DeSoto Homes, Bounded by Turner McCall Boulevard, North Fifth Avenue, West Ninth Street & Keelway Drive, Rome

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS GA-2403. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Bounded by Turner McCall Boulevard, North Fifth Avenue, West Ninth Street, and Keelway Drive, Rome, Floyd County, Georgia USGS Rome South Quadrangle, Universal Transverse Mercator Coordinates: 16S Corrected to on 30 September using Google Earth, datum by HABS Collections Manager Anne Mason. The coordinate represents the approximate center of the district. There is no restriction on its release to the public.

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS GA-2403. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Built in DeSoto Homes is significant as the first federally funded public housing project built in Rome, Georgia under the auspices of the United States Housing Authority. As one of the earliest public housing programs in the state, it is considered historically significant for its role in Georgia s twentieth-century history. It also speaks to the history of segregation. DeSoto Homes was originally limited to white residents as a result of housing laws enforced during the Jim Crow Era. The smaller development of Altoview Terrace, located in East Rome, was built at the same time for African-American residents (See HABS No. GA-2419 documentation not submitted to HABS as of 30 September as part of the project.

The name of the DeSoto Homes community and its Spanish Colonial Revival style design reflect Rome s association with explorer Hernando de Soto s expedition th through Georgia in and the 400 anniversary of that event. DESOTO HOMES (Charles Hight Homes) HABS No. GA-2403 (Page 2) PART I. HISTORICAL INFORMATION A. Physical History: 1. Date of erection: The Commission of the Housing Authority of the City of Rome approved the working drawings submitted for DeSoto Homes on June 12, The United States Housing Authority gave a Notice to Proceed with construction on August 28, Site clearance and construction began on September 5, In mid-August, the Housing Authority of the City of Rome began accepting tenant applications for DeSoto Homes and the buildings were occupied in November of that year. 2.

Architects: The firm of Cooper and Cooper and Odis Clay Poundstone; the landscape architect was William C. Pauley. Brothers Samuel Inman Cooper and Joseph Walter Cooper, Jr. founded the architectural firm of Cooper and Cooper in Atlanta, Georgia in Originally, the firm primarily focused on residential and school commissions, most notably with the design of several buildings and the campus master plan at Berry College in Rome, Georgia. Prior to World War II, Cooper and Cooper entered into large-scale housing and defense-related projects such as Lawson General Hospital in Chamblee, Georgia. The partnership was dissolved during the war and reorganized in as Cooper, Bond, & Cooper. A native of Montgomery, Alabama, Odis Clay Poundstone based his practice in Atlanta, Georgia.

Along with his initial business partner Frank Lockwood he became a registered architect in Georgia in and joined the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in The firm of Lockwood and Poundstone lasted from until shortly before Lockwood s death in Poundstone later formed the firm of Poundstone, Ayers and Goodwin, which concentrated on school and church commissions throughout the southeastern United States from the through the Among Poundstone s principal works from this time period are a number of buildings on the Pfeiffer University and Bennett College campuses in North Carolina, the Woman s Building in Cedartown, Georgia, and the John Graham Homes (GA and Park Homes (GA housing projects, and Rodeph Sholom Synagogue located in Rome, Georgia. DESOTO HOMES (Charles Hight Homes) HABS No.

GA-2403 (Page 3) William C. Pauley was the landscape architect for both the DeSoto Homes and Altoview Terrace housing project developments. A native of Lafayette, Indiana, Pauley obtained his Master s of Landscape Architecture degree from the Massachusetts Agricultural College. In he moved to Atlanta where he worked for local firms E. Burton Cooke, the C.A. Dahl Company, and Lakewood Nursery before starting his own practice in Pauley s notable projects include the Atlanta Botanical Garden, a master plan for Piedmont Park, Hurt Park near the Georgia State University campus, and the landscape design of University Homes in Atlanta. From to he primarily focused on landscape planning for government commissions, including a number of public housing projects throughout the state. 3.

Original and subsequent owners: Housing Authority of the City of Rome, to Northwest Georgia Housing Authority, to present. 4. Original and subsequent uses: Public housing and administration offices for the Housing Authority of the City of Rome. 5. Builder, Contractor, Suppliers: Contractor: Griffin Construction Company, Inc., Atlanta, Georgia Structural Engineer: Armstrong Mechanical Engineer: A.L. Lindstrom Electrical Engineer: Bush Civil Engineer: Jere Dodd 6.

Original Plans and construction: The Commission of the Housing Authority of the City of Rome approved the working drawings submitted for DeSoto Homes on June 12, The project contractors, Griffin Construction Company, Inc., won the base bid contract of Site clearance and construction of DeSoto Homes began in early September and was completed in October 7. Alterations and additions: There have been no additions to individual buildings within the DeSoto Homes housing project or to the site plan of the development as a whole. As part of the Phase I Modernization Plan of the early more thorough renovations conducted through funding from the DESOTO HOMES (Charles Hight Homes) HABS No.

