Maryland's New Deal-era garden suburb was built in the years between 1935 and 1940, for a total cost of 13.4 million (1940) dollars. The planned city radiated from an urban core, known as GREENBELT CENTER.
Showing posts with label Maryland's Greenbelt Center. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Maryland's Greenbelt Center. Show all posts
By January 1938, the exterior of the GREENBELT CENTER complex was complete.
Photo from Library of Congress / Arthur Rothstein
In early 1938, stores had not yet opened for business. However, a Post Office in this structure had commenced operation in November 1937.
Photo from Library of Congress / Arthur Rothstein
GREENBELT CENTER was built in what was known as Streamline Moderne style. Since the 1960s, this form of design has been referred to as Art Deco.
Photo from Library of Congress / Arthur Rothstein
GREENBELT CENTER TENANT LIST 1939:
Greenbelt Auto Repair (outparcel) / Greenbelt Drug Store (with luncheonette) / Greenbelt Fire & Police Station (outparcel) / Greenbelt Theatre / Bank / Barber Shop / Beauty Shop / Co-Op Food Store / Co-Op Offices (Upper Level) / Co-Op Service Station (outparcel) / Municipal Offices (Upper Level) / Variety Store / US Post Office / Valet Shop & Dry Cleaner
Greenbelt Theatre, which anchored GREENBELT CENTER. Although conceived and built as a moving picture venue, it was dedicated with an evening of live performances on May 6, 1938.
Photo from Library of Congress / Marion Post Wolcott
The first movie shown at the new cinema was Shirley Temple's "Little Miss Broadway," which started its Greenbelt run in September 1938. At that time, an adult ticket went for 25 cents, with a children's admission costing 15.
Graphic from Wikipedia / "MovieMadness"
Coming attractions at the Greenbelt Theatre, in July 1939. As the ad attests, the cinema is now air-conditioned.
Advert from The Greenbelt Cooperator / Library of Congress
The Greenbelt Drug & Variety Store was adjacent to the Theatre. A co-op facility, it included a full-service pharmacy and luncheonette.
Photo from Library of Congress / Marion Post Wolcott
Above we see an advertisement for the Greenbelt "Dependable Service" Drug Store. This appeared in a January 1939 edition of the local newspaper. Note the reference to "C.C.C." (Civilian Conservation Corps) Camps.
Advert from The Greenbelt Cooperator / Library of Congress
Here we have a Greenbelt Drug Store ice cream promotion from June of 1939. The advert beckons one and all to ask the "fountaineer" for a "tall, foamy, frosty ice cream soda."
Advert from The Greenbelt Cooperator / Library of Congress
In this full-page Variety Store spread from September 1940, we see that men's sweat shirts are on sale for just 49 cents!
Advert from The Greenbelt Cooperator / Library of Congress
Although often advertised as two separate operations, the Drug & Variety stores at GREENBELT CENTER were housed in the same space for over 3 years. They were divided in January 1941, with a new -entirely separate- Variety Store created. However, the individual mercantiles were still promoted together, as this August 1942 advert attests. Note the alpha-numeric telephone number; Gr-2201. This GReenbelt exchange would have been dialed as "47-2201" (there were only six digits in a phone number at the time).
Advert from The Greenbelt Cooperator / Library of Congress
In this snapshot, and the two that follow, we see the Greenbelt Variety Store as it appeared in May 1942.
Photo from Library of Congress / Marjorie Collins
The Variety Store carried merchandise that would have been found at a standard Woolworth's or Newberry's 5 & 10, such as men's, women's and children's apparel, housewares and gardening supplies.
Photo from Library of Congress / Marjorie Collins
A Greenbelt housewife peruses a selection of Variety Store seed packets. "Greenbelters" were allowed to grow flowers and vegetables...but only in allotted space up against one's residence.
Photo from Library of Congress / Marjorie Collins
In this snapshot from November 1937, we see the GREENBELT CENTER Co-op Service Station, which was still under construction.
Photo from Library of Congress / John Vachon
A second view, from September 1938, shows the finished filling station.
Photo from Library of Congress / Marion Post Wolcott
Prices at the community-owned "Town Pump" Service Station, circa-1938.
The original Post Office in GREENBELT CENTER was a "fourth class" operation, which did not deliver mail to individual residences.
Photo from Library of Congress / Arthur Rothstein
The Valet Shop opened at GREENBELT CENTER in March 1939. This co-op enterprise provided shoe repair, clothes pressing, dry cleaning and laundry service.
