History of Greenbelt
Background
Greenbelt Maryland is widely known as the first community built as a federal venture in housing. After the Great Depression of the early 1930's, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created his famous New Deal plan to get the country back on its feet. One major part of the New Deal was the Emergency Relief Appropriations Act of 1935, which authorized immediate grants for relief projects. At this point, unemployment had reached 14 million, or over one quarter of the country's work force. Rexford G. Tugwell, a member of FDR's "Brain Trust," was given the job of creating three "Green," or fully planned, communities; Greenbelt, Maryland, Greenhills, Ohio, and Greendale, Wisconsin. The purpose of Greenbelt was primarily to provide employment for the scores of Americans left without jobs after the Depression, as well as to demonstrate the soundness of planning and operating towns according to garden City principles, and to provide low-rent housing for low income families in a healthy environment.
Site
At the time, Prince George's County was scarcely settled, so the federal government bought 3,300 acres of undeveloped land from different private land owners, some dating back to the original land grants from the King of England. The Greenbelt land was overworked as farm land, and the southern 1,200 acres, with its rough topography and abundance of wood, remains largely undeveloped today, forming the green belt for which the city is named. The general shape of the community, a crescent, was basically dictated by nature.
Design and Construction
Most of the architects commissioned for the Greenbelt project struggled at first because they were not used to designing on such a low budget. Also, construction had to be accelerated to accommodate the immediate need for jobs, so architects had to design in a hurry - they barely had time to finish a plan before it was taken and given to the builders.
Construction began in October of 1935 and lasted almost two years, due in part to the fact that no labor saving machinery was used so that the builders could be employed for longer. In fact, the entire lake was dug by hand with simple shovels.
Homes were designed in small courts that were then connected by walkways to form five superblocks, labeled A-E. The superblocks were all arranged around a central location; the school. Many construction techniques that are commonly used today were first used in Greenbelt, for example the use of threaded copper fittings for pipes, brass plumbing in the waste system, and decorate glass blocks.
Greenbelt is unique for its system of interior walkways that connect the original houses. Meant to separate pedestrian and vehicular traffic, the walkways also promoted interaction between neighbors and connected the courts to one another in an innovative design.
The original homes comprised 885 units-574 row houses, 306 units in four story apartment buildings, and 5 prefabricated detached houses. The homes were constructed of either brick or block. The first families moved into their new residences in the fall of 1937.
In 1941 another 1,000 homes were added to provide housing for families coming to Washington in connection with defense programs of World War II. These defense homes were not constructed in the same style as the original houses (they were frame houses as opposed to brick or block), as they were meant at the time to be temporary and had to be erected in a hurry.
Original Residents
There were 5,700 applicants for the original 885 units in Greenbelt. The selection process was extremely rigorous. Because Greenbelt was meant to be an affordable option for low income families, there was a maximum annual income per household of $1,100-$2,000 for a family of four, and $1,200-$2,100 for a family of five. Only families of six or less were admitted, and while there were some exceptions, almost all of the original residents were young couples with very small children. The planners wanted Greenbelt to be a true cross-section of the metro area, so the first residents were 80% DC natives, with 10% each from Maryland and Virginia. Similarly, 50% were federal government workers, 5% worked for the DC government, and 45% were not affiliated with the government. A religious cross-section was also desired, with about 59% Protestant, 34% Catholic, and 7% Jewish. The religious quotas were roughly achieved, although not as accurately as some of the other criteria (all of which were based on the 1926 census). Because of the racist climate of the times, all of the original Greenbelt residents were white.
More than statistical diversity, the Greenbelt planners wanted residents that would willingly participate in the community and remain active in government, recreation, and cooperation within the community. To achieve this, all applicants had to submit to a home interview, where everything from their family values to their housekeeping skills were evaluated. Most of the original residents were families in which the father had the sole income, thus making it all the more important that the families were willing to interact with each other and create a real community.
Greenbelt's Legacy
In 1952, the Federal Government decided to sell Greenbelt to the highest bidder. To prevent their community being bought by a private entrepreneur, citizens in Greenbelt formed a housing cooperative and purchased the original homes themselves. Greenbelt Homes Incorporated (GHI) still owns the 1600 original units (including the frame houses) and operates the community as a cooperative.
There were so many aspects that made Greenbelt a successful venture as a planned community. There was the obvious advantage of being able to hand-pick the perfect residents for a cooperative community, as well as the physical design of the neighborhood unit. However, some factors that contributed to Greenbelt's success were not planned. A group mentality existed among the low-income residents, especially since the cheap land upon which Greenbelt was constructed meant that they were fairly isolated in the beginning. Also, the rest of the county was initially quite hostile towards Greenbelt residents, because they were "foreign" (not from PG County), and because they enjoyed many luxuries, like kindergarten and a public pool, that were uncommon at the time. Although the city of Greenbelt has expanded almost exponentially since it was founded, legacies of the past remain. The cooperative spirit and sense of community that made Greenbelt a success so many years ago is still alive and well in the current residents, and it promises to be a vibrant and exemplary community for many years to come.
