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150 Photographs 75 Sets of Then and Now Photographs
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A short history about Greendale
The story of Greendale, Wisconsin goes back to the mid 1930’s during the depths of the Great Depression. The entire country was on hard times and men needed work, so the Federal Government with the assistance of Franklin Roosevelt initiated the “Greenbelt Towns” program. There were originally going to be 25 of these “towns”, but with limited funding and opposition from some neighboring communities, only three were built—Greenhills, Ohio, Greenbelt, Maryland and Greendale, Wisconsin.
The premise for the projects was to provide work for un-employed men, provide new, clean housing for local residents and present a model community to the rest of the nation. Each location was within 10 to 15 miles of an existing major city as many of the residents would be working there, but far enough away to provide the needed space to construct all of the public buildings, homes and parkland for the newly created towns. Greendale is near Milwaukee, WI in the southeastern area of Wisconsin.
Beginning on July 17, 1936 the construction of the first home began and the last home was finished on July 18, 1937 with the other public buildings following afterward. In all it took about two years to complete the entire village with about 2000 men on the work crew with the village finally opening to residents on May 1, 1938.
The process I used to create the book
Ironically it took just over two years for this book to be completed as well with a crew of one person. The process consisted of going through the photo archive of the Greendale Historical Society and selecting 125 photographs that might have the potential to be used. The photos were then divided into categories such as homes, businesses, the Village Hall, and misc and then further divided by season.
I then printed several of the original photos on paper and go out into the community during specific times of the year to re-create the photos. For some of the photographs I needed to go back more than once to get the shot just right.
The process consisted of me finding the original location, holding up the printed version of the original photograph and then after getting the camera set at the same view as the original, with a little extra framing space for editing later, I would take a few shots of the current scene. In some instances it was very difficult or even impossible to get the “now” shot as there might be buildings or other obstructions that would not allow me to stand in the exact same spot as the original photographer or to even see the current view.
Also, when the original photos were taken, the trees and other vegetation were very small, but over the last 75 years the plants have grown taller and fuller and may now obscure the view, especially in summer.
I then worked with the two photos on the computer to match the size and framing of each precisely so that they were proportionally accurate to each other by showing the exact same scene. Since nearly all of the original photos were black & white, I chose to also have the “now” photos in black & white. This was to just show the differences in the scene and not have the viewer distracted by a black & white photo and the other one in full color. Actually four photos are in color as the two originals were in color.
In the end I was able to photograph 85 sets of usable “then and now” images. I picked 13 of them for the Greendale Historical Society’s 2013 yearly calendar and have chosen the best 75 for this book as 2013 was the 75th anniversary of Greendale, Wisconsin.
Ordering
If you would like your very own signed copy or copies of the book, please contact me and we can make arrangements for you to receive the book(s). They are only $30 each plus shipping. I would like to meet the people that purchase my book if at all possible.
You can pay immediately with PayPal. Please us this e-mail for PayPal. spetersdesign@gmail.com
If you pay with a check, I will need to wait until the payment clears before I send the book(s).
Thanks – Steve Peters
All images and photographs are copyright—Peters Design. None of the images or photographs may be copied, reproduced or posted anywhere without permission from Peters Design.
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160 Pages—Paperback—8-3/8” x 11”
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