Graphic from The Greenbelt Cooperator / Library of Congress
The Valet Shop, Theatre, Drug Store and Variety Store faced an open Shopping Court, whose focal point was the "Mother & Child" statue. Created by WPA (Works Progress Administration) artist Lenore Thomas, it was officially dedicated November 12, 1939.
Photo from Library of Congress / Marjorie Collins
In its original setting, the statue included four water fountains at its base.
Photo from Library of Congress / Marion Post Wolcott
When planning three New Deal-era green suburbs, government officials were unable to coax privately-owned businesses to open stores in the prospective center city shopping complexes. The co-op concept was adopted. The very first co-op endeavor, the GREENBELT CENTER Co-op Food Store, began business December 15, 1937. Today, it is the sole green suburb co-op store still in business.
Graphic from Greenbelt Consumer Services
Here we see the original GREENBELT CENTER Co-op Food Store. This snapshot, and the two that follow, were taken between January and September of 1938.
Photo from Library of Congress / Marion Post Wolcott
Originally, all businesses in GREENBELT CENTER were operated by a non-profit organization headed by Edward Filene, of Boston's Filene's department store.
Photo from Library of Congress / Arthur Rothstein
In January 1940, Greenbelt's stores became a community-run enterprise. Stores in the Greenhills and Greendale developments were community-run from the start.
Photo from Library of Congress / Russell Lee
By the late 1940s, the Co-op Food Store was so successful that it needed larger quarters. A new store was built adjacent to the existing East Building of GREENBELT CENTER. The new grocery opened its doors in November 1948. In this snapshot, the new store -at the center of the photo- is seen as it appeared in the early 1950s.
Photo from www.greenbeltmuseum.org
By 1959, the GREENBELT CENTER grocery was promoted as the Co-op Superstore. It was now one in a chain of eight locations, with branches in Wheaton, Rockville, Silver Spring, Takoma Park and Westminster (in Maryland) and Fairlington and Falls Church (in Virginia).
Graphic from Co-op Superstores
The GREENBELT CENTER Co-op Superstore was gutted by fire in April 1962. The structure was rebuilt and re-opened, as the Co-op Supermarket Pharmacy, in October 1962. The store remains in business to this very day.
Photo from Library of Congress / James W. Rosenthal
This image, and the one that follows, show GREENBELT CENTER as it appeared in 2005. Today, the circa-1930s sections of the garden city are known as Old Greenbelt, with the center city shopping complex having been renamed ROOSEVELT CENTER in 1982.
Photo from Library of Congress / James W. Rosenthal
The GREENBELT CENTER cinema was shuttered in 1976. It operated as Utopia, a live performance theater, between 1980 and '87. P & G Theatres re-opened the venue, as the Greenbelt Theatre, in December 1990. It was shuttered in July 2014 and refurbished. The Old Greenbelt Theatre, a digital-projection operation, was dedicated in May 2015.
Photo from Library of Congress / James W. Rosenthal
Greenbelt's ROOSEVELT CENTER is the best preserved -and most structurally original- of the three New Deal-era green town centers. After 80 years, it STILL retains its classic Art Deco design. Unfortunately, the greenbelt forest that originally surrounded the city has been decimated by development and the construction of new highways.
Photo from www.showcase.com
GREENBELT CENTER
Centerway and Crescent Road
Greenbelt, Maryland
Out of three New Deal-era green suburbs, Maryland's Greenbelt was the predominant project. This was due to its close proximity to the nation's capital. Construction cost overruns had undermined implementation of Ohio's Greenhills and Wisconsin's Greendale to some degree. Greenbelt, on the other hand, was built, pretty much, as planned.
At the core of the new garden city was GREENBELT CENTER. This facility commanded a 7.3-acre site, located 11 miles northeast of the United States Capitol. There were two main buildings in the original complex. In total area, they encompassed approximately 18,200 square feet.
GREENBELT CENTER structures had 1 level of retail, with the movie theater including a basement heating plant. There were also small upper floor offices in each building, as well as a freestanding Police & Fire Station and Auto Repair Garage & Co-op Service Station. When fully leased, the civic and shopping hub housed around fourteen stores and services.
The first transaction at the Greenbelt Co-op Food Store took place on December 15, 1937. This was followed by the grand openings of a Barber Shop, Beauty Shop and combination Co-op Drug and Co-op Variety Store.
Greenbelt Theatre , a single-screen venue, showed its first feature September 21, 1938. The Valet Shop, a dry cleaner and laundry service, welcomed its first customers March 9, 1939. A relocated (and entirely separate) Co-op Variety Store began business January 10, 1941.
