Harold Ickes Homes, Public housing complex in Near South Side, Chicago, United States.
Harold Ickes Homes was a public housing complex on Chicago's South Side, made up of eleven nine-story buildings with 738 apartments in total. The complex was designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill and stood as a typical example of mid-20th-century public housing construction.
The complex was built between 1954 and 1955 by the Chicago Housing Authority using federal funds to address the city's housing shortage. It was part of a broader postwar push across the US to create public housing in large cities.
Harold Ickes Homes was home to many Black families at a time when racial segregation shaped where people could live in Chicago. Daily life centered on the community within the complex, with shops and schools nearby.
The site sits on Chicago's South Side, close to downtown, and is easy to reach by public transit. The original buildings no longer stand, and the grounds now hold a new mixed-income residential development.
The complex had an underground tunnel that connected students directly to John C. Haines School in Chinatown, which was unusual for a residential project of that time. The tunnel was built to give children a safer and shorter route to school.
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