Greenbelt, Md., August 18, 1938

A. A. Bodine

The Greenbelt town program originated as part of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, aiding the poor by hiring the unemployed to build the towns and then by providing housing for low-income families. Placed within the Resettlement Administration headed in 1935-36 by Rexford G. Tugwell, the Suburban Division, administered by John Lansill, constructed three towns: Greenbelt, Maryland, near Washington, DC, Greendale, Wisconsin, outside Milwaukee, and Greenhills, Ohio, near Cincinnati. Economist Tugwell yearned for a collectivized society and included his desires in the town plans, placing an emphasis on economic and social "cooperatives" to serve town residents.

Tugwell left the design of the towns to planners, Hale Walker being town planner for Greenbelt. Walker relied heavily on Clarence Perry's concept of the Neighborhood Unit in which neighborhood boundaries consisted of major streets, but neighborhood roads carried only local traffic. A central area containing shops and a park, as well as an elementary school which also served as a community center, provided focus for the neighborhood and were within walking distance of residents. Walker was also influenced heavily by Clarence Stein's design of Radburn, New Jersey, which utilized superblocks with central greens, separation of automobile and pedestrian traffic, cul-de-sacs, and homes facing the garden side with backs facing the street. In addition, a surrounding "greenbelt" was to provide land for parks or farming. Tenants first occupied Greenbelt's 885 rowhouses and apartment units in September 1937.

Greenbelt, Md., August 18, 1938

A. A. Bodine

The greenbelt town program in general and Tugwell in particular received much negative press coverage. Congressional critics of the New Deal focused on the expense of the towns, while businessmen clamored against the "communistic" and "socialistic" aspects. As a result, Tugwell resigned and Roosevelt dismantled the Resettlement Administration at the end of 1936. The Farm Security Administration oversaw the completion of Greenbelt, which included a doubling of its size with the addition of another neighborhood unit in 1941 that housed war workers. After World War II, the federal government, no longer interested in being a landlord, resolved to sell the town. In response, town residents who wished to maintain their community as a planned, cooperative one, formed a successful co-op now known as Greenbelt Homes, Inc. (GHI).

The town of Greenbelt and its people faced numerous hurdles after the sale of the town by the government. In order to form the co-op, returning veterans from World War II had to work closely with pacifists who moved to Greenbelt during the war, as the co-ops would hire pacifists when others would not. While town residents worked at resolving their differences in order to form GHI, the U.S. House of Representatives Small Business Committee conducted an investigation of co-ops, with Greenbelt number one on its "hit list." The most severe blow fell in 1953, when the U.S. Navy suspended three of its employees, Greenbelt residents all, accusing them of being security risks. This occurred at the height of "McCarthyism," and Greenbelt made an ideal target, having been branded "socialistic" and "communistic" since its inception. McCarthyism worked by "shunning," but the town refused to do this; Greenbelters made special efforts to include the men and their families in town life and testified on their behalf before the Office of Naval Intelligence. Eventually the Navy exonerated the three, and Hollywood told their story in the 1957 film Three Brave Men, starring Ernest Borgnine and Ray Milland.

Greenbelt, Md., August 18, 1938

A. A. Bodine

The 1960s provided another profound challenge to the ideals of Greenbelt, as massive development began after the completion of the Capital Beltway in 1964. The beltway and the Baltimore-Washington Parkway created concrete canyons that future development of the town had to straddle. In addition, Greenbelters had lost control of their circling greenbelt, selling much of the land to pay taxes shortly after the formation of GHI. Tremendous battles with developers ensued, requiring unending hours of work by citizens to maintain the core of the town in its original form, and to fight against the developers' preferences for towering, shoddy apartment blocks elsewhere. The town lost some battles but won many others and has spent the years since buying back as-yet-undeveloped green space. In celebration, Greenbelters threw themselves a year-long party in 1987, to honor the preservation of their cooperative, planned community for fifty years. It survives still, maintaining its original plans and cooperative ethic.

The ideals and plans used in the New Deal-era Greenbelt town program reappeared briefly in the 1960s with the development of Columbia, Maryland, and appeared again in the 1990s in the guise of New Urbanism or Neo-Traditional Development, a prominent example being Kentlands, in Montgomery County. Planners and developers in search of new ways of proceeding have repeatedly turned to the concepts used so successfully in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Arnold, Joseph L. The New Deal in the Suburbs: A History of the Greenbelt Town Program, 1935–1954. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1971

Klaus, Susan L. Links in the Chain: Greenbelt, Maryland and the New Town Movement in America. Washington, DC: Center for Washington Area Studies, George Washington University, 1987. Bibliography.

Knepper, Cathy D. Greenbelt, Maryland: A Living Legacy of the New Deal. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.

Looking Back: Greenbelt is 50, 1937–1987. Transcribed oral interviews conducted by University of Maryland students, 1987.

Williamson, Mary Lou, ed. Greenbelt, History of a New Town 1937–1987. Norfolk, Va.: The Donning Co., 1987.