John Ihlder was the executive officer of the

Washington D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

Alley Dwelling Authority and its successor agency the National Capital Housing Authority. Prior to those positions, Ihlder was a reporter for the ''

New York Evening Sun ''The Sun'' was a New York newspaper published from 1833 until 1950. It was considered a serious paper, like the city's two more successful broadsheets, ''The New York Times'' and the ''New York Herald Tribune''. The Sun was the first successfu ...

'', and he also served for a short time on the Municipal Affairs Committee of the

Grand Rapids, Michigan Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the ...

Board of Trade. Ihlder was a strong supporter of

public housing Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, def ...

, and while directing the Alley Dwelling Authority, he refused to demolish slum residences until adequate public housing units were available for displaced persons. He also took a stand against white residents of Washington who sought to reserve public housing units for themselves, and ensured that the St. Mary's Court development in

Foggy Bottom Foggy Bottom is one of the oldest late 18th- and 19th-century neighborhoods in Washington, D.C., located west of the White House and downtown Washington, in the Northwest quadrant. It is bounded roughly by 17th Street NW to the east, Rock C ...

would be available for black residents. Later, during the

slum clearance Slum clearance, slum eviction or slum removal is an urban renewal strategy used to transform low income settlements with poor reputation into another type of development or housing. This has long been a strategy for redeveloping urban communities; ...

and redevelopment of southwest Washington D.C. in the 1950s, he staunchly opposed plans to reduce the number of affordable housing units in the redevelopment plan. Part of the John Ihlder Papers are at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library in

Hyde Park, New York Hyde Park is a town in Dutchess County, New York, United States, bordering the Hudson River north of Poughkeepsie. Within the town are the hamlets of Hyde Park, East Park, Staatsburg, and Haviland. Hyde Park is known as the hometown of Fran ...

.John Ihlder Manuscript Collection
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References

Year of birth missing Year of death missing Washington, D.C., government officials {{US-bio-stub