Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1959-05-14
Mrs. Roosevelt Tours SIums Again
And Sees Record Of RedeveIopment
BY JOHN w. McKELwAY
star stan Writer

BY JOHN w. McKELWAY
star stan writer
Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, "a,
today moved quietly and gra-
ciously in her old stamping
grounds.
She came back to the slums
OF the District. the much visited
little pockets Of the city. often
In the very shadow Of the Ma
tons Capitol"
But most OF the slums were
gone, leveled and swept away
and the words Of the slum tour
this time we're "redevelopment,"
and "multi-family dwellings,"
and urban blight"
Anniversary Noted
Mrs. Roosevelt was the guest
of the Washington Housing
Association. celebrating an an
niversary. The association had
remembered how. rs years ago,
Mrs. Roosevelt had turned up
in the slums and chatted with
the jewellers. She had helped,
In the free-wheeling New Deal
days, to turn attention to the
slums. the poor, the under
privileged"
Standing in the cool lobby of
the modern Capital Park
Apartments in Southwest, with
photographers asking her to
point this way and that and a
brownish dog shifting her
shoes, she was asked il she
could remember the scene as
it once was.
"Only vaguely" she said,
somewhat tired but neverthe-
less interested in the flattened
area, broken by Jumps of dirt
and patches of grass and the
big apartment house in the
middle of it all on Fourth
street.
Mrs. Roosevelt was accom-
panied by a swarm of people
District Commissioners Rob-
ert E. Mclaughlin. and David
B. Karrick; Senator Bible,
chairman of the Senate Dis
trict Committee; housing off,
Gals, and some other people
interested in public housing.
They Travelled in a bus.
Mrs. Roosevelt dropped into
the home of Mr.. and Mrs. Ray
Washington, 202 street S.W.,
part of the Greenleaf Gardens
development. The house had
been cleaned and busted. Mrs.
Roosevelt climbed the stairs.
opening closets, walking from
bedroom to bedroom, chatting
softly with Mrs. Washington.
AS she left. Mrs. Washington
told Mrs. Roosevelt.
Your visit was the thrill of
my life"
| The bus, with Mrs. Roosevelt
back inside, rolled on across
the Anacostia and stopped
eventually at Park Lands. the
area of box-like red apartment
houses built by Morris Cafritz.
Bus Pulls Up to Church
Eventually. the bus pulled up
to a low-slung church in Mar
shall Heights, at the edge TO
the city.
Mrs. Roosevelt, Is years ago,
had dropped in here.
AS she got out of the bus a
crowd of residents had gath
cred around the church, stand
ing in the sun with an Amer
lean flag.
The Rev. John Jackson, pas
tor of the Saint John Baptist
Church, Call place and Fifty
third street Sc, greeted the
famous visitor as others helped
ner off the bus. He had asked
her help before, but this time,
Mr.. Jackson had quickly gath
cred the community to honor
her.
He thanked Mrs. Roosevelt
from the bottom of his heart
and told her that some day
they would have a new church
and they would see to it that
a plaque or bust or some
thing would be in the new
church in her honor.
A little girl in a white dress
gave Mrs. Roosevelt a basket
of roses. Mrs. Patsy Allen,
president of the civic associa-
ton, called up a member of the
association to thank Mrs.
Roosevelt and pin a corsage on
her.
Mrs. Allen then gave Mrs.
Roosevelt a certificate of
honor"
Mrs. Roosevelt walked out Of
the church as the group sang
MY Country 'Tis of Thee"
She got in a long black car
and was taken to Capitol Hill
to testify in support of a mini
mum wage bill.