Subsistence Homesteads Division

The Subsistence Homesteads Division of the US Department of the Interior (DSH or SHD) was a New Deal agency that was intended to relieve industrial workers and struggling farmers from complete dependence on factory or agricultural work.[1] The program was meant to provide relatively low cost homesteads, including a home and small plots of land that would allow them to sustain themselves; through the program, thirty-four communities were built.[2] Unlike subsistence farming, subsistence homesteading is based on a family member or members having part-time, paid employment.[3]

Subsistence Homesteads Division, Department of the Interior
Agency overview
FormedAugust 23, 1933 (1933-08-23)
DissolvedMay 15, 1935
Superseding agency
Agency executive
Parent agencyUnited States Department of the Interior
Websitehttps://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/096.html

Philosophy

The Subsistence Homesteading Program was based on an agrarian, "back-to-the-land" philosophy which meant a partial return to the simpler, farming life of the past. Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt both endorsed the idea that for poor people, rural life could be healthier than city life. Cooperation, community socialization, and community work were also emphasized.[4] However, going "back-to-the-land" did not always sit well with people stuck in outlying "stranded communities" without jobs.[5] According to Liz Straw of the Tennessee Historical Commission, the most controversial were those rural communities of long-unemployed miners or timber workers whom opponents of subsistence homesteading thought unlikely to thrive without better job opportunities.[4]

Definition and description

In response to the Great Depression, the Subsistence Homestead Division was created by the federal government in 1933 with the aim to improve the living conditions of individuals moving away from overcrowded urban centers while also giving them the opportunity to experience small-scale farming and home ownership.[6] Subsistence Homesteads Division Director, Milburn L. Wilson, defined a "subsistence homestead" as follows:

A subsistence homestead denotes a house and out buildings located upon a plot of land on which can be grown a large portion of foodstuffs required by the homestead family. It signifies production for home consumption and not for commercial sale. In that it provides for subsistence alone, it carries with it the corollary that cash income must be drawn from some outside source. The central motive of the subsistence homestead program, therefore, is to demonstrate the economic value of a livelihood which combines part-time wage work and part-time gardening or farming.[7]

DSH projects "would be initiated at the state level and administered through a nonprofit corporation. Successful applicants were offered a combination of part-time employment opportunities, fertile soil for part-time farming, and locations connected to the services of established cities."[7] The homesteads were organized to combine the benefits of rural and urban living - communities meant to demonstrate a different path towards a healthier and more economically secure future.[6]

History

The Division of Subsistence Homesteads was created by the Secretary of the Interior as an order to fulfill the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933. Milburn Lincoln Wilson, then belonging to the USDA's Agricultural Adjustment Administration, was selected by President Frank D. Roosevelt to lead the new Division under Secretary of the Interior, Harold Ickes.[8] Wilson and his advisory committee determined that they wanted the project to prioritize areas hit especially hard by Depression. Initially, the cost of the houses was not to exceed $2,000 and the homesteads would fall under the administration of the Division and local non-profit corporation created specifically for the community.[8] The same year, Carl Cleveland Taylor, the 36th President of the American Sociological Society, was appointed sociologist with the SHD.[9] Some of the subsistence homesteading communities included African Americans; Assistant Supervisor John P. Murchison wrote to W. E. B. Du Bois in April 1934 for advice on racial integration and how to incorporate African Americans into the program.[10][11] Eleanor Roosevelt took personal interest in the project, and became involved in setting up the first community, Arthurdale, WV after a visit to the stranded miners of Scotts Run.[12]

