"House and Plot Plan, Century Blvd Gardens
Project, Los Angeles"
By Floyd L. Henderson, June 22, 1935
Pencil on tracing paper
11" x 20" National Archives and Records Administration - Pacific Region (Laguna
Niguel), Records of the Farmers Home Administration
New Deal Planned Communities: Century
Gardens Project, Los Angeles, California As part of the effort to assist some of those
unemployed by the Great Depression, several federal agencies under President
Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal built experimental, planned communities,
known as "new towns." One of the earliest of these efforts was coordinated
by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). FERA set up state
corporations that made loans to create small "garden" communities where
unemployed families from cities would be resettled. They would be given
a small furnished home, a parcel of land, seed, tools, and a few fruit
trees. Families were expected to cultivate their plots and become self-supporting,
eventually repaying the money invested by the government. The drawings
shown here were designed for the Century Gardens Project in Los Angeles
County, California. It is unclear from the accompanying documentation
whether these plans were carried out.