Resettlement Communities Sites

The Resettlement Administration constructed the Osage Farms cooperative project across 13 miles in the northern part of Pettis County, Missouri from 1937-1943. Many of the original buildings, including a government farmhouse, still remain and are now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. They are now part of the Bois d'Arc Cooperative farm. The NRHP document about the properties contains the following excerpts: "The Osage Farms project area is within the easternmost four (Houstonia, Hughesville, Heaths Creek and Longwood) of a band of five townships across the northern third of Pettis County... The period of significance is 1937-1943, a timeframe during which...

The Palmer Depot is a historic train station built in 1935 to provide transportation to the Matanuska Valley Colony. The Alaska Railroad was the main means of transportation by which colonists arrived in the Matanuska Valley in 1935. A New Deal homesteading experiment, the Matanuska Valley Colony was established to foster economic growth and the development of agriculture in the new territory. Land plots in Matanuska Valley had been subdivided and open for homesteading starting with 1914. But the land was difficult to cultivate and economic growth between 1914 and 1935 turned out to be slower than expected. The land...

The Patten Colony Farm is a historic structure representative of the farmsteads associated with the Alaska Rural Rehabilitation Corporation's Matanuska Colony project, established with help of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. The complex includes a log house, two log and frame barns, a chicken coop, an outhouse, and another outbuilding. A registration form of the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) describes the log house: “The one-and-one-half story log house was built by a colony construction crew and has an "L" shaped floor plan. A green house was added on the southeast corner around 1972. The main roof ridge runs...

"Penderlea Homestead Farms, located in northwest Pender County, North Carolina, was the first of 152 homestead projects developed in 1934 under President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. The purpose of the homestead projects was to provide penniless tenant farmers, bankrupt farm owners, and unemployed ex-farmers during the Great Depression with a means of making a living. Providing for self-sufficient rural communities also eased the burden of over-crowded cities. n 1934, Hugh MacRae, prominent Wilmington developer and agriculturist, proposed to the Division of Subsistence Homesteads, U.S. Department of the Interior, that a homestead project be established in Pender County... In May of1935, the Resettlement...

"In 1934 the Division of Subsistence Homesteads purchased a tract of land on what was then the outskirts of Phoenix in order to build a public housing community for low-income residents. Construction of the first half of the Phoenix Homesteads began in 1934 and was completed in 1935. These Pueblo Revival style adobe homes were built on 0.75-acre parcels to accommodate subsistence gardens and small farm animals. Fruit, nut, and olive trees added to the self-sufficiency of the community. Trees and shrubs were planted for shade and privacy. A second small-scale farming cooperative was planned in 1935 by the Resettlement...

Plum Bayou was the first settlement in Arkansas and in the United States (Arkansas Historic Preservation Program). Resettlement Administrator Rexford G. Tugwell, was present at the opening dedication ceremony November 20, 1936. "Tugwell saw the Plum Bayou Project as representative of a new chapter in American agricultural history" (AHPP). Plum Bayou was available to 183 selected families, 30-40 acres per family. In addition to house, barn, and well, the homes were furnished with a refrigerator and had electricity (Hunter). The community added a community center, a school, gym, library, and vocational center. A few of the original settlers were able to...

The Puhl House is a historic farm associated with the Alaska Rural Rehabilitation Corporation's Matanuska Colony project, established with help of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). Built in 1935, the complex includes a log house, a barn, and four sheds. While the structures were built by private individuals, the farmstead is associated with the New Deal because it was made possible by FERA’s Matanuska Colony initiative and the land it distributed to farmers. A registration form of the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) describes the characteristics of the log house: “The house is a one-story log building. It is rectangular...

The Raymond Rebarchek Colony Farm is a historic farm associated with the Alaska Rural Rehabilitation Corporation’s Matanuska Colony project, established with help of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). Built withe the help of the WPA between 1935 and 1937, the complex is located on the original 40 acres allotted to Mr. Rebarcheck when he drew tract # 52 from a hat in 1935. The plot consists of a 25-acre hayfield, 7 acres in pasture, one acre in natural vegetation, two acres of house and barn yard, and five acres of forest. While the construction of the house was started by...

The farmland around the town of Fruita in western Colorado was the site of a Resettlement Administration (RA) project that relocated poor farmers driven out by the Dust Bowl. Some 34 families had been relocated to Fruita by 1937. The official name was the Grand Valley Resettlement Project (also known as the Western Farms Association). (Fruita Community History page) It appears that another 32 families were relocated to neighboring Loma CO, probably as part of the same Resettlement Project (Wikipedia).  A Community Hall was built in Loma for the new settlers in the area by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in...

"In December 1935, the Resettlement Administration hired Alfred Kastner, a German-born architect and city planner who was known for his designs for low-cost housing, as Principal Architect. Kastner, in turn, hired Louis I. Kahn, then a young architect, as his assistant. In designing the community, Kastner was influenced by both the English Garden City Idea and by the German Bauhaus style. Jersey Homesteads' buildings are characterized by their spare geometric forms and use of modern building materials (including cinder blocks). The houses are integrated with communal areas and surrounded by a green belt. (3) Although it appears rather stark today,...

