Status Demolished Demolished 2002–11 | Constructed 1939–41 | |
 | ||
Location Bounded by 37th Street and Pershing Road and King Drive and Cottage Grove Avenue
Chicago, Illinois
United States Governing
Body Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) | ||
The Ida B. Wells Homes were a Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) public housing project that was located in the Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois. It was bordered by Dr. Martin Luther King Drive on the west, Cottage Grove Avenue to the east, 37th Street to the north, and 39th Street (Pershing Road) to the south. The Ida B. Wells Homes consisted of rowhouses and mid- and high-rise apartment buildings and were constructed for African Americans from 1939 to 1941. They were demolished beginning in 2002 and ending in 2011.
Contents
- Map of Ida B Wells Housing Project Chicago IL 60653 USA
- History
- Darrow Homes and Madden Park Homes
- Problems
- Demolition
- References
Map of Ida B Wells Housing Project, Chicago, IL 60653, USA
History
Named for African American journalist and newspaper editor Ida B. Wells, the housing project was constructed between 1939 and 1941 as a Public Works Administration project to house black families in the "ghetto", in accordance with federal regulations requiring public housing projects to maintain the segregation of neighborhoods. It was the fourth public housing project constructed in Chicago before World War II and was much larger than the others, with 1,662 units. It had more than 860 apartments and almost 800 row houses and garden apartments, and included a city park, Madden Park. Described as "handsome [and] well planned", the project was initially a sought-after address and a route to success.
Darrow Homes and Madden Park Homes
In 1961, the Clarence Darrow Homes were built adjacent to the Ida B. Wells Homes. In 1970, the last of the Chicago Housing Authority's high-rise housing projects, the Madden Park Homes, were built north of the Wells homes. The "three huge, contiguous projects" lined the northern edge of North Kenwood Park and Oakland.
Problems
Like many other Chicago housing projects, the Wells homes were plagued by problems such as neglect by the housing authority, gang violence, shootings, and drug dealing. The Black P. Stones gang in particular asserted authority over the area and residents of the Ida B. Wells Homes; Eugene Hairston, co-founder of the gang, was shot dead at his home there in September, 1988. One mother-and-son cocaine ring in the project reputedly had customers standing in line "50 at a time, 'like at a Popsicle stand on a hot day'". The 30-minute audio documentary Ghetto Life 101, released in 1993, was made by two teenagers from the project, LeAlan Jones and Lloyd Newman. Their second audio documentary, Remorse: The 14 Stories of Eric Morse, which won a Peabody Award, deals with the murder of 5-year-old Eric Morse in the project on October 13, 1994; he was pushed from the window of a vacant 14th-floor apartment by two older boys (aged 10 and 11) after he refused to steal candy for them. The project was also the location for Frederick Wiseman's 1997 documentary Public Housing.
Demolition
In 1995, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development took over the Chicago Housing Authority's public housing projects and decided to demolish the high-rises. Demolition began at the Ida B. Wells Homes in late 2002 with the high-rise buildings on Cottage Grove Avenue. It was completed in August 2011 with the demolition of the last two residential buildings at 3718 S. Vincennes Avenue. Construction began in 2003 on the mixed-income community of Oakwood Shores, which will replace all three housing projects, Ida B. Wells, Madden Park, and Clarence Darrow, and money is being raised for a statue to Wells on the site.