OOTA Ep. 20 / "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love"

National Public Housing Museum (NPHM) Podcasts

This episode, "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love," celebrates a resident from the ABLA (a group of public housing projects consisting of the Jane Addams Homes, Robert Brooks Homes, Loomis Courts, and Grace Abbott Homes) community, the late Mr. Wilbur Farley. If that name sounds familiar, perhaps it is because he has appeared many times in different ABLA oral histories we have gathered. Known as “Mr. Fix-It” for his ingenuity and helping neighbors with small repairs, Mr. Farley was such a hugely influential and important member of the community that “Mr. Farley Day Back to School Celebration and Party” (as it was originally called) was created in 1984 by the ABLA community. The oral history narrators featured in this episode are Al Buford, who lived in the Jane Addams Homes from 1955 until 1990, Marquita Gandy, who lived in ABLA from 1973 to 2009, Godfrey Bey, who lived in the Jane Addams Homes from 1956 to 1983, and Byron Dickens, our next narrator lived in the Jane Addams Homes from 1966 to 2001.

Read the transcript here.

CORRECTION: The narration of this episode states that Marquita Gandy lived in the Jane Addams Homes from 1973 to 2009. The episode notes have been edited to reflect the correction, that Marquita Gandy lived in the greater ABLA Homes complexes from 1973 to 2009. All but one of the buildings of the Jane Addams Homes were demolished between 2002-2008; the last remaining building is being preserved for the National Public Housing Museum's permanent site thanks to efforts by ABLA resident activists. (Source: Society of Architectural Historians, https://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/IL-01-031-0037)

Cited Source: https://chicagoreader.com/news-politics/old-man-of-the-projects/