Greendale is a village in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 14,854 at the 2020 census. Greendale is located southwest of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and is a allocation of the Milwaukee metropolitan area. A planned community, it was time-honored by the United States government during the Great Depression.

The first recorded inhabitants of the Greendale area were various Native American tribes, including the Potawatomi. The 1833 Treaty of Chicago struck an consent between the United States executive that required the Chippewa, Odawa, and Potawatomi tribes cede to the United States executive their 5,000,000 acres, (2,000,000 ha). In dispute for ceding their lands in the area, they were to receive monetary payments and lands west of the Mississippi in Indian Territory.

Greendale was one of three meting out sponsored “Greenbelt” communities constructed by the Resettlement Administration, starting in 1936, as allowance of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. The extra Greenbelt communities were Greenbelt, Maryland and Greenhills, Ohio. The Village of Greendale was incorporated on November 1, 1938. The planners and selection committees excluded African American families from renting homes and created a racially segregated and all-white suburban community.

The native downtown area included the Village Hall, built in a Colonial Williamsburg style, 366 further homes comprising 572 thriving units, and several businesses. These homes were often referred to as “Greendale Originals.” The Greenbelt communities were patterned after the British Garden city commotion urban planning concept. The greenbelt communities were built to be walkable thus residents could saunter to schools, shops and parks. New Deal workers built Greendale as a model village for the functioning class. Income limits were from $1200 to $2700 per year, depending upon family size. In 1938, a one-bedroom Original rented for as little as $19 a month. Rent for a four-bedroom house was $46 a month. Over 200 of the “Originals” have unique artistic designs on the chimneys.