THE NEW DEAL IN THE SUBURBS s THE GREENBELT TOWN PROGRAM 1935-1952 DISSERTATION Presented In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy In the Graduate Sohool of The Ohio State University By Joseph Larkin Arnold, B.A., A.M. ****** The Ohio State University 1968 Approved by //. Adviser Department of History VITA June 21, 1937 Born-Chioago, Illinois 1959. • • B.A., Denison University, Granville, Ohio I960. M.A., The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1960-1961 • • High Sohool Teaoher, Muskingum County, Ohio 1961-1962 • • Graduate Assistant, Department of History, The Ohio State University 1962-1963 • • Instruotor, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio 1963-196^ • • Graduate Assistant, Department of History, The Ohio State University 196^-1965 • • Researoh Fellowship, The Ohio State University 1965-1968 • • Assistant Professor, Southern Conneotlout State College, Mew Haven, Conneotlout FIELD OF STUDY Major Field: United States History ii TABLE OP CONTENTS VITA ....................................... 11 INTRODUCTION................................ 1 Chapter I. ORIGINS OF THE RESETTLEMENT ADMINISTRA­ TION AND THE SUBURBAN RESETTLEMENT PROGRAM............. ? II. CONFLICTS IN THE FORMATION OF THE GREENBELT TOWN PROGRAM............. 2^ III. LAND ACQUISITION.................... 51 IV. PLANNING OF THE GREENBELT TOWNS...... 9? V. CONSTRUCTION OF THE TOWNS............... 138 VI. THE FEDERAL LANDLORD . ...............159 VII. TENANT SELECTION...................... I76 VIII. OPPOSITION TO THE TOWNS.................19I1, IX. FEDERAL MANAGEMENT.................... 231 X. COMMUNITY BUILDING ................... 250 XI. THE WAR YEARS......................... 289 XII. GREENBELT TOWNS FOR SALE: 19^5-195^ . 30^ CONCLUSION.................................... 323 BIBLIOGRAPHY......... 327 ill INTRODUCTION In every age wealthy families have escaped the dangers and discomforts of the city by moving into the suburbs.But in 1898 an Englishman, Ebenezer Howard, gave the suburban trend a new direotion. In a small book called The Peaceful Path to Real Reform he suggested that entirely new and complete towns be built on vaoant or agricultural land surrounding a central oity— each commu­ nity limited in its physical size and population density and linked by transportation routes. The land in these "garden cities" would be owned mutually by the residents who would thereby control the use made of it by homeowners and faotory owners. The unique feature of the garden oity would be a belt of trees and fields surrounding and sep­ arating it from the next oity. These green belts would iThe Sumerian city of Ur, Imperial Rome and the four­ teenth century cities of Florence and London all were sur­ rounded by suburbs. See Lewis Mumford, The City in History Its Transformations and Its Prospects (New York: Haroourt, Braoe and. World, Inc., 19&1), pp» &3» 482-483; Senator R. Lanoiani, Andent and Modern Rome (Boston: Marshall Jones Co., 1925)» PP* 54-f>6; Ferdinand Schevill, Medieval and Renaissance Florenoe (New York: Harper and Row Publishers, Harper Torohbooks, 1961), I, 7? Sylvia L. Thrupp, The Mer­ chant Class of Medieval London (Ann Arbor, Miohigan: TUe University of Miohigan tress, 1962), pp. 120-121, 144-14$. 1 not only serve as buffers between cities, but would 2 enoourage looal olvlo pride* In 1906 Letohworth, the first garden oity, was opened outside London. It stimulated the interest of many nations inoluding Amerioa. The Garden City Associ­ ation of Amerioa was formed in the same year. Its President was a former New York state senator, Louis Childs, and its Vice President was the head of the Long Island Railroad, Ralph Peters. Other officers included Josiah Strong, who had visited Letohworth during oonstruo- tion in 190^, Henry Potter, Episoopal Bishop of New York, and Felix Adler of Columbia University.-^ The Association selected five locations for the construction of garden oitles and at one location, Farmlngdale, Long Island, raised thirty per oent of the neoessary oapital in a few months. Unfortunately, the Panio of 1907 disrupted the Association^ plans and no garden oities were ever built; but the Association oontinued to publish information on 2Ebenezer Howard, Garden Cities of Tomorrow (London: Faber and Faber Ltd., 19^), pp.~^CTB, li3-llV 126-127. ^Josiah Strong, "The Industrial Revolution: Its Influenoe on Urban Development," The Garden City. I (Ootober, 190*0, pp. 2-*+. "Garden City Association in Amerioa," The Garden City. I (Deoember, 1906), p. 252. W.D.P. Bliss, ,rThe Garden City Association of Amerioa," The Garden City. II (February, 1907), pp. 268-269. k oity planning for a number of years. During the First World War the need for housing defense workers in Amerioa became so great that the Federal Government was foroed to build a number of housing projects whioh, while falling short of the size and total­ ity of garden cities, provided excellent demonstrations of completely integrated designs for whole residential neigh­ borhoods. Onoe the war ended, however, Congress rejected all proposals for continuing suoh projects, selling the towns quickly to private groups and washing its hands of any further interest in housing and community planning.