Greenbelt

Greenbelt, the first community in the United States built as a federal venture in housing, is a shining example of the physical and social planning that preceded its construction. It was designed as a complete city, with businesses, schools, roads and facilities for recreation and town government. Modeled after English garden cities of the 19th century, Greenbelt is named after the belt of green forestland with which it is surrounded and the belts of green between neighborhoods that offer easy contact with nature.

Greenbelt is unique for its cooperative institutions. Boston merchant and philanthropist Edward Filene provided funds to Greenbelt Consumer Services, Inc., which operated a variety of amenities such as a food store, gas station, drug store, barber shop, movie theater, valet shop, beauty parlor, and a tobacco shop. In December 1941, citizens within the community were able to raise funds to purchase GCS. In 1952, when Congress voted to sell off the Greenbelt towns, citizens formed a housing cooperative (Greenbelt Veterans Housing Corporation, later Greenbelt Homes, Inc.) which purchased the homes. Citizens also formed a cooperative baby sitting pool, a cooperative nursery school, a cooperative kindergarten, and a cooperative savings and loan association. Today, the cooperative spirit and strong sense of community are passed on to new generations of Greenbelters.

Much of the original features of this planned community still exist. In addition to it, the city itself has expanded to include additional shopping centers, high-rise office buildings, garden apartments, townhouses, and private development. With the construction of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, the Capital Beltway, and Kenilworth Avenue which meet in Greenbelt, the city has become a center of major residential and commercial development within the Prince George's County. Nevertheless, legacies of the past remain as around a dozen of the original families still live in the city.

The architecture was streamlined in the Art Deco style popular at that time, with curving lines, glass brick inserts in the facades of apartment buildings, and buttresses along the front wall of the elementary school. Shops, schools, ball fields, and community buildings were grouped in the center of a crescent-shaped natural ridge. The two curving major streets were laid out upon and below this ridge, and homes were grouped in superblocks with a system of interior walkways permitting residents to go from home to town center without crossing a major street. Pedestrian and vehicular traffic were carefully separated. The cooperative institutions, cooperative spirit, and strong sense of community make Greenbelt a unique and welcoming place to call home.