In New Mexico, New Deal Legacy Gets a Second Look

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The 100-year anniversary of the National Park Service is kindling interest in the cabins, murals, furniture and artwork of the New Deal era that transformed and popularized national and state parks while putting impoverished Americans back to work. Rupert Lopez of New Mexico gratefully worked for $1 a day amid the misery of the Great Depression making adobe-block walls for National Park Service administration building in Santa Fe. Lopez himself is now 100 years old, and some preservationists saying it is time for the federal government to give public works projects of the New Deal era more focused attention. At the same time, enthusiasts of New Deal history are using online crowdsourcing tools to identify overlooked buildings and artwork across the nation.