The first rehabilitation farm project to be established in Nebraska, and among the first in the country, was established at Kearney. Fifty-seven acres of land were purchased by the Rural Rehabilitation program. The land lay just north of the north line of East Lawn and east of the branch line tracks. Eight homesteads of about seven acres each were established on this track, and work subdividing the land, erecting fencing, homes and other improvements began in the summer of 1934. Under provisions of the act regulating the rehabilitation farmsteads, tenant families assigned to the homesteads would rent the property for...

A marker was erected in 1985 to commemorate this New Deal resettlement community. The text reads: "The Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) was enacted in 1933 as part of U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal Program to aid families during the country's Great Depression. The Rural Rehabilitation Division of that agency began in 1934 to work specifically with the problems of the nation's farm families. The Ropesville Resettlement Program was one of 78 FERA- approved projects to help farmers re- establish themselves near the already-established town of Ropesville. Federal money was used to construct homes, wells, and farm buildings. The first...

The house was first leased to the Arthur Murphy family inn 1938, The entire farm consisted of 299 acres. The house was donated and moved in March 2014 to the FiberMax Center for Discovery (formerly the Bayer Museum of Agriculture) by the Larry Smith family, to be used as a museum exhibit. Originally built and located in Hockley County, near Ropesville, Texas. The house was donated by the Larry Smith family and moved to Lubbock March 2014. The house was first leased to the Arthur Murphy Family in 1938. The farm number was #63. Between 1936 and 1938, there were about...

In 1935, the Department of the Interior's newly created Department of Subsistence Homesteads (DSH) established a community of 100 "small farms" and "rurban homes" in El Monte, CA. Ross H. Gast, an editor at the Los Angeles Times' Farm and Garden Magazine and an official with the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, oversaw the project. " Weston's designs proved economical, pragmatic, and aesthetically pleasing. The Los Angeles Times celebrated the El Monte architect's dedication to form and function, noting that he had figured out how to 'shorten a room a few inches and save enough to get a better kitchen sink,...

Sabine Farms was one of 200 New Deal Resettlement Administration communities and one of only thirteen set aside for African Americans. "Sabine Farms was built on nearly 12,000 acres of land. 'They built about 80 homes - half in Harrison County and half in Panola County,' explained Ms. Murray. In addition, a 19.3 acre community center was constructed that included a caretaker's house, an auditorium, a home economics building and beauty shop, a farm shop, a health center, the cooperative grocery store and cannery, a dormitory and dining hall, slaughter house, barbecue pit, a well and combination water tower and office building, according...

"In the 1930s, the Waverly area once again was to be the site for newcomers seeking a better life. Henry Gestefield, a German immigrant, worked as a Farm Management Specialist for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) Resettlement Division to develop 82 farms for the resettlement of destitute Dust Bowl farmers. Along with Mr. Yoshida, he was integral to the raising and shipping of iceberg lettuce in the San Luis Valley. The town of Waverly was established with support of the FSA Resettlement Project. The Houlton and Russell families were among the first of many families to relocate from eastern Colorado...

In 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt allotted $2,000,000 in emergency rural rehabilitation funds to the U.S. Office of Indian Affairs (OIA). Out of this sum, OIA sent $32,000 (about $607,000 in 2020 dollars) to the Swinomish Indian Reservation for an 18-house homestead community. The community was completed in the late summer of 1936 and helped relocate families away from nearby (and less stable) floating houses. The cluster of homes still exists today and is known as the “Swinomish Model Village.” In a special 1936 edition of Indians at Work (a publication of the U.S. Office of Indian Affairs), Martin J. Sampson,...

The cannery was an integral part of the large WPA resettlement community, known as Dyess Colony, located in northeastern Arkansas. It was located in the town's central hub along with other buildings like the commissary, the administration building, and various shops. The cannery, or canning plant, enabled colonists to process their own produce, as well as sell canned products, cooperatively. This allowed for self sufficiency but also for cooperative income. In Dyess Colony, every family was required to plant a garden that was adequate for feeding their whole family. Home demonstration clubs were also a part of the colony's support...

The Farm Security Administration established a resettlement project called the Ladelta Co-operative Association at Thomastown, Louisiana in 1938. The project was for African American families who had been sharecroppers. The project included 147 individual farmsteads, with five-room house, barn, smokehouse, and poultry shed. The project also included the school building, and cotton gin. The project encompassed 21,876 acres in East Carroll (Transylvania) and Madison (Thomastown) parishes. Bids were solicited for the community center construction in May 1939. The high school at Thomastown graduated its first class in 1944. The building was destroyed by fire in 1972, but the elementary school...

Construction of Tillery Farms began in 1935 in Halifax County, North Carolina as an experimental farm resettlement that included segregated sections for black and white farmers, possibly the only New Deal-era planned community of its kind. The project was constructed on fertile land along the banks of the Roanoke River, near the small settlement of Tillery. Eventually it grew to consist of more than eighteen-thousand acres, with homes for more than two hundred farm families. Built on land carved out of nearby plantations, it also included a community center, cooperative store, grist mill, potato curing house, and an assortment of...

