Arthurdale, West Virginia

Arthurdale
Unincorporated community
Country	United States
State	West Virginia
County	Preston
Time zone	UTC-5 (Eastern (EST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-4 (EDT)
Arthurdale Historic District
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district
Adminstration building
Location	E and W of WV 92, Arthurdale, West Virginia
Area	1,102 acres (446 ha)
Built	1933
NRHP reference No.	88001862
Added to NRHP	February 1, 1989

Arthurdale is an unincorporated community in Preston County, West Virginia, United States. Arthurdale was named for Richard Arthur, former owner of the land on which it was built, who had sold the land to the federal government under a tax default.

Arthurdale was the first of many New Deal planned communities established under Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration. It was intended to take impoverished laborers, farmers, and coal miners and move them to a modern rural community that would allow them to become economically self-sufficient.

The idea for such a self-sufficient community originated when Eleanor Roosevelt learned through her friend, Lorena Hickok, of a plan to relocate a group of West Virginia coal miners to a nearby farm with the intention that they could combine subsistence farming with simple industries to reclaim their economic footing. Mrs. Roosevelt was so passionate about the concept that she brought it to the attention of her husband, who decided to place the project under the direction of the United States Department of the Interior.

Construction and growth

Construction began at the end of 1933 and from the outset it was clear that the Arthurdale community had become one of Eleanor Roosevelt’s chief priorities. She intervened with Interior Secretary Harold Ickes and with others to ensure that the Arthurdale homes were built with modern necessities such as insulation and indoor plumbing. For some time she acted in the capacity of a micro-manager for Arthurdale, contacting people who could help bring jobs to the community, raising money and awareness, even monitoring the budgets with a close eye. Roosevelt spent most of her own income on the project in its early years; philanthropist Bernard Baruch was also a major contributor.

While Eleanor Roosevelt saw Arthurdale as an exciting new chance for the government to provide destitute citizens with the foundation for successful, self-sufficient lives, the project soon faltered on budgetary and political grounds. The cost of constructing and maintaining the Arthurdale community far exceeded what the government had anticipated and the idea of federally planned communities had never sat well with right-leaning conservatives. To its critics, it smacked of socialism, but Eleanor Roosevelt remained committed to seeing Arthurdale succeed.

In 1938 Franklin Roosevelt delivered the only high school commencement address of his Presidency at Arthurdale. Eleanor Roosevelt continually visited the area, attending graduations, dances, and other gatherings, but always monitored the progress of construction as well. When the community failed to attract industry, Eleanor Roosevelt arranged for General Electric to open an operation there. Although General Electric did not stay for long, several other industries such as vacuum, faucet and tractor manufacturing as well as military supply industries tried to set up shop in Arthurdale with only the Sterling Faucet company having a long term presence. Additionally, most families found it impossible to cultivate sufficient crops to feed themselves, and many remained dependent on the relief system.

Decline and cancellation

By the late 1930s, Arthurdale had lost support in much of Washington, and even though Eleanor Roosevelt had chosen it as her pet project, she could not dissuade Congress and the president's cabinet from abandoning it. Roosevelt herself was "deeply disillusioned" by a visit to the community in 1940, in which she observed that the community had become increasingly dependent on government and lacking in independent initiative.

As the United States transferred to a war economy, Arthurdale and the ideas it stood for became less relevant. In 1941, Arthurdale was returned to private ownership and property was sold to the homesteaders and speculators at a loss.

The Arthurdale experiment was widely remembered as a failure. However, Roosevelt personally considered the project a success, later speaking of the improvements she saw in people's lives there and stating, "I don't know whether you think that is worth half a million dollars. But I do." Eleanor Roosevelt returned to Arthurdale for the last time in 1960 to speak at the dedication ceremony of a new Presbyterian Church. The community itself continues to exist today, with many of the original structures still in use more than seventy years later. A non-profit organization was formed in 1985 and purchased several buildings. Arthurdale Heritage, Inc. continues to preserve and restore the town.

Arthurdale Historic District

Arthurdale includes a national historic district encompassing 147 contributing buildings, one contributing structure, and one contributing site. As a historic district, it is significant because, at the time of its listing, all 165 houses were extant, as well as the Inn, four of the six factories, the pottery, well house, cemeteries, most of the community center buildings, and the original road system and parking lot. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.

Bibliography

• Cook, Blanche Wiesen (1999). Eleanor Roosevelt, Vol. 2: 1933–1938. Viking. ISBN 067080486. Retrieved 26 November 2012. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: length (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Goodwin, Doris Kearns (1994). No Ordinary Time. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9780684804484. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

External links

• Eleanor Roosevelt biographer Blanche Wiesen Cook on Arthurdale
• Arthurdale Heritage Inc.
• Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site article on Arthurdale
• critical article on Arthurdale, with source citations
• Digital Story about Arthurdale