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Vincent Arconati
Housing Perspectives, Fall 2013 UI-340-747
12-11-13
Failure.
The Story of Pruitt-Igoe
The city of St. Louis, Missouri in the 1940s and 1950s was densely populated due to many
people moving into the city looking for opportunity and work. Many of the housing units within
the city were older, being built in the 1800s, and did not have many of the modern amenities of
the time. Many of the white middle class families were moving out of the city limits to new
construction in the suburbs. The houses left behind were being occupied by the great influx of
low income families. Many neighborhoods were becoming slums and were very decayed and
run down. The slums spread from the north and the south toward the city center. In order to
protect the downtown area from these very low income encroaching neighborhoods, the city
government and planners decided to demolish a severely dilapidated mixed race slum, Desoto-
Carr, just north of downtown St. Louis. The St. Louis mayor, Joseph Darst, along with federal
government monetary assistance, through housing programs, decided to build large scale multi-
unit housing structures. One of which, Pruitt-Igoe opened in 1954, would be 33 buildings in
total, each 11 stories high. These buildings were based off of more successful, small scale, low
rise, and low income housing units of the late 1930s. This urban renewal project was a huge
failure, less than 20 after being built Pruitt-Igoe was demolished, and there are many reasons
why.
Pruitt-Igoe was supposed to be the solution to a number of events that were occurring in St.
Louis in the 1930s through 1950s. The city grew rapidly in the 1920s until 1930 due to the rise
of industry in the city. Many immigrants and poor rural people flocked to the city for a chance at
a better life. During this time many of the buildings in St. Louis were very dated being built in
the middle to late 1800s. These multi-unit buildings would often contain public toilets used by
everyone in the structure, if any working indoor plumbing at all. The great numbers of poor
lived in makeshift and unfit housing. In the 1950s after the war and during a time of prosperity
and hope, St. Louis had its largest population in history. This was before many middle class
white families began to leave the city and move into the newly constructed suburbs, on the fringe
of city limits. The housing left behind became occupied by the great numbers of poor as the city
population began to decline. Slums were being created all over the city, many buildings
unlivable, and were moving closer and closer to the downtown business districts. The city had to
come up with a plan to fight urban decay, modernize the city’s housing, and clean up the run
down areas. Urban renewal was their plan. They wanted to give the city a new image and
encourage middle and upper class families to move back to the city. They had hoped and
planned for an increase in population.
St. Louis government had to come up with a plan to combat the many slums near the city center.
City planners along with the St. Louis Housing Authority originally wanted, in the late 1940s, to
