Your Historic Home: Alliance's Government Addition

Robb Hyde, president of the Alliance Area Preservation Society (AAPS), presents Alliance’s Government Addition – A Workingman’s Home for the War Effort!, the next public program of the Your Historic Home project, on Wednesday, Sept.19, at 7:00 p.m., in Rodman Public Library Auditorium. Alliance’s Government Addition will look at the Alliance houses built by the Federal Government’s United States Housing Corporation (USHC) in response to a nationwide housing shortage for war workers during World War I. Alliance’s Morgan Engineering and Transue & Williams plants were key facilities for the war effort, and two projects were planned in the city to meet the local need. One million dollars of the Federal $100,000,000 national program was allocated to the city. The prominent Cleveland architects Walker & Weeks were hired to create a design for the planned community within a community, based on “standard house” guidelines developed by the USHC. It took almost a year to begin the building program and the armistice ending the War was signed on November 11, 1918, before the first house was completed. Construction continued on 87 of 127 homes planned for southeast Alliance, and the homes were first occupied by renters beginning in June 1919. Sales began in early 1920. Additionally, the southernmost part of land acquired by the US Government was donated to the City of Alliance for a unique purpose, a long-sought city park. The Government Addition has proved to be a robust neighborhood over the past one hundred years, providing the kind of houses working families needed, and is fondly remembered by its past residents. Much of the character of the original homes remain, and the neighborhood continues to serve its residents well. AAPS’ Your Historic Home series has helped people throughout the community unlock the history of their own historic homes---be it a 19th Century Second Empire or a 50s Ranch home. AAPS continues to build a strong foundation of knowledge about the homes of Alliance, and help individuals learn how to research the history of their house. Each year the group focuses research, surveys and programming around a particular house type found in the area, or a specific neighborhood in Alliance. AAPS conducts house history research workshops to teach people about the resources available to research the history of their home. Rodman Public Library is located at 215 E Broadway St. in Alliance. Free Parking is available. The Alliance Area Preservation Society is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of historic structures through education, research and documentation. It also owns and operates the Haines House, 186 W. Market St. in Alliance, (www.haineshouse.org) an Underground Railroad site listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This program is free and open to the public. No registration is needed. For more information about this program, call the Main Library at 330-821-2665.