GA-2403 (Page 4) Comprehensive Improvement Assistance Program (CIAP) occurred in the including: metal exterior doors were added, ceramic tile bathrooms were installed, and insulated sheetrock walls were placed in all buildings, the original steel casement windows were replaced with anodized aluminum sash windows, and the interior floor plan of the Administration Building was significantly altered. It is also believed that the original recreational spray pool, once located behind the Administrative Building, was paved over for parking. B. Historical Context: Built as racially segregated low-income housing for white occupancy in DeSoto Homes was the first United States Housing Authority funded project completed in the city of Rome, Georgia.

Along with the smaller Altoview Terrace project, which was concurrently built for African-American residents in East Rome, DeSoto Homes was loosely based on the European social housing estates and planning principles of the Garden City Movement. The twenty-eight building complex contains 148 residential units and a public Administrative Building within an urban context. One- and two-story buildings are symmetrically arranged to create multiple vistas and the landscaped site plan is laced with concrete walkways, small lawns of green space, and a central open playground area.

Early Advocates for Housing Reform in the United States As immigrants and rural residents flooded into American cities searching for employment during the Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, development of low-income housing was primarily left to the real estate entrepreneurs from the private sector. Although religious-based institutions and local philanthropic organizations, such as Jane Addams Hull House in Chicago, sought to alleviate the overcrowded slum conditions of the urban poor, politicians and social reformers alike remained largely deferential to private interests.

Aside from the minimum standard housing codes passed by the City of New York in and government efforts at the state or federal levels to address problems with substandard housing were largely absent.1 By the a waning of private investment in low-income residential construction, coupled with the limited success of an emergency housing program at the end of World War I had prompted a new generation of American housing activists to call for a 1 Kenneth T. Jackson, Crabgrass Frontier (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. DESOTO HOMES (Charles Hight Homes) HABS No.

GA-2403 (Page 5) larger role for the federal government.2 One of the most prominent early reformers was Edith Elmer Wood, who gained international recognition with her thesis The Housing of The Unskilled Wage Earner, published in Wood was one of the first to argue against restrictive housing codes that had a correlation with higher rental rates for poor tenants. She also declared that the country s reliance on private enterprise, as a sole provider of low-cost housing, was inadequate and appealed for a government subsidized housing program3 to be instituted as a permanent policy goal in the United States. The Regional Planning Association of America (RPAA), founded in by New York architect Clarence Stein, joined Wood in her petition for a public housing program.

Although loosely organized and small in number, the RPAA proved to be a highly influential voice in planning and housing matters. The group counted among critic and journalist Lewis Mumford, planner Catherine Bauer, architect Henry Wright, conservationist Benton McKaye, and 4 Edith Wood herself, as some of its more well known members. Wood and those in the RPAA looked to Europe as a guide for developing a comprehensive, low-cost housing plan in the United States.

The Social Housing Act of in the Netherlands was one of the first initiatives on the continent that provided for subsidized housing to be built by municipal governments and non- profit organizations in cities with populations exceeding residents.5 The British Parliament passed the Housing Act as part of an effort to address a crippling post-war housing shortage and lack of affordable housing for returning veterans after World War I. Along with the subsequent Housing Act, the two programs accounted for construction of approximately rent subsidized units in the United Kingdom prior to Even more influential were the large-scale German housing settlements (or, Siedlung ), built on public land at the 2 Jackson, Crabgrass Frontier, p.

3 Edith Elmer Wood, The Housing of The Unskilled Wage Earner (New York: The Macmillan Company, pp. 4 Richard Pommer, The Architecture of Urban Housing in the United States during the Early The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 37, No. 4 (December, p. 5 Anthony M. Tung, Preserving the World s Great Cities (New York: Three Rivers Press, p. 6 A.E. Holmans, Housing Policy in Britain (London: Wolfeboro, p. 83. DESOTO HOMES (Charles Hight Homes) HABS No.

GA-2403 (Page 6) outskirts of cities during the Weimar Republic in the mid to late Seeking to fulfill both a functional and social need, German architects and planners forged a synthesis of the modernist emphasis on prefabrication and standardized residential plans (coined Existenzminimum ) with the utopian tenets of the English planner Ebenezer Howard s Garden City movement, which espoused the creation of decentralized and self-sufficient, suburban edge cities. In her travels to Germany and Europe in the early and subsequent book Modern Housing, Catherine Bauer chronicled such developments as Ernst May s R merstadt estates in Frankfurt, the Dammerstock project in Karlsruhe by Walter Gropius and Otto Haesler, and Martin Wagner and Bruno Taut s Horseshoe housing development in Berlin.

These German housing projects were generally characterized by uniform rows of apartment houses and community buildings reaching no more than four or five stories in height. The buildings were oriented toward the sun, interspersed with landscaped areas, and7 surrounded by large greenbelt tracts of publicly owned land. The New Deal and Public Works Administration Housing Division With the onset of the Great Depression in and collapse of the real estate market, a greater sense of urgency was felt among housing reformers and the public at large about the need for a federal housing program. The change came with the presidential election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in and the implementation of his New Deal program.

The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) was passed in June as part of Roosevelt s First One Hundred Days in office. Designed to create jobs and provide low-income housing, the legislation authorized the Public Works Administration (PWA) Housing Division under Interior Secretary Harold Ickes to lend money to private limited- dividend corporations for slum clearance and housing development or, if need be, to buy, condemn, and build subsidized housing itself. Some limited-dividend projects were built between and before the program was abandoned in February The PWA then began directly building federal housing with slum clearance as a parallel objective. On November 29, Techwood Homes, a segregated whites-only complex located in 7 H.