Greenbelt's Co-op Food Store proved so successful that it had to seek new quarters. A 2-level (20,000 square foot) structure was built adjacent to the GREENBELT CENTER East Building. It opened November 9, 1948 and was eventually expanded to 40,000 square feet. Promoted as the Co-op Superstore, it was gutted by fire in early 1962. The store was rebuilt, with a combined Co-op Supermarket Pharmacy opening in October of the same year.
By decree of a 1949 Congressional bill, America's three federally-owned and operated green suburbs were sold to residents or to the highest bidder. In the case of Greenbelt, the main transaction closed December 31, 1952.
GREENBELT CENTER was added to the National Register of Historic Places in November 1980. It was renamed ROOSEVELT CENTER in 1982. National Historic Landmark status was bestowed in February 1997.
Sources:
http://www.loc.gov/pictures / Library of Congress / Prints & Photographs Online Catalog
Maryland Department of Assessments & Taxation
http://www.greenbelt.gov
Centerway and Crescent Road
Greenbelt, Maryland
Out of three New Deal-era green suburbs, Maryland's Greenbelt was the predominant project. This was due to its close proximity to the nation's capital. Construction cost overruns had undermined implementation of Ohio's Greenhills and Wisconsin's Greendale to some degree. Greenbelt, on the other hand, was built, pretty much, as planned.
At the core of the new garden city was GREENBELT CENTER. This facility commanded a 7.3-acre site, located 11 miles northeast of the United States Capitol. There were two main buildings in the original complex. In total area, they encompassed approximately 18,200 square feet.
GREENBELT CENTER structures had 1 level of retail, with the movie theater including a basement heating plant. There were also small upper floor offices in each building, as well as a freestanding Police & Fire Station and Auto Repair Garage & Co-op Service Station. When fully leased, the civic and shopping hub housed around fourteen stores and services.
The first transaction at the Greenbelt Co-op Food Store took place on December 15, 1937. This was followed by the grand openings of a Barber Shop, Beauty Shop and combination Co-op Drug and Co-op Variety Store.
Greenbelt Theatre , a single-screen venue, showed its first feature September 21, 1938. The Valet Shop, a dry cleaner and laundry service, welcomed its first customers March 9, 1939. A relocated (and entirely separate) Co-op Variety Store began business January 10, 1941.
Greenbelt's Co-op Food Store proved so successful that it had to seek new quarters. A 2-level (20,000 square foot) structure was built adjacent to the GREENBELT CENTER East Building. It opened November 9, 1948 and was eventually expanded to 40,000 square feet. Promoted as the Co-op Superstore, it was gutted by fire in early 1962. The store was rebuilt, with a combined Co-op Supermarket Pharmacy opening in October of the same year.
By decree of a 1949 Congressional bill, America's three federally-owned and operated green suburbs were sold to residents or to the highest bidder. In the case of Greenbelt, the main transaction closed December 31, 1952.
GREENBELT CENTER was added to the National Register of Historic Places in November 1980. It was renamed ROOSEVELT CENTER in 1982. National Historic Landmark status was bestowed in February 1997.
Sources:
http://www.loc.gov/pictures / Library of Congress / Prints & Photographs Online Catalog
Maryland Department of Assessments & Taxation
http://www.greenbelt.gov
The Evening Star (Washington, DC)
The Greenbelt Co-operator
The Greenbelt News Review
"Prince George's County Historic Site Summary Sheet" / 1993
"To Make America Over; The Greenbelt Towns of the New Deal" / Julie D. Turner / Miami University term paper / 2010
"Historic American Buildings Survey: Old Greenbelt" / LaDale Curtis Winling and Sally Kress Tomkins / 2005
https://greenbelt2012.wordpress.com
http://www.greendale.org
http://www.cinematreasures.org
http://greenbelttheatre.org
http://www.greenbeltmd.gov / "Greenbelt Theatre Proposal" / P & G Theatres, Incorporated-Paul Sanchez / December 1, 2014
https://www.newdealcafe.com
"Prince George's County Historic Site Summary Sheet" / 1993
"To Make America Over; The Greenbelt Towns of the New Deal" / Julie D. Turner / Miami University term paper / 2010
"Historic American Buildings Survey: Old Greenbelt" / LaDale Curtis Winling and Sally Kress Tomkins / 2005
https://greenbelt2012.wordpress.com
http://www.greendale.org
http://www.cinematreasures.org
http://greenbelttheatre.org
http://www.greenbeltmd.gov / "Greenbelt Theatre Proposal" / P & G Theatres, Incorporated-Paul Sanchez / December 1, 2014
https://www.newdealcafe.com
Wikipedia
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