Eleanor Roosevelt's Rural New Deal Project in West Virginia Faces Mixed Legacy
Arthurdale, West Virginia, was built in the 1930s as a New Deal experiment to move impoverished families from coal camps to a planned rural community, a venture championed by Eleanor Roosevelt.
In the mid-1930s the federal subsistence-homesteads program created Arthurdale, the first experimental community of its kind, to relocate families from struggling coal camps in West Virginia. Federal officials acquired the land, built 165 homes equipped with electricity and indoor plumbing, and established a school and community facilities. Eleanor Roosevelt, after a visit to nearby Scotts Run, became the project's most vocal advocate, returning often to support its development.
While the settlement struggled to launch lasting cooperative businesses due to its remote location, it offered residents better housing, land, and educational opportunities than they had known in the coal camps. By 1947 the homes were largely sold to the original homesteaders, and today the village retains historic buildings and a museum that interpret the experiment’s complex outcomes.
Why it matters
The story shows how a high-profile New Deal initiative reshaped lives and sparked debate over federal involvement in community building.
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