Peter Oberlander and Eva Newbrun, Houser: The Life and Work of Catherine Bauer (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, pp. 8 Paul R. Lusignan, Public Housing in the United States, Cultural Resource Management, Vol. 25, No. 1 (Washington United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, p. 36. DESOTO HOMES (Charles Hight Homes) HABS No. GA-2403 (Page 7) Atlanta, Georgia had the distinction of being the first PWA housing project in the country to be dedicated by President Roosevelt (however 9 the complex was not ready for occupancy until January After only two years since the start of the program, Harold Ickes and the Housing Division of the PWA were subjected to criticism from both sides of the federally subsidized housing debate.

Advocates were unhappy with Ickes centralization of power within the PWA, the glacial pace of the administration s funding and construction schedules, and high minimum rent rates charged to tenants. Opponents such as the National Association of Real Estate Boards (NAREB) and the Chamber of Commerce viewed subsidized housing as socialistic and feared the Public Works Administration s power of eminent domain and role as a direct builder, which had become the primary vehicle for creating low income housing development and slum clearance following 10 the collapse of the limited-dividend project plan. Creation of the United States Housing Authority In January the Federal Sixth Circuit Court handed down a decision in the case United States v.

Certain Lands in the City of Louisville that effectively restricted the Housing Division of the Public Works Administration by declaring its condemnation powers for the construction of public housing to be unconstitutional.11 Housing advocates, many of whom had anticipated potential legal problems with the hastily written legislation authorizing the PWA, had tried and failed to craft a permanent public housing policy bill as early as Following Franklin Roosevelt s landslide re-election in the fall of proponents redoubled their efforts. The result was the United States Housing Act (also popularly known as the Wagner- Steagall Act after the bill s two sponsors Senator Robert F. Wagner of New York and Representative Henry B.

Steagall of Alabama), which led to the creation of the United States Housing Authority (USHA). 12 The new legislation was greatly influenced by the input of housing reformer and urban planner Catherine Bauer and sought to 9 Florence Fleming Corley, Atlanta s Techwood and University Homes Projects, Atlanta History, Vol. XXXI, No. 4 (Atlanta: Atlanta Historical Society, Winter p. 26. 10 John H. Mollenkopf, The Contested City (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, p. 69. 11 Gail Radford, Modern Housing for America (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, p. 12 Jackson, Crabgrass Frontier, pp. DESOTO HOMES (Charles Hight Homes) HABS No. GA-2403 (Page 8) rectify many of the shortcomings that critics felt had hampered the work of the PWA.

The USHA was created as an independent agency outside the authority of Harold Ickes and the Interior Department with Nathan Straus, former head of the New York 13 City Housing Authority, appointed as the first administrator. The Housing Act also offered a more decentralized approach to federal housing than its predecessor. Under the USHA, the federal government provided financial, technical, and design assistance to local housing authorities, which were charged with the responsibility of initiating, building, and operating their own projects. Between and the USHA was responsible for the development14of over 370 housing projects at a cost of about million. By thirty-three states had passed enabling legislation 15 that allowed for the establishment of local authorities.

The Georgia General Assembly passed the Housing Authorities Law during the session and Governor Eurith D. Rivers signed it into law on March 30 of that year. The law provided for the creation of the State Housing Authority Board, which was composed of the State Treasurer, the State School Superintendent, the Secretary of State, the Chairman of the State Planning Board and the Governor. The State Housing Authority Board was responsible for allocating federal funds and holding final approval over local housing authorities. Shortly after the passage of the Georgia Housing Authorities Law in local authorities were established in Atlanta, Athens, Augusta, and Savannah.

The cities of Columbus, Macon, and Rome followed suit in The Housing Authority of the City of Rome Located at the confluence of the Etowah, Oostanuala and Coosa rivers in the northwest corner of the state, the city of Rome, Georgia experienced significant population growth during the early twentieth century as the city emerged as an industrial center in the region based cotton textile, furniture, and brick manufacturing among others. In the city had a population of By that number had risen to as a result of the city s annexation of surrounding areas and an influx of rural residents in search of work. Rome, like other developing industrial municipalities in Georgia and throughout the South, 13 Oberlander and Newbrun, Houser: The Life and Work of Catherine Bauer, pp.

14 Lusignan, Public Housing in the United States, p. 37. 15 Jackson, Crabgrass Frontier, pp. 16 Coleman Woodbury, ed., Housing Yearbook (Chicago: National Association of Housing Officials, pp. DESOTO HOMES (Charles Hight Homes) HABS No. GA-2403 (Page 9) was ill-prepared to accommodate such rapid population growth and much of the city s rental housing at that time for poor and working class families tended to be either older, poorly maintained residences or crowded together and shoddily constructed dwellings that often lacked heat or running water.

