Small Agriculture: A National Agricultural Library Digital Exhibit

Facts about Arthurdale Homesteads

National Agricultural Library

subsistence homesteads

One of the first projects of the Division of Subsistence Homesteads of the Department of the Interior, Arthurdale was initiated on October 1, 1933. The project was transferred by Executive Order to the Resettlement Administration May 15, 1935. It is now under the supervision of the Farm Security Administration, successor to the Resettlement Administration.

Purpose: Arthurdale was planned to give a group of families, left without work when the nearby coal mines closed down, a chance to obtain an adequate income and a greater degree of security.

Description: More than 1,100 acres of rolling land, once part of the plantation of Colonel George Fairfax, aide to George Washington, form the project site. In the heart of this area is located the community center, including a general store, a barber shop, post office, meeting hall ,- display room, handicraft work shop, administrative offices, and filling station. On the side of a hill, overlooking the community center and a large portion of the project, is an inn. The school and the community health center are nearby.

Around this group of community buildings, the 165 homesteads are laid out. Each of these units consist of about three acres of land on which has been placed an adequate home, a combination barn and poultry house, and a vegetable storage cellar. They are placed so as to utilize the best house sites, and face on the project roads.

Farm Security Administration

U.S. Department of Agriculture

1939