Courtesy of Elyse Butler

Year Erected: 2022

Marker Text: At this site stood University Homes. Conceptualized by Atlanta University President John Hope, the 675-unit development replaced the overcrowded Beaver Slide neighborhood near the newly formed Atlanta University Center. Simultaneously, developer Charles Palmer sought to raze the Tech Flats neighborhood near his midtown properties. Palmer and Hope applied separately for funding from the federal Public Works Administration (PWA), created to encourage economic recovery during the Great Depression. In 1933, the PWA funded the construction of University Homes for Black Atlantans and Techwood Homes for White Atlantans, the nation’s first federally funded housing projects. Completed in 1937 and 1936, respectively, the projects led to the Atlanta Housing Authority’s creation in 1938. University Homes provided housing for the community until its demolition in 2009 as part of a Housing and Urban Development plan. Only Roosevelt Hall remains.

Erected by the Georgia Historical Society, Emory University’s Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, & Rare Book Library, and the Atlanta Housing Authority