Houses built by a federal agency for war industries

The houses here are remarkably uniform. They are Colonial Revival homes built by the United States Housing Corporation between 1919 and 1920. The corporation was a United States federal government agency founded to provide housing for workers in strategically significant war-related industries.

Construction began around the same time that the armistice ending World War I in Europe was signed. The corporation plan called for the construction of 64 buildings, either single family or semi-detached two-family buildings. The corporation had originally planned to build more buildings on the available lots, but these plans ended with the war.

By 1921, the houses were sold off. Landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. oversaw the development of this district. While the houses built by the corporation exhibit a uniformity of Colonial Revival design, they are varied by altering details of trim, roofline, and setting. The remaining house lots were sold off in the 1920s to other builders. Those houses borrowed from the vocabulary established by the corporation's designs and were constrained in size and setting by deed restrictions.

The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 16, 1990. It remains a residential historic district on the west side of New London, Connecticut.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons