Arcadia's building "boom" of the 1920s produced commercial structures as well as a new city hall, a concrete bridge with electric lights, many subdivisions, a nine-hole golf course-today's Arcadia Municipal Golf Course, and the Arcadia Tourist Camp, now the City Mobile Home Park, where two "Tin Can Tourists of the World" Conventions were held. Built in 1928, the colossal All-Florida Chautauqua amphitheater had only one season in 1929. The ruins are located on the grounds of Peace River Campground.
During the Great Depression, Arcadia began construction of a municipal airport with Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA) funds. FERA also funded a beef cannery at the Florida Baptist Children's Home (located in Arcadia from 1903 to 1948). Works Progress Administration (WPA) projects included the construction of a U.S. Post Office in 1937 (complete with WPA artwork, "Arcadia" by Constance Ortmayer), a sewing room, and conversion of the old high school into a cafeteria/gymnasium.
