Brewster-Douglass Housing Project
| Brewster-Douglass Housing Project | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Basic data | |
| Place: | 2700 St. Antoine St., Detroit , Michigan United States
|
| Opening: | 1952 |
| Abort : | partially |
| Status : | uninhabited |
| Architects : | Harley, Ellington & Day ; Detroit Housing Commission; Smith Hinchman & Grylls |
| Use / legal | |
| Usage : | Residential building |
| Technical specifications | |
| Height : | 46 m |
| Floors : | 14th |
The Brewster-Douglass Housing Project was the largest social housing for African Americans of the city Detroit . The facility was named after Frederick Douglass , an African-American writer and abolitionist . The building complex has been completely empty since 2008. The residential complex was inhabited by Motown and celebrities such as Diana Ross , Mary Wilson, Florence Ballard , Lily Tomlin and Smokey Robinson & the Miracles .
history
The first efforts to realize a state-funded social housing project exclusively for African-Americans in 1933 were followed with great international interest. At the time, when racial segregation was normal, the planning was viewed with great skepticism. The fear of the adjoining property losing its value initially led to violent riots against the new residents.
building
The Frederick Douglass residential complex was designed and built between 1942 and 1955 by architects Harley Ellington & Day of Detroit. The facility consisted of two 6-story low-rise buildings and six 14-story towers. The towers were part of the originally larger Brewster-Douglass Housing Project. The entire complex was five blocks long and three blocks wide and was temporarily inhabited by 8,000 to 10,000 people.
Residents
The system was built for the working poor . To be allowed to live here, at least one parent had to be proven to have been employed by the Detroit Housing Commission. The system collapsed in the late 1960s as wealthier residents moved to the suburbs to escape the rise in crime.
Hastings Street on the southern edge of the Brewster-Douglass-Homes was considered a center of black culture in Detroit between 1920 and 1950. This is where the Supremes got to know each other. When Hastings Street fell victim to the expansion of Autostadt with the Chrysler Freeway , a large part of the residents moved to the area around 12th Street, now Rosa Parks Street, between 1963 and 1968, where the Detroit race riots broke out in 1967 .
Despite renovation work, the low-rise buildings were demolished in 1994 and replaced by 250 townhouses. After a study found that 42% of all public housing in Detroit was vacant, two of the six towers were demolished in 2003.
today
The entire complex was uninhabited for a long time; the last four towers stood along the Chrysler Freeway until they were demolished in 2014.
Web links
- Past meets present in Detroit
- Brewster Housing photographs (English)
- Brewster Homes (English)
- The history of social housing in the United States (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ project
Coordinates: 42 ° 20 '42 " N , 83 ° 2' 49.2" W.