Hoovervilles were shantytowns built by homeless people during the Great Depression, named after President Herbert Hoover, who was blamed for the economic crisis. Made from scrap materials, they appeared across the U.S. near soup kitchens. Residents lived in makeshift homes, relying on public charity.&nbsp;

Despite New Deal efforts, Hoovervilles persisted until the economy recovered in the 1940s, when they were eradicated.

when the city found money to truck in dirt and pay workers to remove the makeshift dwellings of Hooverville and fill in and landscape the basin. In September 1932, a New York City health official said that unless the city fitted running water and sewerage, they had to go. That month, 29 men were arrested for living in the Hooverville.

Actress Andrea McArdle as Annie w. Sandy and Hooverville-ites in a scene

built by the unemployed in the old lower Reservoir site in Central Park. The contrast between the small shacks — at least one was an actual hole in the ground — beneath some of New York's most impressive apartment buildings caught people's imagination.A New York Daily News caption reads: "From their windows, the 'Haves' may look on the humble houses of the 'Have Nots.'"

Little shanty towns — made from scraps of wood, tin, tar, and sometimes cardboard — began to sprout up across the US.

Central Park also provided sustenance with berries from the mulberry trees in the park

For a brief period, Hoover Valley became a tourist destination. A steady stream of visitors tours the small town built on the site of the old reservoir by ex-soldiers. A former tight-rope walker named Ralph Redfield held performances. Another man named Patrick McDermott said he earned $47 dollars from charging 3,000 people to enter the town. McDermott later went to jail for six months for dancing and singing without wearing enough clothes.

That didn't make squatting legal, though. In July 1931, 22 men were arrested for sleeping in Central Park.

By December, 1931 signs of a small town had appeared. A reporter from The New York Times wrote about nine men living in six shacks, who were arrested for vagrancy, but had their charges dropped.

By September 1932, 17 shacks lined what was called "Depression Street" in Central Park.

It went by several names, like "Hoover Valley" or "Forgotten Men's Gulch."

In 1933, the Hooverville was destroyed so that park workers could lay the new Great Lawn.

Streetscapes: Central Park's 'Hooverville';&nbsp;

Central Park

Riverside Park at 72nd Street

Between Chrystie and Forsyth Streets

Hoovervilles

King Kong, directed by Peter Jackson, depicts the Hooverville in New York's Central Park at the beginning of the film.

The movie Cinderella Man also referenced the Central Park encampment.

The musical Annie has a song called "We'd Like to Thank You, Herbert Hoover", which takes place in a Hooverville beneath the 59th Street Bridge. In the song, the chorus sings of the hardships they now suffer because of the Great Depression and their contempt for the former president.

Hoovervilles

Images

Images

Drawings and documents

1930 - Established

1930 - Established - Images