John Hope Homes, Building B-1, 338 Spelman Lane (Originally Leonard Street), Atlanta

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS GA,61-ATL,55-B-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

John Hope Homes is a vintage public housing development of 83 one and two story structures which originally provided 606 apartments for those in need of subsidized housing. Constructed in JOHN HOPE HOMES, BUILDING B-l HABS NO. GA - (PAGE 2) three super blocks, the 47 flat and 36 gable roofed buildings form front and rear yard courts around the perimeter of each block preserving central areas for community recreation space. Structures and their associated yards vary greatly in size and configuration with respect to both the mix of apartments composing them and the position of streets around them.

Designed in the modern aesthetic of the International Style, John Hope Homes displays a shear stucco skin incorporating little surface modulation thereby highlighting the presence of its steel casement fenestration. Development of the front porch using a concrete overhang and steel pipe columns serves to add local identity to the dwellings while maintaining a simplicity continually subservient to both the individual building and greater community. In the fifty-three years of its existence, continuing maintenance programs have greatly altered the appearance of John Hope Homes.

Kitchens and electrical services were modified in the late while new stucco, exterior lighting, fencing and landscaping were added in the early The middle and late saw the first major exterior renovations including replacement of asbestos containing roof material and the retrofit of 60% of the lead-paint - coated steel casement windows with aluminum double-hung units.

Finally, in an attempt to better serve the public housing population, the Housing Authority undertook a series of unit conversions (combining 2 efficiency units to create 1 - 2BR unit) reducing the total apartment count from 606 to HISTORY: Designed in and completed in as an extension of University Homes, John Hope Homes, due in large part to the effort of its namesake and first president of the Atlanta University System, became the first public housing project developed under the auspices of a newly formed Atlanta Housing Authority. Erected on land parceled from Creek Indian territories, the new community replaced some 425 dilapidated dwellings in a slum known then as "Beaver Slide" and provided the residents with modern utility services and state-of-the-art kitchen and bath facilities.

Funded through federal sources to relieve the city's poor housing conditions, the Housing Authority was able to complete the construction for a cost of averaging approximately per apartment JOHN HOPE HOMES, BUILDING B-l HABS NO. GA - (PAGE 3) Planned by the prominent Atlanta firm of Burge and Stevens, the project incorporated solutions from the best European precedents and applied them as best as site limitations and capital resources would allow. The community fared well for many years, but, as both inner city and broader sociological changes have occurred in parallel with limited resources for maintenance, John Hope Homes began to recall the inhospitable images of the slum that preceded it.

As it happened before, a new interest in providing proper housing for a disadvantaged population has brought emphasis and federal allocations to this site for renewal of a distressed neighborhood and remediation of its connection to a growing city.

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS GA,61-ATL,55-B-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Epstein, Kyle F., and Virginia Horak - Photographs, Written Historic and Descriptive Data - HABS No. GA Warren Epstein & Associates, Architects, Inc., May HISTORIAN: Kyle F. Epstein Comprehensive Modernization of John Hope Homes, Project Designer May JOHN HOPE HOMES, BUILDING B-l HABS NO. GA - (PAGE 4) JOHN HOPE HOMES, BUILDING B-l HABS NO. GA - (PAGE 5) a o o O Q z o . LU H= L. 2! JOHN HOPE HOMES, BUILDING B-l HABS NO. GA - (PAGE 6) (fl 5. 0'- Xr 0. % gaa_ Sip > t - -H 0 i\: z: EJ in 3:3 j? ~ mi <Q uJ uJ 1 <J 1.1 Q u T T !T, EI 0 n 2: ot IO z: z. is !i : r' r* * IK -j m i, feH / n B i?li; . 3*H *i 'a .[ V i S U O _l <Q 1 uJ CO i U gra 1 1 ten b P3 [ 3 i 7,r ar siC 3