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Details
(Area code: 301)
• Roosevelt Center, Crescent and Centerway roads: Greenbelt
Co-op, 474-0522; Realty 1, 982-0044; P&G Old Greenbelt,
474-9744; Greenbelt Arts Center, 441-8770; Beijing
Greenbelt, 345-3966; Generous Joe's, 474-4998
• Greenbelt Community Center, 15 Crescent Rd., 397-2208
• New Deal Cafe, 474-5642
• Greenbelt Aquatic and Fitness Center, 101 Centerway Rd.,
397-2204
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By
Theodore Fischer, Sidewalk
The
modern-day city of Greenbelt
now extends east across the Baltimore-Washington International Parkway,
south across Greenbelt Road to incorporate Greenbelt National Park
and west as far the Greenbelt Metro station beside the Beltway. The
commercial-recreational hub of the original New Deal project, now known as
Old Greenbelt, is Roosevelt Center, so named in 1982 to
commemorate the centennial of FDR's birthday.
Roosevelt
Center architecture combines International Style, a form of radical
modernism introduced in 1932 by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip
Johnson, with streamlined art deco. The centerpiece of Old Greenbelt's
cozy tree-lined town square is Mother and Child, an Indiana
limestone (like most D.C. monuments) statue by famed Depression sculptor
Lenore Thomas.
Old Greenbelt's biggest retail enterprise is the Greenbelt Co-op, a
full-service supermarket and pharmacy. Anyone can shop there, but those
who become members by putting some capital in the kitty get to vote on
co-op issues and share, in the form of annual refunds based on amount of
purchases, co-op profits.
For pure entertainment, the 500-seat P&G Old Greenbelt has its
original art-deco styling and a newer 40-foot-wide Cinemascope screen plus
Dolby sound. It shows second-run features at a discount – $5, $3 for
weekend matinees and on Mondays. If you like what you see, you'd better
join the Save Our Theater campaign before it's too late.
The volunteer-run Greenbelt Arts Center on the lower level of the
co-op presents an ambitious program of plays and music – jazz, folk,
gospel and more. Original scripts and directors – especially for the
center's one-act-play series – are always welcome.
Roosevelt Center's dining choices are limited. Beijing Greenbelt is
a sit-down Chinese restaurant with an all-you-can-eat lunch buffet ($5.98)
on weekends. Generous Joe's, the self-service "Fill Your Belly
Deli," offers pizza, calzones, subs and Italian entrees such as lasagna
and eggplant Parmesan.
Don't leave Roosevelt Center without checking out the near-Depression-era
prices for housing displayed on the window of Realty 1: a
one-bedroom lower-level unit goes for $25,900; a two-bedroom town house (a
bank takeover), $34,900; a three-bedroom brick town house with its own
lily pond, $69,900. And for these GHI co-ops, there are no costly transfer
taxes.
The (free) parking lot at Roosevelt Center is near the terminus of the
Washington area's longest and liveliest Labor Day parade. Across from the
lot lies the art-deco Greenbelt Community Center, originally
the Greenbelt Center School, its entrance adorned with Lenore Thomas'
Preamble to the Constitution, consisting of five limestone friezes
with phrases of the preamble ("To form a more perfect union,"
"establish justice," etc.) illustrated by scenes of
working-class life.
Inside, the walls of the first floor are lined with photographs of
Greenbelt in the good old days – original residents, original shops and
a shot of FDR dropping by for a visit. Temporary exhibits of contemporary
painting, ceramics and sculpture occupy the converted classrooms. The
second floor, which consists of artists' studios and a gift shop, is the
site of an Artists Open House from noon to 5 p.m. on the first Sunday of
every month.
The
community center's New Deal Cafe consists of a couple of bare-bones
rooms furnished with large, round communal tables. The no-alcohol (but no
cover charge) volunteer-run cafe serves coffee, pastries and snacks to
accompany live performances – folk music, world music, poetry, comedy,
open mikes – on Friday and Saturday nights. The only real meal served is
Sunday brunch, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The newest building in Old Greenbelt's town center is the 1991 Greenbelt
Aquatic and Fitness Center. The state-of-the-art complex, which offers
memberships and daily admissions, has a huge indoor pool with lanes for
lap swimming, a wading pool, a sauna and modern exercise equipment. A
bulletin board provides information about karate, dance, yoga,
line-dancing and sign-language lessons – and everything else – going
on in the active, progressive, slightly out-of-another-era but most
cooperative community of Greenbelt.
See also: New Deal ideals survive in Greenbelt |
