The Ida B. Wells Homes, which also comprised the Clarence Darrow Homes and Madden Park Homes, was a Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) public housing project located in the heart of the Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois. It was bordered by 35th Street to the north, Pershing Road to the south, Cottage Grove Avenue to the east, and Martin Luther King Drive to the west. The Ida B. Wells Homes consisted of rowhouses, mid-rises, and high-rise apartment buildings, first constructed 1939 to 1941 to house African American tenants. They were closed and demolished beginning in 2002 and ending in 2011.
Building within the Ida B. Wells Homes seen from East Oakwood Boulevard and South Cottage Grove Avenue, 1978.
Students learn to make scale model aircraft for the war effort in a class at the Ida B. Wells Homes community center (March 1942)
Children play outside the Ida B. Wells Homes (1973)
2008 photograph of one of the Ida B. Wells Extension Homes buildings.
Chicago Housing Authority
The Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) is a municipal corporation that oversees public housing within the city of Chicago. The agency's Board of Commissioners is appointed by the city's mayor, and has a budget independent from that of the city of Chicago. CHA is the largest rental landlord in Chicago, with more than 50,000 households. CHA owns over 21,000 apartments. It also oversees the administration of 37,000 Section 8 vouchers. The current acting CEO of the Chicago Housing Authority is Tracey Scott.
Harsh Apartments in the North Kenwood-Oakland neighborhood.
Lake Parc Place apartments high-rise buildings undergoing renovation.
Judge Slater Apartments in the Bronzeville neighborhood.
Altgeld Gardens Homes housing project in Riverdale, Illinois.