The economic hardships of the Great Depression only exacerbated these conditions and, following the Housing Act of city leaders moved to address the issue with federally subsidized slum clearance and low-income housing for the African-American and white residents of Rome that needed assistance. The City Commission of the City of Rome created the Housing Authority of the City of Rome on May 25, and it was granted approval by the State Housing Authority Board and Governor E.D. Rivers on April 1, At the first organizational meeting on April 4, Alfred Lee Barron was unanimously elected Secretary- Treasurer, or Executive Director, of the Authority. Keel, Chairman of the City Commission, designated Stewart A. Marshall, Ulysses N. Howell, and Wilson M.

Hardy as Authority Commissioners 17 with Osgood P. Willingham acting as Chairman. The first Central Office of the Rome Housing Authority was located at 426 Broad Street. The Authority s first motion was the appointment of a Committee to negotiate with architects and recommend possible courses of action to be taken for future housing projects in the city. Two days later, on April 6, the committee submitted their recommendations and the Housing Authority of the City of Rome selected the associated firms of Odis Clay Poundstone and Cooper and Cooper for their Architectural and Engineering Services in connection with the Slum Clearance Project that is soon to come up in the City of Rome, Georgia.

18 Each firm focused on neo- classical style building design, and although based in Atlanta, both were well known in Rome having worked on commissions in the city itself and throughout Northwest Georgia.

Poundstone was the architect for Cave Spring High School and the Rodeph Shalom Synagogue in Rome and the Woman s Building in nearby Cedartown.19 Cooper and Cooper had strong ties to Berry College in Rome, and built a number of properties on the campus 17 Housing Authority of the City of Rome, Minutes of the First or Organization Meeting of the Housing Authority of the City of Rome, GA, Rome, April 3, 18 Housing Authority of the City of Rome, Meeting of the Housing Authority of the City of Rome, Georgia, April 6, 19 Kenneth Thomas, Biographical Sketch of Odis Clay Poundstone, (Atlanta: Department of Natural Resources, Historic Preservation Division, DESOTO HOMES (Charles Hight Homes) HABS No.

GA-2403 (Page 10) throughout the and early in addition to completing the school s master plan in Poundstone and Cooper and Cooper were to act as the liaisons between Rome Housing Authority and the USHA offices in Washington with regard to the design and construction of the projects. The firms primary duties included site planning (i.e., the design of entrance walks, drives, fences, retaining walls, and sub- grading), landscaping, and building construction that included housing units, stores, garages, and community facilities.

Furthermore, the architects contract called for the firms to conduct site recommendations within the city of Rome, construction cost estimates, income surveys of current residents in the selected areas of development, and a total of the number of units to be demolished as part of the slum clearance component of the development. Construction of Desoto Homes and Altoview Terrace On July 2, the Authority received a loan from the USHA to facilitate site 21 selection surveys and planning by the architectural firms. In early December a meeting was held which approved a decision to send preliminary building plans to Washington with the suggestion that USHA officials would make necessary amendments.22 Later that month, A.I.

Brady of the USHA met with all members of the Rome Housing Authority to discuss necessary general changes to the submitted plans, what the City of Rome s obligations would be with regard to utility improvements for the projects, and how the Authority was to proceed with an application for a USHA advance loan.

It was also indicated within the meeting minutes that site selections had been finalized for two projects.23 Further changes to the plans and the first mention of the decision to build racially segregated projects were issued in mid-January of when the USHA recommended that the number of living units in the white project be increased from eighty-four to 120 as a method of reducing average construction costs.24 20 Jennifer Dickey, personal communication, 21 Augusta Herald, for Georgia Housing, July 2, 22 Housing Authority of the City of Rome, Minutes of December 6, 23 Housing Authority of the City of Rome, Minutes of Meeting of Housing Authority of the City of Rome, December 23, 24 Housing Authority of the City of Rome, Minutes of Meeting of the Housing Authority of the City of Rome, January 18, DESOTO HOMES (Charles Hight Homes) HABS No.

GA-2403 (Page 11) What appears to be an illustration of the GA 5-1 project in the early stages of the design process is found in the bulletin Housing and Recreation, which was published by the United States Housing Authority in Identified only as A Housing Project in a Small Southern City, the site plan of the GA 5-1 development is used as case study on how to raise the density per acre of a site without sacrificing recreational space. The illustration of the first study shows an open-ended plan of thirty-eight, single-story residential buildings and a large community building facing to the east and west along four interior access drives.

A large courtyard occupies the center of the site with four smaller open areas placed in each corner of the complex.25 In February a total of in USHA-aided loan contracts was approved for the Housing of Authority of the City of Rome to build two housing projects within the city. was allocated for the development of GA the low-income project for white occupants; was to go towards GA for African-American residents. The loans were to cover approximately 90 percent of construction costs for each development.

The 26 Authority approved and signed the contracts on March 8, Total development27costs for both GA 5-1 and GA 5-2 were not to exceed By mid-April a second draft of drawings had been developed and the site was chosen for the GA 5-1 project.28 In May, the planned location of GA 5-1 was made available to the public. The slum clearance and new housing development was to be located on North Fifth Avenue between West Seventh (now Turner-McCall Boulevard) and West Ninth streets.

Authority members praised the site because of the large space available so close to the heart of the city, along with transportation, school facilities, and other desirable features the location is a prominent one and desirable from every standpoint, close enough to industry and commerce to be in easy walking distance, yet so located as to afford quiet and comfort for tenants. 29 25 United States Housing Authority, Housing and Recreation (Washington Government Printing Office, 26 Annual Report of the United States Housing Authority (Washington Government Printing Office, p. 19.

