Greenbelt, Maryland

Greenbelt was settled in 1937 as a public cooperative community ("an experiment in American socialism") in the New Deal Era. The concept was at the same time both eminently practical and idealistically utopian: the federal government would foster an "ideal" self-sufficient cooperative community that would also ease the pressing housing shortage near the nation's capital. Construction of the new town would also create jobs and thus help stimulate the national economic recovery following the Great Depression.

Greenbelt, which provided affordable housing for federal government workers, was one of three "green" towns planned in 1935 by Rexford Guy Tugwell, head of the United States Resettlement Administration, under authority of the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act. (The two other green towns are Greendale, Wisconsin (near Milwaukee) and Greenhills, Ohio (near Cincinnati). A fourth green town, Roosevelt, New Jersey (originally called Homestead), was planned but was not fully developed on the same large scale as Greenbelt. Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, helped Tugwell lay out the town on a site that had formerly consisted largely of tobacco fields. Eleanor Roosevelt also was heavily involved in the first cooperative community designed by the federal government in the New Deal Era, Arthurdale, West Virginia, which sought to better the lives of impoverished laborers by enabling them to create a self-sufficient, and relatively prosperous, cooperative community.

The architectural planning of Greenbelt was innovative, but no less so than the social engineering involved in this federal government project.

[edit] Bordering Areas

[edit] Geography and Highlights

Greenbelt is located at 39°0′2″N, 76°53′18″W (39.000460, -76.888325)^GR1.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 15.6 km² (6.0 mi²). 15.5 km² (6.0 mi²) of it is land and 0.1 km² (0.04 mi²) of it (0.50%) is water.

Greenbelt's ZIP code is 20770.

Greenbelt Road is a portion of State Highway 193, a highway connecting several suburban towns, with links to the Baltimore-Washington Parkway and to the nation's capital.

The Goddard Space Flight Center of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is located there, as is Greenbelt Park.

[edit] Demographics

As of the census^GR2 of 2000, there were 21,456 people, 9,368 households, and 4,965 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,385.3/km² (3,586.6/mi²). There were 10,180 housing units at an average density of 657.3/km² (1,701.7/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 39.74% White, 41.35% African American, 0.23% Native American, 12.05% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 3.11% from other races, and 3.47% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 6.45% of the population.

There were 9,368 households out of which 26.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 33.1% were married couples living together, 15.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 47.0% were non-families. 35.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 5.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.29 and the average family size was 3.00.

In the city the population was spread out with 21.9% under the age of 18, 12.5% from 18 to 24, 39.1% from 25 to 44, 19.8% from 45 to 64, and 6.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 32 years. For every 100 females there were 91.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.2 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $46,328, and the median income for a family was $55,671. Males had a median income of $39,133 versus $35,885 for females. The per capita income for the city was $25,236. About 6.0% of families and 10.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 12.7% of those under age 18 and 7.2% of those age 65 or over.

[edit] Education

Greenbelt is served by Prince George's County Public Schools.

The city is served by three elementary schools:

Greenbelt Elementary School (Greenbelt)
Magnolia Elementary School (unincorporated Prince George's County, Lanham address)
Springhill Lake Elementary School (Greenbelt)

All of Greenbelt is served by Greenbelt Middle School and Eleanor Roosevelt High School; both schools are in the city.

[edit] Further reading

Knepper, Cathy D. "Greenbelt, Maryland: A Living Legacy of the New Deal (Creating the North American Landscape)". The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8018-6490-9.

[edit] External links

	Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Greenbelt, Maryland

Greenbelt city government website
Greenbelt community website
Virtual Greenbelt at the University of Maryland, College Park
Historic Greenbelt buildings from the New Deal
Maps and aerial photos Coordinates: 39.00046° -76.888325°
- Street map from Google Maps, or Yahoo! Maps, or Windows Live Local
- Satellite image from Google Maps, Windows Live Local, WikiMapia
- Topographic map from TopoZone
- Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA

	State of Maryland
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