Greenhills Community Building & Walking Tour

Join us for a unique event celebrating the history of Greenhills! We will begin with a meet and greet from 10-11, followed at 11 by an informal chat about the history of the town and of the Community Building. Afterward, we’ll tour the community building and then enjoy a guided walking tour of the town. Hope to see you there!

“Greenhills is an American treasure. It is one of only three “model” greenbelt towns built during the Great Depression by the New Deal’s Resettlement Administration, designed to move working people out of crowded cities into new, well-planned communities in the suburbs. Construction began in December 1935, and the first families moved there in 1938. Greenhills featured schools, churches, and stores within easy walking distance, as well as wonderful amenities: walking paths, green spaces, and community and recreational facilities. In hard times, when many struggled with crowded, decrepit housing, Greenhills offered affordable, well-built homes with the latest conveniences. When one-third of the country was out of work, many men were employed in the planning and building of Greenhills…

It took only three years for the Greenhills project to go from the Resettlement Administration’s drafting boards in Washington DC (above) to the beautiful new modern town that saw its first citizens move in on April 1, 1938. The country’s best architects, planners, landscape designers, and civil engineers came together, creating three unified teams to design the Greenbelt towns. Each town had its own unique plan and buildings presenting an integrated inseparable whole. The buildings and the envisioned life that would be lived within them became just as dependent on the good design of the individual structures as were on their particular placement upon the land. Detailed surveys and topographical studies of the sites combined with architectural drawings, (models below), and building materials carefully selected for durability and aesthetics to create the best possible outcome.”

“Images of Greenhills” ----- authors: Debbie Mills and Margo Warminski, Arcadia Publishing