During the 1930s, the Works Progress Administration was created to help provide economic relief to the citizens suffering through the Great Depression. Raton is home to several WPA Murals in the Shuler Theater, Arthur Johnson Library, and the post office. From 1933 to 1943 the Works Progress Administration programs would pay artists to paint murals in courthouses, Schools, and build decorative furniture, tin chandeliers and support traditional crafts among the Indigenous and Hispanic people of New Mexico.