- City:
- St. Louis, MO
- Site Type:
- Civic Facilities, Public Housing
- New Deal Agencies:
- Public Works Funding, Public Works Administration (PWA)
- Designer:
- Hoener & Baum & Froese
Description
Neighborhood Gardens is part of the first round of federally backed public housing in America. Only 7 projects were completed in this earliest phase, including Harlem River Houses in New York City and Techwood Homes in Atlanta. The program provided loans to limited dividend corporations to clear slums and build low-rent housing projects. The program proved slow and unwieldy, and was replaced by the PWA’s direct-subsidy program in 1935, out of which 52 projects were completed. These programs were discontinued with the passage of the 1937 Housing Act that established the US Housing Authority. However, most historians agree that the PWA-era projects were much better designed and built than their stripped-down successors.
Neighborhood Gardens occupies one city block on the near north side of St. Louis. The project was the brainchild of J.A. Wolf, the executive director of the Neighborhood Association Settlement House. In 1933, the Association formed a limited dividend company, purchased the land, secured the PWA loan, hired the architects, and commenced the project. The PWA loan totaled $500,000, with another $140,000 coming from private subscriptions. The first tenants moved in on January 20, 1935.
Neighborhood Gardens consisted of 252 apartments distributed in six three-story buildings. The buildings were organized into U-shapes to provide interior gardens and courtyards. The complex included a playground, a splash pool, and a community center with a large industrial kitchen. Conceived in a segregated city, the project restricted residence to white families.
The project provided decent, safe, affordable housing to working families for decades. However, it fell into decline in the 1980s amid a series of ill-fated ownership changes, as well as the general deterioration of inner core neighborhoods. By 1990, it was vacated and abandoned. However, in 2001, the Spanish Lake Development company purchased the complex and undertook a multi-million dollar renovation. Today, Neighborhood Gardens is a beautifully restored 144-unit complex with a mix of market rate and low-income apartments.
Source notes
Landmarks Association of St. Louis https://preservationresearch.com/2005/08/neighborhood-gardens-and-the-perils-of-modernism/Site originally submitted by Joseph Heathcott on January 12, 2013.
Site Details
Federal Cost |
---|
$500,000.00 |
Contribute to this Site
We welcome contributions of additional information on any New Deal site.
Submit More Information or Photographs for this New Deal Site
I grew up in neighborhood gardens. I lived there from 1951 until 1969. It was beautiful. I knew all the nooks and crannies of the complex. My parents lived there from 1941 till 1969.
We had a wading pool, two huge sandboxes on both sides of the pool, a basketball court, a community center where my parents 25th anniversary was held plus our graduation parties. I attended St. Patricks grade school which was torn down in 1970.
The apartments housed many teachers,lawyers,writers and other professional people because of it’s access to downtown.
There were trees and plants that were planted with such care as they were native to Missouri. I wish there were more pictures. It was a truly special place.
Dear Kathleen, thanks so much for sharing these lovely recollections with us!
Thank you for this information. Please note that J.A. Wolf is spelled with only one letter f at the end. As his great-granddaughter I am sure this is correct.
Best,
Christine Wolf
Error corrected! Thanks, Christine.
DW
Dear Christine, I’m from Russia, now I am writing an article about the architecture of this housing – in the USSR at the time, they also built something similar. Could you tell me how to spell the full name of your great-grandfather – in all sources I find only his initials.
I worked with JA and Ray Crabdree as the Program Director at the settlement house, 2930 N. 21st street in North St. Louis, Missouri from 1960-1967. Bith wonderful men to work with and learn from. JohnPendleton, [email protected]