Jane Addams Homes – Chicago IL

Description

“In 2006, a cross-section of Chicagoans came together to preserve and transform the only remaining building of the historic Jane Addams Homes on the Near West Side. The three-story brick building at 1322-24 West Taylor opened in 1938 as the first federal government housing project in Chicago. It housed hundreds of families over six decades, and has sat vacant since 2002.

The Jane Addams Homes was one of three demonstration projects in Chicago built under the Public Works Administration Act, which was created to provide jobs and help revive the Depression-era economy. Designed by a team of architects headed by John Holabird, the buildings were named after the Nobel Prize-winning founder of Chicago’s Hull House. Jane Addams Homes not only provided housing, but also offered child care, employment counseling and a variety of other pioneering social services.”

A local non-profit plans to turn the remaining building into a National Public Housing Museum, in order to “create a place for social reflection, public dialogue, and education for the future.”