Postcard History

As industrialization took hold in the last half of the nineteenth century, factory owners needed new houses for the workers. Pullman, Illinois planted the seed, but when the Great Depression hit and Franklin Roosevelt became President, Greenbelt, Maryland brought the ideal of large-scale housing and social planning development to fruition. Greenbelt was derided as “social engineering” but it proved that well-planned new towns could be built and thrive.