{{short description|Public housing development in the Bronx, New York}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2026}} {{Use American English|date=January 2026}} {{Infobox building | name = Judge Lester Patterson Houses | native_name = | native_name_lang = <!-- images --> | logo = | logo_size = | logo_caption = | image = Window view.JPG | image_size = | image_caption = Patterson Houses in 2007 <!-- map --> | pushpin_map = | pushpin_relief = | image_map = | map_caption = <!-- location --> | location = 2625 3rd Avenue<br />Bronx, NY 10451 | address = | location_city = | location_country = United States | coordinates = {{coord|40.814|-73.9235|display=inline,title}} <!-- stats --> | former_names = | alternate_names = | etymology = | status = | cancelled = | topped_out = | building_type = | architectural_style = Modern | material = | classification = | altitude = | namesake = | groundbreaking_date = | construction_start_date = | construction_stop_date = | est_completion = | completion_date = | opened_date = 1950 | inauguration_date = | closing_date = | demolished_date = | destruction_date = | cost = | ren_cost = | client = | owner = New York City Housing Authority | affiliation = | height = | architectural = | structural_system = | size = | floor_count = | floor_area = | elevator_count = | grounds_area = | architect = | architecture_firm = Morrisania Project Association<ref name="PA-1952-08">{{cite magazine |date=August 1952 |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_progressive-architecture_1952-08_33_8/page/32 |title=Sculpture Can Be Made Architecturally Important! |work=Progressive Architecture |volume=33 |issue=8 |page=33 |access-date=2025-12-31}}</ref> | developer = | engineer = | main_contractor = Willcox Construction Co.<ref name="PA-1952-08" /> | known_for = | website = | embed = | embedded = | references = | footnotes = }}
The '''Lester Patterson Houses''' or '''Patterson Houses''' is a public housing development in the Mott Haven neighborhood of the Bronx, New York City. It was named after Bronx assemblyman and judge Lester W. Patterson. It is one of the largest New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) complexes in the city with fifteen buildings 6 and 13-stories tall and 1,790 apartments. It spans an area of {{convert|17.18|acre}}, which is located between East 138th and 145th Street and covers two main avenues, Third Avenue and Morris Avenue.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://my.nycha.info/DevPortal/Home/Index/?redirectUrl=%2FDevPortal%2FPortal%3F|title=MyNYCHA Developments Portal|website=my.nycha.info|access-date=2019-10-15|archive-date=2021-08-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210828214826/https://my.nycha.info/DevPortal/Home/Index/?redirectUrl=%2FDevPortal%2FPortal%3F|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nyc.gov/assets/nycha/downloads/pdf/Patterson.pdf |title=Paterson |website=New York City Housing Authority |access-date=2026-01-01}}</ref>
== Development == Construction on the Patterson Houses began in 1948 and were a part of a large push to build public housing developments in the five boroughs.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1948/08/01/86750655.html?pageNumber=49|title=CRISIS IN HOUSING SEEN EASING SOON; Greatest Sustained Building in City History Is at Hand, Farrell Says|last=|first=|date=August 1, 1948|website=The New York Times|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2019-10-15}}</ref> It was the first low rent development completed in the Bronx since World War II and the first families moved into the development in March 1950 with priority for veterans.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1950/03/08/86418380.html?pageNumber=23|title=30 FAMILIES MOVE INTO NEW HOUSING; IN THE SHADOW OF THE OLD AND THE NEW|last=|first=|date=March 8, 1950|website=The New York Times|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2019-10-15}}</ref> It was completed on December 31, 1950<ref name=":1" /> and named after judge Lester Patterson (1893–1947).<ref>{{cite web |title=What's in a Name |website=New York City Housing Authority |url=http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/nycha/html/about/nycha70_name.shtml |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110520141818/http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/nycha/html/about/nycha70_name.shtml |archivedate=2011-05-20 }}</ref> The development's playground was later completed in 1953, and was used by the adjacent school P.S. 18 during school hours.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1953/11/03/92763603.html?pageNumber=33|title=TWO PLAYGROUNDS OPEN; Tracts of Park Department Are in Brooklyn and Bronx|last=|first=|date=November 3, 1953|website=The New York Times|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2019-10-15}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1953/10/31/83739353.html?pageNumber=11|title=BRONX PLAYGROUND OPENS; School and Parks Department to Share Recreation Area|last=|first=|date=October 31, 1953|website=The New York Times|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2019-10-15}}</ref>
