Credit: National Public Housing Museum
Historic Wing
Experience the texture and fabric of public housing throughout time by visiting three recreated historic apartments showcasing different families’ experiences at different moments in public housing history between 1938 and 1975. The intimate individual, family and community stories become the lens to understand large national public housing policies and their impact.
The Historic Apartments can be experienced through a guided tour by one of our educators.
In the Turovitz family apartment, meet Meyer and Mollie and their children, Bessie, Jack, and Inez, who were among the first tenants of the Jane Addams Homes when they came to live there in 1938. Discover how the U.S. got its first public housing and about the families who believed in this experiment. Experience a lovingly recreated kosher kitchen and hear the voice of Inez remembering her childhood experiences in public housing.
Generously made possible by Debra and Harry J. Seigle.
In this recreated 1950s apartment, learn how redlining, racial covenants, blockbusting and other federal and local housing policies shaped the demographics of cities and of public housing and impacted the lives of families living in the Jane Addams Homes. Created by Manual Cinema with Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor.
Generously made possible by the Ford Foundation.
In the Hatch family apartment, meet Reverend Elijah Hatch and Helen Holmes Hatch and their eight children who moved into the Jane Addams Homes in 1960 after a fire in their tenement home. Hear about some of the issues that families, like the Hatches, encountered while living in public housing, including the connection between public housing and the Civil Rights Movement, the continued impacts of environmental racism, and how they fought back. Audio tour in collaboration with Lil Rel Howery and Nate Marshall.
Generously made possible by the Mellon Foundation.
“What is an object that tells a story about your life and experiences in public housing?” History Lessons: Everyday Objects from Public Housing is a national effort to collect objects from public housing residents in diverse communities across the USA, and work with residents in storytelling and writing workshops to write their own labels…
Still Here uses art, archives, and public dialogue to explore and connect histories of displacement on the land where the National Public Housing Museum is located. As an institution that addresses displacement of public housing residents, we also want to understand the forcible removal of Indigenous peoples that came before and grapple with how those experiences are interwoven…
As you walk down Taylor Street, meet one of our founders, Commissioner Deverra Beverly and learn about the changing neighborhood through the stories of past residents. These exhibits are accessible from the outside of the museum.
Additional resources available at the front desk.
