CARVER COURT PUBLIC HOUSING PROJECT

Built in 1945 for $468,700, Carver Court was a public housing development set up by the Orlando Housing Authority in an effort to stimulate the economy, resolve growing slum and housing problems, and meet local demands associated with the massive defense buildup that had occurred during World War II. The development consisted of 16 one-story buildings and 12 two-story buildings. Carver Court was a prime example of a planned residential community, reflecting important urban planning and housing design theories of the period. As a well-defined group of affordable, multi-family, residential buildings organized around open spaces, Carver Court exemplified public housing projects constructed throughout the country during the late 1930s and 1940s. A team of Orlando’s most prominent architects and landscape architects, including Arthur Beck (1899-1990), the first Jewish architect in Orlando, Herbert L. Flint, landscape designer for the first public housing complex in Jacksonville, and F. Earl DeLoe (b. 1893), designed the housing complex. Originally built to house African-American families, Carver Court reflected attitudes toward segregation and the housing of low-income families that were characteristic of the time.