ENDURING UTOPIA: SUSTAINING A SENSE OF PLACE IN THE GREENBELT NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK DISTRICT

Abstract

With much of the focus of planning and development on revitalization, historic communities are in need of long-term strategies to preserve their place and sense of place. Greenbelt is a unique planned community designed with utopian ideals that incorporated elements of Garden Cities, the Neighborhood Unit, and ideas tested at other early examples of planned communities. The significance of Greenbelt lies in the design of its buildings, the plan of the community and the cooperative culture that persists today. Recent changes to the materials and design of the housing units pose a threat to the integrity of Greenbelt. Through grassroots efforts, residents have had success preserving historic components of the town. Yet the future is uncertain: the majority of the historic components are not protected either through designation as a County Historic District or by the City of Greenbelt. Placemaking methods can be utilized to study and understand how place has been preserved and how the cooperative culture has been transmitted through generations of residents. The concept of memory pegs is presented as a way for laymen and professionals to identify a community’s important places as the first step in preserving those places and a sense of place. The related concepts of place, sense of place, and sustainable places provide context for grasping how residents shape their physical and social environment to reinforce identity and preserve a sense of place, efforts from which we can learn about the preservation of Greenbelt’s and other community’s tangible and intangible culture.