Existing comment:
East of the River Transformed:
World War II brought thousands of new residents to Washington to work in war-related industries. Many chose to live in Far Southeast, where the population double during the 1940s. In response to this new local housing crisis, the federal and District governments created vast war-housing projects around the city, including those of Barry Farms and Naylor Gardens in Far Southeast. After the war ended, these projects were razed, converted into public housing, or sold to private owners.
Situated across the Anacostia River away from the central city, and blessed with cheap available land, Far Southeast was designated as the area to receive most of the city's low-income apartment projects. By the end of the 1940s, multi-family apartment projects converted the earlier, almost rural, village-like atmosphere into a modern urban landscape. Although the majority of residents had public water and sewage services by the mid-1940s, as did homes in Barry Farm, many Far Southeast citizens still lacked basic city services.
In the early 1950s, the excesses of the city's slum clearance programs destroyed neighborhoods and displaced hundreds of black families in southwest Washington. Many families found new housing in low-income apartments in Far Southeast, soon transformed from an area comprised primarily of homeowners to a place dominated by tenants. Some resident and neighborhood organizations sought to stop construction of public housing projects'; others focused on lobbying city officials to provide improved infrastructure and increased neighborhood facilities for the expanding population.
The construction of Suitland Parkway in 1943 also created a barrier within the Barry Farm community, displacing over 100 families and dividing the neighborhood in half. The Parkway was built to provide access between the various military establishments in the area, including Camp Springs (later Andrews Field) and Bolling Air Force Base, and federal and military offices downtown. |