Evening star., 1947-10-08
when Congress first authorized pub
lie housing and gave it 100000 to

lie housing and gave 1t 100000 to
demonstrate what 1t could do.
The founders of the city, warned
by the experience of such older
cities as Philadelphia and New
York, set minimum standards for
the dwellings that might be built
here. But their successors were
impatient.
In order to get more houses more
rapidly, they lowered the standards.
AS result, according to Mr.. Ring,
Washington became "a queer ad-
mixture of unfinished public build
ings Of classical design, some out
standing residences and a compara-
lively large number of cheaply con-
structed wooden houses"
When, in the 1830s, there was an
outbreak Of cholera, some "timid
inquiries were made as to the cpl
denies connection with insanitary
housing, but no notable results en-
sued" In later years we became
more keenly conscious of the con-
nection between bad housing and
many ills.
Persons still living remember the
occasional dilapidated old frame
house deriving from the early period,
which made a startling contrast
in fashionable neighborhoods to the
palaces built in the 1880s and 1905
by captains of industry.
The gradual disappearance of
these unpleasant reminders of an
unwise surrender supported the
then current belief that time and
change would automatically rid the
city of its liabilities.
A former Senator from Pennsyl-
vanta, however, fretted at the time
lag and proposed that Congress
should acquire and demolish those
within view of the Capitol and the
Union Station. We were offended,
not so much by what they repre-
sented, as by having to look at
them.
We did not seriously propose to
do away with substandard housing:
We were desirous most sincerely of
having 1t removed to sites where 1t
would be inconspicuous.
Attitude Is Assailed.
This mental attitude had con-
tributed to, the development of
Washington's inhabited alleys. They
were wonderfully we'll adapted to
an out-of-sight, out-of-mind phi
losphy;; small hidden communities
whose existence was not even sus-
pected by the passerby on the street.
So, when we faced the housing
emergency that accompanied and
followed the Civil War, and the con-
tinuing emergency that accom-
panied the high tide of European
immigration, alley communities de-
veloped in all sections of the "old''
city.
These alley communities then
seemed ideal for the housing of the
poor because, being out of sight,
housing standards were lowered
without causing serious disquiet. To
be sure, similar dwellings for the
poor were built in other locations;
the sites of abandoned Civil War
Army encampments, inaccessible
hillsides, the large area across the
Anacostia River acquired by the
F'reedman's Bureau.
However, most of these also were
out OF sight. But the alleys were
the best for the purpose, so well
adapted to the current philosophy
that they became Washingtons
characteristic slums.
Development Unnoticed.
Later, when their effects as focal
points of disease, crime, delin-
quency and dependency were be-
latedly recognized, local campaigns
for slum elimination word
used by President Theodore Roose-
welt when he became one of our
local crusaders-concent on
the elimination of inhabited alleys.
Meanwhile, relocation Of the sub