Tenants of the development in the 1950s were a diverse mix of people from the South, Caribbean, and Puerto Rico. They introduced each other to their cultures including food and music. Many inter-ethnic marriages resulted from the fusion of cultures.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Opie|first=Frederick Douglass|date=2008|title=Eating, Dancing, and Courting in New York Black and Latino Relations, 1930-1970|journal=Journal of Social History|volume=42|issue=1|pages=79–109|doi=10.1353/jsh.0.0044|jstor=25096599|s2cid=144508015|issn=0022-4529}}</ref>
By the early 1960s, crime in NYCHA developments had risen and the agency added extra detectives to help control crime at 28 developments including Patterson.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1962/09/15/84793319.html?pageNumber=27|title=200 GUARDS HIRED FOR CITY HOUSING; 100 Private Detectives Will Join Regular Forces at 28 Projects Tonight OTHERS ARE DUE LATER Authority Hopes to Replace New Men in Eight Weeks With Regular Recruits Assigned to Bad Areas Duty at Manhattanville 200 GUARDS HIRED FOR CITY HOUSING|last=|first=|date=September 15, 1962|website=The New York Times|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2019-10-15}}</ref> By the late 1960s, tenants felt that policing was inadequate in the development and an increase in muggings and burglaries due to drugs being found on the site and went on strike by withholding rent from the agency. NYCHA took the tenants to court and the judge sided with the agency citing state law that lack of police presence wasn't a violation that tenants could withhold rent for. This resulted in tenants paying $25,000 in back rent.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1969/01/09/91250254.html?pageNumber=34|title=RENT STRIKE ENDED BY PROJECT TENANTS|last=|first=|date=January 9, 1969|website=The New York Times|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2019-10-15}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1969/01/07/77316133.html?pageNumber=34|title=CITY IS EVICTING RENT PROTESTERS; Notifies 53 Bronx Tenants Who Withheld Payments|last=|first=|date=January 7, 1969|website=The New York Times|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2019-10-15}}</ref>
==Notable residents== * Dorothy Johnson was the very first Resident to move into Patterson Projects in 1950. [https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/100865.Allen_Jones Allen Jones], (born 1950), author. *A.G., rapper of Showbiz and A.G.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.unkut.com/2009/03/the-unkut-guide-to-hip-hops-most-notorious-projects-part-1/|title=unkut.com – A Tribute To Ignorance (Remix)|access-date=2019-10-15}}</ref> *Nathaniel "Tiny" Archibald (born 1948), former NBA player<ref>{{cite news |first=Sara |last=Rimer |title=Painting a Portrait of Black Experience in the Bronx |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/30/nyregion/painting-a-portrait-of-black-experience-in-the-bronx.html |work=The New York Times |date=2006-07-30 |accessdate=2007-12-13 }}</ref> *Oxiris Barbot, Commissioner of Health of the City of New York *Iran "The Blade" Barkley (born 1960), boxer<ref>{{cite news |first=Vincent M. |last=Mallozzi |title=Barkley, Once a Boxing King, Now Has a One-Bedroom Kingdom |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/25/sports/25barkley.html |work=The New York Times |date=2007-03-25 |accessdate=2007-12-13 }}</ref> *Angelo Cruz (born 1958), Puerto Rican professional basketball player<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.slamonline.com/streetball/original-old-school-missing-the-point/|title=Original Old School: Missing The Point|last=Lopez|first=Jonathan|date=2010-08-09|website=SLAM|language=en|access-date=2019-10-15}}</ref> *Guy Fisher (born 1947), convicted racketeer and owner of the Apollo Theater<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v--PZsY14pYC&pg=PA130|title=The Rat that Got Away: A Bronx Memoir|last1=Jones|first1=Allen|last2=Naison|first2=Mark|date=2009|publisher=Fordham Univ Press|isbn=9780823231027|language=en}}</ref> *Percee P (born 1969), rapper<ref name=":0" /> *Barry Rogers (1935–1991), salsa musician and jazz fusion trombonist<ref name=":2" /> *Prince Royce (born 1989), Latin musical artist<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/bronx/hundreds-screaming-fans-singer-prince-royce-back-bronx-releases-album-article-1.1059783|title=Hundreds of screaming fans welcome singer Prince Royce back to Bronx as he releases second album|last=Beekman|date=2012-04-12|first=Daniel|website=New York Daily News|access-date=2019-10-15}}</ref> *Luis Antonio Ramos (born 1973), actor.<ref>{{cite web |title=Patterson Houses Mural Honors Notable Residents |url=https://nychajournal.nyc/patterson-houses-mural-honors-notable-residents/ |website=NYCHA Journal |date=August 23, 2023 |access-date=May 27, 2026}}</ref>
==See also== *New York City Housing Authority *List of New York City Housing Authority properties
==References== {{Reflist}} [http://www1.nyc.gov/assets/nycha/downloads/pdf/Patterson.pdf]
Category:Residential buildings in the Bronx Category:Public housing in the Bronx Category:Robert Moses projects Category:Houses completed in 1950 Category:Mott Haven, Bronx