27 Housing Authority of the City of Rome, Minutes of a Special Meeting of the Housing Authority of the City of Rome, April 4, 28 Housing Authority of the City of Rome, Minutes of Meeting of the Housing Authority of the City of Rome, April 13, 29 Rome News-Tribune, N. Fifth Avenue Options Taken By Authority, 11 May, p. DESOTO HOMES (Charles Hight Homes) HABS No. GA-2403 (Page 12) At the time of the announcement, approximately forty single story rental houses occupied the site, primarily along North Fifth Avenue and Jackson Street, and an unpaved alley, which ran between West Seventh and West Ninth streets. Most of the deteriorating wood frame dwellings dated from the early twentieth century and lacked interior plumbing.

The block on which the dwellings were located was in a white middle and working class area in the Fourth Ward section of Rome. Developed during the as one of the city s earliest suburbs, the Fourth Ward was originally known as the DeSoto neighborhood after the infamous expedition of Spanish Conquistador Hernando DeSoto which was believed to have passed through the area. The neighborhood was later annexed by the City of Rome in In a meeting on May 15, the Authority Commission officially adopted the name DeSoto Homes for GA as a recollection of the historic name of the neighborhood in which the project was to be located.

It maythhave also reflected the growing national interest in the 400 anniversary of the DeSoto Expedition and the accompanying Congressional report issued by anthropologist John R. Swanton in that traced the route of the journey. GA 5-2 was to be built on a sloped site bounded by Spring Creek Drive, East Street, and East Street in East Rome. It was given the name Altoview Homes (changed to Altoview Terrace a month later) because of the project s31vista of nearby Mount Alto, located to the southwest of the city. On June 8, the architects submitted the final working drawings for both DeSoto Homes and Altoview Terrace. Preparations were also made for advertisements of construction bids starting on June Chairman Wilson M.

Hardy approved both sets of architectural plans on June 12 and June 16, respectively. The DeSoto Homes plans showed twenty-eight buildings containing 148 residential units, a one-story administrative building, and a large, rectangular central playground area on a level, landscaped 8.7-acre site. All buildings were arranged on a north-south and east-west axis. One-story buildings lined the perimeter of the development along West Ninth Street, North Fifth Avenue, and West Seventh Street.

The larger, two-story row houses were placed on the interior of the complex and along a new access drive (later 30 Upper Avenue A Historic District National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form 31 Housing Authority of the City of Rome, Minutes of Meeting of Housing Authority of the City of Rome, Georgia, May 15, 32 Housing Authority of the City of Rome, Minutes of Meeting of Housing Authority of the City of Rome, Georgia, June 8, DESOTO HOMES (Charles Hight Homes) HABS No. GA-2403 (Page 13) named North Fourth Avenue) that connected West Ninth and West Seventh Streets and split the project into two blocks.

In addition to the playground space, smaller recreation areas were interspersed between the one-story apartments and an oval children s spray pool was located behind the Administration Building. A gridded network of concrete walks delineated the common landscaped areas and provided access to each of the other buildings and surrounding city sidewalks. Altoview Terrace was designed as a much smaller development with only nineteen buildings housing ninety-four dwelling units, a one-story community center, and playground on 5.5 acres. The two communities shared similar architectural details in the designs of the one- and two-story residential buildings, including a Spanish Colonial Revival style aesthetic and a variety of one, two, or three bedroom plans.

The buildings of both projects were to be constructed of structural terra cotta masonry block walls on concrete slabs with stucco exteriors and slate roofs. Opposition to the housing project developments, which had been brewing among some citizens since the organization of the City of Rome Housing Authority, came to the fore with a legal injunction to halt work that was issued in Floyd County Superior Court on July 3, Petitioners argued that the contract between the city and housing authority was illegal and that the city 33 did not have the funds available to proceed with construction.

The Authority denied the allegations of contract illegality, claiming that it was created in accordance with state law.34 The court 35 ruled in favor of the Authority in a hearing on July 22, Despite the lawsuit, the Authority initiated land purchases and condemnation proceedings in early July on property in the Fourth Ward and East Rome sections of the city.36 On July 18, construction bids for site clearance and development of both housing projects were opened. The Griffin Construction Company of Atlanta, Georgia was the lowest bidder for DeSoto Homes with a base bid of A.J.

Honeycutt Company, Inc., of Birmingham, Alabama came in with the lowest bid for the Altoview 33 Rome News-Tribune, 4 Citizens Seek an Injunction Upon Housing, 3 July 34 Rome News-Tribune, Rome Housing Authority Answers Injunction Suit: Denies any Illegalities, 16 July p. 35 Rome-News Tribune, Authority Wins First In Series of Legal Fights, 23 July 36 Rome News-Tribune, Housing Project Land Purchases Begun in Rome, 2 July DESOTO HOMES (Charles Hight Homes) HABS No.

