"New Deal"

I came across an interesting item on NPR OnLine yesterday.  It was about a FDR New Deal program that built towns for groups of people outside of major cities and across much of country.  It appears that there were about 100 of these towns constructed in the 1930's and the one being noted in this source was the town of Roosevelt, NJ.  I visited the site some years ago to photograph a mural painted by Ben Shahn under a WPA program (actually it was under another of the federal government's programs but I don't remember the exact name at this moment).  That mural covered an entire wall over the entrance to a middle school cafeteria; most of the New Deal murals were painted in post offices.  

The towns had some kind of factory and a 500 acre farm that was intended to produce a product for sale.  The gov't built homes along with the factory and farm and gave them to people who moved from a city area, to "be owned and run by the residents".  Roosevelt was populated by NYC garment worker.  It seems most of the towns "failed" because they couldn't  produce enough to make a profit; but obviously some parts of the towns still exist.  If you google "New Deal Towns" a list of these towns should be found.

(Source:  "New Deal Town Turns 75. Utopian Ideals Long Gone: by Janet Babin at www.npr.org.  9/23/12)