Langston Terrace Dwellings
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Washington, D.C.
Langston Terrace Dwellings | |
 Langston Terrace Dwellings in 2012 | |
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| Location | 21st St NE, between Benning Rd NE and H St NE Washington, D.C. |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 38°53′58″N 76°58′26″W / 38.89944°N 76.97389°W |
| Built | 1935–1938 |
| Architect | Hilyard Robinson |
| Architectural style | International |
| NRHP reference No. | 87001851[1] |
| Added to NRHP | November 12, 1987 |
Langston Terrace Dwellings are historic structures located in the Langston portion of the Carver/Langston neighborhoods in the Northeast quadrant of Washington, D.C. The apartments were built between 1935 and 1938, as one of the earliest housing projects to be federally funded.[2] The Langston Terrace Dwellings were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.[3]
Langston Terrace was the first federally funded housing project in Washington, D.C., and one of the first four in the United States.[4] It was developed as part of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Public Works Administration. Unlike Techwood Homes, the first public housing project in the U.S., Langston was open to African American families.[3] The project was named in honor of John Mercer Langston, a 19th-century American attorney and abolitionist who founded Howard University Law School. Langston served in the U.S. Congress, representing Virginia.[3]
The complex was co-designed by Bauhaus-trained Washington architect Hilyard Robinson and Los Angeles-based architect Paul Revere Williams in the International Style.[5][6] The site planning and landscape design were completed by landscape architect David Williston.[7] The project cost the government $1.8 million and rooms were available for $6 per month or $4.50 per month without utilities.[8]
Much like Aberdeen Gardens in Virginia, also designed by the famed African American architect Hilyard Robinson, the 274-unit complex was constructed primarily by African American laborers. The housing project contained a mixture of two-story townhouses and three-story walk-ups, built around garden style central common areas (mews).[3][9] The site was organized to include 20% buildings and 80% common green space and walkways.[9]
Daniel Gillette Olney's The Progress of the Negro Race is a terra-cotta frieze located in the central courtyard. The frieze depicts African American history from slavery to World War I migration.[4] Olney's Madonna and Children is located in the same courtyard.[10] Cubist concrete animal sculptures by sculptor Lenore Thomas Straus were added to the courtyard in 1941, and provide climbing structures for children.[9][11]
Langston Terrace was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as of 1987.[3]
