates that the home had a nice railing about the porch roof. Learning that the owner of her newly painted thinks she might like to add a new railing to replicate the original look. Photos often have surprises too, and here there are these short mystery pillars - who knows what they were for?? Note. Around 1929, James Bishop, a close friend of automaker, Henry Ford, called on George Cotton to view his collection of electrical antiquities. Bishop took the entire collection back for the new Henry Ford Museum. The collection is still there on file as a digital collection available to view electronically.
47. Another 1936 photo from the assessor field cards, shows that the childhood home of Betty Bloomer Ford shows one significant change—the porch. If you bought this home and wanted to restore it to its original elegance, you would see that the only seemingly major change regards the front porch. Not that the home’s original porch was a major statement of prosperity. Note its larger size, center stairs, original roof with dentil trim, and the original wood railing. These details provide an impression that is slightly different than the current front entry.
BY THE FALL 1936, THE SURVEY WAS 65% COMPLETE AND OTHER ISSUES WERE GAINING ATTENTION
Throughout 1936 -1936, City Manager, Sophus Johnson continued to submit project proposals on behalf of the Grand Rapids City Commission to the state WPA headquarters as monies were made available. The Grand Rapids Press printed an editorial on 7/16/1936 entitled “Come and Get It.”“A project-minded city manager is C. Sophus Johnson. To him, Harry L. Pierson’s announcement that there is $135,000,000 still available in the WPA funds for Michigan is like a cook pounding on the bottom of a dishpan in a lumber camp, “Come and Get it.” “Johnson lost not one minute in “ getting the grub.” “He promptly sent a letter to the state director of the WPA saying that Grand Rapids would like this please, and that please……..…
On October 16, 1936, the Grand Rapids Herald Journal published this photo and noted that FDR and Eleanor were campaignin in GR. Their host was Mayor Tunis Johnson (Pres. G. L. Johnson Cigars, maker of the popular Dutch Masters cigar) and Democrat Gov. Frank Murphy was along with them in the car, They talked Grand Rapids’ business economy, the furniture industry, and other issues and when they were done, FDR scrapped his prepared remarks and spoke ”off the cuff” about the city’s economy and future. Photo by Shelly Robinson published October 15, 1936, Grand Rapids Herald, autographed Tunis Johnson.
GR Press 11/23/1936 “Assessors Reply to Many Queries.”As the public became more aware of the ongoing tax survey, questions became more pointed as to the purpose of the survey. City officials tried to quiet fears that WPA Survey meant an immediate assessment boost. Promised no new general property assessment until at least 1938, maybe even 1939. “The survey itself will not be completed until the middle of next year,” declared Assessor Frank Steinmann.
In January 1937 WPA Tax Survey workers contributed $50. to the Ohio flood victims’ relief fund. “Tax Survey Basketball Team” looked for games that could be played in the other team’s gym.
By February 12, 1937, Assessor Steinman came before the City Commission to request they pay project supervisor architect Henry H. Turner. By 1937 A.D. MacRae issued information about the new WPA policy which clearly stated that the WPA would no longer pay supervisors not on the relief rolls for their work from WPA funds. Turner called it a political trick because he had fired some of Frank McKay’s friends. This became a shouting match with Steinmann throwing up his hands and saying he had enough and no longer wanted to supervise the project. No doubt there is much that went unreported leading up to this moment, The City Commission decided to investigate the Tax Survey Project. City Commission members were appointed to do so. Steinmann effectively quit over the controversy and was then officially replaced.
On March 13, 1937, the Grand Rapids Press reported that the City Commission replaced Steinmann with Peter Kammeraad, supervisor of most other city WPA projects.
Throughout 1937, there were instances when workers were furloughed because WPA funds don’t arrive as expected.The Swallenbach-Allen Resolution calls for expanding WPA to keep funding stable The resolution aimed to keep people on the WPA payroll if they were unable to find private employment.
The City Suggests “amplifying” the Tax Survey by adding interiors to the assessment. That would require assessors to go inside city homes.
The response from a GR Press Editorial on 12/15/1937 is negative and against the proposal. “Would homeowners welcome an” invasion of their homes?” ”They will not be greeting inspectors with a smile and a cigar.” Goes on to question--Would assessors have the legal right to enter? Houses with identical exteriors may look entirely different inside with different improvements. Assessment increases could put a damper on improvements, taking away work from painters, electricians, cabinetmakers, etc. Could cause resentment!” The proposal is not implemented.
The City Tax Survey was scheduled to end in February 1938. When recapped, the total monies spent on the survey were estimated at $300,000 with the city’s share about $6,180.
By 1939, there were newspaper articles documenting the evidence that the WPA was getting mired in politics as Republicans and Democrats argued over funding. A political hire replaces the efficient regional supervisor, A.D. MacRae. Mayor George Welsh brings the city’s protest over that decision to Congress including to Senator Vandenberg. Also that year, WPA workers were asked to sign affidavits that they were not members of Nazi Bundt or Communist Party. The House Un-American Activities Committee frequently suggested communist infiltration of WPA projects. That year they ended the WPA Theater projects due to what they suggested was both communist influence and inappropriate theater subject matter.
Throughout the WPA project but especially in the years from 1937 to 1939, the pressure was consistently on the cities to pick up a greater percentage of the WPA. The percentages proposed would have ended most of the projects since cities did not have the ability to pay those costs.
CONCLUSION
In 1940, as the country was gearing up for the uncertainty of a world at war, many WPA projects were coming to a close. In May a WPA Open House is scheduled. It was to be held in various project locations during the week of May 20-25, 1940. This aligns with a similar event in Lansing that celebrated the WPA’s accomplishment statewide. Mayor George Welsh invited the public to visit these WPA sites during this City-Wide Celebration to see some of the successful WPA projects in action. According to one Press report the kickoff is held at Fountain Street Church.
The WPA set out to employ 3.5 million people. By 1938, WPA employment was nearly that number. Projects created infrastructure, such as bridges, roads, and new buildings, still in use today. The WPA provided library services, generated museum art and mapmaking projects, paid for musicians’s salaries and music transcription, funded new theater productions, and created a cultural heritage of art and writing projects. This funding put food on the table for so many families.
The City Tax Survey was a small but significant Grand Rapids WPA project that employed, at its peak, 238 workers, including architects, engineers, surveyors, photographers, clerks, and typists. These professionals were engaged in a technical project that provided the City with a new more factual and detailed document of city property values, using unique field cards for each separate taxable structure. In the process, the field cards with their 1936-1938 photos, created a lasting record of city homes and buildings. These records are kept today at the Grand Rapids City Archive.