The Brewster-Douglass Housing Projects
*The Brewster-Douglass Housing Projects are affirmed on this date in 1950. They were also called the Frederick Douglass Homes, Frederick Douglass Projects.
The Brewster-Douglass Housing Projects were the largest public housing project in Detroit, built during the 20th-century urban renewal era in America. It was in the Brush Park section on the east side of Detroit, Michigan, near the Chrysler Freeway, Mack Avenue, and St. Antoine Street. Between 1910 and 1940, Detroit, Michigan's African American population increased dramatically. In 1935, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt broke ground for the Brewster Homes, the nation's first federally funded public housing development for African Americans. The complex was home to Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, Florence Ballard, Loni Love, and Etterlene DeBarge during their early years.
Hastings Street was the center of Black culture in Detroit between the 1920s and 1950s. Located at the southern edge of the future Brewster-Douglass Homes, the street was the home of innumerable salons and entertainment venues. With the addition of the high-rises and an influx of people moving into the housing, Hastings Street was billed as the place one could fulfill any conceivable need. The Frederick Douglass Apartments, built immediately to the south of the Brewster Project, began construction in 1942. The combined Brewster-Douglass Project housed anywhere between 8,000 and 10,000 residents at its peak capacity. The Brewster-Douglass Project was built for the "working poor." The homes opened in 1938 with 701 units.
When completed in 1941, there were 941 units bounded by Beaubien, Hastings, Mack, and Wilkins Streets. Residents were required to be employed, and there were limits on what they could earn. Former residents described Brewster as 'a community filled with families that displayed love, respect, and concern for everyone in a beautiful, clean, and secure neighborhood.' The original Brewster Homes were demolished in 1991 and replaced by 250 townhouses.
In March 2012, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing announced that the Detroit Housing Commission planned to request funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to demolish all remaining housing on the Frederick Douglass Homes site. The housing project is named after Brewster Street, which runs through the area, and Frederick Douglass, an African American abolitionist, author, and reformer. It was demolished in phases between 2003 and 2014.
