![\"Chris](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.drivingfordeco.com\/staging\/3617\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/IMG_1684.jpg\")
<\/a>Chris & Anthony in front of the Greenbelt Community Center.<\/p><\/div>\n
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To kick off our 2016 summer “Freakin’, Tiquen'” vacation, Chris and I met our friend Robert who gave us a tour of Greenbelt, Maryland. Conceived in 1935 by Rexford Guy Tugwell<\/a><\/span> of the United States Resettlement Administration<\/a><\/span>, Greenbelt was the first of the “green”\u00a0communities to be built by the New Deal<\/a><\/span>. The other “green” communities are Greendale, Wisconsin (near Milwaukee) and Greenhills, Ohio (near Cincinnati).<\/h4>\n <\/p>\n
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![\"Greenbelt](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.drivingfordeco.com\/staging\/3617\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Greenbelt-Maryland-circa-1938.gif?resize=625%2C496\")
<\/a>Greenbelt from the air, circa, 1938.<\/p><\/div>\n
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The concept behind Greenbelt was for a self-sufficient cooperative community. It was planned to help relieve the housing shortage near Washington, D.C. and to provide housing for federal government workers. The town was laid out in such a way to keep cars and pedestrians separate creating a safe environment for children to walk to school and play. Douglas Ellington and Reginald Wadsworth, the principal architects, were hired in June of 1935. Construction began the following December on depleted tobacco farmland with the first section of Greenbelt\u00a0available for occupancy in 1937. The original per month rents were $18.00 – $25.00 for an apartment and $28.00 – $41.00 for a semidetached house. Greenbelt was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 and designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1997.<\/h4>\n
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![\"Vintage](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.drivingfordeco.com\/staging\/3617\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Greenbelt-Elementary-School-Library-of-Congress.jpg?resize=625%2C448\")
<\/a>Vintage photograph of the Greenbelt Elementary School. Image from the Library of Congress.<\/p><\/div>\n
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The Greenbelt Community Center was, and still is, a very strikingly modern or moderne building. The only ornamentation is the bas-relief sculptures on the front of the building. Created by WPA artist Lenore Thomas <\/a><\/span>that depict\u00a0the preamble of the constitution.\u00a0Originally opened as the elementary school in 1937 it became the community center after a new school was constructed in the early 1990’s.\u00a0\u00a0The building always served the community from the beginning. Besides being the school, it was where dances were held, a library for the residents and place for meetings and religious ceremonies. Thanks to grant funding the Community Center was refurbished in 1991.<\/h4>\n <\/p>\n\n\t\t
<\/a>Greenbelt from the air, circa, 1938.<\/p><\/div>\n
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The concept behind Greenbelt was for a self-sufficient cooperative community. It was planned to help relieve the housing shortage near Washington, D.C. and to provide housing for federal government workers. The town was laid out in such a way to keep cars and pedestrians separate creating a safe environment for children to walk to school and play. Douglas Ellington and Reginald Wadsworth, the principal architects, were hired in June of 1935. Construction began the following December on depleted tobacco farmland with the first section of Greenbelt\u00a0available for occupancy in 1937. The original per month rents were $18.00 – $25.00 for an apartment and $28.00 – $41.00 for a semidetached house. Greenbelt was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 and designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1997.<\/h4>\n
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<\/a>Vintage photograph of the Greenbelt Elementary School. Image from the Library of Congress.<\/p><\/div>\n
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