National Museum Of Public Housing Opens: 'This Is A Destination' (2025)

LITTLE ITALY — The visions of housing advocates and cultural leaders were realized Friday when former public housing neighbors, city and state officials joined dozens of supporters for the grand opening of the National Museum of Public Housing.

“This is a destination. This always will be, always has been,” said CHA board member and longtime public housing advocate Francine Washington at the museum’s ribbon-cutting ceremony. “This is a place we have to see.”

Theopeningis the culmination of a dream that started more than 18 years ago when former public housing residents, advocates and preservationists organized to create a museum to preserve the stories of people who have lived in public housing.

Deverra Beverly, housing commissioner, advocate and former Chicago Housing Authority resident, was a major force behind the push for a museum. Beverly, who died in 2013, organized against the CHA’s plan to demolish 11 public housing developments,displacing thousands of residentswithout providing alternative homes.

Sunny Fischer, museum co-founder and board chair, said Beverly wanted “to leave something so that our children and our grandchildren will know that we were here, that we existed as a community.”

Almost 20 years later, Beverly could not see her vision come true. Yet, her legacy will live on in the museum’s “new home,” Fischer said.

Construction of the museum faced years of challenges amid the resilience of advocates, preservationists and public housing residents. Lisa Lee, the museum’s executive director, said it will be a place for important conversations to learn from the past and build a better collective future.

“The National Public Housing Museum is a clarion call — loud, clear and unwavering — to our nation of the importance of historical fact and truth, of the importance of preserving diverse people’s stories and sharing this history,” she said.

The museum was built inside the last remaining building from the CHA’s Jane Addams Homes — one of the public housing projects that was part of the ABLA (Addams, Brooks, Loomis, Abbott) Homes.

Marshall Hatch, a prominent West Side leader, lived in the Jane Addams Homes with his family for 12 years, a place for an “ideal childhood,” he previously said. Now, visitors can tour Hatch’s recreated apartment in the museum’s Historic Apartments exhibition.

“Today, we recognize more than just an opening of a museum. This is a preservation of vital history,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said.

Johnson, a proud West Sider, said Friday that the city remains committed to expand affordable and public housing.

Along with the museum, 15 housing units inside the restored Jane Addams Homes, 1322 W. Taylor St., have been completed and leased. Two hundred units have been built on the Roosevelt Square development housed in the former ABLA Homes site. The city is also building 1,800 affordable units and 4,600 are anticipated in the next 18 months, Johnson said.

“It’s a human right and I’m gonna do everything in my power to repopulate the city of Chicago with working people,” Johnson said.

The National Museum of Public Housing, 919 S. Ada St., is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday, with extended hours until 8 p.m. Thursday.

Visitors can access the museum for free, except for the Historic Apartments exhibition.Ticketsfor a 60-minute guided tour of the Historic Apartments exhibition are $25 for adults and $15 for seniors, students ages 18-24 and children ages 6-18.

For more information about this weekend’s opening events, visit the museum’s website.

More photos of Friday’s ribbon cutting of the National Museum of Public Housing:

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