Archives West Finding Aid

The Federal Works Agency was established in 1939. Under an act passed on October 14, 1940, the Agency was given authority to provide housing in connection with military establishments. On June 28, 1941, Congress amended this law by the Lanham Act, which expanded the types of facilities the Board could provide to include schools, hospitals, recreation centers, waterworks, sewer systems, and any other "... facility necessary for carrying on community life substantially expanded by the national-defense program." This portion of the Agency's work was carried out by the Division of War Public Services. In December 1944 the division was renamed the Bureau of Community Facilities. Montana's program was initially administered from Berkeley, California, but later came under the Denver regional office. Bozeman, Great Falls, and Helena established child care centers to take care of the preschool age children of women working in defense-related jobs. Officials in Butte had hoped to set up such a program, but felt that the fifty cents suggested daily fee was too high for most mothers. Therefore, they declined the government's offer. Missoula's planned child care center was also never funded. Lewistown set up a recreation center for soldiers stationed at the Army Airdrome Headquarters a mile outside of town. Great Falls requested a rapid treatment center to control venereal disease, but by the time the paperwork was completed, the number of soldiers stationed in the area had declined sharply and the center was no longer needed. When the war ended in 1945, the programs created by the Bureau of Community Facilities were gradually phased out, being completed by February 1946.