Book celebrates the 75th anniversary of Greendale

GREENDALE (WITI) -- A picture can say a thousand words. That's why Steve Peters has spent years looking through old photos and learning the history of Greendale.

"I often refer to it as my Mayberry. It's like the old Andy Griffith Show. It feels like a small town, it doesn't feel like a suburb of Milwaukee," says Peters.

Greendale has a rich history as it was built as a Greenbelt community by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1930s to put people to work during the depression.

"Where they get the name Greenbelt is surrounding the entire community was where originally farms were still there. So it was a green belt around the community," says Peters.

After discovering old photos of Greendale from the 1930s, Peters decided to take his own pictures replicating the historical photos.

"I went around the community in a two-year period during different seasons taking the now pictures to match the old pictures," says Peters.

Peters used these "then and now" pictures to create a book to celebrating Greendale's 75th anniversary.

Peters took more than 200 pictures and highlighted 75 of them in his book.

The book "Greendale, Wisconsin Then and Now" is almost complete, Peters is still working on securing funding for publication.

To donate to Peters' publication fund, CLICK HERE.