There was strong opposition to the idea of subsistence homesteads, as undercutting agricultural prices, unions, and the labor supply for manufacturing. Nonetheless, as of 2011, some communities, such as Arthurdale, West Virginia, in which Eleanor Roosevelt was personally involved, maintain an active memory of the program.[13] By March 1934, 30 projects had been started. Twenty-one were considered garden-home projects, two were full-time farming projects near urban areas, five were for unemployed miners and two were combinations of the aforementioned types.[8] In June 1935, the powers granted to DSH under the National Industrial Recovery Act expired. On April 30, Executive Order No. 7027 had created the Resettlement Administration ; part of their mandate gave them authority "to administer approved projects involving resettlement of destitute or low-income families from rural and urban areas, including the establishment, maintenance and operation, in such connection, of communities in rural and suburban areas."[14] By another Executive Order (No. 7530), the Subsistence Housing Project was transferred from the Department of Interior to the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1936. By the next year, the program had been transferred once again, this time to the Federal Public Housing Authority, where it was formally abolished. Various architects including Mary Almy, helped design the buildings and homes built under the project.[15]

List of Division of Subsistence Homestead Communities
Arthur Rothstein photograph of Wichita Gardens (1936)

Communities planned and built:[16]

Name Locale State Notes
Aberdeen Gardens Hampton Virginia
Arthurdale Arthurdale West Virginia[17]
Austin Homesteads/Austin Acres Austin [18] Minnesota
Bankhead Farms near Jasper Alabama
Beauxart Gardens Jefferson County Texas Near Beaumont, Texas
Cumberland Homesteads Cumberland County[19] Tennessee
Dalworthington Gardens Tarrant County Texas
Dayton Homesteads Dayton[20][21] Ohio
Decatur Homesteads Decatur Indiana
Duluth Homesteads Duluth Minnesota
El Monte Homesteads El Monte California
Granger Homesteads Granger Iowa
Greenwood Homesteads near Birmingham Alabama
Hattiesburg Homesteads Hattiesburg Mississippi
Houston Gardens Houston Texas
Jersey Homesteads Roosevelt New Jersey
Lake County Homesteads Chicago Illinois
Longview Homesteads Longview[7] Washington
Magnolia Homesteads Meridian Mississippi
McComb Homesteads McComb Mississippi
Mount Olive Homesteads near Birmingham Alabama
Palmerdale Homesteads Pinson Alabama
Penderlea Pender County [22] North Carolina
Phoenix Homesteads Phoenix Arizona
Piedmont Homesteads Jasper County Georgia
Richton Homesteads Richton Mississippi
San Fernando Homesteads San Fernando California
Shenandoah Homesteads Rappahannock County Virginia
Three Rivers Gardens Three Rivers Texas
Tupelo Homesteads Lee County Mississippi
Cahaba Homesteads/"Slagheap Village" Birmingham Alabama
Tygart Valley Homesteads Dailey West Virginia
Westmoreland Homesteads Norvelt Pennsylvania
Wichita Gardens Wichita Falls Texas

Current Status

Of the communities listed, five are considered national or local historic districts, including Aberdeen Gardens (VA), Arthurdale (WV), Phoenix Homesteads (AZ),[23] Tupelo Homesteads (MS),[24] Cahaba Homesteads/ Slagheap Village (AL),[25] and Tygart Valley Homesteads (WV).

See also

History: Subsistence Homesteads Division organized in the Department of the Interior, August 23, 1933, under provisions of EO 6209, July 21, 1933, implementing the subsistence homesteads program of the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 (48 Stat. 205), June 16, 1933.[26] Transferred to Resettlement Administration by EO 7041, May 15, 1935.[27]

Textual Records: Correspondence with the general public ("Requests for General Information"), 1933-35. Correspondence concerning proposed subsistence homestead projects, 1933-35. Correspondence concerning a census of part-time farming, 1933-34. Records relating to wages of workers employed on subsistence homestead projects, 1934-35.

Architectural and Engineering Plans (2,500 items): Paper tracings and blueprints of "subsistence homesteads" and "experimental villages" built by the Subsistence Homesteads Division (Interior), Division of Subsistence Homesteads (Resettlement Administration), and FSA, including plans of the Arthurdale Community and Reedsville, WV, projects, 1933-38.

