Sawyer Precious’ blog post, “A Ghost Town’s Attempt to Repopulate” explored the marketing initiative of Karen Freeman-Wilson to repopulate Gary, a mining boomtown that became a ghost town after the collapse of the American mining industry. Her “$1 Dollar Home” proposal is certainly interesting, and novel in a modern sense. However, this concept has been used successfully before, notably by railroad scion Cornelius Vanderbilt.
Vanderbilt commissioned the construction of the largest single residence in America: the Biltmore. He also purchased the surrounding “view”, a property delineating the surrounding 1000 acres around the home. Around 1600 workers lived on the estate’s grounds to complete the massive undertaking, and once the dust had settled, Mr. Vanderbilt took a dislike to the seclusion of the Biltmore and founded the Vanderbilt Furniture Company, based it on the grounds of the Biltmore, and built a town around it. The laborers moved into free housing with their families, and called the settlement Biltmore Village. Today, Biltmore Village is a thriving town that grew from the whims of a lonely billionaire.
This concept has worked before, but time will tell if Karen Freeman-Wilson’s attempt to grow Gary will take root. After all, she doesn’t quite have the economic pull of a man who – at the time of his death – was worth 1/87th of the United States’ economy.
Sources:
http://blogs.ubc.ca/sawyerprecious/2014/10/05/a-ghost-towns-attempt-to-repopulate/
http://www.biltmorevillage.com