Greendale Historic District

History

Greendale was one of three 'greenbelt towns' built by the federal government of the United States, along with Greenbelt, Maryland and Greenhills, Ohio, during the Great Depression. The greenbelt towns program was part of the New Deal. It was presented to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt by Undersecretary of Agriculture Rexford Tugwell. Based on the garden city movement in England, the goal was to build new towns outside of population centers and aid the housing market by building new houses and slowing down the expansion of urban slums. One hundred major cities were studied as potential candidates to be the population center to have new town constructed near-by. Milwaukee, Wisconsin was chosen for, among other reasons, its varied and stable manufacturing sector and Greendale was built west of the city. During its construction, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt visited the site and later wrote that it had a "delightful site" and thought it was a "really good development." Then-U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and future U.S. Vice President Henry A. Wallace would also tour Greendale. Washington, D.C. and Cincinnati, Ohio were chosen as the population centers for Greenbelt and Greenhills, respectively.