incorporated shortly afterward. Planned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Riverdale was federal owned until 1986, when it was incorporated as a town and the houses then sold to private individuals. Riverdale is organized as a semicircle around a mall, or quadrangle, that is anchored by the school and the administrative hall. Houses of five types were assigned according to rank, with upper-level engineers living in brick-clad two-story houses on 1st and 2nd streets, lower-ranking workers on 3rd Street, and so on. Much of that physical pattern remains evident. The community was driven by strict rules. For example, no shrubs, trees, or flowers could be planted without government approval. The mostly Colonial Revival buildings feature such modest details as pedimented entrances, and the two-story school is topped by a cupola.
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