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Wisconsin has a long history of planned communities.
This episode looks at Swiss enclave New Glarus, lumber town Drummond, federally designed Greendale and Lake Ivanhoe, started as a resort area for African Americans.
In 1845, the economy was not good in the Canton of Glarus, Switzerland.
The government sent scouts to find a new home in America. The scouts
traveled as far as Missouri before finding a new home in southwestern
Wisconsin that they called New Glarus. The village's residents made
a conscious choice to celebrate the traditions of their Alpine homeland,
and New Glarus has become a tourist attraction with its Swiss flavor.
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African-Americans from Chicago's South Side established Lake Ivanhoe in the 1920s. Lake Ivanhoe was intended to be every bit as "glitzy and welcoming" as Lake Geneva. Street names were drawn from giant figures in black America, and Lake Ivanhoe had the flavor of a Southern community. The Depression short-circuited the dream of it being a Mecca for African-American tourists.
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video clip
Drummond in Bayfield County was created as a classic "company town." In 1882, Frank Drummond was hired to build a mill in the heart of a great pine forest. The town that bore his name grew as a place for the lumber workers to live. It had the requisite company store, and those who lived there were tied to the town for all their needs. In the 1920s, as the forests were being cut down, new businesses entered the area, the automobile offered mobility and independence, and the influence of the mill diminished.
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Greendale was an experiment in modern living, one of the "greenbelt" communities that the federal government built during the Depression. In 1938, the community near Milwaukee took shape. All the homes were on cul de sacs, with walking paths connecting them. Children could walk to school without crossing a street. The houses were built to last, constructed as they were of cinder block. The structures were called "backward houses" because of the way utility rooms with washer, water heater and furnace were located in the front for easy access. In time, the residents were given the opportunity to buy the houses.
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