Village Creek, an idyllic waterfront community in South Norwalk, Connecticut, backs up to Long Island Sound. In 1949, a handful of New Yorkers who wanted a chance to raise their families in an affordable, tranquil, and prejudice-free zone launched a search for the perfect settlement. The group, many of whom were former veterans and avid sailors, also included artists, lawyers, doctors, businessmen, and teachers searching for the American dream they had fought for and could afford. They discovered an uninhabited stretch of land for sale, a peninsula, owned by the Nash Engineering Company. With each family contributing, they secured the property, which spanned seventy-three acres, for a reported $75,000. They divided the land into sixty-nine lots, allotting a third of an acre with scenic views to each house. It was an affordable neighborhood that allowed families to own their own private oasis on the water.10

Village Creek quickly developed, and residents enjoyed community tennis courts as well as a shared marina and an idyllic beach on the Long Island Sound.11 But people who moved there invested in more than scenic homes on the water—they were sending a message. Village Creek was progressive and represented modernity in design and thinking. The homes were mostly midcentury modern, with natural light to take advantage of the beautiful views. And beyond the aesthetics, Village Creek welcomed everyone—something Elinor and Frederick had never experienced as an interracial couple. “Those of us who started Village Creek had a special kind of a community in mind,” reads the Village Creek’s 1951 prospectus. “We were looking for a good place in which to live and bring up our children, a community which would be in itself a model of democracy. We wanted a healthful place to live, waterfront, view . . . but above all else we wanted a community with a completely democratic character—no discrimination because of race, color, creed or politics.”12

The neighborhood seemed too good to be true, too utopian and unrealistic, and there was some backlash. Real estate brokers didn’t share the village’s vision of diversity, and for the first ten years of the neighborhood’s existence, agents refused to show any houses to white families once word spread that the community allowed blacks.

One of the Village Creek founders, Roger Wilcox, recalled the pushback he received for showing some of the plots to an African American family. “I couldn’t get FHA insurance for mortgages. We were told flatly that we would have to get rid of our covenants if we wanted FHA mortgage insurance,” he said. The covenant included a commitment to maintaining a racial balance in Village Creek, and every member had to sign it. “I told them, ‘We are a cooperative and we are not going to change our covenants.’ The covenants were the whole basis for why we were there in the first place. And they said, ‘Then you don’t get any loans.’”13