Cole Ave Housing Project 744 Colette Dr National Historic Registry 7001090 The Cole Avenue Housing Project is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion A because it is a distinct example of efforts to promote the welfare of society through the malleability of local communities in response to the monumental challenges facing society throughout U.S. involvement in World War II and the critical housing complexities following the war. In an unprecedented action, the Lanham Act of 1940 was passed which provided $150 million to the Federal Works Administration which, in conjunction with the local authorities nationwide built over 625,000 housing units – 580,000 were meant to be temporary construction. Cole Avenue Housing Project represents a mere 300 of these units; however, as one of several housing projects built in Akron before World War II it is one of the most unaltered and retains a tremendous amount of historic integrity. An amendment to the U.S. Housing Act of 1937 directed Federal slum clearance funds into housing programs for defense housing and another housing project built prior to Cole Avenue at the tail-end of the late 1930s was Elizabeth Park.8 This project’s 180 units near downtown Akron were built with even more substantial and available pre-war materials - brick masonry. Later housing projects in Akron include Edgewood Homes on Akron’s west side with 116 units, Norton Homes (1942) with 174 units and Wilbeth-Arlington Homes (1943) which added another 328 units to the defense housing community. These later structures all have clapboard siding and mimicked barracks in massing and regimented layout. Constructed in 1941, Cole Avenue Housing Project was Akron’s first public defense housing project under Federal jurisdiction and begins to reflect the standards of the Federal Housing Administration via clustered buildings around courtyards, separation of pedestrian and traffic areas and large open space situations. Edgewood Homes and Elizabeth Park Homes have both been recently demolished to make way for updated housing developments; the other projects have been substantially altered or demolished.10 Cole Avenue is one of only a few throughout the country that has not been removed or adversely renovated. This project also uniquely demonstrates a starting point for the variety of design after the war rationing began and its continued service demonstrates a change in the way we think of temporary housing.
Posted on: Thu, 01 Jan 2015 17:37:45 +0000
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