Arthurdale The Unknown Jewel

The town of Arthurdale is located in Preston County, WV. This community was started by Eleanor Roosevelt, WVU and the American Friends Service Committee. Arthurdale was the first New Deal Homestead Community and was considered Eleanors Little Village.

The community was started in the early 1930s and was managed by the government until 1947.

The community started with 165 homesteads, of which 160 still remain. The community is now listed as a historical landmark and they have tours throughout the year.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• WV
• History
• Arthurdale
• Preston
• New
• Deal
• FDR
• Eleanor
• Roosevelt
• 1930

[mliga68]

Thanks! Yes it is my voice on the video. I made this as part of my Digital Storytelling Class. Arthurdale is about 5 miles down the road from me.

[LMRuane]

Some people start ant farms, or build a little "city" for a family of hamsters. This is Eleanor's version of same, except using humans as the pets. Very cute, must have been a lot of fun to build!

[dsloveswva]

this is a fascinating story. i have visited arthurdale twice when going back to west virginia, thank you so much for posting this.

[spedzu]

I had a speaker in my class at Grafton High School last week talking about West Virginia and the Great Depression. I am hoping to take the class to Arthurdale in the spring.

[HammockTimeNow]

What a failed experiment

[Emtiger99]

This vid is so cool!!

(Btw I live in Arturdale :D)

I've been to the Museum that's in the vid about two years ago.

Anyways,cool vid!!5 stars!!

[newdealtrail]

What an awesome video! I hope to visit

Arthurdale soon. I have a sister in Morgan-

town. It seems that WV and Alabama got a

gracious share of the homestead projects built during the New Deal. Our county (Jefferson)has four and Alabama has ten

if you count a WPA housing project for

chemical workers making explosives for

the war effort.

Is that your voice on the video? Great

voice! Thanks for sharing.