Arthur Capper History TimelineSaturday, July 5, 2014

Johanna BockmanSociology and Anthropology Department

George Mason UniversityBlog: Sociology in My Neighborhood: DC Ward 6

The Beginnings• January 21, 1958: The first family (the Keeseckers) moved into

the Arthur Capper public housing project. 707 households would live in the project.– Arthur Capper was not segregated, but placed next to originally segregated

housing: • Carrollsburg Dwellings – built in 1941 for African Americans. • Ellen Wilson Dwellings – built in 1941 for whites.

– St. Paul AUMP Church was already in the neighborhood, constructed in 1924.

• Many residents were displaced from SW DC urban renewal. – By 1960, DC cleared out 23,500 residents in order to build a mixed-income,

primarily middle- and upper-income community in SW.– In 1990s, Capper-Carrollsburg residents would be displaced again. Thus, they

are a twice-cleared community, part of the nationwide trend of double displacement.

Source: http://www.jdland.com/dc/timeline.cfm; Post, 1/2/58, 1/22/58; Vale, Lawrence J. 2013. Purging the Poorest: Public Housing and the Design Politics of Twice-Cleared Communities. Chicago: U of Chicago Press.

1950s Arthur Capper Map

Arthur Capper Site Today

Arthur Capper• 1865-1951• Senator from Kansas, District of

Columbia Committee, from 1919 for 5 terms. He advocated for low-income housing.

• Family of slavery abolitionists. • First President of Topeka branch of the

NAACP, on the national board of the NAACP for over 30 years. He was an anti-segregationist.

http://sociologyinmyneighborhood.blogspot.com/2012/07/who-was-arthur-capper.html

Hilyard R. Robinson, architect

• 1899-1986, born in DC. • Howard University

Architecture Professor.• Modernist architect: – Langston Terrace

Dwellings, possibly first African-American public housing (1936).

– Lincoln Park (12th and E. Capitol) (1974)

Capper - Carrollsburg• 1969: NCHA claimed it had exhausted its reserves and in much debt. Possible that

NCHA would go into bankruptcy. • 1970: City-wide public housing rent strike, which removes the Director of Housing

Authority and forms the Tenants Advisory Board, which must be consulted on all policies made by the Housing Authority.

• 1973: DC is allowed to have Home Rule. – January 1975: First Home-Rule Mayor Walter Washington begins and inherits

heavily indebted public housing. – January 1979: Marion Barry becomes mayor and implemented a city-wide

renovation program for public housing.– November 1981: 1101 7th St, SE, reopened after renovation was supposed to

start in 1973.

Source: DC Archives, Post 4/18/1968.

1968 Plans for Capper Plaza• Proposal: Amphitheater, pavilion, wading pool, play field,

track, seating arrangements, game rooms, craft rooms, meeting rooms, refreshment areas, shops, toilet facilities, laundromat.

• Based on similar playgrounds in NYC done by Pomerance & Breines, M. Paul Friedberg, MOMA, with funding from Astor Foundation and political support from Mrs. Johnson.

• Part of the SE Freeway will cut the area off from rest of SE, such as complex could well-knit the remaining neighborhood together: "something which has been needed in the Southeast area for a long time."

Source: DC Archives

1970: MLK Food Co-op opens at 1011 7th St SE, led by Beatrice Gray

Capper-Carrollsburg Redevelopment

• 1995-2001: DC Control Board in operation. DCHA receiver, David Gilmore, has sole right to transfer property and negotiate the terms without public hearings.

• March 1998: last Capper high-rise, at 6th and Virginia, closed. • March 1999: DCHA and the Marine Corps sign an agreement to transfer (for

$500,000) approximately 13 acres of the Arthur Capper Dwellings site at 7th and K Streets, SE.

• October 2001: HUD awards a $34.9 million HOPE VI grant to DCHA to replace Arthur Capper and Carrollsburg projects with mixed-income housing.

Source: http://www.jdland.com/dc/timeline.cfm, Post 11/7/98.

HOPE VI Program• 1993: HOPE VI program began

– To replace those “severely distressed” public housing units (6% or 86,000 units). Turned into destruction of public housing and creation of mixed-income neighborhoods.

– As of 2008, HUD data showed that only 24% of the original public housing residents had relocated to completed HOPE VI developments.

– Lawrence Vale notes “striking parallels” between two eras of urban clearance (1930s-1960s urban renewal and 1990s-2000s HOPE VI).

• Ellen Wilson Dwellings was one of the first HOPE VI programs.• 1979: Virginia Williams, resident representative, told Mayor Barry: “We have a priority. I

would very much like to see us keep our eye on Ellen Wilson. This property is right up on Capitol Hill and if we aren't careful folk will take it right from under us.”

• 1988: Ellen Wilson Dwellings closed for renovation, never reopened.• 1999: First residents move into the Townhomes on Capitol Hill (the redeveloped Ellen

Wilson), one of the first mixed-income redevelopments of public housing in the US.Source: DC Archives, http://www.jdland.com/dc/timeline.cfm; Post 11/3/2013; “HOPE VI PROGRAM AUTHORITY AND FUNDING HISTORY,” http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/documents/huddoc?id=DOC_9838.pdf; Vale, Lawrence J. 2013. Purging the Poorest: Public Housing and the Design Politics of Twice-Cleared Communities. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

–

Arthur Capper Redevelopment• 1995-2001: DC Control Board in operation. DCHA receiver, David Gilmore, has sole

right to transfer property and negotiate the terms without public hearings.• March 1998: last Capper high-rise, at 6th and Virginia, closed. • March 1999: DCHA and the Marine Corps sign an agreement to transfer (for

$500,000) approximately 13 acres of the Arthur Capper Dwellings site at 7th and K Streets, SE.

• October 2001: HUD awards a $34.9 million HOPE VI grant to DCHA to replace Arthur Capper and Carrollsburg projects with mixed-income housing.

• December 2006: new Arthur Capper senior building completed• Nov. 7, 2007: Demolition of old Arthur Capper senior building. • May 2008: Construction on Capitol Quarter can begin. • November 2012: Construction finishes at Capitol Quarter, the townhouse portion

of the Capper/Carrollsburg redevelopment.• 2013: Navy Yard Neighborhood Association (NYNA) formed.Info: http://www.jdland.com/dc/timeline.cfm, Post 11/7/98.

Arthur Capper History TimelineSaturday, July 5, 2014

Johanna BockmanSociology and Anthropology Department

George Mason UniversityBlog: Sociology in My Neighborhood: DC Ward 6