Jeffries Projects
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Jeffries-West Homes , also called the Jeffries Housing Projects or the Jeffries Projects, is a public housing project located in Detroit, Michigan, near the Lodge Freeway.
This projects was named for Edward J. Jeffries, a former Detroit Recorder's Court judge, who was also father of a Detroit mayor.
The Jeffries Projects opened in 1953 as a complex of eight separate 14-story buildings; five more buildings, and additional low-rise housing, were added in 1955. At first, the complex was popular among many Detroit residents who were eager to move into the new buildings. But by the late 1960s, the buildings had became a haven for drug dealers and an area with a high crime rate.
The Jeffries Projects fell into severe disrepair, with the heaters breaking down in several buildings in February 1975, leaving tenants with no heat for five days. A few drug-dealing gangs, "Young Boys Inc." and the "Pony Down Crew", expanded their territory into the Jeffries. Tenants would perch on the high-rise towers and shoot at police officers and other outside influences, to keep them out. The location of the Jefferies was so sought after because it was easy to transport drugs into Detroit's "Cass Corridor" or "Skid Row", because of the high number of middle class white men who traveled to the area specifically for drugs or prostitutes. With the fall of Y.B.I. and Pony Down, the Jeffries Boys took over the projects. Most of the towers were imploded in April 2001, while three were renovated, and convereted to market-rate senior citizens housing. The tenants of the Jeffries were moved to Freedom Place and Research Park Housing Complexes, approximately 8 city blocks from the Jeffries. A mixed-use housing development, named Woodbridge Estates, has been built on the site of the now-imploded towers of the Jeffries Projects.
[edit] Links
- Jeffries towers tumble - 2001 article in the Detroit News about the demolition of many of the Jeffries Projects towers.
- About the Jeffries Projects - Information about the buildings in Jeffries Project.
