Sursum Corda Cooperative, Washington, D.C.

Sursum Corda is a small neighborhood located in Washington, D.C., bounded by North Capitol Street on the east, K Street NW to the south, New Jersey Avenue NW to the west, and New York Avenue NW to the north. The neighborhood draws its name for the Sursum Corda Co-operative Apartments, a 199-unit low-income housing complex constructed in 1968. The area became a notorious open air drug market plagued by violence and poverty in the 1980s. After a notorious 2004 murder in the neighborhood, demolition and complete renovation of the low-income housing in Sursum Corda was announced in 2007. Little of the redevelopment happened, although extensive demolition occurred.

Residential neighborhoods north of Massachusetts Avenue underwent a prolonged decay in the first half of the 20th century. Controversial urban renewal plans of the 1950s and 1960s called for massive demolition of the area, part of it comprising the old Irish American neighborhood of Swampoodle, though they were only partially executed.

Various Masonic and religious organizations took advantage of loan programs of the recently created U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to build housing for some of the displaced households. A group of Catholic activists from the nearby Gonzaga College High School and the parish of St. Aloysius conceived of a new urban village to house some of the households displaced by the demolitions. They also received support from the D.C. Public Housing Authority and the then-Senator from New York, Robert F. Kennedy.

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