Home

About

In the News 

Business Member Directory

Join

Calendar

Newsletter

Most Endangered Places
2001

DC's Historic Districts

Historic Site Inventory

Contact

Most Endangered Places for 2001

Langston Terrace Dwellings
21st Street and Benning Road, NE

Langston Terrace Dwellings, the first public housing project in the District of Columbia and the second in the United States, had the interest and patronage of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and First Lady A. Eleanor Roosevelt. Construction began in 1935 with an African American workforce under the supervision and designs of renowned African American architect Hilyard Robinson. Robinson was trained at Germany's Bauhaus and he became a pioneer in government sponsored housing, designing eight communities for the poor. Initially, prospective residents of Langston Terrace Dwellings had to be gainfully employed African Americans with children. There were far more qualified applicants than units available and when completed in 1938, it immediately became a successful example of federal government intervention in the housing market: it provided an alternative to Washington's deplorable alley housing that the private sector was neither capable nor interested in building. The International style apartments around a central commons, complete with notable bas-relief and courtyard sculptures, continue to create a sense of community and source of pride for the residents. Deferred maintenance, lack of conservation, and until very recently, lack of historic preservation standards enforcement, have allowed the property to fall into shameful decline. DCPL has been working with the Langston Dwellings' Residents Council, the DC Housing Authority, and DC Councilmember Phil Mendelson to overcome the neglect of one of Washington's architectural treasures, a locally and nationally designated landmark.

Chair: Jerry Maronek

PREVIOUS | NEXT