Capital Wheel at Night

Greenbelt Community Center (formerly Greenbelt Center School)

15 Crescent Road
Greenbelt, MD 20770
(301) 379-2208
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  • Details

    Originally called Center School, this outstanding example of streamlined Art Deco architecture was completed in the autumn of 1937, just as the first residents of Greenbelt moved in. Greenbelt is a planned community that was designed and built by the federal government as part of FDRs New Deal. Built to put people to work, to provide affordable housing for low income familes, and be a model of modern town planning in the United States, the community thrived and Center School was used by residents for meetings, adult education classes, recreation, clubs and sports teams, a town hall, a library, and church services. A new wing was added in 1967, then, following the school’s closure in 1993, it was renovated and reopened in 1996 as a dedicated Community Center. The building now houses classes of all kinds, meeting space, services for seniors, a nursery school, artist’s studios, the Greenbelt Museum’s exhibit room and office, the Greenbelt News Review’s office, Greenbelt’s public access television studio, summer camps, and an auditorium/gymnasium. The building features curved aerodynamic struts along front facade and bas relief sculpted panels depicting the Preamble to the Constitution carved by Lenore Thomas, a New Deal WPA artist.