Roosevelt started as New Deal experiment Published in the Asbury Park Press 10/07/02By LARRY WADDELL GUEST WRITERThe Monmouth County panhandle borough of Roosevelt, originally called Jersey Homesteads, stands as a monument to a New Deal-era experimental commune and the dashed dreams of a well-to-do social reformer named Benjamin Brown. Long a student of England's cooperative movement, the Ukrainian-born Brown envisioned a village modeled after Rochdale, founded in the English Midlands some 90 years before.In Brown's village, impoverished Jewish needleworkers who had emigrated from Russia and Poland would live together, working part-time on cooperatively owned farms and in a cooperatively owned garment factory.Armed with $500,000 from the government's new Resettlement Administration and Washington's blessings, Brown in 1935 bought 1,250 acres of farmland in western Millstone Township near Hightstown.Construction began immediately on some 200 dwellings for homesteaders drawn from the tenements and sweatshops of New York and Philadelphia. The stark white concrete-block buildings featured flat overhanging roofs, large windows, oil furnaces and central air conditioning. While some were ground-hugging one-family units, other consisted of two single-family homes linked with two-car garages.Before occupying their new homes, each family had to pay $500 into a fund to equip the clothing factory on the edge of town. Renters paid $14 a month plus $4 for taxes and had the option of buying their homes later at low prices with easy terms.As Washington's hand grew stronger in the administration of the village, the zealous and sometimes overbearing founder was gradually eased out as director-in-chief. He apparently had overestimated his settlers' abilities to live and work together in the new and unfamiliar setting.The homesteaders showed little aptitude for farming and limited enthusiasm for backbreaking agricultural drudgery that brought them wages of 25 cents an hour or less.Discontent and dissatisfaction among the resident garment workers led to several brief strikes. Since they owned shares in the enterprise, they were simply striking against themselves.Workmanship deteriorated, product rejections increased, delivery schedules were not met, and customers were lost. After years of propping up the plant, Washington balked and withdrew support.In later years, the factory was leased to a private hat-making company before being sold to a button manufacturer. Still later, it was occupied by a maker of geodesic structures.Washington withdrew its sponsorship of Jersey Homesteads and opened the village to any outsiders seeking affordable housing. In 1945, the village broke away from Millstone Township, won incorporation as a borough and changed its name to honor the nation's 32nd president. Today, the one-time commune serves as a bedroom community in which hundreds of residents commute to jobs in the New York metropolitan area.Mixed in among the modern homes they have built are scores of the units for the original homesteaders. Not only is the main street still called Rochdale Avenue, but a side street is named after Brown.Larry Waddell is a former Asbury Park Press staff writer who now writes about local history. <A HREF="http://marketing.injersey.com/subscriptions.html">Click Here</A> to subscribe to the Asbury Park Press