Black History Month: The Story of John Louis Wilson, Jr. and the Harlem River Houses

Architect John L. Wilson, Jr. with Borough President 

David Dinkins, Chicago Mayor Harold Washington,

 and others at the 50th Anniversary of the Harlem River Houses
©New York City Housing Authority

"At the request of the Federal Government we are putting a negro architect on the Harlem-Macombs Place Project. His name [is] John Louis Wilson.”  Even setting aside the now offensive reference to an African American, this quote from a 1935 letter by Langdon Post (then head of the New York City Housing Authority) and the story behind it is shocking.  Or maybe it just should be.

The team initially selected to design project now known as the Harlem River Houses, did not include any African Americans, even though it was the first and premier public housing in Harlem, the heart of black culture in America.  The Harlem River Houses was intended to be a high profile and symbolic project: a statement of commitment to the black community in a time of segregated housing.  Even today, it is considered among the best designed housing ever built by government.

Architects Rendering of Harlem River Houses

©New York City Housing Authority

It took federal intervention for Wilson to be added to the team.  Some of the white architects, while denying personal racism, complained that Wilson’s appointment set a bad precedent because he had not participated in the initial qualifying competition.  And they decided that Wilson’s share of the profits would be 1/3 less than their own, justifying this with an unlikely estimate of the work remaining on the project as of Wilson’s appointment. 

The Housing Authority identified only two qualified black architects to fill the post.  John Louis Wilson, Jr. was unquestionably qualified.  He was the first black graduate of Columbia University’s prestigious School of Architecture, graduating in 1928 and fully licensed by 1930.  The other candidate was already working on another federal project, perhaps because it was so hard for black professionals to find work in the private sector. 

We have collected a great many resources for you to explore the history of John Louis Wilson, Jr. and the Harlem River Houses. 

• Here is the in depth story of Mr. Wilson and the Harlem River Houses, including photos, documents and news clippings.
• Here is the 1935 letter confirming Wilson’s appointment to the Harlem River Houses project, along with the responses by the original architects team.  We are proud to be the official repository of the New York City Housing Authority, from which these letters are selected.  The collection can be further explored here.  
• Although not available online, we also have in our LaGuardia Collection an oral history interview with John L. Wilson himself, conducted by Professor Richard K. Lieberman (Director of the LaGuardia and Wagner Archives), and recorded during a class at LaGuardia Community College.

The Wrong Bush

One chilly day in November 2008, former mayor Ed Koch was opening his mail.  Among the letters was an invitation to a Hanukkah reception at the White House.  This was the cover of the card:

Courtesy: The White House

Notice the Christmas tree?  George W. Bush, the President who had started a tradition of separate Christmas and Hanukkah parties at the White House, had sent a picture of the wrong bush.  

We don’t know whether Koch, perhaps the most prominently Jewish mayor in American history, was offended.  We do know that a few days later, on November 28, he RSVP’d his regrets to the Bushes.  He would not be attending.  

A couple of days later he received another card from the White House:

Courtesy: The White House

The menorah on the new card wasn’t just a pretty picture.  It was an image of the menorah given by Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion to President Truman for his early recognition of the State of Israel in 1948.

Inside was a smaller card that read: 

Courtesy: The White House

That was a nice way of putting it.

By then, the New York Post had reported: “Let Santa Light the Menorah” and “Merry Hanukkah from the White House!”  CNN posted “First White House Chrismukkah cards accidentally sent” on their political ticker blog.  And the White House admitted to reporters that staff had failed to print separate cards for the different holiday events.

The Hanukkah Invitation Gaffe of 2008 can go down in history as one of the lesser known bloopers of the Bush Administration.  Ridicule might have been more aggressive, but holiday invitations are traditionally the domain of the First Lady.  “Mrs. Bush is apologetic,” her press secretary told reporters. “It is something that just slipped through the cracks.”  We’ve all been there.

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The cards shown here are from the Edward I. Koch Collection at the LaGuardia and Wagner Archives.  You can view a further sampling of family holiday cards from our collection sent by Mayor LaGuardia, Presidents Bush and Obama, and a holiday photo of the Clintons with Borough President Claire Schulman, among others on our Flickr site.

You might also enjoy our wonderful video collection, some of which is available on our YouTube site.  To get a deeper sense of our collections come to our user-friendly website for finding aids and computerized indexes. As always, we welcome you to follow us on Twitter and FaceBook, and if you like, like us there.  

The digital editions of original documents included here are for research purposes only.  You are, of course, welcome to come to our archives and view the documents yourself.  Researchers wishing to visit the archive in person please contact Douglas Di Carlo, our Archivist in advance of your visit.