GA-2403 (Page 14) Terrace project at United States Housing Administrator Nathan Straus approved the low base bids on July The notice to proceed with clearance and construction of the DeSoto Homes and Altoview Terrace projects was given by the USHA officials on April 28, Demolition began of the forty buildings, thirty-eight of them residences, in the Forth Ward area on September 5, Clearance of nineteen houses, one store, and one shed39on the Altoview Terrace property began shortly thereafter. By late October, crews totaling between seventy-five and 100 workers had installed concrete footings on all but three buildings on the DeSoto Homes site and finished erecting foundation walls on three other buildings.

At Altoview Terrace, forty-five workers had completed the footings for eight buildings and 40 finished erecting the foundation walls for two buildings. As work progressed throughout the fall and winter, housing authority commissioners dedicated themselves to resolving minor alterations to the building plans and other construction-related issues. As a means of developing support for the two projects, the Rome Housing Authority sponsored a screening of the documentary Housing In Our Time at the DeSoto Theater in downtown Rome on January 26, By the end of May, the Authority had begun to turn its attention to contract bid requests for interior appliances for the both projects.

In a display of the racial inequality of the era, commissioners decided that the white tenants of DeSoto Homes would receive electric refrigerators,42while African-American residents would be provided with iceboxes. The Authority also began to give consideration to issues relating to tenant selection. Acceptance of resident applications began in July for both Altoview and DeSoto Homes.43 A brochure with a 37 Rome News-Tribune, Bids Upon Rome Housing Approved At Washington, 31 July 38 Housing Authority of the City of Rome, Minutes of Regular Meeting of Commissioners of Housing Authority of the City of Rome, August 31, 39 Rome News-Tribune, Work is Begun Upon Housing Projects Here, 5 September p. 2. 40 Rome News-Tribune, Rapid Progress Being Made ON Housing Projects Here, 30 October p. 7.

41 Rome News-Tribune, Housing Movie Scheduled Here, 21 January p. 1. 42 Housing Authority of the City of Rome, Minutes of Regular Meeting of Housing Authority of the City of Rome, May 23, 43 Rome News-Tribune, Housing Authority Ready For Tenant Applications , 21 July DESOTO HOMES (Charles Hight Homes) HABS No. GA-2403 (Page 15) question and answer format was published by the Rome Housing Authority at this time and distributed to city residents and prospective tenants. Entitled Questions and Answers About the Housing Projects in Rome, it sought to address topics related to income qualifications, rental applications, and community rules and regulations for the new developments.

In August citizens of Rome were invited to an open house at the project site and a newspaper report hailed the new low- income housing project as right up-to-date, 44 modern in every respect and thoroughly convenient. Construction of DeSoto Homes began to wrap up by mid October and the last recorded contract bid was awarded to the Westinghouse Electric Supply Company in Atlanta for the furnishing of 149 electric meters for DeSoto Homes and ninety-five 45 meters for Altoview Terrace at a cost of Residents started to move into units at the project later that fall.

It is believed that the City Of Rome Housing Authority moved its offices into the DeSoto Homes Administration Building on North Fifth Avenue by February Management and Modernization of DeSoto Homes, From until the early it appears that the DeSoto Homes housing project and its residents were subjected to very few changes.

At a July meeting of the Rome Housing Authority, a motion was carried to establish a Children s Clinic in the two North Rooms on the First Floor of the Administration Building at DeSoto Homes, but no further mention of this endeavor is made in later minute entries.46 The basements of Building Numbers B-2 and B-3 were excavated and converted into needed storage space in And, although cracking and failure of stucco was noted as early as on some building exteriors at both DeSoto Homes and Altoview Terrace, efforts were not made to correct the problems until when the units were sandblasted and recoated.48 44 Rome News-Tribune, Man Romans Pay Visits to DeSoto Homes Project, August 45 Housing Authority of the City of Rome, Minutes of Regular Meeting of Housing Authority of the City of Rome, October 10, 46 Housing Authority of the City of Rome, Minutes of Regular Meeting of the Housing Authority of the City of Rome, Georgia, July 10, 47 Housing Authority of the City of Rome, Minutes of Regular Meeting of Housing Authority of the City of Rome, January 20, 48 Housing Authority of the City of Rome, Minutes of Regular Meeting of the Commissioners of the Housing Authority of the City of Rome, Georgia, March 20, DESOTO HOMES (Charles Hight Homes) HABS No.

GA-2403 (Page 16) In the Housing Authority of the City of Rome adopted the Civil Rights Bill, which legally barred residential discrimination based on race in the various low-income housing communities in the city. Nevertheless, de facto segregation remained at DeSoto Homes. Throughout the and the project remained predominantly white and did not fully integrate until the late Small projects made to refurbish or upgrade materials at the DeSoto Homes community during this time were generally limited to the replacement of fixtures and appliances. The Authority maintained its headquarters in the DeSoto Homes Administration Building until about when they moved across the street on North Fifth Avenue into the ground floor office spaces of the Wilson Hardy Apartments high rise building.

After that time, the former Administration Building was49used exclusively for maintenance and equipment storage. The first renovation of the DeSoto Homes community was issued in Phase I of the Rome Housing Authority Modernization Program in This provided for the installation of aluminum screen doors, back door canopies, and interior closet doors, gutter and downspout replacements, and painting of exterior building walls. Rush Engineers of Anniston, Alabama performed the work at a total cost of The proposed Phase III of the Modernization Program was intended to bring even greater changes in Plans called for the construction of a new maintenance shop and storage building and renovation of the old Administration Building in order to provide DeSoto Homes residents with community space.

