Editing Winfield Township, New Jersey (section)

===After the war===
[[Image:Winfield Pk Halloween Parade 40s.jpg|thumb|Winfield Township Halloween Parade on the Grounds of Town School 1940s, Winfield Township, New Jersey.]]

Winfield Park was the last of the Mutual Ownership Defense Housing Projects to be built and occupied. Because it was opened just before the start of the United States' involvement in World War II, it was also one of the last housing projects of a permanent nature to be built for the defense housing program. The current residents of Winfield believe that their town was built as temporary housing and are very proud of how well the structures have held up over the past 68 years thanks to their repair efforts; clearly, this grew out of the poor workmanship of the original construction.{{citation needed|date=August 2018}}

The Winfield Park Mutual Housing Corporation purchased the Winfield Park project from the federal government for $1,358,567.21 on December 28, 1950, and entered into a 45-year [[Mortgage loan|mortgage]] bearing a 3% interest rate, which was completed on July 1, 1984.<ref>''Winfield Park 60th Anniversary Celebration Booklet'', Winfield Mutual Housing Corporation, Winfield Park, New Jersey. September 8, 2001.</ref> By 1966, a [[Rutgers University]] economic study of the town reported that the town had "elements of a cooperative utopia, a feudal manor, and company town (with only one party and one company)." It continued on that:

<blockquote>
"One of the apparent by-products of this situation (Town and Corporation being one and the same) is that the normal inter-party rivalry has been replaced by a running battle between the corporation and the township, both of which are elected by the same voters."
</blockquote>

The 1966 study also made another observation about Winfield Park.

<blockquote>
"One effect of outside resentment upon Winfield itself was to solidify sentiment among the inhabitants against their neighbors. If their neighbors didn't like Winfield, the feeling was definitely mutual. Another effect was to make the early Winfield settlers suspicious of all bureaucracy, including their own elected officers. In this respect, the trying experiences and disillusionment attending the early days of Winfield have made its citizens even more sensitive than usual to rumors respecting changes in the community structures."
</blockquote>

This sensitivity was especially prevalent in the 1960s when residents began to realize that the town's property was worth far more than the structures built upon it. Although several experts have presented proposals to Winfield for more efficient and economical use of the property—ranging from selling the entire community and splitting the profits to moving every resident into a single high-rise building and then developing the remaining property for more profitable uses—residents have never considered any of these proposals very seriously. The residents have continually recommitted themselves to the mutual ownership concept.<ref>Rutgers Bureau of Economic Research, An Economic Profile of Winfield Park, N.J.: Including Alternatives For the Use of Community Resources, p. 22,35; Winfield Cultural and Heritage Commission, History of Winfield, p.15,20</ref>

[[Image:Winfield Park School Play 40s.jpg|thumb|Winfield Township School Christmas Nativity Play 1940s, Winfield Township, New Jersey.]]

In August 2001, the entire township celebrated its 60th anniversary with a community picnic and a parade led by Grand Marshal Leona Harriot Burke (1917–2007), who had moved from [[Kearny, New Jersey]] to Winfield Park on the first move-in day for new residents on December 1, 1941. Mrs. Burke had also served as the first president of the Winfield Park Volunteer Fire Department's Ladies Auxiliary.

[[Image:Winfield Santa Arrival 1963.jpg|thumb|Santa Claus Arrives by Helicopter in the field behind Community Center, December 1963, Winfield Township, New Jersey.]]