Tavern On The Green, a
world-famous and very large restaurant in Central Park, owes its existence
to the New Deal, which converted a sheep barn into the restaurant we have
today in 1934 by "relief workers"; that is, unemployed people hired by
the Federal Works Administration (C.W.A.) and later transitioned to the
Temporary Emergency Relief Administration (T.E.R.A.), which was 50%
federal and 50% state and local, to provide the design, engineering, and
labor under the supervision of the New York City Department of Parks, headed
by Commissioner Robert Moses. The restaurant has been functioning almost
continuously since 1934, employing a large number of people. At any given
time I'd estimate that 100 people work there and these jobs would not exist
if the Federal Government had not paid to create the jobs necessary to
create this restaurant out of a sheep barn.