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==History== [[File:Jersey Homesteads aerial photo, 1930s.jpg|thumb|300px|Jersey Homesteads, circa late 1930s]] [[File:Jersey Homesteads Mural Rothstein.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Ben Shahn]]'s untitled fresco for the Jersey Homesteads, completed in 1938]] [[File:Jersey Homesteads (Roosevelt), N.J. marker.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Jews in New Jersey|Jewish American]] Society for Historic Preservation, historic marker in Jersey Homesteads (Roosevelt), N.J.]] {{Infobox NRHP | name = Jersey Homesteads Historic District | nrhp_type = | image = Jersey_Homesteads_Historic_District.JPG | image_size = 300px | caption = | location= | coordinates = {{coord|40.220742|-74.470155|region:US_type:city|display=inline}} | locmapin = USA New Jersey Monmouth County | built = | architect = | architecture = | added = December 5, 1983 | area = | governing_body = | refnum = 83004053 | designated_other1_name = New Jersey Register of Historic Places | designated_other1_abbr = NJRHP | designated_other1_link = New Jersey Register of Historic Places | designated_other1_date = October 14, 1983 | designated_other1_number = 2052<ref name=NJRHP>{{cite web | title=New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places - Monmouth County | url=http://www.state.nj.us/dep/hpo/1identify/lists/monmouth.pdf | publisher=NJ DEP - Historic Preservation Office | page=12 | date=March 1, 2011 | access-date=April 26, 2011 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604123010/http://www.state.nj.us/dep/hpo/1identify/lists/monmouth.pdf | archive-date=June 4, 2011 }}</ref> | designated_other1_num_position = bottom | designated_other1_color = #ffc94b }} Roosevelt was originally called Jersey Homesteads, and was created during the [[Great Depression]] as part of [[President of the United States|President]] Roosevelt's [[New Deal]], its main purpose being to resettle Jewish garment workers. The town was conceived as an integrated cooperative project, with farming, manufacturing, and retail all on a cooperative basis.<ref name=":0">[[Perdita Buchan]], [http://curbed.com/archives/2014/12/04/when-louis-kahn-and-roosevelt-created-a-new-jersey-utopia.php When Louis Kahn and Roosevelt Created a New Jersey Utopia] dated December 4, 2014, at curbed.com, accessed January 14, 2016</ref> The project fell under the discretion of the [[Resettlement Administration]], but was conceived and largely planned out by [[Benjamin Brown (developer)|Benjamin Brown]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Brief History {{!}} New Jersey Digital Highway |url=https://njdigitalhighway.org/lesson/jersey_homesteads/brief_history |access-date=2022-05-12 |website=njdigitalhighway.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Town of Roosevelt - Roosevelt NJ |url=https://livingnewdeal.org/projects/city-of-roosevelt-roosevelt-nj/ |access-date=2022-05-12 |website=Living New Deal |language=en-US}}</ref> Farmland in [[Central Jersey]] was purchased by Jersey Homesteads, Inc., a corporation owned by the federal government but under control of a board of directors selected by Brown. Construction started around 1936. Soon after there were 200 homes and various public facilities in place. The economy of the town consisted of a garment factory and a farm.<ref name="History">[http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/libs/scua/roosevelt/rstory.shtml History Of Roosevelt, New Jersey], Rutgers University Library, accessed April 11, 2007.</ref> Objectives of the community were to help residents escape poverty, to show that cooperative management can work, and as an experiment in government intervention. [[Albert Einstein]] gave the town his political and moral support. Artist [[Ben Shahn]] lived in the town and painted a fresco mural viewable in the current [[Roosevelt Public School District|Roosevelt Public School]]. The three panels show the history of the Jersey Homesteads, starting with the eastern European origins of its Jewish residents, their passage through [[Ellis Island]] and making plans for the community in Roosevelt.<ref name=History2>[http://music.columbia.edu/roosevelt/mural.html Roosevelt Mural], Roosevelt Arts Project website, accessed December 13, 2009.</ref><ref>Jonas, Gerald; Meehan, Thomas; and Whiteside, Thomas. [http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1962/09/29/1962_09_29_031_TNY_CARDS_000270116 "In Homage"], ''[[The New Yorker]]'', September 29, 1962. Accessed July 31, 2012.</ref> [[David Dubinsky]] and the [[International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union]] opposed the project, arguing that the factory town would cause [[trade union|unions]] to lose their power over wages. Political opposition came from those who thought too much money was being spent on the project, as well as those opposed to the New Deal in general. The Jersey Homesteads cooperative didn't last through [[World War II]]. It failed for a number of reasons. One of the main reasons for its failure is because of delays in housing construction and resulted of shortage in workers in the garment factory. They ended up going on strike against themselves and the Farm Security Administration declared it a failure in 1939 and tried to auction off the assets. By early 1940, having failed to auction the factory fixtures, negotiations with Kartiganer and Co. succeeded and the company began operations at the Jersey Homesteads factory. Proving to be no more economically successful than the factory, the settlement's agricultural cooperative ceased operations in 1940. Although the clothing store failed with the factory, the borough's cooperative grocery and meat market endured into the 1940s. According to town expert Michael Hiltzik another reason it failed is "It was very, very expensive, and the agricultural progress that New Dealers thought they'd make, and certainly the industrial gains they thought they would see, never really materialized" <ref>{{Cite web |title=Farming Communities of New Jersey |url=https://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/NJ_Farms/roosevelt.html |access-date=2022-05-14 |website=kehilalinks.jewishgen.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Farming Communities of New Jersey |url=https://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/NJ_Farms/roosevelt.html |access-date=2022-05-12 |website=kehilalinks.jewishgen.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title='New Deal' Town Turns 75, Utopian Ideals Long Gone |language=en |work=NPR.org |url=https://www.npr.org/2012/09/23/161494490/new-deal-town-turns-75-utopian-ideals-long-gone |access-date=2022-05-12}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Buchan |first=Perdita |date=2014-12-04 |title=When Louis Kahn and Roosevelt Created a New Jersey Utopia |url=https://archive.curbed.com/2014/12/4/10015862/when-louis-kahn-and-roosevelt-created-a-new-jersey-utopia |access-date=2022-05-12 |website=Curbed |language=en}}</ref> Roosevelt is a historic landmark and is the subject of the 1983 documentary, ''[[Roosevelt, New Jersey: Visions of Utopia]]''. The Jersey Homesteads Historic District was added to the New Jersey Register of Historic Places and to the [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 1983, including "all that area within the corporate boundaries of the Borough of Roosevelt".<ref>[https://www.nj.gov/dep/hpo/1identify/nrsr_lists/MONMOUTH.pdf New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places: Monmouth County], [[New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection]] Historic Preservation Office, updated March 30, 2023. Accessed April 30, 2023.</ref>
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