[Our home was] furnished with beautifully simple Danish style (oral history of Louise Steinle Winkler)
Every sofa can be turned into a bed, bureaus also are desks..which fit neatly beside a drop-leaf dining table, to add size...chairs throughout the house are matched so they can be used in the dining room (Strayer, p. 3).
Greenbelt furniture is so attractive that visitors rush up to guides and ask where it can be bought. (Strayer, p. 3)
Slightly undersized, the furniture made the rooms seem larger (Brugger, p. 518).
Warner, one of the first tenants expressed his pride in the fact that in 1954 it was still "exceptionally sturdy" (p. 121).
These are just a few comments which show that Greenbelt families were proud of this furniture. However, there were some which disliked the fact that the government was able to make such an influence on family life. For example, Brugger records the event in this way:
[They designed] floor plans that directed traffic through the living room [because] designers wanted to reform the average American's habit...of only using that space for weddings, funerals, and rubber plants (p. 518),
This comment seems to capture the reason behind some who disliked the level of government involvement. In general, that these families allowed their home life to be too practical and lack individuality.
Actually, it seems that comments like these were in reality just something for outsiders to gossip about and newspapers something to criticize. In truth, the tenants in Greenbelt were simply grateful for the furniture, considering their situation. Anyone who could truly complain wasn't eligible to move their anyway.
Well, I bet your surprised to have learned so much about Greenbelt furniture! Let's keep going and find out how this developed into the successful SCAN Furniture, Inc...
SCAN Furniture Developed
