page_title: Winfield Township, New Jersey
section_title: After the war
hierarchical_section_title: Winfield Township, New Jersey / History / After the war
caption_attribution_description: English: Winfield Township School Christmas Nativity Play 1940s, Winfield Township, New Jersey
context_page_description: Winfield Township is a township in Union County, New Jersey, in the United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township's population decreased to 1,471, the lowest recorded in any decennial census, reflecting a decline of 43 from the 1,514 counted in the 2000 Census, which had in turn declined by 62 from the 1,576 counted in the 1990 Census. The township is the sixth-smallest municipality in the state. Winfield and Linden share the same ZIP Code.
  Winfield Township was incorporated as a township by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on August 6, 1941, from portions of Clark and Linden, passing over the Governor's veto.
context_section_description: Winfield Park was the last of the Mutual Ownership Defense Housing Projects to be built and occupied.  Because it was opened just prior to the start of the United States involvement in World War II, it was also one of the last housing project of a permanent nature to be built for the defense housing program.  The current residents of Winfield believe that their town was built as temporary housing, and are very proud of how well the structures have held up over the past 68 years thanks to their repair efforts; clearly this grew out of the poor workmanship of the original construction.
  The Winfield Park Mutual Housing Corporation purchased the Winfield Park project from the federal government for $1,358,567.21 on December 28, 1950, and entered into a 45-year mortgage bearing a 3% interest rate, which was completed on July 1, 1984.  By 1966 a Rutgers University economic study of the town reported that the town had "elements of a cooperative utopia, a feudal manor, and company town (with only one party and one company)." It continued on that:
  "One of the apparent by-products of this situation (Town and Corporation being one and the same) is that the normal inter-party rivalry has been replaced by a running battle between the corporation and the township, both of which are elected by the same voters."
  The 1966 study also made another observation about Winfield Park.
  "One effect of outside resentment upon Winfield itself was to solidify sentiment among the inhabitants against their neighbors.  If their neighbors didn't like Winfield, the feeling was definitely mutual.  Another effect was to make the early Winfield settlers suspicious of all bureaucracy, including their own elected officers.  In this respect, the trying experiences and disillusionment attending the early days of Winfield have made its citizens even more sensitive than usual to rumors respecting changes in the community structures."
  This sensitivity was especially prevalent by the 1960s, a time when residents began to realize that the town's property was actually now worth far more than the structures built upon it.  Although a number of experts have presented proposals to Winfield for more efficient and economical use of the property—ranging from selling the entire community and splitting the profits, to moving every resident into a single high rise building and then developing the remaining property for more profitable uses—residents have never considered any of these proposals very seriously.  In fact, the residents have continually recommitted themselves to the mutual ownership concept.
  In August, 2001 the entire township celebrated its 60th Anniversary with a community picnic and a parade led by Grand Marshal Leona Harriot Burke (1917–2007) who had moved from Kearny, New Jersey to Winfield Park on the first move-in day for new residents on December 1, 1941.  Mrs. Burke had also served as the first president of the Winfield Park Volunteer Fire Department's Ladies Auxiliary.  Few could have predicted such an outcome for this experimental housing project from 1941 yet with enormous forces lined up against it the Winfield Park Mutual Housing Corporation and the municipality of Winfield Township continue to operate successfully today as it quickly approaches its seventieth anniversary.
caption: Winfield Township School Christmas Nativity Play 1940s, Winfield Township, New Jersey.
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