Sursum Corda Cooperative is a small neighborhood located in Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

, bounded by North Capitol Street

North Capitol Street

North Capitol Street is a street in Washington, D.C. that separates the Northwest and Northeast quadrants of the city. The street begins at D Street due north of the United States Capitol and continues northward 4½ miles to Nicholson Street where it is interrupted by Fort Slocum Park and the...

 on the east, First Street NW to the west, K Street NW to the south, and New York Avenue NW to the north. It consists of 199 housing units constructed as an experiment in cooperatively managed low-income housing in 1968. Managed by the District of Columbia Housing Authority, it became a notorious open air drug market plagued by violence and poverty in the 1980s. In 2005 the District of Columbia offered to purchase the complex as part of its "New Communities" plan for neighborhood rehabilitation.

History

Residential neighborhoods north of Massachusetts Avenue

Massachusetts Avenue (Washington, D.C.)

Massachusetts Avenue is a major diagonal transverse road in Washington, D.C., and the Massachusetts Avenue Historic District is a historic district that includes part of it....

 underwent a prolonged decay in the first half of the 20th century. Controversial urban renewal

Urban renewal

Urban renewal is a program of land redevelopment in areas of moderate to high density urban land use. Renewal has had both successes and failures. Its modern incarnation began in the late 19th century in developed nations and experienced an intense phase in the late 1940s – under the rubric of...

 plans of the 1950s and 1960s called for massive demolition of the area, part of it comprising the old Irish American

Irish American

Irish Americans are citizens of the United States who can trace their ancestry to Ireland. A total of 36,278,332 Americans—estimated at 11.9% of the total population—reported Irish ancestry in the 2008 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau...

 neighborhood of Swampoodle

Swampoodle

Swampoodle was an Irish neighborhood in Washington, D.C.. A geographic approximation of its borders would be K Street to the north, G Street to the south, 1st Street NW to the west, and 2nd Street NE to the east. Through the center of it ran the principal branch of Tiber Creek...

, though they were only partially executed.

Various Masonic

Freemasonry

Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...

 and religious organizations took advantage of loan programs of the recently created U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

United States Department of Housing and Urban Development

The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, also known as HUD, is a Cabinet department in the Executive branch of the United States federal government...

 (HUD) to build housing for some of the displaced households. A group of Catholic

Roman Catholic Church

The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

 activists from the nearby Gonzaga College High School

Gonzaga College High School

Gonzaga College High School is a Jesuit high school for boys located in Washington, D.C. The school is named in honor of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, an Italian saint from the 16th century...

 and the parish of St. Aloysius conceived of a new urban village

Urban village

An urban village is an urban planning and urban design concept. It refers to an urban form typically characterized by:* Medium density development* Mixed use zoning* The provision of good public transit...

 to house some of the households displaced by the demolitions. They also received support from the D.C. Public Housing

Public housing

Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is owned by a government authority, which may be central or local. Social housing is an umbrella term referring to rental housing which may be owned and managed by the state, by non-profit organizations, or by a combination of the...

 Authority and the then-Senator

United States Senate

The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

 from New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, Robert F. Kennedy

Robert F. Kennedy

Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy , also referred to by his initials RFK, was an American politician, a Democratic senator from New York, and a noted civil rights activist. An icon of modern American liberalism and member of the Kennedy family, he was a younger brother of President John F...

.

Construction on the new development began in 1967. It was named Sursum Corda, a Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 expression meaning Lift up your hearts which is intoned at the start of the Eucharistic Prayer during the Mass

Mass (liturgy)

"Mass" is one of the names by which the sacrament of the Eucharist is called in the Roman Catholic Church: others are "Eucharist", the "Lord's Supper", the "Breaking of Bread", the "Eucharistic assembly ", the "memorial of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection", the "Holy Sacrifice", the "Holy and...

. The original plan called for 155 resident-owned and 44 rental townhouses on four acres (16,000 m²), arranged on courtyards and alleys around a horseshoe

Horseshoe

A horseshoe, is a fabricated product, normally made of metal, although sometimes made partially or wholly of modern synthetic materials, designed to protect a horse's hoof from wear and tear. Shoes are attached on the palmar surface of the hooves, usually nailed through the insensitive hoof wall...

