Albert D. Lueders Metropolitan Merchandise Marts, Inc. / Clifton Park Manor collections

Albert D. Lueders was born in New Jersey in 1905. In 1937 he established an architectural firm in Arlington, Virginia, where he designed housing based on the Garden City Movement. This movement began in England with the work of Ebenezer Howard at the close of the nineteenth century. The ideas behind the Garden City Movement came to America in the 1920s and influenced city planning. The concept was one of a self-contained community which integrated residences, businesses, and green spaces. People could live where they worked, and in some cases designers intended to minimize the amount of automobile traffic or separate driving and pedestrian spaces. Towns such as Letchworth and Welwyn Garden City reflected this movement in England while Radburn, New Jersey; Greenbelt, Maryland; Greenhills, Ohio; and Greendale, Wisconsin, appeared in the United States, all influenced by the same principles. In 1949 Lueders applied what he knew of the Garden City Movement to the designs for Clifton Park Manor in northern Delaware and the Wilmington Merchandise Mart which adjoined it. Wilmington Merchandise Mart later came to be known as Merchants Square. Lueders was involved in Virginia development, including apartment complexes in Falls Church, Virginia, and designs for Claremont, Virginia. Lueders died circa 1975.

“Planned Communities, Part 1: Garden City.” University Libraries, University of Maryland, College Park. http://www.lib.umd.edu/NTL/gardencities.html. June 4, 2002. Accessed September 26, 2006“National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, VDHR 000-9700.” Virginia Department of Historic Resources: Historic Registers. http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Counties/Arlington/000-9700_ClaremontHD_2006_NRdraft.pdf. 2006. Accessed September 26, 2006.Wells, John E. and Robert E. Dalton. The Virginia Architects, 1835-1955: A Biographical Dictionary. (Richmond: New South Architectural Press) 1997.