^ During the 1920*s Clarence S. Stein, architect and housing advisor to the State of New York brought together a number of fellow architects and city planners with suoh men as Lewis Mumford, historian and social oritio, author The Tragedy of Waste. Benton McKay, a real estate developer— all who shared an interest in oity and regional h, "Garden Cities in America," Charities and the Commons, XVII (April 27, 1907), p. ll^TI "Notes from Abroad," The Garden City. II (September, 1907), PP» ^11- 4-1 Tracy B. Augur, ^Industrial Growth in Amerioa and the Garden City," (unpublished Master's thesis, School of Landscape Architecture, Harvard University, 1921), pp. 50 55. -’Roy Lubove, "Homes and a Few Well Placed Fruit Trees: An Object Lesson in Federal Housing," Spolal Re­ search, XXVII (January, 1961), pp. ^69-^86, Charles A. Whitaker, et. al., The Housing Problem in War and Peaoe (Washington, D.C.: TKe "American Institute"of”Arohiteots, 1918). planning. Their organization, the Regional Planning Association of Amerioa, was one of the leading oenters of planning ideas in Amerioa. The group was particularly interested in the dispersal of metropolitan population. They dlsoussed and published various plans for decentral­ izing cities through the building of completely new towns in the oountryside whioh would gradually reduce the choking congestion of factories, shops and slums in the huge cities.^ Alexander Bing aoturally began the construction of an entire suburban oommunity in whioh all the residences, streets, parks, and utilities were carefully planned for convenience, safety and beauty. A limited dividend corporation was formed to finance the town. Unfortunately, the corporation could not raise enough money to build a garden city oomplete with its own industrial and commer­ cial areas and Radburn, as the town was named, remained only a residential suburb. Ground was broken in 1928 on a 1,258 acre traot near Paterson, New Jersey. Again national finanoial panio interrupted the progress of a planned oommunity but not until over three hundred resi- 7 dences had been completed. ^Roy Lubove, Community Planning in the 1920*8: The Contribution of the Regional Planning Association of Ameri­ oa (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1^6^). 7 The story of Radburn is reported in Clarenoe S. Stein, Towards New Towns for Amerioa (Cambridge, Mass.: Clarence Stein, who with Henry Wright had designed Radburn, shared with Alexander Bing the disappointment of seeing it only partially built. Even more discouraging was the oollapse of the entire home construction industry whioh meant that new experiments with housing and oommun­ ity building would be stalled for some time. The advent of the New Deal revived hopes for new experiments in housing and planning. It appeared that the leaders of the nation were prepared to regain control not only of the American economy but of the physical nation as well. Its cities would be rebullt--their slums replaoed by comfort­ able homes and parks. Its barren backlands would be re­ claimed— eroded lands replanted and flooding rivers harnessed for productive uses• The Tennessee Valley Authority and the great urban projeots of the Public Works Administration were the beginnings of suoh dreams. Writing in the New York Times Magazine in the fall of 1933 Stein described his vision of Amerioa*s new towns in his article "New Towns for the Needs of a New Age." They would be "bound together by common interests and The M.I.T. Press, 1966), pp. 38-73, Thomas Adams, The Design of Residential Areas (Cambridge: Harvard University tress, 193^), PP» 245-£49,and Henry Wright, Rehousing Urban America (Ne*~ York: Columbia University i'ressi— ^-935) pp--36-^6---- activities as in the New England Colonial Village." These new towns would be part of "a great regional or national plan" to decentralize our oities and develop an eoonomy and a sooiety that would be efficient and in harmony with the natural possibilities of each region. While he was greatly enoouraged by the intent of the Federal Govern­ ment to spend millions of dollars on housing and slum olearanoe, Stein warned against squandering the money "on piecemeal replacement of existing developments." He preferred to see funds "invested in building complete integrated communities planned and placed to meet