Evening star., 1940-06-30
Owner Renews Fight
To Block Demolition
OF Alley Dwelling
Miss Minnie Reyes
Questions Authority.
For SIum Clearance
BY NELSON nj. SHEPARD.


For the second time in five years
Miss Minnie Keyes, TIA Seventh
street S.W., is engaged in contro-
versy with the Government in an
attempt to block Washington's slum-
clearance program,
Remembered as the property
owner who defeated Secretary
1ckes and the P. w. A. Housing
Division in 1885 legal action,
Miss Keyes now is seeking court
order to restrain the Alley Dwelling
Authority from completing the
demolition of one of her properties,
407 L street Sc. The two-story
brick house is on a site near the
Navy Yard chosen for a slum clear
snce and public housing project for
low-income colored families.
The Alley Dwelling Authority has
directed the wrecking company
to halt its demolition pending
the outcome of her application
for restraining order. Wrecking of
other properties on the Site it was
said, will proceed.
Recently, through the law firm OF
Gardiner, Earnest & Gardiner, she
protested condemnation proceedings
in the District Court affecting the
Navy Yard project site. She at
tackled also, the validity of the Alley
Dwelling Authority Act. The court,
however, signed an order requiring
her to surrender title to the l. street
house and, in effect, ruled in favor
of the validity of the A. D. A. Act.
Partly Dismantled.
But before her attorneys had time
to appeal from the ruling, she
claimed the local housing agency
had begun tearing down her proper
ty. An appeal from the court ruling
was filed Thursday with the United
States Court of Appeals and in con-
nection with it the law firm sought
q restraining order to keep the
house from being demolished.
The L street house was one OF 81
parcels included in a declaration of
taking" filed by the Alley Dwelling
Authority. The A. D. A. deposited
$1,000 with the court to cover IN ad-
vance the award of condemnation
Jury in the case of Miss Keyes'
property. She says it is worth $4,000.
Miss Keyes claimed in her answer
fled in connection with the con-
demnation proceedings that she had
never been solicited for the sale OF
her property. The A. D. A. which
has been buying up many parcels In
the area for nearly year, said 1t
had mailed an offer to her some time
ago.
Rented for SIS Monthly.
ANYWAY, Miss Keyes declared, she
made a recent visit to l. street and
found her property intact. The
next day I went there again and
wreckers were at work next door,
she said. II warned them not to
touch my property but they began
tearing it down anyway"
Miss Keyes complained that the
tenant family had been told to va
cate and she helped them to locate
elsewhere. She was obtaining a
rental of S25 monthly.
Miss Keyes gained public atten-
ton in 1885 when she successfully
blocked the P. w. A. Housing Divl-
sion from going into congested slum
areas and condemning property for
public housing
Most of the so or more pieces OF
property she now owns she inherited
from an old friend, Leonard A.
Hamilton, in 1888.
Mr.. Hamilton, railroad teleg-
rapher, engaged room at the Keyes
home when he came here at the turn
of the century. He never left. Before
he died he scribbled notation on
cardboard box bequeathing his
estate to Miss Keyes.
Earlier Petition Upheld.
This testament subsequently was
upheld by the court and Miss Keyes
since then has been managing her
properties from her "offlce-home
on Seventh street.
When the P w. A. sought to
build a S3,000,000 housing project
In Southwest Washington near the
War College, Miss Keyes fought
back to save the 13 houses she
owned in that area.
Upholding her petition, the then
District Supreme Court threw out
the condemnation proceedings which
were brought by the Housing Divi-
sion under authority of the old N I.
r. A. 1t held Congress did not have
in mind legislating for the District
of Columbia and ruled that the po-
lice power is power to regulate and
control and is not power to take
private property except for general
public use Later decisions in other
Federal jurisdictions upheld the
right of the P w A. to acquire
slum property, but it made no further
attempt to do so in Washington.
The Navy Yard project which the
Alley Dwelling Authority is develop
ing is comprised of most of six
squares in Southeast between Third
and Fifth streets and extending
from I midway to L and M streets.
Under its amended act, Congress