National Register Listing

San Felipe Courts Historic District (Boundary Decrease)

a.k.a. See also:San Felipe Courts Historic District

1600 Allen Pkwy, Houston, TX

San Felipe Courts/Allen Parkway Village was the most substantial public housing project built in Texas during the decade after the passage of the National Housing Act of 1937. The complex exemplifies the social ideals and planning standards of public housing of the New Deal era and reflects a very high caliber of modern architectural design and detail, a condition recognized nationally at the time of its construction. San Felipe Courts epitomized a new concept in housing for the poor of Houston during the Great Depression, and their designation as Defense Housing shortly before the United States entered into World War II provides a rare surviving link with the war effort in Houston. The 18 surviving buildings form a central grouping of public administration and housing units that reflect the project's distinctive site plan. The characteristic flat roofs, horizontality, and contrasting materials display the modernistic influence of the German Bauhaus school on public housing during the mid-20th century United States. After mixed results with public housing during the mid-to-late-20th century, negative press and diminished public support forced the majority of the units to be vacated in the 1980s. Despite various minor alterations and the recent demolition of approximately 3/4 of the original complex, the proposed district retains a sufficient degree of integrity to convey a visual sense of the overall historic environment, forming a significant concentration of buildings that continue to reflect significant architectural and historic associations with World War II-era public housing projects in Houston.

San Felipe Courts (Allen Parkway Village) (SFC/APV) was approved for listing as a historic district in the National of Historic Places by the Texas State Historic Preservation Officer in December 1987 and was listed in the National Register by the National Park Service in February 1988.' The SFC/APV district, as originally defined, included 80 contributing residential apartment buildings and two contributing public buildings. Sixty-four of the original residential buildings and five contributing ancillary buildings have been demolished in accordance with the terms of a Programmatic Agreement between the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, and the Texas Historical Commission for a low to moderate income housing redevelopment project. As noted in Section 7 above, the remaining portion of the property includes sixteen residential buildings, two public buildings, a series of pedestrian courtyards, and two open recreational areas.

In its current configuration, the remaining portion of the SFC/APV historic district continues to reflect the architectural qualities and historical associations that contributed to the site's significance as defined in the original National Register Nomination Form, both at the individual building level and as an intact grouping of historically and functionally related buildings. According to the original National Register Nomination Form, the SFC/APV historic district was determined to be historically significant for its architectural, community planning, and social/humanitarian qualities and associations, particularly as the individual buildings and the SFC/APV site as a whole represent the influence of German social architecture of the 1920s and 1930s as it was adopted by the United States Housing Authority and incorporated into that agency's guidelines and regulations for constructing public housing projects nationwide in the mid-20th century. Those same architectural and historical qualities are still present in the remaining portion of the district.

In terms of the original site plan developed for SFC/APV, the buildings that remain at SFC/APV retain their original arrangement in the Zeilenbau manner, with parallel rows of residential buildings separated by open, pedestrian courtyards to allow for optimum sunlight and fresh air. This aspect of the original site plan is especially well represented by the rows of 3-story residential buildings and courtyards that remain along Valentine Street, the principal tree-lined vehicular avenue for the property. For those visitors who have prior knowledge and experience of SFC/APV as a fully designed architectural landscape, the buildings and site remain almost completely unchanged from their pre-demolition appearance, particularly along the Valentine Street axis. Also intact with very little alteration is the 3-story residential grouping to the west, where six of the 2-story residential buildings have been retained in situ around an open play area, another distinctive feature of the original site plan.

Compared to other projects in Texas and elsewhere in the United States, the buildings remaining at SFC/APV retain those architectural qualities that made them "exceptional for the quality of their architectural design and detailing," including their horizontal linearity of form and banding of the walls, flat roofs, carefully contrasted materials, colors and textures, diminutive scale, and the precise combinations of window and door openings that allow for adequate cross-ventilation of the individual dwelling units. Also notable are the low, brick spur walls which define the pedestrian entryways into the courtyard spaces. Together these architectural qualities make the remaining buildings at SFC/APV seem less austere and regimented than other projects constructed under the USHA housing programs of the early to mid-20th century.'

Aside from the architectural qualities that are physically present in the San Felipe Courts site and buildings, the property as a whole continues to provide a tangible basis for perceiving and appreciating its historical associations. For example, the association of SFC/APV with World War II civilian housing programs is reflected in a large portion of the remaining buildings, particularly in the 3-story buildings east of Valentine Street. These buildings were built somewhat later than those across Valentine to the west due to a temporary cessation of the overall project in 1941. In the context of Defense Housing in Texas, the remaining SFC/APV buildings are distinctively different from other projects in their durability, apartment-like organization, central-city location, and their higher level of community amenities.

