WPA Tree Census Beverly, Massachusetts Map Collection

or

In 1938, the project to create a list of all the shade trees in Beverly -- colloquially known as "the tree job" -- was backed by Senators Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. and David I. Walsh, then approved by Mayor Daniel E. McLean. The Work Projects Administration (WPA), also known as the Work Progress Administration, funded the summer-long project, which was designed to help Beverly's unemployed white-collar class. The resulting tree census, which produced well over two hundred maps of Beverly’s trees on streets and in parks, was expected to be an asset to the city. WPA projects in Beverly were coordinated by long-time City Engineer, Albert H. Richardson, and included a Local Control Survey, Maps of Cemeteries, construction of seventeen streets, sidewalks added to fifty streets, the construction of the Beverly Municipal Airport, and the paving of Balch Street.