Subsistence Homesteads Division

Subsistence Homesteads Division (DSH or SHD), Department of the Interior

Agency overview
Formed	August 23, 1933 (1933-08-23)
Dissolved	May 15, 1935
Superseding agency	Transferred to Resettlement Administration
Agency executive	Dr. Milburn L. Wilson, Director
Parent agency	United States Department of the Interior
Website	http://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/096.html

The Subsistence Homesteads Division of the US Department of the Interior (DSH or SHD) was a New Deal agency that was intended to give safe residences to urban poor in small plots of land that would allow them to sustain themselves. Unlike subsistence farming, subsistence homesteading is based on a family member or members having part-time, paid employment.

Definition and description

The Subsistence Homesteads Division Director, Milburn L. Wilson, defined a "subsistence homestead" as follows:

A subsistence homestead denotes a house and out buildings located upon a plot of land on which can be grown a large portion of foodstuffs required by the homestead family. It signifies production for home consumption and not for commercial sale. In that it provides for subsistence alone, it carries with it the corollary that cash income must be drawn from some outside source. The central motive of the subsistence homestead program, therefore, is to demonstrate the economic value of a livelihood which combines part-time wage work and part-time gardening or farming.

DSH projects "would be initiated at the state level and administered through a nonprofit corporation. Successful applicants would offer a combination of part-time employment opportunities, fertile soil for part-time farming, and locations connected to the services of established cities."

Philosophy

The Subsistence Homesteading Program was based on an agrarian, "back-to-the-land" philosophy which meant a partial return to the simpler, farming life of the past. Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt both endorsed the idea that for poor people, rural life could be healthier than city life.

Cooperation, community socialization, and community work were also emphasized. However, going "back-to-the-land" did not always sit well with people stuck in outlying "stranded communities" without jobs. According to Liz Straw of the Tennessee Historical Commission, the most controversial were those rural communities of long-unemployed miners or timber workers whom opponents of subsistence homesteading thought unlikely to thrive without better job opportunities.

History

Carl Cleveland Taylor, the 36th President of the American Sociological Society, served as a sociologist for the SHD.

Some of the subsistence homesteading communities included African Americans. DSH Assistant Supervisor John P. Murchison wrote to W. E. B. Du Bois in April 1934 for advice on racial integration and how to incorporate African Americans into the program. Eleanor Roosevelt took a personal interest in the project, and became involved in setting up the first community, Arthurdale, WV after a visit to the stranded miners of Scotts Run.

There was strong opposition to the idea of subsistence homesteads, as undercutting agricultural prices, unions, and the labor supply for manufacturing. Nonetheless, as of 2011, some communities, such as Arthurdale, West Virginia, in which Eleanor Roosevelt was personally involved, maintain an active memory of the program.

List of DSH subsistence homesteading communities

• Aberdeen Gardens (Hampton, Virginia)
• Arthurdale (Arthurdale, West Virginia)
• Austin Homesteads/Austin Acres (Austin, Minnesota)
• Bankhead Farms (near Jasper, Alabama)
• Beauxart Gardens (Jefferson County, Texas)
• Cumberland Homesteads (Cumberland County, Tennessee)
• Dalworthington Gardens (Tarrant County, Texas)
• Dayton Homesteads (Dayton, Ohio)
• Decatur Homesteads (Decatur, Indiana)
• Duluth Homesteads (Duluth, Minnesota)
• El Monte Homesteads (El Monte, California)
• Granger Homesteads (Granger, Iowa)
• Greenwood Homesteads (near Birmingham, Alabama)
• Hattiesburg Homesteads (Hattiesburg, Mississippi)
• Houston Gardens (Houston, Texas)
• Jersey Homesteads (Roosevelt, New Jersey)
• Lake County Homesteads (Chicago, Illinois)
• Longview Homesteads (Longview, Washington)
• Magnolia Homesteads (Meridian, Mississippi)
• McComb Homesteads (McComb, Mississippi)
• Mount Olive Homesteads (near Birmingham, Alabama)
• Palmerdale Homesteads (Pinson, Alabama)
• Penderlea (Pender County, North Carolina)
• Phoenix Homesteads (Phoenix, Arizona)
• Piedmont Homesteads (Jasper County, Georgia)
• Richton Homesteads (Richton, Mississippi)
• San Fernando Homesteads (San Fernando, California)
• Shenandoah Homesteads (Rappahannock County, Virginia)
• Three Rivers Gardens, (Three Rivers, Texas)
• Tupelo Homesteads (Lee County, Mississippi)
• Trussville Homesteads/Cahaba Homesteads (Jefferson County, Alabama)
• Tygart Valley Homesteads (Dailey, West Virginia)
• Westmoreland Homesteads (Norvelt, Pennsylvania)
• Wichita Gardens (Wichita Falls, Texas)

See also

• Urban homesteading
• Smallholding

References

Communities

• Complete List of New Deal Communities, of the Resettlement Administration, the Division of Subsistence Homesteads, and the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, from the National New Deal Preservation Association

Further reading

• “A Place on Earth: A Critical Appraisal of Subsistence Homesteads” by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Agricultural Economics, 1942.
• , describes coverage of DSH in various books and journals

Sources

• NARA Records of the Farmers Home Administration (FmHA) (Record Group 96) 1918-80 (bulk 1932-59)

96.2.4 Records of the Subsistence Homesteads Division and its successors

History: Subsistence Homesteads Division organized in the Department of the Interior, August 23, 1933, under provisions of EO 6209, July 21, 1933, implementing the subsistence homesteads program of the National Recovery Act (48 Stat. 205), June 16, 1933. Transferred to Resettlement Administration by EO 7041, May 15, 1935.

Textual Records: Correspondence with the general public ("Requests for General Information"), 1933-35. Correspondence concerning proposed subsistence homestead projects, 1933-35. Correspondence concerning a census of part-time farming, 1933-34. Records relating to wages of workers employed on subsistence homestead projects, 1934-35.

Architectural and Engineering Plans (2,500 items): Paper tracings and blueprints of "subsistence homesteads" and "experimental villages" built by the Subsistence Homesteads Division (Interior), Division of Subsistence Homesteads (Resettlement Administration), and FSA, including plans of the Arthurdale Community and Reedsville, WV, projects, 1933-38.