National Public Housing Museum

In Chicago, the last remaining building of the Jane Addams Homes preserves the history of the city’s first federal public housing project, opened in 1938 and home to thousands of families for six decades. Saved after residents and allies organized in the 1990s against the erasure of public housing communities during the Chicago Housing Authority’s transformation plan, the building was adapted into the National Public Housing Museum and opened in April 2025. Its exhibits center oral history and lived experience through restored apartments, archives, cultural installations, and resident-led programming, linking the history of public housing to continuing questions of housing, memory, and urban change.

Chicago, Illinois · United States