Public Housing Sites

San Antonio's Board of Commissioners created the San Antonio Housing Authority (SAHA) on June 17, 1937. On September 1, 1937, President Roosevelt signed the United States Housing Act of 1937. This created the United States Housing Authority (USHA) and provided $500 million for subsidies to be paid from the U.S. government to local public housing agencies (LHAs) like SAHA to improve living conditions for low-income families. SAHA made applications to the USHA for funds and the USHA agreed to provide financing for five projects; Alazan Courts, Apache Courts, Lincoln Heights Courts, Wheatley Courts and Victoria Courts. San Antonio enforced segregation in...

Architects Raymond Marlier, Edward B. Lee, William Boyd, and Bernard Prack designed the 3 public housing units constructed 1938-1940 in the Hill District. The USHA loaned 90% of the cost of the 3 projects. Terrace Village No. 1 was the second project for Pittsburgh, housing 805 families with an estimated cost of $4,950,000. The proposed project required the removal of 800,000 cubic yards of dirt from a hill overlooking a gully. No. 1 was constructed on Ruch Hill, covering 40 acres. No. 2 was built of Goat and Gazzam Hills, covered 89 acres, housed 1,818 families and cost approximately $10,800,000....

The Public Works Administration funded the construction of the Walker County Home in Jasper. The exact location or condition of this facility is unknown to the Living New Deal.  

Under the authority of the Housing Act of 1937 (Wagner-Steagall Act), Washington Square (80 units) was one of three federal housing developments in Huntington opened in 1940. Washington Square was developed at the “Colored” section and recorded as such on the 1950 Sanborn Insurance Map. The project demolished substandard housing in a black community, with some businesses listed in the 1937-1939 Negro Green Book although others, such as the theater across the 8th Avenue survived the Depression and the project. The eight two-story, row house apartment buildings have flat roofs, brick exteriors, and minimal ornamentation characteristic of the emerging International Style...

The Civil Works Administration (CWA), the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) supported the construction of welfare housing in Houlton ME between 1933 and 1935. Excerpts from the Annual Town Reports, Houlton Maine: 1933 Partial Cost of Houses Constructed For Welfare Department 13 people involved and the Houlton Planing Mill $1,337.83 Welfare Department – Labor Expenses 41 men employed as laborers $1,525.00 paid from R.F.C. Account. ADMINISTRATION Besides the High School lot, the Chairman personally supervised the building of six small houses which were occupied when built by those unable at that time to own or rent homes. Report of Federal Activities...

Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) built an addition to the West Virginia Children's Home in Elkins in 1935.

The no-longer extant (demolished and since redeveloped) Westfield Acres was a public housing project constructed with Public Works Administration (PWA) funds during the New Deal. The first families moved in on May 1, 1938 and the project was demolished in 2001. The Federal Writers' Project wrote: "Westfield Acres, N. side of Westfield Ave. between Dudley and 32nd Sts., was financed with $3,000,000 of PWA funds. The model housing project covers 25 acres and includes 18 units with a total of 514 apartments of 3 to 5 rooms. The buildings are three-story brick structures of simple design, with many large, steel-framed windows....

Preliminary plans for White Acres for white tenants was planned for South McComb in January 1940. The proposed unit was project Miss. 3-2, comprising 15 residential buildings and one administration/service building, and housing 84 families. Construction was by J. K. Fraser with a cost of $203,400. Architects were Landry and Matthes. The project involved razing existing structures, and grading, landscaping, plumbing and electrical work for the new structures. The two-story brick units are still in use.

"Will Rogers Courts is located east of S. Pennsylvania, south of Exchange Avenue. It was built by the WPA as a low-income housing project with an appropriation of $2,000,000. In 1939, it was taken over by the U.S. Housing Authority. Today, it remains a low-income housing addition under management by the Oklahoma Housing Authority. Rents range from $100 to $150 a month, with 354 units of efficiency, 1, 2 and 3-bedroom apartments. There are 85 red-brick building, with composition shingle gabled roofs. They are built on concrete slab foundations and have small concrete steps and porches. Most of the buildings...

The Paterson Courts is a 158 unit housing complex that was one of 50 slum clearance and low income housing projects the PWA was tasked with in the 1935-36 period. Its one and two story group houses, covers 7 acres, and cost $472,000. Its named after William Burns Paterson, a Scottish immigrant that spent 45 years from 1870 in efforts at negro education. The sponsor of the project was the Montgomery Advisory Committee on Housing. It was launched to replace an "objectionable slum area" and was designed with 14 two room, 89 three room, 40 four room, and 15 5 room...

Foote Homes public housing opened in 1940 with 900 units designated for African American families. Foote is the last remaining public housing facility in Memphis and occupies 46 acres near downtown Memphis. It was one of several public housing complexes in Memphis built with PWA funding. It is currently a 426 unit facility following a restoration/renovation in the mid-1990s. Located in a historically prominent African American neighborhood, the complex has been the target of differences between the city's public housing authority, who seeks to demolish it and disperse the residents into the community, and the residents of the complex who...

The Williamsburg Houses were opened in 1937, one of three huge public housing projects in New York City funded by the Public Works Administration (PWA), along with First Houses and Harlem River Houses in Manhattan.  New York City was the unchallenged leader in the creation of public housing in the United States, beginning in the 1920s, and the New Deal allowed the city to continue to built high-quality public housing that has stood the test of time. The official PWA history, published in 1939, described the project in detail: "Williamsburg Houses, the 'city-within-a-city' slum-clearance project, erected in the heart of the historic Williamsburg...

The Williamson Housing Authority built the Williamson Terrace Public Housing with aid from the Federal Housing Authority. The development consists of a single row of two-story, brick structures, with one structure set forward, closer to the right of way along Vinson Street. The back street appears on some maps as Smith Street. A retaining wall is to the rear of the projects holding up a steep hill and to the side allowing the forward building to be level. According to the Williamson Housing Authority, “On November 25, 1940, ground was broken in West Williamson and on Vinson Street for the construction of two...

Williston Apartments, consisting of two buildings with about 30 units, was an early project of the Alley Dwelling Authority (ADA). It was completed in 1937, and 265 families applied for apartments, highlighting the need for affordable housing in the nation’s capital. Williston Apartments underwent renovations in 2008-2009, but the exterior appears much as it did in 1937 (see two images below). The number of rentable units remains about the same, “28 units of affordable housing, including 3 units constructed for wheelchair accessibility” (DC Housing Authority). The ADA was one of the earliest New Deal initiatives to provide better housing for low-income Americans....