Join us for a special evening at The American Theatre as we premiere The Aberdeen Gardens 158: Built By Us, For Us. As the primary 2022 fundraiser for The Historical Foundation of Aberdeen Gardens, Inc., the evening will benefit the Aberdeen Gardens Historic Museum. Guests will enjoy a wine and cheese reception catered by The Grey Goose and keepsake documentary on disk.

Aberdeen Gardens began as a New Deal resettlement community offered by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the early 1930s following the Great Depression. It was initiated by Hampton Institute in 1934, designed specifically to house African American workers at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, along with local Black farmers, railyard workers, and watermen. From this modest beginning grew a vibrant community with generations of the original 158 families still calling Aberdeen Gardens home.

Out of the 55 New Deal communities proposed and constructed at the time, Aberdeen Gardens was the only Resettlement Administration community for Blacks in Virginia. The award-winning, iconic neighborhood is listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places.

Film documents the families of Aberdeen Gardens, many of whom were first-time Black homeowners, and their award-winning community.