Eleanor, Puerto Rico: A New Deal Town

Above: The Eleanor Housing Development in Puerto Rico, ca. 1940. The town was constructed by the New Deal's Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration (PRRA) and named after Eleanor Roosevelt. Photo by PRRA, from the PRRA & WPA book Puerto Rico: A Guide to the Island of Boriquen.

Above: Eleanor Roosevelt Grade School in Eleanor, Puerto Rico, ca. 1940. Photo by PRRA, from the PRRA & WPA book Puerto Rico: A Guide to the Island of Boriquen.

Above: The Eleanor Roosevelt Elementary School (today a two-story building) is still in operation, 80 years later. Image from Google Earth, used here for educational, non-commercial purposes.

Eleanor, Puerto Rico

Eleanor is a town in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It was constructed during the New Deal by the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration (PRRA), ca. 1936-1940. The town is described in the PRRA & WPA book, Puerto Rico: A Guide to the Island of Boriquen (1940, p. 269):

"The Development is a modern town in itself, with paved streets, sidewalks and drains, water system, sanitary and storm water sewerage, a school, a police station, an underground electrical distribution and telephone system. There are 131 one-family houses, 91 two-family houses, 4 block model units for 128 families and 31 three-bedroom houses - in all 472 dwellings in which nearly 2,500 persons live. No particular style of architecture has been adhered to. Some houses follow the Spanish colonial traditions, and some are designed along modern lines. Both styles have been simplified to the extreme in order to bring the cost down without sacrificing comfort and convenience. Each house consists of a porch, a combination living and dining room, two or three bedrooms with closets, a bathroom equipped with modern plumbing and a kitchen with a charcoal stove."

The New Deal performed an extraordinary amount of work in Puerto Rico - improved sanitation, more schools, electrification, the reduction of land monopolies, housing, and much more. The town of Eleanor and the Eleanor Roosevelt Elementary School are just two example of that work.