-shaped street (1st Terrace, L Place, and 1st Place NW) to promote a sense of community. The style was quite unusual for public housing of the era, in that the neighborhood was largely closed off, presaging some of the HOPE VI

HOPE VI

HOPE VI is a plan by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. It is meant to revitalize the worst public housing projects in the United States into mixed-income developments. Its philosophy is largely based on New Urbanism and the concept of Defensible space.The program began...

 rehabilitation plans. The units offered amenities such as air conditioning

Air conditioning

An air conditioner is a home appliance, system, or mechanism designed to dehumidify and extract heat from an area. The cooling is done using a simple refrigeration cycle...

, washer

Washing machine

A washing machine is a machine designed to wash laundry, such as clothing, towels and sheets...

 and dryer

Clothes dryer

A clothes dryer or tumble dryer is a household appliance that is used to remove moisture from a load of clothing and other textiles, generally shortly after they are cleaned in a washing machine....

 units, and kitchen garbage disposals. Rents were originally fixed at 25 percent of the residents' income.

A group of nun

Nun

A nun is a woman who has taken vows committing her to live a spiritual life. She may be an ascetic who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live her life in prayer and contemplation in a monastery or convent...

s from the Order of the Religious of the Sacred Heart (R.S.C.J.) were among the first residents, aiming to support and minister to the new residents. Father Horace McKenna

Horace McKenna

Horace B. McKenna S.J., Founder of S.O.M.E. and advocate of the Sursum Corda Cooperative. He was born on January 2, 1899 and died on May 11, 1982....

, a Jesuit priest at St. Aloysius Church at Gonzaga College High School

Gonzaga College High School

Gonzaga College High School is a Jesuit high school for boys located in Washington, D.C. The school is named in honor of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, an Italian saint from the 16th century...

 and well-known advocate for the poor, established a program to bring Georgetown University

Georgetown University

Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...

 undergraduate students to tutor children in the neighborhood, a program which continues to the present day. McKenna Walk, NW is named for him.

Disadvantageous tax laws led to neglect of the properties, and the arrival of crack cocaine

Crack cocaine

Crack cocaine is the freebase form of cocaine that can be smoked. It may also be termed rock, hard, iron, cavvy, base, or just crack; it is the most addictive form of cocaine. Crack rocks offer a short but intense high to smokers...

 in the 1980s sent the neighborhood into a steep decline. Its layout made it difficult to police, and consequently an ideal drug market and frequent battleground for street gangs. Despite the efforts of the Tenants Association, it became associated with poverty and crime. Even the nuns were driven away, the last departing in the early 1990s.

The neighborhood re-entered the city's consciousness on January 21, 2004 when a gunman shot 14 year-old Jahkema Princess Hansen execution style, believing she may have witnessed one of two shootings in the neighborhood the previous Sunday. The D.C. Metropolitan Police designated the area as an increased enforcement zone for drug trafficking and prostitution

Prostitution

Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...

 afterwards.

The construction of the nearby NoMa – Gallaudet University and Union Station stations of the Washington Metro

Washington Metro

The Washington Metro, commonly called Metro, and unofficially Metrorail, is the rapid transit system in Washington, D.C., United States, and its surrounding suburbs. It is administered by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority , which also operates Metrobus service under the Metro name...

 and a surge in property values have sparked interest in redeveloping this area; the once-abandoned region is now a frontier of gentrification

Gentrification

Gentrification and urban gentrification refer to the changes that result when wealthier people acquire or rent property in low income and working class communities. Urban gentrification is associated with movement. Consequent to gentrification, the average income increases and average family size...

 dubbed NoMa (for North of Massachusetts). The city is now advancing a plan called "New Communities" to encourage mixed-income development. The plan was supported by the Bush Administration

George W. Bush

George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

; HUD, which owns the mortgages

Mortgage loan

A mortgage loan is a loan secured by real property through the use of a mortgage note which evidences the existence of the loan and the encumbrance of that realty through the granting of a mortgage which secures the loan...

 on most of the buildings in the area, has foreclosed on Sursum Corda and may not renew its Section 8

Section 8 (housing)

Section 8 of the United States Housing Act of 1937 , as repeatedly amended, authorizes the payment of rental housing assistance to private landlords on behalf of approximately 3.1 million low-income households...

 contracts with the other complexes in the area.

External links

• The Washington Post
  The Washington Post
  The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
  
  : Aerial photograph of the Sursum Corda area
• Sursum Apartments, official D.C. Housing Authority site
• National Building Museum
  National Building Museum
  The National Builders Museum, in Washington, D.C., United States, is a museum of "architecture, design, engineering, construction, and urban planning"...
  
  : Affordable Housing Exhibit: Sursum Corda including construction specifications