Greendale, Wisconsin began in 1936, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture started construction of one of the three Greenbelt towns, alongside Greenbelt, Maryland and Greenhills, Ohio. Its plan placed the business district at the center, with the Village Hall nearby at the end of the wide center thoroughfare, as it stood when the village opened for business on May 1, 1938. The federal government developed Greendale to provide homes for families whose income level would otherwise prevent them from living in a suburban setting. Rental requirements included an annual income between $1,200 and $2,700, a housing need, financial reliability, cleanliness in living habits, and a family size suited to the available unit, with families required to move when their size changed. When the village opened for occupancy, it contained 572 living units in 366 buildings. Nearly all were two stories except the so-called honeymooners. The homes had concrete foundations, cincrete block walls, and lightweight tile or slate shingle roofs, with a utility room for a coal-fired furnace and laundry instead of a basement. The first floor used asphalt tile on a 2 1/2 inch concrete slab supported by pre-cast concrete joists, while the second floor was of 7/8 inch oak or maple. The living room featured a beamed ceiling of 8 inch ponderosa pine, with the wood sub-floor above forming its ceiling finish. An elected general committee first coordinated activities and governed Greendale, which was incorporated as a village on November 1, 1938, when the present council-manager system was adopted. In 1949, the public Housing Administration was authorized to dispose of the Greenbelt towns, and occupants of Greendale's original 572 units received the first right to purchase them. In nearly all cases residents exercised that option, while vacant lands were given or sold to public agencies or offered under conditions to private purchasers or developers. The transfer of ownership from the federal government was largely completed at the end of 1952.