"The Answer in Brick and Mortar": How NYCHA's "First Houses" Was Assembled, Built, Financed and Operated in the 1930s

On the 90th anniversary of the December 1935 dedication of First Houses, the NYU Furman Center published a brief exploring how First Houses came to be and its significance in housing policy history. First Houses had only 126 units, but its opening marked a new era in New York City housing: for the first time, the government took on a role in provisioning low-rent housing. Our research uses archival materials to focus on the ways a small team acquired land, secured funding, completed construction, selected tenants, and managed the property and on the legal, political, and economic forces that converged to make the project possible. 

First Houses stands out from other NYCHA developments for a number of reasons, notably in its financing and its low profile. Unlike most NYCHA developments, First Houses was built before the 1937 United States Housing Act that established a public housing program at the national level. Without federal public housing funds, the NYCHA team found support in unexpected places, from local philanthropists to the Depression-era Works Progress Administration (WPA). The Authority also tested its eminent domain powers for the first time, prompting a state court case that would affirm its ability to seize properties for public housing construction. First Houses was built on the Lower East Side, a neighborhood then known for its dense, run-down tenement buildings and poor living conditions. The new development’s walk-up brick buildings blended into the neighborhood, despite their much higher quality construction, communal back courtyard, and other modern features. A range of NYCHA administrative documents, construction reports, tenant publications, and newspaper articles shed light on how the project took shape. 

Note: Per the NYU Furman Center’s licensing agreement with NYCHA and the LaGuardia & Wagner Archives, none of the images featured in the attached Policy Brief can be downloaded, republished, retransmitted, reproduced, or otherwise used as a stand-alone file. If you are interested in using any of the images in this Policy Brief for an academic or other purpose, please contact the NYU Furman Center at furmancenter@nyu.edu before utilizing the image.