References
  1. "Recent Developments in Subsistence-Homesteads Movement". Monthly Labor Review. 38 (2): 245–253. 1934. ISSN 0098-1818. JSTOR 41814203.
  2. "RESETTLEMENT ADMINISTRATION". Archived from the original on 2013-05-24. Retrieved 2012-03-03.
  3. Borsodi, Ralph (January 1934). "Subsistence Homesteads, President Roosevelt's New Land and Population Policy". Survey Graphic, Magazine of Social Interpretation. 23 (1): 11. Retrieved 2012-03-03.
  4. Straw, Liz (2008-09-30). "(Cumberland Homesteads, A Resettlement Community Of The Depression)". National Park Service, Appalachian Cultural Resources Workshop Papers. Retrieved 2012-03-03.
  5. Couch, Jim F (1997). "The Back-to-the-Land Movement during the Great Depression". Southern Social Studies Journal. 23 (n 1): 60–67. Retrieved 2012-03-03.
  6. Carriker, Robert M. (2010). Urban Farming in the West: A New Deal Experiment on Subsistence Homesteads. Tucson, AZ: The University of Arizona Press. pp. 5.
  7. Carriker, Robert C. "The Longview Homesteads". Columbia Magazine. 24 (1).
  8. "Small|Homestead Project Timeline|National Agricultural Library|USDA". www.nal.usda.gov. Retrieved 2020-03-13.
  9. "Carl C. Taylor, President 1946". Archived from the original on 2010-07-10. Retrieved 2012-03-03.
  10. "What Hope For The Rural Negro?". Retrieved 2012-03-03.
  11. "Linden, Texas :: Gateway to the Lakes & Piney Woods Region". Archived from the original on 2013-12-02. Retrieved 2012-02-01.
  12. "Transcript: Eleanor Roosevelt". American Experience. WGBH. PBS. Archived from the original on 2011-12-04. Retrieved 2012-03-03.
  13. WGBH/American Experience. Eleanor enhanced transcript, 1999.
  14. "Executive Order 7027 Establishing the Resettlement Administration. | The American Presidency Project". www.presidency.ucsb.edu. Retrieved 2020-03-13.
  15. "Guide to the Records of Howe, Manning & Almy, Inc. and the Papers of Lois Lilley Howe, Eleanor Manning O'Connor, and Mary Almy MC.0009". Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Institute Archives and Special Collections. Retrieved 2016-05-18.
  16. "Communities planned and initiated by the Division of Subsistence Homesteads". Complete List of New Deal Communities. National New Deal Preservation Association. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016.
  17. "First Lady Lesson Plan: Arthurdale: Example of a Planned Community". Retrieved 2012-03-03.
  18. "A return to Austin Acres". The Austin Daily Herald. Austin, MN. 2011-05-14. Retrieved 2012-03-03.
  19. "Cumberland Homesteads, Tennessee's Largest Historic District, the Showplace of the New Deal". Retrieved 2012-03-03.
  20. Dorn, Jacob H. "Subsistence homesteading in Dayton, Ohio, 1933-1945". Ohio History. 78: 75. Retrieved 2012-03-03.
  21. Jeffrey (2009-09-14). "Dayton Subsistence Homesteads: A Suburban Experiment from the New Deal Era". Urban Ohio. Retrieved 2012-03-03.
  22. Gannon, Renee (February 2007). "Growing Up On Penderlea". Retrieved 2012-03-03.
  23. "You know that Phoenix street with the tall trees? A history of the Homesteads neighborhood". azcentral. Retrieved 2020-03-13.
  24. Suzassippi (2015-08-18). "New Deal in Mississippi: Tupelo Homesteads". Preservation in Mississippi. Retrieved 2020-03-26.
  25. "History". City of Trussville. Retrieved 2020-03-26.
  26. Roosevelt, Franklin D. (July 21, 1933). "Executive Order No. 6209: Delegation of Presidential Powers to the Secretary of the Interior Relating to Subsistence Homesteads - July 21, 1933". Internet Archive. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Service. pp. 290–295.
  27. Roosevelt, Franklin D. (May 15, 1935). "Executive Order No. 7041: Transfer of Subsistence Homesteads Activities to the Resettlement Administration - May 15, 1935". Internet Archive. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Service. p. 180.

Communities

Further reading
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