The History of Greendale for Kids

In the History of Greendale for Kids, Colette and Eileen Booth explain how Greendale, Wisconsin came to be. Greendale is one of three Greenbelt towns from the 1930’s. In those days, President Roosevelt was struggling with how to help people during the Great Depression. The Great Depression meant that people didn’t have jobs so they couldn’t afford places to live. Roosevelt hired a smart team of people to create well-planned cities. This team, called his “braintrust” created jobs by teaching people to build houses. These nice, comfortable and simple houses gave people fun and safe places to live. Roosevelt’s planners believed they could design a perfect community to help people. This community would be close knit, cooperative and embrace nature. There first planned communities were called Greenbelt communities. More were planned, but only three were built: Greenbelt, Maryland, Greenhills, Ohio and Greendale, Wisconsin.