At Greenbelt Museum, learn about American history and explore the town of Greenbelt. Created in 1937 as part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, Greenbelt is a planned community and National Historic Landmark.
Following the Great Depression, Roosevelt introduced a series of domestic programmes called the New Deal, designed to rehabilitate the economy. These programmes included planned communities like Greenbelt, which were established to provide housing for low-income workers and to be a model for modern town planning in America. You can explore the fascinating development of one of these planned communities at Greenbelt Museum. Instead of housing all their exhibits under one roof, the museum is more of an interactive experience that takes you throughout the town of Greenbelt.
Begin your journey at Greenbelt Community Centre. This is home to a series of permanent and rotating exhibits that teach visitors about the New Deal and American life during the 1930s. As you wander through the exhibits, absorb the variety of information covered, which ranges from World War II fashion to Greenbelt’s gardening history.
Head down the street to Greenbelt Museum’s historic house. The house was built in the distinctive International Style, the definitive architectural style of the 1930s. Inside, it has been furnished with objects made between 1936 and 1952. See kitchen utensils, depression glass and children’s toys. Take note of the furniture, which was made by the Resettlement Administration’s Special Skills Division. As you walk through the house, try to picture yourself as one of the struggling families who were relocated to one of these planned communities following the Great Depression.
The historic house is only open on Sunday afternoons for tours. However, you can organise group tours at other times if you book in advance. The museum also offers a map for a self-guided tour of historic Greenbelt. The town is quite small and easy to explore on foot. Greenbelt is located just 15 minutes outside Washington, D.C. It is an easy drive or you can get there via the metrorail system.
