Greenbelt Towns

Established by Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal administration in 1935, the Greenbelt Towns program sought to provide work for the unemployed, to offer affordable housing, and to demonstrate principles of suburban town planning. Town designs were influenced by Radburn and the neighborhood unit idea of sociologist Clarence Perry, with community centers, commercial functions, and residential areas surrounded by a green belt. Three towns were built: Greenbelt, Maryland, Greenhills, Ohio, and Greendale, Wisconsin. Greendale was planned by Elbert Peets and Jacob Crane as a suburb to Milwaukee and was settled beginning in 1938.

Explore present-day Greendale, Wisconsin

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