Greenbelt Garages

Picture Credits: (1) Exterior of duplex on Crescent Road. ⁴³ (2) Sketch of Greenbelt duplex townhomes, displayed on living room wall at Greenbelt Museum. ⁴⁴

The garage area of the Greenbelt Museum now houses an office, with several sets of shelves containing information on Greenbelt and the museum, and a few rows of folding chairs to sit on while watching an introductory video displayed via television and VCR. However, in the original town, such uses were not tolerated. Despite what Greg Miernicki⁴⁵ says in his project, strict rules were in place to ensure that garages were used properly; i.e. for automobiles only. In fact, Greenbelt residents who did not own cars were not even allowed in the garages attatched to their units.⁴⁶ Oftentimes, other residents with automobiles who lived in units without garages were given access instead.

Garages were at a premium -- one garage existed for every 2.36 original housing units (375 garages for 885 dwellings). ⁴⁷ This is approximately 43%, where an initial study indicated that 70% of the residents might own automobiles. ⁴⁸ Therefore the town council decided that garages should be used for autos only, and garages whose occupants did not own a car should be allocated to someone who did.