However, full funding was not forthcoming due to federal budgetary constraints and the bulk of the project was put on hold. CIAP Modernization Project In the Rome Housing Authority was awarded over $2 million in federal funding by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as part of the Comprehensive Improvement Assistance Program (CIAP) to cover modernization costs for the DeSoto Homes and Altoview projects.51 Building permits were 49 Rome News-Tribune, High Rise Apartment Planned Bids Due Thursday on Six Story Housing Unit, 25 August p. 1.

50 Housing Authority of the City of Rome, Phase I Modernization Program, Rome Housing Authority, March 7, 51 United States Department of Housing And Urban Development Comprehensive Improvement Assistance Program, Comprehensive Assessment/Program Budget Part I-Summary, DESOTO HOMES (Charles Hight Homes) HABS No. GA-2403 (Page 17) secured in early and local contractors and laborers were employed by the Rome Housing Authority as a means of providing an economic stimulus in a depressed housing market. Residents had to be relocated as the renovation work carried on through most of the year.

Workers replaced the original plaster walls of all buildings with insulated sheetrock and installed new plumbing fixtures, bathroom ceramic tile, kitchen 52 cabinets, windows, exterior doors, and water heaters. Renaming of DeSoto Homes and CGP Funded Improvements Three years later on September 26, DeSoto Homes was officially renamed Charles A. Hight Homes with the dedication of a wrought iron sign in his honor.53 A businessman by trade who owned his own insurance firm, Mr. Hight was a native of Rome, a World War II veteran, and an active member of the Rome Boys Club. Prior to his death in at age seventy-six, Charles A. Hight, Sr.

served for twenty-three years on the Rome Housing Authority Commission with twelve of those years as Chairman.54 In the a number of small improvements were made to the DeSoto Homes housing project through funding by HUD s Comprehensive Grant Program Most notable were the painting and stucco repair of all building exteriors and replacement of all stoves and refrigerators in the purchase of playground equipment in and installations of a new playground fence and asphalt shingle roof on the former Administration Building in Landscape improvements include the repair of concrete walks and re-pavement of the parking lot behind the Administration Building, which were also completed in The DeSoto Homes remained occupied until recently.

They are currently vacant as the planning process for redevelopment moves forward. 52 Wayne Anderson, Sharp Upturn in Building Construction permits up $5 million at mid-year, Rome News-Tribune, 20 July p. 3A, 5A. 53 Rome News-Tribune, DeSoto Homes unit retitled for Roman, 24 September p. 2A. 54 Ted Ross, Charles A. Hight, Sr. dies at 76, Rome News- Tribune 21 October p. 3A, 5A. 55 Northwest Georgia Housing Authority, CGP Program Modernization Work Completed, for Hight Homes GA DESOTO HOMES (Charles Hight Homes) HABS No. GA-2403 (Page 18) Part II. ARCHITECTURAL INFORMATION A. General Statement 1. General Site Description: The DeSoto Homes housing project occupies acres of land on a level, parallelogram-shaped lot in the urban, Fourth Ward section of Rome, Georgia.

The complex is bounded by West Ninth Street on the north, Turner McCall Boulevard on the south, North Fifth Avenue on the east, and Keelway Drive on the west. North Fourth Avenue intersects the site, running between Turner McCall Boulevard and West Ninth Street. Surrounding development is a combination of commercial and residential properties. The Northwest Georgia Housing Authority-managed senior citizen high-rise apartments and central offices are located directly to the east of DeSoto Homes, across North Fifth Avenue. A one-story pharmacy building and convenience store at the northeast corner of North Fifth Avenue and Turner McCall Boulevard are also present.

The Floyd Medical Center occupies the entire city block to the south and a large, five-story parking garage overlooks DeSoto Homes on the west side of Keelway Drive. Surface parking lots, a small office park, and other individual businesses face the housing project along West Ninth Street. There are three shotgun house type residences located on the northwest corner of West Ninth Street and North Fifth Avenue. 2. Historic Landscape Design With its emphasis on open areas, courtyard green spaces, and patterned variations of building locations and vistas, the DeSoto Homes historic site design was strongly influenced by United States Housing Authority- recommended planning concepts.

In turn, these ideals were largely modeled after Garden City Movement theories and the block plans of modernist social housing estates in Europe. USHA Administrator Nathan Straus was a champion of the idealized New England community design oriented around the village green and felt that integrated open spaces in public housing projects could fulfill a social need for residents by providing recreation areas for children and gardens DESOTO HOMES (Charles Hight Homes) HABS No. GA-2403 (Page 19) that foster a sense of responsibility. 56 He also extolled the health benefits of open areas as a method to assure each dwelling air circulation, sunlight, and a pleasant outlook.

57 The asymmetrical site plan for the DeSoto Homes project focuses on a large one-acre playground enclosed by seven, two-story buildings on the western edge of the complex. One-story buildings, separated by small open courts of green space, line the northern, eastern, and southern perimeters of the development. Grids of simple paved pathways, some with soldiered red brick curbing, allow for easy pedestrian access throughout the project and connect to the surrounding sidewalks. Former garbage site pads are still present along walkways next to the North Fourth Street access drive. All of the individual brick-paved, pre-school play areas, sandboxes, and the single oval spray pool shown on the original architectural drawings have been removed. The remnants of William C.