In the realm of community planning and social/humanitarian concerns, the successes and failures of the federal government's mid-20th century "slum clearance" program are still evident in the architectural contrast between SFC/APV and the adjacent Freedmens Town historic district. As the only "slum clearance" project undertaken by the Housing Authority of the City of Houston' in the period 1939-1944, with construction dating from 1941-1944, the SFC/APV site was carefully selected on a highly visible tract near the city's center which was the location of one of the city's oldest and most impoverished neighborhoods.

Although the SFC/APV property's historical significance is limited to its architectural and associative qualities for the New Deal era, the SFC/APV project has in recent decades become the subject of numerous and sometimes controversial public debates regarding redevelopment proposals for the property. Actually, the controversial history of SFC/APV extends well back into its earliest period of existence. As early as 1952, after a brief period of success as a housing project for white war workers and veterans, SFC/APV had become the focus of negative press coverage and diminished public support and gradually declined to the point that much of the project was boarded up in the 1980s and only a small portion remained in service.

Among the first of the redevelopment proposals was one sponsored by HACH in 1978 to modernize the property using HUD public housing funds. Although plans were prepared and revised, by 1982 HACH recommended reprogramming the HUD money and pursuing the sale and demolition of the SFC/APV property. However, as a result of substantial public opposition and several legal challenges supported by local area Fourth Ward residents and historic preservation activists' other alternatives were considered. Ultimately, after a federally mandated effort to mediate differences between the SFC/APV resident's council and HACH, HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros' 1993 intervened in the matter and it was agreed that the property would not be sold or demolished in its entirety. Instead, the commitments were made that the SFC/APV property would continue to be used as public housing."

Since the approval of more than 36 million dollars in HUD funds in 1993, a major redevelopment plan has been prepared by the current Housing Authority of the City of Houston in partnership with local area residents and with the support of HUD.' Figure 3 depicts the current plan for redevelopment of the original SFC/APV site with newly constructed housing surrounding the rehabilitated historic district that will serve to house elderly residents. The rehabilitated portion of the SFC/APV historic district is featured at the center of the plan surrounded by planned new construction.

Although public policy no longer allows for the type of federally sanctioned racial segregation that was originally designed and built into SFC/APV, the current Hope VI-URD program and master plan for SFC/APV are remarkably similar in some ways to the programs and projects that the USHA and the HACH undertook in the 1930s and 40s. Under both the HUD's current Hope VI - Urban Revitalization Demonstration (URD) program and that of the USHA in the 1930s and 40s, urban redevelopment schemes only partly focus on the removal and replacement of existing deteriorated and sub-standard housing units with newly constructed or rehabilitated housing units. Another important aspect of both programs is that they include simultaneous provisions for necessary social services and for the stimulation of private enterprise. In this sense, both programs of the 1940s and the 1990s seek to demonstrate how blighted inner urban neighborhoods, or "slums" in the parlance of the World War II era, can be redeveloped. Thus, both the USHA's and the HUD's programs seek to comprehensively revitalize disrupted urban social and economic environments and create an economically sustainable community.

Architecturally, however, the programs are less similar. An essential difference is that the current plan attempts to reintegrate the project into the Fourth Ward/Freedmens Town context rather than continuing the 1940s-era concept of creating an ideal institution apart from its troubled surroundings. To facilitate this goal of reintegration, the current master plan incorporates the traditional architectural language of the Freedmens Town neighborhood in the newly constructed portion of the SFC/APV site. This design approach is markedly different from the original SFC/APV design program where the original designers of SFC/APV were required to use a rigidly ordered and standardized set of design guidelines intended to set the project apart as a model of modern urban life. An additional important aspect of the new redevelopment plan is its intent to reestablish the old street grid, which will reconnect the two areas separated under the original design program for SFC/APV.

Despite the isolationist and segregationist shortcomings of the original design program, the current plan respects the historic associations and architectural qualities of the SFC/APV project by providing for the rehabilitation of a core group of residential buildings, park spaces, and public buildings. Under the current plan, the remaining portion of the SFC/APV historic district will be retained as a distinct zone separated by a ring road from the surrounding newly constructed housing. The ring road serves as a type of buffer zone that provides physical separation and maintains the historic sense of isolation which was an important part of SFC/APV's original design. Under the current plan, the potentially abrupt transition from the historic rehabilitation zone to the new construction zone will be eased by compatible designs of the adjacent new buildings, which will feature architectural materials and forms that reflect the architectural qualities of the historic buildings.

In summary, as it exists following the approved demolition of a large portion of the original National Register district, the San Felipe Courts Historic District retains sufficient architectural integrity as a complex of historically and functionally related buildings to qualify for continued listing as a district under Criterion C in the area of Architecture at the national level of significance. Additionally, the property continues to convey a sense of the historical events that have made this a nationally recognized and sometimes controversial example of public housing in the United States. Thus the property also meets National Register Criterion A in the areas of Community Planning and Development and Social History at the national level of significance. Finally, the approved plan for rehabilitation ensures that significant architectural and historical qualities will be preserved through appropriate rehabilitation and continued use of the remaining buildings.

Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1998.