Dead End In Norvelt

In October 1929, the United States stock market crashed due to inflated prices and lax regulation. The collapse produced an economic calamity known as the Great Depression. In the United States and across the world, countless people lost their savings and jobs. In 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt became president and passed a set of programs—known as the New Deal—to restore capitalism and help Americans. One policy was the creation of subsistence homesteads. As the name indicates, the government bought land so that people without much money could have homes. Milburn Wilson led the Division of Subsistence Homesteads. While Interior Secretary Harold Ickes and President Roosevelt believed that the houses should be created without electricity and running water, Wilson and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt advocated for better housing together, insisting that the homes include plumbing, electric lights, and modern conveniences like a bathtub, kitchen appliances, and a washing machine. Despite scrutiny from other government officials who believed that these features were “extravagant,” Wilson and the first lady’s advocacy prevailed. After visiting the town, residents were so influenced by her expression of interest in the Westmoreland Homesteads that they renamed the town in her honor; the town took “nor” from the last three letters in Eleanor and “velt” from the last three letters in Roosevelt (“