Pauley s landscape designs are also no longer discernable. The slide and jungle gym equipment located in the main playground area is now enclosed with a metal fence, which was installed in the mid-1990s. Today, most green space areas simply consist of a grass lawn with tree cover and scattered vegetation. Mature oak, hickory, hackberry, and maple trees are found throughout the development, along with the occasional foundation plantings. Identified plants and shrubbery include crepe myrtle, boxwood, rose bushes, nandina, and burning bush. 3. Buildings and Structures The DeSoto Homes low-income housing project consists of twenty-seven original residential buildings containing 148 dwelling units and an administration building.

The one- and two-story row houses, and one-story semi- detached duplex houses were all built in The buildings are constructed of structural terra cotta block masonry and designed in the Spanish Colonial Revival style with stucco-coated exteriors and terra cotta roof tiles. 56 Lawrence J. Vale, From the Puritans to the Projects (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, p. 57 United States Housing Authority, Housing and Recreation DESOTO HOMES (Charles Hight Homes) HABS No. GA-2403 (Page 20) Each residential building in the complex is categorized according to one of seven plan types. All units feature a kitchen, living room, bathroom, and one, two, or three bedrooms. Each dwelling has an attached clothesline and pole located in the piece of property at the rear of the unit.

The various residential plan type buildings are listed below along with the number of buildings found within the DeSoto Homes community: Type A Plan Building13 Type B Plan Building 4 Type C Plan Building 2 Type D Plan Building 1 Type E Plan Building 1 Type F Plan Building 5 Type G Plan Building 2 Other remaining structures within the DeSoto Homes complex include two non-historic covered mailbox stations located on the west side of North Fourth Avenue at the north and south ends of the street. The wrought iron Charles A. Hight Homes sign located in front of the old Administration Building on North Fifth Avenue was installed as part of a dedication ceremony that renamed the DeSoto Homes housing project after the former Rome Housing Authority commission chairman Charles A.

Hight, in September Part III. SOURCES OF INFORMATION A. Architectural drawings: The Northwest Georgia Housing Authority s Maintenance Division has a complete set of architectural and engineering drawings of the DeSoto Homes. They are on file at the Maintenance Division Warehouse, Rome, Georgia. B. Early Views: The Authority houses a collection of early views. These are Site Survey photographs from and project completion photographs from The collection is housed at the Authority s Archives, 800 North Fifth Avenue, Rome, Georgia. C. Interviews: The research was informed by conversations with Authority representatives both in Maintenance and Management Departments. D.

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS GA-2403. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

DESOTO HOMES (Charles Hight Homes) HABS No. GA-2403 (Page 21) Corley, Florence Flemming. Atlanta s Techwood and University Homes Projects, Atlanta History Vol. XXXI, Number 4. Atlanta: Atlanta Historical Society, Winter Coulibaly, Modibo, Rodney D. Green, and David M. James. Segregation in Federally Subsidized Low-Income Housing in the United States. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, Federal Works Agency, United States Housing Authority. Housing and Recreation. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, Federal Works Agency, United States Housing Authority. Summary of General Requirements and Minimum Standards for USHA-Aided Projects (13 July copy at the Robert W. Woodruff Library, Emory University. Garrett, Franklin M., and Harold H. Martin. Atlanta and Environs, Volume III.

New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co, Housing Authority of the City of Rome, Georgia. Questions and Answers about the Housing Projects in Rome. Rome, Georgia: Rome Housing Authority Board Meeting Minutes, April March Rome, Georgia: Northwest Georgia Housing Authority. Mollenkopf, John H. The Contested City. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, Thomas, Kenneth H., Jr. Draft Biographical Sketch of Odis Clay Poundstone, Architect. Atlanta, Georgia: Historic Preservation Division, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, United States Housing Authority. Annual Report for Fiscal Year Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, United States Housing Authority. Annual Report for Fiscal Year Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, E.

Likely Sources Not Yet Investigated: The Record Groups of the Federal Housing Administration at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland and the Southeast Regional Archives in Morrow, Georgia were DESOTO HOMES (Charles Hight Homes) HABS No. GA-2403 (Page 22) investigated; however records for the Atlanta Field Office were only partially located. These records may be useful in further research. Part IV. PROJECT INFORMATION This documentation was prepared to assist the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Northwest Georgia Housing Authority in meeting their Section 106 responsibilities under the National Historic Preservation Act as amended.

After consultation with the Georgia Historic Preservation Division the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) considers the housing to be eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places based on Criterion A, namely, events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history. The Authority, as administrator of federal funds allocated for this purpose, wishes to redevelop the site and its plans will have an adverse effect on the eligible property. Thus HUD, the Authority, and HPD entered into a Memorandum of Agreement in to complete a HABS Level II documentation of the DeSoto Homes. In addition, the Authority has elected to complete a second recordation project that documents the historically associated Altoview Terrace.

DeSoto Homes is documented in HABS No. GA-2403, while Altoview Terrace s number is HABS GA-2419, but the documentation has not been submitted to HABS as of 30 September