Dearborn Homes
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Dearborn Homes is a Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) public housing
project A project is any undertaking, carried out individually or collaboratively and possibly involving research or design, that is carefully planned to achieve a particular goal. An alternative view sees a project managerially as a sequence of even ...
located in the Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is located along
State Street State Street may refer to: Streets and locations *State Street (Chicago), Illinois * State Street (Portland, Maine) *State Street (Boston), Massachusetts *State Street (Ann Arbor), Michigan * State Street (Albany), New York *State Street (Manhatta ...
between 27th and 30th Streets, and bounded by the Metrarail line to the west. It is one of only two housing projects that still exist from the State Street Corridor which included other CHA developments: Robert Taylor Homes, Stateway Gardens,
Harold Ickes Homes Harold L. Ickes Homes was a Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) public housing project on the Near South Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. It was bordered between Cermak Road to the north, 24th Place to the south, State Street to the east, ...
and Hillard Homes. The project occupies 16 acres and consists of mid-rise, six-story, and nine-story buildings.Dearborn Homes
, Chicago Housing Authority
They were designed in modernist style by Loebl, Schlossman & Bennett, with cruciform towers to allow for ventilation and light, placed in a parklike setting.Blair Kamin
"CHA architecture gets it right with Dearborn Homes: New limestone decorations transform the buildings from hulking to inviting, and the update has improved the interior too,"
Cityscapes, '' Chicago Tribune'', May 22, 2009; repr. "CHA Polishes Its Rough Edges: Architect dresses up the Dearborn Homes, Georgian Style, and Upgrades Living Spaces Inside," in Blair Kamin, ''Terror and Wonder: Architecture in a Tumultuous Age'', Chicago: University of Chicago, 2010, , pp
244
€“47.
D. Bradford Hunt, ''Blueprint for Disaster: The Unraveling of Chicago Public Housing'', Historical studies of urban America, Chicago: University of Chicago, 2009,
p. 123
There were 800 units.Donna Leinwand

'' USA Today'', June 22, 2006.


History

Dearborn was the first Chicago housing project built after World War II, as housing for blacks on part of the Federal Street slum within the "black belt". It was the start of the Chicago Housing Authority's post-war use of high-rise buildings to accommodate more units at a lower overall cost, and when it opened in 1950, the first to have elevators. While still unfinished, it was used to receive lower-income residents displaced by redevelopment; half the buildings were also increased in height by three floors when more money became available during construction. The buildings soon fell victim to vandalism; in 1958 a ''Chicago American'' reporter visited Dearborn and wrote of "torn window screens, mutilated storm doors, yards littered with garbage, . . . walls, doors, and casings marked by knife slashes and crayon marks; holes gouged in plaster; ndobscenities scrawled on the stairway walls".


Crime and drugs

By 1980, the project was "notorious", a high-crime area where " erybody live in fear". The Mickey Cobras gang dominated the complex during the 2000s. In 2006, following an undercover drug conspiracy bust, numerous people living at and near the housing project died of overdoses from a potent form of
heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a potent opioid mainly used as a recreational drug for its euphoric effects. Medical grade diamorphine is used as a pure hydrochloride salt. Various white and brow ...
. Raids followed the deaths and resulted in 30 gang members' being arrested at the complex. On August 11, 2013, two men were shot in the complex, leaving one dead and the other wounded.


Renovation

From 2009–2010, The Chicago Housing Authority renovated the buildings, adding detailing—stone
quoin Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th century encyclopedia, t ...
s and triangular ball-topped gables and metal porches—to give the original plain brick a neo-Georgian appearance, and has installed its first resident computer center there.Natalie Moore, Associated Press
"CHA opens first tech center in public housing,"
WBEZ, March 7, 2012.
The number of apartments will be reduced to 660.


References


Further reading

* ''History of Dearborn Homes''. Chicago: Peoples Welfare Organization of Chicago, 1950. {{coord, 41.8412, -87.6279, type:landmark_region:US-IL, display=title Public housing in Chicago South Side, Chicago Neighborhoods in Chicago 1950 establishments in Illinois Residential buildings completed in 1950 Urban decay in the United States