Clarence Stein and Henry Wright’s Garden Cities
During the early 20th century, Clarence Stein (1882-1975) and Henry Wright (1878-1936) founded the Garden City movement in the United States.
Stein and Wright’s purpose was to design viable communities as a solution to the complex problems faced by the nation as it was being transformed into an urban society by the technological advances of the Industrial Revolution.
These architects and planners were directly influenced by the international Garden City movement, which was founded by Englishman Ebenezer Howard (1850-1928). Howard built the very first Garden Cities — Letchworth (1903) and Welwyn’s (1920).
During the first half of the twentieth century, Stein, Wright, and their colleagues designed and constructed several seminal Garden cities on the east coast, the mid-west, and finally in Southern California. The administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt funded several of these community projects in its efforts to provide adequate housing and build communities during the Great Depression.
Later, Stein wrote Toward New Towns for America (1951), which described how he and his colleagues designed and built these Garden cities. Stein’s book continues to exert national and international influence on how new communities are to be designed in today’s modern society.
Below is a list of the Stein Garden Cities, along with links to their historic nominations and current websites.
National Historic Landmarks
Greenbelt, Maryland (1996) greenbeltmd.gov
Baldwin Hills Village (2001) villagegreenla.net
Los Angeles, California
Radburn (2005) radburn.org
Fairlawn, New Jersey
Chatham Village (2005) chathamvillagehomesinc.com
Pittsburg, Pennsylvania
Greendale (2012) greendale.org
Greendale, Wisconsin
Greenhills (2017) greenhillsohio.us
Green Hills, Ohio
National Register and New York City Landmark
Sunnyside Gardens (1984/2007) sunnysidegardens.us
Queens, New York
No Historic Certification
Hillside Homes Apartments eastchesterheights.com
Bronx, New York
Cornell University is the major research center for the study of the American Garden Cities and the international Garden City movement.
The Clarence S. Stein Institute of Urban and Landscape Studies
Note: Clarence Stein’s Toward New Towns for America
(free digital version can be downloaded)
Updated March 2026
