Containers:

Box 894, Sleeve 124471.01

Identifier:

BANC PIC 2006.029--NEG

Dates:

1942-12-29

Creators:

Trudeau

Scope and content:

Includes the post office and Geraldine McCracken in a trailer. Note enclosed in sleeve: Children of shipyard workers playing in yard of emergency house built by the government. A school for them was planned but unbuilt. One of hundreds of camp areas outside city limits. Shown are trailer, tent and house. Geraldie McCracken, daughter of a shipyard worker, is standing at the door of the trailer. Despite primitive facilities, she and others like her somehow manage to appear neat and clean. This looks like a cemetery full of tombstones. The "tombstones" are concrete foundations for prefabricated houses that should have been completed a long time ago. This is the blot on Richmond's otherwise remarkable housing record. Richmond didn't want the prefabricated houses but the Federal Public Housing Authority (PHA) insisted it take them because there was an emergency need and these could be put up most quickly. Then the project got snarled in Washington red tape and has been stalled since May. The streets, sidewalks, water and sewer system and the foundations are in - have been for months - but no houses. Richmond is the place where Santa Claus came five days late to thousands of workers. The post office was swamped. Every high school boy in town was hired. Five Army trucks and a moving van were pressed into service. Yet, here Christmas packages are still being sorted for delivery on December 29. This typifies the congestion that is Richmond.

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