***Eastgate Gardens Violent Past Leads To Demolition***

***Eastgate Gardens Violent Past Leads To Demolition***Eastgate Gardens was a large and well-known public housing complex located in Marshall Heights.Eastgate Hoodies - Remembering DC - https://teespring.com/eastgate-crew-hoodieThe National Capital Housing Authority was under pressure from Congress to build extensive new public housing in the District of Columbia. Having delayed site selection for several years due to public opposition, in April 1960 the agency selected a hilly, 15-acre site in Marshall Heights bounded by F, G, and 51st Streets SE; Benning Road SE; and Drake Place SE. The project displaced 14 families. The public housing project, known as Eastgate Gardens, was approved in September 1961. The $4.9 million cost ($21,327 per unit) was higher than that allowed by law, and required special approval from Robert C. Weaver, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.Eastgate Tees - Remembering DC - https://teespring.com/eastgate-crew-black-teeConstruction on Eastgate Gardens began in 1961. The project initially housed 1,750 people, of whom 1,300 were children. Eastgate Gardens consisted of 230 units in 37 rowhouses designed for unusually large families, ranging in size from two to six bedrooms. To accommodate the demands of the hilly site, the architects used the rowhouses themselves as a retaining wall, and stepped each rowhouse slightly downhill from its neighbor in order to avoid extensive grading. Interior streets were constructed as cul-de-sacs, to prevent through-traffic and improve safety for children. Rowhouses were treated as groups, with each group semi-enclosing a small courtyard with a tiny play area for children. At the center of Eastgate Gardens was a 1-acre (4,000 m2) athletic field and small natural amphitheater. The design of Eastgate Gardens was highly praised by Architectural Record magazine.By the 1980s, Eastgate Gardens had deteriorated due to lack of maintenance and repair. The crack epidemic of the 1980s drew a number of drug dealers to Marshall Heights, and violence and gunshots were common. Eastgate Gardens drew nationwide attention in January and February 1989 after four homicides and 14 shootings occurred there. The Washington Post later called Eastgate Gardens "ground zero for crime". Residents there lived in extreme poverty in densely crowded conditions. The project became so decrepit that by 1992 most units had been abandoned and boarded up. By 1995, the city was characterizing Eastgate Gardens as "D.C.'s most distressed housing development." A local gang of drug dealers, the Eastgate Crew, nicknamed the complex "Gates of Hell".By 1997, it was apparent that Eastgate Gardens had not been as well-designed as it could have been. City architects called the buildings poorly designed, and inappropriately sited. The District of Columbia Housing Authority now planned to raze and rebuild Eastgate. The city razed 34 of the 37 rowhouses at Eastgate Gardens in 1998, and the remaining three units in 2002. In 2004, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development's HOPE VI low-income housing program awarded the District of Columbia $20 million to assist in the redevelopment of Eastgate Gardens. The city and private donors contributed another $56 million. Construction on the new complex, named Glenncrest, began in the fall of 2005. The city constructed 211 detached and semi-detached houses, 61 of them for rent to low- and moderate-income families, and the remainder available for purchase (outright or through a lease-to-own program) for low- and moderate-income families.The new Glenncrest opened in 2008.Drake Place SE: The crack epidemic and visit by Queen ElizabethIn the early 1980s, Marshall Heights had a reputation as a poor but stable neighborhood of families and retirees. But an epidemic of crack cocaine hit the District of Columbia in 1985, bringing with it significant amounts of gun violence and murder. Marshall Heights, along with the neighborhoods of Anacostia, Garfield Heights, Shaw, and a few others, were among the hardest-hit. Drake Place SE was one of the most active open-air drug markets in the Mid-Atlantic region. Addicts from as far away as Baltimore and Frederick in Maryland and from West Virginia flocked to Drake Place SE in Marshall Heights to buy crack. Drug dealers from as far away as New York City came to Drake Place to sell crack. A series of shootings in 1989 gave the neighborhood the nickname "Dodge City". As the crack epidemic began to wane in the early 1990s, drug dealers began selling the hallucinogen PCP, which had the nickname "love boat". After three men were killed on Drake Place in late 1991 and early 1992, the street was given the nickname "Boat Drive".On May 15, 1991, Queen Elizabeth II of Britain visited the 5300 block of Drake Place SE. The queen was viewing four homes built by the Marshall Heights Community Development Organization, and financially backed by the District of Columbia. Accompanying the queen on her visited were First Lady Barbara Bush, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Jack Kemp, and District of Columbia Mayor Sharon Pratt Dixon. The visit received worldwide attention when 67-year-old homeowner Alice Frazier exuberantly hugged the queen (a major breach of royal etiquette). Queen Elizabeth graciously accepted the hug, and spent 20 minutes in Frazier's home. On June 4, 1991, the Council of the District of Columbia formally renamed the street "Queen's Stroll SE".Source - Wikapedia