Greenbelt Homes, Incorporated (GHI) is the

housing cooperative A housing cooperative, or housing co-op, is a legal entity, usually a cooperative or a corporation, which owns real estate, consisting of one or more residential buildings; it is one type of housing tenure. Housing cooperatives are a distinc ...

Greenbelt, Maryland Greenbelt is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, and a suburb of Washington, D.C. At the 2020 census, the population was 24,921. Greenbelt is the first and the largest of the three experimental and controversial New Deal ...

, comprising the original houses built by the U.S. Federal Government in 1936 during the administration of

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

as part of the

New Deal The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Cons ...

, as well as additional defense housing built in 1941 by the

Farm Security Administration The Farm Security Administration (FSA) was a New Deal agency created in 1937 to combat rural poverty during the Great Depression in the United States. It succeeded the Resettlement Administration (1935–1937). The FSA is famous for its small but ...

, and smaller numbers of homes built later. With 1,600 homes, GHI forms the core of Old Greenbelt, and a large portion of the

Greenbelt Historic District The Greenbelt Historic District is a national historic district located in Greenbelt, Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. The district preserves the center of one of the few examples of the Garden city movement in the United State ...

Founding

The Greenbelt community incorporated many design elements that were innovative at the time; these included: curvilinear street patterns, the super block, the separation of pedestrian walkways and the street system, and the organization of neighborhoods around elementary schools.

Rexford Tugwell Rexford Guy Tugwell (July 10, 1891 – July 21, 1979) was an American economist who became part of Franklin D. Roosevelt's first "Brain Trust", a group of Columbia University academics who helped develop policy recommendations leading up to R ...

, Chief of the Resettlement Administration and a close confidante of Roosevelt, advocated for the approval of the Greenbelt Town Program to the president. Once it was approved, Tugwell appointed John S. Lansill to oversee the project and Frerick Bigger as the architect, and hired construction workers in the Baltimore-Washington area. When the Greenbelt community was built and expanded, the property belonged to the Federal Government, and residents paid rent. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, residents anticipated that the town would be sold. An association of 1,400 residents was formed to buy it, but the remaining 450 tenants hoped the government would continue to subsidize their rent. In 1949, Congress mandated the town be sold, and the sale occurred in 1952. Membership in the Greenbelt Veterans Housing Corporation—predecessor of GHI—consisted of just over 50% veterans, as required by Congress. GVHC gave residents one year to begin making purchase payments or move out. As a result of his involvement with the project, GVHC attorney and Greenbelt resident

Abraham Chasanow Abraham Chasanow (December 1, 1910 – June 11, 1989) was a United States government employee who was suspended from employment in July 1953, during the McCarthy era, on the grounds that he was a security risk. He was later reinstated. Career ...

lost his

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

job as a target of

McCarthyism McCarthyism is the practice of making false or unfounded accusations of subversion and treason, especially when related to anarchism, communism and socialism, and especially when done in a public and attention-grabbing manner. The term origin ...

, but was later cleared of all charges. In 1957, the membership voted to rename the Greenbelt Veterans Housing Corporation to Greenbelt Homes, Inc.

In popular culture

The town and residences which were to become GHI were the subject of the 1939 documentary film '' The City''. The story of the

persecution of

, one of the founders of the Greenbelt Veterans Housing Corporation, was documented in the movie ''

Three Brave Men ''Three Brave Men'' is a 1956 drama film directed by Philip Dunne and starring Ray Milland and Ernest Borgnine. The film was based on real-life events arising in Greenbelt, Maryland,Knepper, Cathy D. ''Greenbelt, Maryland: A Living Legacy of the ...

'', starring

Ray Milland Ray Milland (born Alfred Reginald Jones; 3 January 1907 – 10 March 1986) was a Welsh-American actor and film director. His screen career ran from 1929 to 1985. He is remembered for his Academy Award and Cannes Film Festival Award-winning ...

and Ernest Borgnine.

Gallery

Image:Greenbelt-md-USA-1937-03.jpg, Aerial view of Greenbelt under construction, March 1937.

References

External links

*
Virtual Greenbelt from the Department of American Studies at the University of Maryland

Greenbelt Museum

"New Deal City"
''Mother Jones''

Founding

In popular culture

Gallery

References

External links

Further reading