Back in 1939, the Memphis Press-Scimitar printed glowing reviews of the latest Works Progress Administration (WPA) slum clearance project in Memphis. The site was Lamar Terrace, now located at the southwest corner of the I-240 and Lamar intersection.

Two earlier WPA projects, Lauderdale Courts and Dixie Homes, had already been finished, and “Lamar Terrace and the large Vance area [Foote Homes] [were] getting underway.”  The heating design for these two newest housing projects had been changed from the central plant systems previously used, so that the tenants would be able to move into the new apartments faster. Lauderdale and Dixie both used a central heating plant, which required the entire project to be completed before the buildings could be occupied.  Lamar Terrace, on the recommendation of Memphis Housing Authority (MHA), was going to use “individual gas circulating heaters with radiant fronts,” so that “tenants could move into each block of the project as soon as it [was] completed.”  This same decentralized heating system is now one in the long list of reasons MHA has proposed demolition of Lamar Terrace.

When Lamar Terrace was ready for occupancy, the story line in the paper blared out the facts:  “Lamar Terrace, the third of the Memphis Public Housing Projects and the second for white tenants, opens Sunday. Built at a cost of $2,500,000 Lamar Terrace represents another step in Memphis’ efforts to rehouse its low-income citizens in clean, healthful and happy surroundings.”     

Another news article observed, “All the buildings are fireproof, red brick, and trimmed in ornamental iron work.” It would be its own small city: 46 buildings containing 478 apartments, housing 1,000 people. It even had its own park and clinic.  The citizens of Memphis, “the real owners of Lamar terrace,” were invited to inspect their new housing project.

Lamar Terrace was the first Memphis low-income housing project built under the United States Housing Authority (USHA).  Previously the federal government built projects and leased them back to the city, but under the USHA, the construction was 90 percent funded with federal loans, to be repaid by MHA over a 60-year term. 

Much was made of the simple, economic design of the apartments, “designed by Memphis architects [Anker F. Hansen, Everett Woods, and Joe T. Wallace], built by a Memphis Contractor [S. & W. Construction Co.] with Memphis labor, owned by the citizens of Memphis, [and] operated under their direction.”

Fast forward to the present.  The enthusiasm and excitement for the remaking of Lamar Terrace via the city’s third HOPE VI grant are palpable over the phone lines and in e-mails from MHA, circa August 2003.  The cost is now $25 million instead of $2.5 million, and the new residences will go on the market at a monthly rate closer to the average tenants’ yearly income in 1940. The developer working with MHA this time is the out-of-state firm McCormack Baron of St. Louis, Missouri.  

While distaste for the old housing of the poor or “low-income” is hardly anything new, the old fashioned term “slum clearance,” used in 1939, has given way to “obsolete” (in the descriptive sense), for almost all of the existing features of Lamar Terrace. There is a difference between “obsolete” and “old,” but for the most part MHA makes no distinction between the two in the Capital Improvements summary they furnish for the project. Still, living standards have changed quite a lot in 63 years, and considering the poor condition of Lamar Terrace according to MHA, there is not a lot of “hope” for the original development besides a good demolition, expensive environmental cleanup, and a well-designed rebuild.  The good news is that starting all over from scratch appears to be a tradition in Memphis, given how the project was originally implemented in 1939-40.

In the late 1930s, 1,135 families were moved out of the Vance and Lamar areas in preparation for the slum clearance for the original projects. Many were moved to the Shinertown area until the project could be completed.  The Press-Scimitar reported there were only 15 bathtubs in the 364 homes that made up Shinertown.  So, despite the fact that in 1940 Lamar Terrace was built with only tubs and no showers, it was a vast improvement over the earlier living conditions of most of the tenants. 

The irony is that some of the original planning innovations and construction methods used in Lamar Terrace have now resulted in the requested demise of the 26-acre housing campus. Many of the structural faults cited by MHA are water-related, and there are numerous plumbing, sewerage, and storm sewer problems.  It is troubling that some of the water issues could have been prevented by proper maintenance (repointing exterior walls, waterproofing showers, installing a well-plumbed central laundry facility). But even with studious maintenance, the site, space planning, and accessibility issues would have been extremely difficult to overcome.

Taking cues from the New Urbanism movement (which influenced the design of Harbor Town on Mud Island), successful older neighborhoods in midtown, and the recent successful HOPE VI developments in Hurt Village, Lauderdale Courts, and College Park, MHA is drawing together a proposal, including a detailed study and plan, to procure a new HOPE VI grant for the depressed Lamar area. 

The new plan MHA has for Lamar Terrace is (other than in intention) precisely opposite that of the 1940s execution. The new plan substantially lowers the density of Lamar Terrace, from 20 to about 4.4 units per acre, partly through acquisition of another 70 blighted properties in the area.  MHA proposes 345 new units versus the original 478.  All the tenets of good urban planning appear in the proposal:  reconnection of the area to the urban street grid, new light rail transit connections, neighborhood retail, good landscaping incorporating existing trees, parks, athletic facilities, a community center to spark further revitalization, varied housing designs and sizes that blend into the existing Memphis housing stock, and a mix of rental, individually owned, affordable, accessible, and subsidized housing.  

Supportive social services to help existing residents make the transition to the new community are also planned.  Most important, there has been a long series of community meetings and surveys to provide direction to the process.  Community members even voted on a new name:  Terrace Park at Elmwood. Furthermore, the Lamar Terrace revitalization project will now connect to several nearby vital areas: Elmwood Cemetery, College Park, Annesdale-Snowden, and Central Gardens.     

MHA plans to apply for a HOPE VI grant to implement Terrace Park at Elmwood as soon as the next funding cycle, anticipated this fall, is announced by HUD.  After Dec. 31, 2003, the HOPE VI program is scheduled to sunset, and unless continued by Congress, will end. If it does end, a new program will likely take its place, and in time a brave, contemporary project will rise on the ashes of the old Lamar Terrace to the benefit of MHA residents and the surrounding neighborhoods.