Brief History of the Corpus Christi Housing Authority
In the late 1930s a Corpus Christi Housing Authority (CCHA) study revealed that residents of the city’sslums lived in overcrowded, unsafe structures and lacked even the most basic amenities. More than 500homes in the city’s poorest areas had families with five to nine people sharing a single bedroom, 1,200families were without indoor toilets, and hundreds lived in houses with no floors. These findings instigateda CCHA effort to clear some of the worst slums, and existing substandard dwellings were demolished tomake way for three low-cost housing projects. Reflecting the racial makeup of the neighborhoods involved,these complexes were segregated by race and named for important historical figures in the communitywhich each was designed to serve. The Kinney Place complex was designated for Anglos (later known as
George Wiggins Homes, located outside APE), Navarro Place for Hispanic residents, and D.N. LeathersPlace (now known as the D. N. Leathers Housing Center) for African Americans.
Local firms were awarded the design contracts so that the complexes would be best suited to the localclimate, and all three were built to similar designs, with long rows of one- and two-story flat-roofedrectilinear buildings built of structural concrete and clad in dashed stucco, grouped in courts (seeFigure 3). Each of the three complexes also included an administrative and community center andplayground area. Rents were calculated as a percentage of the tenants’ income and included city water, though tenants were responsible for gas and electric costs. In providing affordable housing, the CCHAhoped to create more stable environments for families, leading to the ultimate goal of homeownership.
Figure 3. Architect’s rendering of D.N. Leathers Place (“Tenant Selection for Negro Housing Unit Set for
August,” Corpus Christi Caller-Times, 2 June 1940).
D.N. Leathers Place, developed in 1940 and officially opened in 1941, was built to house approximately122 families with monthly incomes between $35 and $80, providing African American residents with“decent, safe, and sanitary dwellings” at a time when many residents of the Washington-Colesneighborhood lived in substandard housing. The complex was named for a local businessman andprominent leader in the African American community, who had sold the land to the city. The area’sstreets, Fisk, Tuskeegee, and Xavier, are named for historically African American colleges.The Leathers project provided housing in close proximity to churches and the Solomon M. Coles School,as well as the port and other major employers of African Americans. Its location, at the western edge ofthe neighborhood, was selected as it was assumed that the congested African American neighborhoodwould likely expand in that direction. Demand for the units was high, as over 80% of housing available toAfrican Americans was still considered substandard, and a 1950 census showed that African Americans
occupied 14% of the city’s substandard housing despite making up only 6% of the total population. Asecond complex, D.N. Leathers II, was constructed in 1952 to meet this demand. Located nearby betweenLake and Nueces Streets, this complex was demolished in 1999 due to chronic flooding.
D.N. Leathers I Project Description
The Corpus Christi Housing Authority submitted a Demolition/ Disposition Inventory Removal Application to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on March 01, 2016.
The proposed activity is demolition/disposition of 122 units of public housing and associated infrastructure and facilities at the subject property and disposition (sale) of the property to the Texas Department of Transportation.
D.N. Leathers I property may be eligible for listing on the National Register for Historic places, based the NHRP Eligible or Listed Resources in the APE. The eligible criterion is Criteria A, Social History, Community Planning and Development; and Criteria C, Architecture, and that the proposed demolition of the existing historic structures and clearance of the property will have an adverse effect on the historic resource by directly altering the characteristics that qualify the property for inclusion in the National Register in a manner that would diminish the integrity of the property’s location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, or association with respect to the above-noted criteria of eligibility. As interested members of the public, we invite you to comment or express your concerns.
Attached below is a comment card for your comments and concerns of D.N. Leathers I Demolition/Disposition Inventory Removal Application. A site map, legal description and photographs are also available on the Corpus Christi Housing Authority website at
COMMENT(S)
Corpus Christi Housing Authority
D.N. Leathers I Demolition/Disposition Inventory Removal
Please print comments:
Please email comment card to or mail to:
Deborah Sherrill, Sr. V.P. Housing/Community Development
Corpus Christi Housing Authority
3701 Ayers Street
Corpus Christi, Texas 78415