{"nrhp_refnum":"87000690","name":"Laurel Homes Historic District","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Roughly bounded by Liberty and John Sts., Ezzard Charles Dr., and Linn St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Cincinnati","county":"Hamilton County","state":"OH","lat":39.11131794150006,"lon":-84.52429229146321,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1987-05-19","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Politics/Government","Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A public housing complex in Cincinnati's West End, Hamilton County, Ohio, built 1936-1938 as a Public Works Administration project. It has 25 brick apartment buildings, two store buildings, a heating plant and a playground building, plus a city park and playground.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it the second largest PWA public housing project in the country and the first and largest local one. It illustrates 1930s housing and planning ideas and marks a milestone in local efforts to improve living conditions for the poor. It also reflects cooperation among the city's political bodies, agencies and civic groups, and debates over racial access to housing.","narrative":"Laurel Homes is a 1930s public housing complex in Cincinnati's West End, built 1936-1938 with Public Works Administration funding on cleared slum land. It holds 1,303 apartments in 25 three- and four-story brick buildings, arranged around courtyards, vistas and axes. Four smaller brick buildings accompany them: two long, low store buildings on Linn Street, a heating plant and a playground building. Two city-owned green spaces, Laurel Park and Laurel Playground, are part of the district. Building coverage dropped from 65 percent of the land in the old slum to 20 percent. The complex ranks as the second largest PWA housing project nationally, after Williamsburg Houses in Brooklyn, and was the first and largest public housing project in Cincinnati. It is valued for showing Depression-era planning ideas such as standardization, low density, communal space and attention to light and air, and for its role in local humanitarian and political efforts. Original windows were replaced in 1985, but the complex remains largely intact.","period_of_significance":"ca. 1933-1938","architect_builder":"Associated Architects (listed below)","architectural_style":null,"criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Occupied; described as well preserved and in good condition, with windows replaced in 1985.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:15.056904-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/87000690.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/87000690/91290f6ecb-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/87000690/91290f6ecb-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Remnant_of_the_Laurel_Homes.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Remnant_of_the_Laurel_Homes.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71989057","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurel_Homes_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14716595"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/hamilton-county/laurel-homes-historic-district-87000690/"}