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was present in Death Valley National Monument  from 1933 to 1942.  The main CCC camp was at Cow Creek, just north of the park headquarters and visitors center at Furnace Creek.   Among the many projects undertaken in the park was building a permanent Shoshone Village on a 40-acre site just south of Furnace Creek.  The National Park Service and Bureau of Indian Affairs selected the site.  We do not know more about how that decision was made and what input the Shoshone had in it. The CCC built nine adobe houses, a washroom/laundry and a trading...

In 1934, the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) provided about $400,000 for a homestead project in Putnam County, West Virginia, “Red House Farms” (soon-to-be called “Eleanor,” and not to be confused with the nearby town of Red House).  Red House Farms was one of three New Deal homestead projects in West Virginia, the others being Arthurdale and Tygart Valley Homesteads.  The goal of these homesteads was to provide a fresh start for rural Americans devastated by the Great Depression. A United Press article described the town’s beginning in May 1934. In addition to 150 homes, “Construction of the 1,728-acre tract includes...

"Greenhills, Ohio is one of only three 'Greenbelt Towns' built in the United States. The other two are Greenbelt, Maryland and Greendale, Wisconsin. The three towns had their start during the Depression Era. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt created a program to build new suburban communities as part of his New Deal plans for the country. The overseeing department was the Resettlement Administration which later became a part of the Farms Security Administration. The building of these towns provided much needed jobs for those in the trades (brick layers, plumbers, carpenters, electricians, etc.), as well as people not in the trades...

"During the 1930s and 1940s the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) built, owned, and administered the community of Norris for fifteen years... New urban theorists are hard at work designing the town of the future. But Norris, Tennessee, built by TVA nearly 70 years ago, beat them all to the punch... The immediate purpose of the town was to house the workers building Norris Dam four miles away on the Clinch River. The second purpose, which may have been even more important to Morgan, was to show America that cooperative living works. The houses would be built on a modest and tasteful scale,...

A cooperative community founded under the New Deal's Resettlement Administration: "The town of Roosevelt was established by the federal government—one of the many planned cooperative communities created under President Roosevelt's New Deal during the Great Depression. Originally called Jersey Homesteads, the name was changed shortly after President Roosevelt's death. Among these planned towns, Roosevelt was unique for three reasons: it consisted of a triple cooperative of industry, farm, and retail; the settlers were all Jewish garment workers from New York City; the flat roofed architecture and other features of the homes were inspired by the European Bauhaus movement. Another interesting, though...

A 35-unit subsistence homestead community, located 5 miles north of Tupelo off the Natchez Trace consisted of modest, one-story frame houses. Twenty of the units remain, and are owned by the National Park Service since transfer in 1940, and were used to house park personnel until recently. A man-made lake and recreation area was constructed in the community, although the dam broke in the 1960s and nothing remains of that feature. First initiated by the Division of Subsistence Homesteads, the project was completed by the Resettlement Administration. The original plans called for 25 units, industrial-type homesteads, and in 1934, Tupelo Lumber...

"The Tygart Valley Homesteads was a project of the Federal Subsistence Homesteads Corporation, created by the Roosevelt administration during the Great Depression. The idea was to provide a new start for unemployed farmers, miners, and timber workers. This was one of three resettlement projects in West Virginia, the others being at Arthurdale and Eleanor. Initial funding in the amount of $675,000 was allocated by Congress on December 21, 1933, to acquire land in the Tygart Valley. A committee of local citizens was organized and, by 1934, land had been acquired at Dailey and Valley Bend, 10 miles south of Elkins. The...

The small, rural community of Bosque Farms lies about 18 miles south of Albuquerque and was one of the New Deal resettlement communities. The community's own website describes that history: "...In the 1920s, Otero sold his land in small lots to individuals, but due to the depression, which began 1929, the people were unable to make the payments. Otero repossessed the land, and in 1934 sold 2,420 acres to the New Mexico Rural Rehabilitation Corporation. The resettlement area was eventually taken over by the Federal Resettlement Administration (part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal) in 1935 and named the Bosque...

"Originally called "Westmoreland Homesteads", Norvelt was established April 13, 1934, by the federal government as part of a New Deal homestead project. With 250 homes, Norvelt provided housing, work, and a community environment to unemployed workers and their families during the Great Depression. It was renamed “Norvelt" in 1937 in honor of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and her interest in the project... In April 1934, federal officials acquired 1,326 acres (5.37 km2) of farmland in Mount Pleasant Township, and announced construction of the Westmoreland Homesteads. Following Division guidelines, local architect Paul Bartholomew designed the planned community’s buildings and its overall layout. On...

Norvelt is located in southwestern Pennsylvania. "Originally called 'Westmoreland Homesteads,' Norvelt was established in 1934 by the Federal government as part of a New Deal Homestead Project. With 250 homes, Norvelt provided housing, work, and a community environment to unemployed workers and their families during the Great Depression. It was renamed 'Norvelt' in 1937 in honor of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and her interest in the project."